Tory candidate uses red posters with no mention of Conservative Party

A Tory candidate is using red posters with no clear mention of the Conservative Party to promote his election campaign.

Robbie Moore, who is running again to be the Keighley and Ilkley MP, has been accused of an act of “straightforward conmanship” by using Labour’s colours on his own placards.

The sign, which reads “I’m backing Robbie” on a red background, contains no obvious mention of the Tories. While the picture is unclear, it is likely that the party’s name features in the legal disclaimer in small print at the bottom.

Alastair Campbell, Sir Tony Blair’s former spin doctor, suggested Mr Moore was impersonating his Labour rival, John Grogan, because he was “ashamed” of his own party.

Sharing an image of the poster on X, formerly Twitter, he wrote:

Mr Moore told The Telegraph: “I’m running a campaign that cuts across the political divide and, last time I checked, no political party has ownership of any particular colour – unless this is another one of Labour’s costly and oppressive ideas.

“Locally, Labour’s candidate refuses to back my calls for an inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Keighley, and the local Green Party failed to back Conservative efforts that would have saved our local household recycling centres from closure by Labour-run Bradford council. Perhaps it isn’t the posters they should be worried about.”

While the Electoral Commission encourages “transparency in campaigning techniques”, it says there is nothing in law that requires a party logo to be included in campaign material. There is also no law specifying what colours or branding a party or candidate needs to use.

Mr Moore was first elected in 2019. His old seat, Keighley, where he held a wafer-thin majority of 2,218, ceased to exist following boundary changes earlier this year.

He is the second Tory candidate to be accused of co-opting the Labour brand after Robert Largan, who is seeking re-election in High Peak, Derbyshire, posted an election advert on social media in front of a red background with the words “Labour for Largan”.

In small font in the bottom left corner it said that the ad was “on behalf of Robert Largan, of High Peak Conservatives”.

Mr Largan captioned the post: “So many local Labour voters have told me they’re going to vote for me, because they want to keep me as their local MP. There have been so many that I’m launching a new Labour for Largan club.”

The Conservative faced a backlash over the post, with one social media user claiming he was “pretending to be a Labour candidate”. Another said: “Totally pathetic … have you got a Reform for Largan one too?”

Last week, a separate analysis found that Grant Shapps is among dozens of Tory candidates ditching the Conservative brand in their campaign adverts.

The Defence Secretary is one of at least three Cabinet ministers who have distanced themselves from the party in some of their promotional material, opting instead to highlight their personal reputations as MPs. However, the candidates did use Tory branding elsewhere.

Sky News looked at Facebook and Instagram promotions from 521 Labour and Tory candidates from May 1, some three weeks before the election was called, to June 12.

It found that 376 adverts contained official branding, meaning the use of the party’s logo and colours, 104 had some form of partial branding, and 41 – 38 of which were Conservative – had no branding at all.

Mr Moore has been approached for comment.