Colchester Lib Dem candidate's fury after election leaflet defaced

Martin Goss, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Colchester, said he wants to find common ground among the voters of the constituency.

But he criticised the actions of one dissenter who scrawled swastikas on campaign literature.

One Twitter user said he and a neighbour had received the vandalised leaflet on Sunday.

It depicts Mr Goss as Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler.

Mr Goss said he had been campaigning in the Old Heath and Berechurch wards of Colchester and plans to continue on the trail throughout the rest of the week.

Unacceptable - the defaced leaflet

He said: “It is a pretty stupid thing to do and totally unacceptable.

“It could be the subject of a complaint as it can be taken as some form of harassment or hate crime.

“The person doing this needs to look in the mirror and question their actions.

“It has been generally quite positive so far, there are a number of people that don’t want to vote for any of the parties and Brexiteers who will vote for the Tories or the Brexit Party no matter what.

“But some have said they are switching to us.”

Mr Goss hopes to take Colchester from current Conservative incumbent Will Quince, who won with a 5,677 vote majority ahead of Labour in the 2017 election. The Lib Dems finished third. Voters will held to the polls on December 12.

Mr Goss believes people care about other issues besides the Brexit debate.

He said: “I have lived here for 41 years of my life, I have put in 11 years of hard graft on the council.

“There will be a real mixture of issues at this election - of course, Brexit is one - but there are other things people want to talk about.

“People want to talk about issues such as the absolute abomination of knife crime going up, the lack of police officers, as well as drug and mental health issues.

“This is why my slogan is Martin Goss, All of Colchester.

"It is about finding common ground.”

Parliament is to be dissolved tomorrow in the run up the to General Election.