Tory Stories has obtained details of the Conservative response to the claims that ethnic minority candidates were ‘airbrushed out’ of electoral material. The Observer reported that, on being confronted with the allegations, the party appeared to make a rushed attempt to cover up its dubious electoral practices:

“The Tories said it was “fiction” to suggest that non-white candidates had been left off deliberately and said there was plenty of material showing these candidates. They forwarded different material to the Observer with photographs of the non-white candidates prominently displayed. But it appeared that these images had been superimposed onto the new material so that they were next to their white colleagues. They were not original, group photos.”

The photoshopped image of council candidate Samson Omosule can be seen above, first in its original context, and then superimposed alongside a photo of white colleagues in a leaflet forwarded to the newspaper by the Conservative Party. This raises two questions:

1. Why was the party unable to provide a genuine photo of the candidates together?

2. Had the leaflet been printed or distributed before the Observer made its enquiries?

Questions also remain over whether or not Lord Ashcroft was involved in the production or funding of the ‘airbrushed’ leaflets.

| Category Electoral Politics, London