A CARD carrying Labour Party member faces expulsion from the party following his remarkable pre-election crusade to persuade the public not to re-elect the Labour leader Stanley Henig.

Mr Michael Jackson of Hest Bank has been questioned by police after distributing 2,000 leaflets around Castle ward calling on the electorate to vote for anyone except the council chief.

With a large "Vote Labour" sign in his window, Mr Jackson has also been busy putting up posters and sending e-mails to university students and staff.

But the controversial and astonishing campaign has been severely criticised by Lancaster's MP Hilton Dawson, who has also rounded on the Morecambe Bay Independents for personally attacking the city council leader.

Mr Jackson's leaflets could be illegal under electoral law and the returning officer, Mr David Corker, has confirmed he is investigating the matter.

Mr Jackson, who does not live in Cllr Henig's Castle ward, told The Citizen that he was merely delivering the leaflets on behalf of a friend who had views that he shared.

And in what has become one of the the "dirtiest" political dogfights in recent memory, an ugly row has also broken out between Hilton Dawson and the MBIs after the MP described one of their leaflets as "subtly racist."

He said: "They have aimed so much criticism at one individual that I think it goes beyond the fact that Stanley Henig is the council leader.

"In light of the Lawrence Inquiry we should be sensitive to people's racial and cultural background. The leaflet says "A vote for Labour is a vote for Henig" which is so personal it is possibly racist and I've asked the returning officer to investigate."

Council leader Stanley Henig was unavailable for comment on the matter but the MBI leader Tricia Heath dismissed the MP's comments saying that the racist claim was "deplorable."

She said: "It takes a warped mind to see any racism in such a simple statement.

"We're criticising the record of Stanley Henig as leader of the council. Hilton Dawson's playing the race card which I find objectionable."

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