Green Party volunteer apologises for taking Conservative flyer out of letterbox

A Horsham District Council by-election is being held on Thursday (April 7) in Storrington and Washington following the resignation of Jim Sanson back in February.

The candidates are Joan Grech (Green), Daniel Hall (Conservative) and Pascal Roberts (Liberal Democrat).

At the weekend, the West Sussex Conservatives posted a video on social media from a doorbell camera, which shows a Green Party volunteer taking a Conservative flyer half stuck in a letterbox before delivering her party’s own campaign literature.

The incident happened in Storrington on Sunday morning (April 3).

The Conservative leaflet was removed just four minutes after being delivered, according to the video timestamps.

Joy Dennis, chair of the Arundel and South Downs Conservative Association, said: “We are extremely shocked by the outrageous behaviour of the Green Party in Storrington and Washington, who have followed our volunteer deliverers and then reached in and removed our election literature from residents’ letterboxes and replaced it with their own.”

She described how this sort of behaviour was ‘unheard of’ in the beautiful rural areas of Arundel and South Downs and criticised ‘undemocratic actions denying local residents the opportunity to make their own minds up in this local election’.

The ‘serious election offence’ has been taken up with HDC’s election returning officer, who has referred the incident to Sussex Police, she added.

In the meantime Ms Denis called on the Green Party candidate to withdraw from the by-election.

In response to the footage, Ms Grech said in a statement: “Firstly I would like to apologise to residents, this is not behaviour that I or the Green Party condone. We have spoken to the volunteer involved and she has unreservedly apologised and knows not to do this again.

“This was an over enthusiastic volunteer who was taking her own initiative. Of course this kind of behaviour is not acceptable.”

She went on to say she suspects the ‘misguided’ volunteer was aiming to protect her from what she claims are ‘inaccuracies’ about her in the latest Conservative leaflet.

But she added: “That said, it’s not an excuse and I apologise to the resident and Daniel Hall the Conservative candidate.”

A spokesperson for HDC said: “We can confirm that this incident has been reported by us to Sussex Police. It is the responsibility of the police to investigate as a potential election offence, as it is not something the Returning Officer has any power to investigate.”

A spokesman for Sussex Police added: “This matter has been reported to us and we are making enquiries to establish what offences may have been committed.”

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