Exclusive: Tories Mocked Over Election Leaflets Featuring Fake ‘Local’ Family

The Tories have been mocked over an election leaflet featuring the same family in seats across the country.

The image, which shows a couple with their two young children, is on the front of campaign material the party is putting through letter boxes in the run-up to the local elections on May 2.

Above it is the name of the local MP and constituency – suggesting that the family lives in the area.

But it is actually a stock photo posed by models and titled “family life in the kitchen” which can be bought for just £7 online.

Tory MP Sir David Evennett posed for a picture holding the leaflet as he was campaigning in his Bexleyheath and Crayford seat, then posted it on X (formerly Twitter).

HuffPost UK has seen examples of the same picture also being used on Tory leaflets in Colne Valley, York, Stockton, Great Yarmouth, Exeter and Putney.

A Labour campaign source said: “Rishi Sunak’s failed Tories have left families hundreds of pounds worse off, patients unable to see a GP and allowed criminals to be released early from prison. No wonder they can’t find anyone to put their faces on their election leaflets.”

A Conservative source told HuffPost UK: “It’s nice to see that Labour are reading our leaflets so closely. 

“If they paid as much attention to their own policies as they do to our literature, maybe they’ll come up with some ideas that will actually deliver for families.”