Conservative council leader forced to apologise for inappropriate email

The Conservative leader of Cheshire East Council has been forced to apologise for sending an official Easter message to voters urging them not to vote for UKIP.

Cllr Michael Jones sent the email as leader of the council during the restricted pre-election period known as purdah when council's are forbidden from engaging in any political activity. The email told voters that if they voted UKIP then Labour would win and result in the concreting of the countryside.

Voting UKIP is a vote for Labour, a party that would like to see an extra 200,000 homes in our communities built each year- yes! Each year!

That would mean Cheshire East Council taking on some of Manchester’s housing quota which would be a disaster.

So, voting UKIP or Labour means you are voting for unprecedented concrete across our countryside.

UKIP's Cllr Brian Silvester made a complaint to the monitoring officer who is responsible for compliance with electoral law who issued an apology from Cllr Jones but failed to acknowledge the breach of electoral law. Cllr Silvester has made a further complaint that the monitoring officer should be censuring the leader, not issuing his half apology for him.