Leaflet watch: residents in Labour’s brochure are politicians, and Meg Hillier’s surprise endorsement

Just ordinary residents, or Labour politicians? A cropped image of the front of Labour’s brochure.

First came the embarrassing revelation that ‘residents’ pictured on the front of a Labour election brochure were in fact nearly all Labour politicians and activists.

Now comes the none-too-shocking news that Labour MP Meg Hillier supports the work of other Labour politicians. She could hardly have been expected to do otherwise.

The MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch gives Labour candidates in the upcoming council elections a ringing endorsement in an “election address” video featuring incumbent Mayor of Hackney Jules Pipe (Labour, of course) and replete with ultra-positive, jangly music reminiscent of D:Ream’s Things Can Only Get Better.

Ms Hillier praised the “really high caliber” of Labour’s candidates, adding that they “know their area” (one should hope so!) and “really know what’s going on.”

The Hackney Labour group had previously come in for flak for using elected politicians rather than “ordinary people” to front a colourful election brochure mailed to voters in the borough.

Those pictured holding placards advertising “great” features of the borough included councillors Feryal Demirci and Antoinette Bramble as well as Mayor Pipe. They were not identified as politicians and the brochure instead gave the impression they were just ordinary residents.

Hackney Labour organiser Tom Dewey said the people in the brochure were not all Labour Party politicians.

He added: “We’ve got a whole mix. Jules is right in the centre, bigger than anyone else. I don’t think if we were desperately trying to deceive people we would have put the mayor right in the centre.

“I don’t really think it’s much of a story. They are holding up words that represent what residents who responded to a survey said they think is great about Hackney.”

He said there was nothing strange about a Labour MP being featured in a video endorsing a Labour mayor, adding: “It was intended as a kind of election broadcast.”

But politicians from rival parties begged to differ.

Hackney North Conservative campaigner Amy Gray said: “When are Hackney Labour going to stop treating people like idiots? Instead of asking local people what they really think, Hackney Labour always think they know best, whether it’s their MPs or their mayor. It seems like their elected representatives are too afraid to let residents know who they are.”

The elections take place on 22 May.

Choose who runs Hackney: vote on 22 May. Image: Hackney Citizen

Send us your leaflets!

Over the coming days the Hackney Citizen will be holding politicians from all parties to account by examining the accuracy of claims they make in their election literature.

If you receive a leaflet you would like to have fact-checked, simply post it to us at:

Hackney Citizen

Unit 10

Celia Fiennes House

8-20 Well Street

Hackney E9 7PX

Alternatively you can send a scan of it to office@hackneycitizen.co.uk