Henley legal battle heats up

Mr Grayling says the Tories are considering legal options

Friday, 20, Jun 2008 12:00

The battle between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems over the Townlands hospital campaign and leaflets featuring Boris Johnson continues to heat up as the day wears on.

On the Townlands issue, shadow work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling told politics.co.uk: "We've sent them a lawyers' letter asking them to back off the things that they're saying.

"So we're literally as we speak now in discussions with the lawyers about which of a number of alternate avenues are the best ones to follow," he added.

"We haven't quite decided which of the two or three options we're going to take but at the end of the day we can't actually just leave them to ride roughshod over all the rules without doing anything."

The Liberal Democrats are not budging from their position.

A spokesman reiterated the party's previous line, saying: "We will not be retracting the leaflet. We believe we are on firm ground."

On the separate issue of the leaflet distributed by the Liberal Democrats mocked up to feature Boris Johnson singing the Lib Dems' praises, the spokesman was equally firm.

"We have yet to hear from the Conservatives on this issue," he said. "They have no case."

The threat of legal action today has taken next week's Henley by-election to a new level. The election takes place next Thursday, when politics.co.uk will be covering events as they happen.

Click here to see politics.co.uk's original article on the issue.