A LABOUR campaign leaflet which downplayed support for the SNP - in a seat held by Nicola Sturgeon's party since 2015 - has drawn criticism from the party's candidate in the area.
Ronnie Cowan, who won at the 2015 and 2017 General Elections in Inverclyde, accused Labour of "resorting to cheap tricks and misinformation" by showing a graph putting SNP support at just 3% - the party's UK-wide share.
The graph shows the Tories on 42.4%, Labour on 40%, the LibDems on 7.4% and the SNP on 3% beside text reading: "Only Labour is strong enough to beat the Tories." Beneath the graph, "2017 UK election result" is in small text.
READ MORE: Election: Labour graph claiming 3% SNP support sent to Scots homes
Inverclyde's 2017 result was very different from these figures, with Cowan winning with 38.5%, while Labour came second with 37.5%, the Tories came third with 21.5% and the LibDems were in fourth place with just 2.5% of the vote.
Cowan was not impressed by what he called the "dodgy bar charts".
He told The National: “This election is one of the most important in Scotland’s history, and a vote for the SNP is a vote to escape Brexit and ensure that Scotland’s right to choose its own future is in Scotland’s hands - and not those of Boris Johnson.
“Scottish Labour seem to be completely ignorant of elections in Inverclyde, where people put their faith in the SNP as a strong champion for Scotland at Westminster in 2015 and 2017. Elsewhere we have already seen the Lib Dems trying to rewrite history as the main challengers in Ross, Skye and Lochaber, even though the party actually trailed in third place.
“The Westminster parties are running scared of the SNP at this election, resorting to cheap tricks and misinformation.
“If Labour focused more on speaking to the people of Inverclyde, they would maybe have more credibility than having to rely on dodgy bar charts to mislead the public.”
The reader who sent in the image of the leaflet accused Labour of "treating voters like idiots" and compared it to the LibDem graph which caused controversy earlier in the election campaign.
Jo Swinson's party had put out a graphic showing them dominating Labour by a large margin, while small text at the bottom read: "Survation polled 405 respondents aged 18+ living in NE Somerset with the question: 'Imagine that the result in your constituency was expected to be very close between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidate, and none of the other parties were competitive. In this scenario, which party would you vote for?'"
Swinson defended the image by claiming "politics has changed significantly since the 2017 election", and justified the graph by pointing to increased support for the LibDems elsewhere.
Labour have been approached for comment.
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