Zac Goldsmith, the Conservative candidate for Richmond Park, has exposed on his website an attempt by the local Liberal Democrats to infiltrate his campaign:
Dan Falchikov — the same Lib Dem activist who was famously overheard
by Kevin Maguire, the Daily Mirror’s chief political polemicist,
boasting that he had cooked up Susan Kramer’s Kingston Hospital
scare-story on his ‘kitchen table’ — has now been found out after
volunteering to become one of Zac’s deliverers, and more worryingly, to
do ‘data entry’ in the Conservative office.Using the false name ‘Mr John O’Grady’ he signed up to deliver
leaflets for Zac and to help in the office. Zac’s office was taken in
at first, and a volunteer wrote to Mr Falchikov to thank him. But he
also copied in local Conservative Councillors who recognised the email
address.Dan Falchikov then wrote back to Zac’s office claiming that his
offer of help had been “sent in error.” But for Mr Falchikov to sign up
to help, he would have had to fill in an on-line survey and send it
back to Zac Goldsmith’s office. He would have had to invent a new name
for himself… presumably also by mistake.
Remember this the next time you hear Nick Clegg piously talking about the need for honesty in politics.
Jonathan Isaby