A POLITICAL row has erupted over a 'misleading' and 'dirty' Green Party leaflet ahead of the city's local elections - but the party's retiring leader insists they have kept the election fight clean.

The row was sparked by a leaflet from the Green Party in Worcester which has been criticised by the Liberal Democrats who have demanded an apology from their political rivals ahead of Worcester City Council local elections on Thursday, May 2 . 

Worcester News: DEFENCE: Green Party leader Marjory Bisset has hit back and was robust in her defence of the leaflet ahead of the May 2 local elections for Worcester City Council DEFENCE: Green Party leader Marjory Bisset has hit back and was robust in her defence of the leaflet ahead of the May 2 local elections for Worcester City Council (Image: Worcester City Council)

They accuse the Greens of issuing a leaflet which is 'highly misleading to the voters' by using statistics from Worcestershire County Council elections in Warndon Villages.

The Lib Dem contention is that it is misleading when there are two Worcester City Council elections in Warndon Villages - St Nicholas ward and Leopard Rise - and the Green leaflet refers to a graph showing data from the last county council election instead. 

A statement from the party said: "It includes text claiming that the election is between the Green party and the Conservatives showing the Lib Dems in third on 22 per cent of the vote.

"However there is no election to the COUNTY Council this year. The most recent results of the CITY Council election in that ward during May 2023 were the LibDems winning 795 votes (55 per cent), Conservatives on 402 votes (28 per cent), Labour 168 votes (12 per cent) and the Greens with 80 votes (5 per cent).

"We believe of course that people should not vote based on who won last time, however, it is grossly underhand to try and paint a party that did extremely well, winning the election in the last City Election as an outside bet."

Worcester News: CRITICAL: Cllr Mel Allcott who is seeking to become Worcester's next MP for the Liberal Democrats CRITICAL: Cllr Mel Allcott who is seeking to become Worcester's next MP for the Liberal Democrats (Image: Worcester City Council)

However, Marjory Bisset, the leader of the Green Party group on the council, said: "The source of the figures that Worcester Green Party used in the graph is clearly given.

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"We think that voters are capable of distinguishing between city and county elections where necessary, and our local canvassing suggests that the most recent election – the county one – more closely reflects the current opinions of voters in St Nicholas ward. No doubt we will find out after May 2."

Meanwhile, the Lib Dems have reported the leaflet to Full Fact and the UK Statistics Authority and the Office for Statistics Regulation.

Cllr Mel Allcott, seeking to become Worcester's next MP for the Liberal Democrats, said: "Green Party literature is running with the strapline "Clean Campaign Pledge" yet the bar charts are to my mind "dirty" in that all the ones I have seen so far are either showing results from other areas or are not showing actual results at all, instead their own canvass results, as opposed to official sources."