Police 'aware' of fake election posters as campaigners tear them down

Police have stated that they 'are aware' of counterfeit election posters spreading false information. The Green Party and Liberal Democrats have been the victims of these misleading posters, which have been torn down by campaigners.

Max McLoughlin, one of the candidates in the election, has described the week leading up to polling day as strange and disheartening due to the Islamophobic posters. Mr McLoughlin, who is representing the Green Party in Solihull West and Shirley, believes the posters do not reflect the views of the local community.

The fake posters, penned in green ink and purporting to be from the Green Party, were displayed in Monkspath and Shirley. They read: "Vote Green, Sharia law. Our new mantra "Allahu Akbar"."

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Mr McLoughlin handed these posters over to the police.

All the counterfeit posters claim to be "courtesy of the Red Rose Information Project", a group with no discernible online presence and no connection to the Labour Party, despite the red rose being its emblem.

Mr McLoughlin expressed his gratitude on X, formerly known as Twitter, to the Labour candidate Deidre Fox, who he said had called to check on him. He also thanked the Liberal Democrat candidate, Ade Adeyemo, for removing posters when he came across them.

"There have been messages of support and sympathy it is not representative of the people of the area," the candidate said. He added that the strong sentiment emerging from this incident is that people are weary of divisive politics that alienate individuals.

"Between the candidates there has been nothing of that nature, no personal attacks."

"It (the posters) have been out of character of the campaigns run by the political parties".

The Liberal Democrats has been targeted with posters with the 'Winning Here' diamond known as the party's campaign symbol changed to 'Losing Here'.

Laura McCarthy, former leader of the Liberal Democrats group on Solihull Council, said it had been concerning as the posters were put up a number of times outside the home of one of their female activists.

"This appears to have been done on a number of occasions," Cllr McCarthy said.

"These actions have left her and her family very distressed due to the deliberate and specific nature, which appears to be directly targeted."

"Attempts to bully or intimidate will not be tolerated."

A spokesperson for West Midlands Police said: "We are aware of these posters."

"We'd ask anyone with information about them to get in touch with us via Live Chat (on westmidlands.police.uk) or call 101."

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