LIB DEMS REJECT LABOUR MP'S ALLEGATIONS

Newcastle Liberal Democrats have strongly rebutted allegations by a Labour MP that they are election-stealers.

Speaking to the Journal newspaper, Nick Brown MP said that he would not trust Newcastle Liberal Democrats not to tamper with ballot papers if they were left in the Civic Centre overnight at the General Election, before being counted in the morning.

Lucy Keating, chairman of Newcastle Liberal Democrats, said: "This is an extremely serious allegation.

"As chair of Newcastle Liberal Democrats, I would like to invite Mr Brown either to back up his claim with firm evidence, or to issue a sincere apology to the members I represent.

"He might also like to apologise to the many council staff whom he has smeared by implication, who work long hard hours in a high pressure situation to conduct election counts efficiently, accurately and securely.

"The reasons for Newcastle and many other councils moving the count to Friday have been well-documented.

"They include the extra time required to conduct new postal vote security checks, the need to separate and count local and general election votes, and the fact that Newcastle has the highest percentage of postal voters in the country, many of whom hand in their vote on polling day.

"Indeed, councillors of Mr Brown's own party agreed that the count should be on Friday in Newcastle.

"Mr Brown is making wild and unfounded allegations completely out of the blue. With his own voting record on a number of key issues relevant to his constituents coming under scrutiny, I suspect that he must be worried about his prospects in the upcoming election."