THE Labour election campaign in Monmouth faced ridicule last Friday (21st April) after handing out a leaflet confusing the county town with Abergavenny.

After the leaflets were distributed ahead of next month’s town and county council elections, eagle-eyed Monmouth residents spotted something suspicious about the lead image.

Below the headline ‘Your Monmouth Labour Town Council Candidates,’ a photo has been featured showing a picturesque Abergavenny scene, 19 miles away.

Another red-faced error lists the date for readers to head to the polls as last month, 4th of March, rather than 4th May.

Conservative MP for Monmouth David Davies said: “Just when I thought Labour had reached maximum incompetency, this happens.

“I appreciate things aren’t going well for them at national level, but I thought locally they would be able to tell the difference between Monmouth and Abergavenny.

“On top of this, the leaflet is encouraging us to go back in time to vote, which we could only do if they provided us with a tardis. Saying that though, Jeremy Corbyn does seem to want to take us all back in time to 1980s Labour.”

Labour has come out in defence of the leaflet, stating: “Monmouthshire Labour Party regret the errors in some of our printed campaign material. We have produced over 100,000 flyers (in over 65 different forms) for more than 80 candidates and unfortunately the occasional error does creep in. There have also been a number of errors in the literature of other parties which we refrain from highlighting”.

Labour Party Campaign Manager, Peter Marsh-Jenks, added: “The Labour Party is fielding more candidates than any other party in Monmouthshire, and this has caused panic in our opponents. It is perhaps not surprising that they wish to focus on printing rather than policies”.

Other supporters have taken to social media to defend these campaign errors. Using a Monmouth Facebook page, Sian Massey said: “Crass mistake - embarrassing to any Monmouth Labour Party member - cause - trying to use national machine to produce publicity cheaper than we can locally - pants and sorry! always better to do ourselves - lesson learnt.

“So bigger battles - Lets Go - support what's right for you, Monmouth and Wales.”

Beca Beeby added: “It’s is a bit of a shame they have messed up but remember the bigger picture.”

Liberal Democrat candidate for Raglan, Alison Willott, is also facing her own leaflet crisis, as she has listed the election date as 5th May, the day after the nationwide vote.