CANDIDATES FOR LOCAL ELECTION

Early day motion 1210, tabled 7 April 1998 by Brian Sedgemore (Labour). Signed by 2 members.

That this House believes that, as part of the process of cleaning up local government, political parties should carefully check the background and integrity of candidates for local elections and ensure that the candidates live in the area where they stand as they are obliged to do by law; expresses concern that in the 1994 local elections in Hackney Ms Hettie Peters told the Returning Officer that her home address was 86/88 Stoke Newington Church Street N16; notes that this was untrue and that the then occupiers have confirmed that Ms Peters did not live at this address, which consisted of offices over an escort agency, and that she used it purely as an accommodation address; condemns Ms Peters for using deception and fraud to get elected; and calls on the Government to change the law so that the time limit for getting an election result overturned runs not from the date of the election but from the date when the deception is first discovered.

Signatures by party: Labour 2.