Batley and Spen by-election: Galloway legal threat over posters

The dispute is over the size of the type (top right) that shows the source of election material

George Galloway has threatened to take legal action against a council in a row over font sizes on his by-election posters.

The adverts for his campaign as the Workers Party candidate in Thursday's Batley and Spen ballot were taken down.

Kirklees Council said the adverts broke election rules but Mr Galloway accused the Labour-run authority of a "blatantly partisan move".

It said the posters "did not meet the standards required".

According to the council, mandatory text, known as an imprint, identifying the source of the campaign material appears too small.

Mr Galloway said the local authority had "used taxpayer money and council staff to remove hundreds of posters" and had not returned them to his campaign headquarters.

"But it is clear there are no levels to which Labour won't stoop in this by-election." he said.

"Gone is the notion of a free and fair election".

James Giles, Mr Galloway's campaign manager, said it had instructed lawyers and reported the removal to West Yorkshire Police and the Electoral Commission.

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Kirklees Council said it had received a complaint about some of the posters and had asked Mr Galloway's campaign to "correct the problem" before taking them down.

Candidates could place posters on street furniture during the election campaign if the posters met certain requirements, said a council statement.

One was "all imprints on these election materials have to have a font size of at least 12".

The size was important as the source of election materials needed to be "clear and transparent", it said.

"These rules are set out in our election campaign policy which all candidates received as part of their nomination pack", the council added.

There are 16 candidates standing in Thursday's by-election.