The irony is probably lost on St Neots and Mid Cambs Labour Party but on the eve of the first political hustings of the 2024 general election – when they incontrovertibly tried to fixed the result – they had lambasted Liberal Democrats for ‘fake bar charts’.
“Only those that believe fake bar charts and plan to vote Lib Dem anyway are taken in by the nonsense that ‘Only Lib Dems can win here,” they told a questioner on their Facebook page.
“That tired old slogan used all over the country has been proven wrong countless times and recent polls suggest a strong movement towards Labour taking the overall lead in our constituency.”
But, as CambsNews can confirm today, St Neots and Mid Cambs Labour Party are not averse to a dirty trick or two to secure favour among voters.
Leaked ‘WhatsApp’ messages show Labour supporters, who did not even turn up for the hustings event at Love’s Farm House, St Neots, worked to manipulate support for Labour candidate Marianna Masters.
She was not involved in the deceit, tweeting afterwards “a packed room for the first hustings of the St Neots and Mid Cambs election. Delighted with the polling result at the end.”
But as CambsNews can reveal it was an orchestrated campaign by the St Neots and Mid Cambs Labour group to ensure Marianna came out top in a post hustings poll.
The audience of more than 160 at Love’s Farm House, St Neots, were invited to use a smart phone interactive app to vote.
The app log-in details were shared to Labour supporters so when the question was put to the audience ‘On the basis of what you’ve heard tonight, who are you likely to vote for on 4th of July” supporters outside the meeting were ready.
“Now” was the command and the votes were cast.
“Marianna is only a few points behind people – please get her to first by voting,” pleaded another.
Another Labour supporter used the What’s App group messaging to exclaim ‘great job guys” whilst another felt that “on Ferguson’s home turf this could be a huge boost to our campaign.”
The accolades, as Marianna’s vote ‘soared’, were fulsome.
“Yep, team effort and brilliant,” wrote another.
“Wow, fantastic” came from another supporter.
And Dan Greef, one of the party’s high-profile members, is shown in the exchange of messages writing ‘Smashed it. I think we’ve got enough. Let’s not over vote.”
Graeme Hodgson, in the WhatsApp messages, posted: “Please vote now if you haven’t”.
Later he posted to Facebook: “Great result for Marianna Masters – Labour candidate for St Neots and Mid Cambs – in the St Neots hustings this evening.”
Ste Greenall of Black Cat Radio, who chaired the hustings debate, had previously revealed some details.
The local radio presenter said votes taken during the meeting about which candidate had impressed the most and which candidate people were likely to vote for, were rigged.
The day after, he said, and “from separate sources, I’d been told that the link to that poll was shared around at least two groups, outside of the meeting.
“On that basis the result of the poll was rigged. I feel rather let down to be honest.
“I guess ‘that’s politics.’”
Love’s Farm Community Association, St Neots – where the hustings event took place – has removed all exit poll results from its social media
“We have received evidence that clearly shows intentional and targeted efforts by some, to manipulate our General Election hustings exit poll,” the association said in a statement.
“Therefore, we have removed the polling results from our media.
“We approached the event and exit polling in good faith that participants would behave with integrity. We are greatly disappointed by the actions of a small number of participants.
“The poor behaviour of this group of supporters also reflects negatively on our community association.”
The statement from Love Farm added: “For our part, we apologise to all of the candidates involved in our event.
“We hope that the actors involved will delete any promotion of our manipulated polling results and swiftly issue an apology to the candidates, organisers and hosts of the event.”
Mr Greenall added: “I’d like to think that I’ve been pretty fair and reasonable in my dealings all of my life.
“Having earned a little bit of a reputation as a presenter on Black Cat Radio, I was possibly an automatic choice to chair the General Election hustings that were held on Thursday last week at Love’s Farm Community Centre.”
He said all 7 candidates were invited and the 6 candidates who turned up sat on the top table alongside him on other side.
Candidates present were Anthony Browne for the Conservatives, Stephen Ferguson (independent), Kathryn Fisher for the Greens, Marianna Masters of the Labour Party, Ian Sollom (Liberal Democrat) and Bev White for the Party of Women.
“At the end of the hustings questions were asked using an app,” he said.
“The first question that was asked was ‘On the basis of what you’ve heard tonight, who are you most likely to vote for on the 4th of July?’
“A simple question with each candidate’s name, allowing people to vote at the end of the poll.
“The collated numbers showed that Marianna Masters was in front although when I got home, I noticed that someone had posted the ‘so-called result’ part way through the poll which I had to correct and was acknowledged.
“Subsequently, I was given information which led me to believe that all may not be quite as it seemed.”
Guy Lachlan, the Reform candidate, did not attend.
