Oldham Labour have responded furiously to the latest Conservative Party leaflet being distributed across Oldham.

Cllr Amanda Chadderton, Deputy Leader of Oldham Council said ‘Last week I saw the Conservative Party Leaflet in St James, which states that the choice in the local elections is:

‘Tom Lord from Oldham

or

Arooj Shah’s Labour Candidate’

This isn’t even dog whistle politics. This is so beyond the pale racist and misogynistic, that I’m astonished an apparently mainstream party would put this out.

I understand a variation of this leaflet is now going out across most wards in Oldham. This smacks of absolute desperation from Oldham Conservative Group that instead of presenting a vision for areas such as St James, Royton and Chadderton, they focus on nasty personal politics in relation to the leader of the council. The candidates that have put their names to these leaflets should be ashamed of themselves.

As a Labour Group, we have tried to rise above a lot over the past couple of years, but the conduct of Oldham Conservative Party lately, is reprehensible.

We don’t view this election, or any other election, as a race to the bottom, but Oldham Conservatives, and the people they associate themselves with, are at the forefront of that race.

We saw over the weekend an appalling attack on Angela Rayner MP in the pages of the Mail on Sunday. Instead of focusing on policy, the modern-day Conservative Party resort to misogynistic baseless claims; Oldham Conservatives clearly welcome that approach with open arms’.