Hackney North and Stoke Newington Lib Dem candidate criticised for flyer

Hackney North and Stoke Newington’s Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, Simon De Daney has been criticised after a flyer which references earthquakes was posted through the doors of Hackney residents last week.

The flyer, which reads, “On May 7 you can cause an earthquake that will build the homes Hackney needs”, next to a photo of Simon de Deney, has been negatively received by some constituents.

Hackney resident Andrea Brady, 41, of Allerton Road, said: “The campaign flyer for Simon de Deney just came through the door here in N16 today (May 1). It’s a bad image. Earthquakes don’t build homes, they flatten them. Also, you’d hope they had come up with the image before Nepal but they should have pulled it in the circumstances.”

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal, which struck on April 25, has claimed over five thousand lives so far, with death tolls expected to rise.

While the Liberal Democrats came second in the Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat in 2010, current polls predict they are unlikely to do so again in the Labour stronghold.

Simon de Deney, an actor, writer and social activist, is standing for the first time in the 2015 elections.

In response to the criticism he said: “I imagine that the criticism comes from using the word, ‘earthquake’ in the heading. The desperate tragedy unfolding in Nepal is beyond words. Clearly there is no intention to refer to it in the flyer, which is talking metaphorically about the scale of political change which Hackney needs.

“The flyer was originally designed three weeks ago. It was printed on the 21st April and delivered to Royal Mail on Friday 24th before the first Nepalese earthquake struck.”