A British general election constituency campaign is to be re-run after former immigration minister Phil Woolas was ruled today to have knowingly made false statements about an opponent.
A British general election constituency campaign is to be re-run after former immigration minister Phil Woolas was ruled today to have knowingly made false statements about an opponent.
The specially convened election court had heard that the Labour MP stirred up racial tensions in a desperate bid to retain his seat in Oldham East and Saddleworth.
His campaign team was said to have set out to “make the white folk angry” by depicting an alleged campaign by Muslims to “take Phil out”.
Liberal Democrat candidate Elwyn Watkins mounted the legal challenge over the statements made in a pamphlet and two mock newspapers distributed in the final stages of May’s contest which Mr Woolas won by just 103 votes.