LABOUR party leaders in Burnley are to take legal advice over claims that a rival party's election leaflet defames their candidate.

Party lawyers are to probe the leaflet, which includes a cartoon which they claim shows Lanehead candidate Julie Cooper and the words "As one of the rich I have always encouraged the gap between us and the poor".

Mrs Cooper and local Labour party members are annoyed about the cartoon, which they claim casts a slight on her character and breaks election rules.

But the Liberal Democrats, who produced the leaflet, have laughed off the allegations. They have said the name Cooper on the drawing is the name of the cartoonist and that any connection with Julie Cooper is coincidental.

The furore arose after the leaflet dropped through Julie Cooper's door at her home in Lanehead where she lives with her husband Brian and their two teenage children.

She said she had immediately assumed the cartoon was a caricature of herself and had gone straight to party agent Peter Kenyon.

She said: "When the leaflet came through the door I had a read because I wanted to know what the Liberal Democrats were saying. The cartoon stood out at me straight away and I could not believe it when I saw my name at the bottom.

"My initial reaction was that something like that could not be legal as it appeared to me a smear on my character so I went straight to Peter Kenyon.

"I found the whole thing deeply offensive. My whole reason for being in the Labour party is to try and end inequality and this is designed to smear my character and image with the electorate."

Labour party agent Coun Peter Kenyon said he believed the cartoon breached the Representation of Peoples' Act, the rules which govern elections, because it made a false statement about a candidate.

He said that if the Liberal Democrat candidate Martin Smith won next month's poll but the party were found in breach of the rules governing elections, a recontest could be ordered.

He added: "We will certainly be getting in touch with our lawyers at regional office and the least we would expect would be some sort of apology."

Liberal Democrat party agent Coun Gordon Birtwistle said: "We produced this leaflet before an election was called and before we even knew Julie Cooper was going to be the Labour party candidate.

"The fact that the name of the cartoonist is the same as the candidate is pure coincidence."

A spokesman for the election office at Burnley council said the argument had not been raised with them. They said the row would be something party lawyers would have to look at first before deciding to involve the council.

He added: "If a party considers there has been a breach of the law then it is up to them to take it up independently."