Lord Ross held that a statement made during the course of an election campaign, which suggested that the pursuer (a member of parliament) did not collect his constituency mail from the House of Commons Post office was an attack on his character as a political representative but did not amount to an attack on his honour, veracity or purity. He rejected a claim of electoral malpractice, and said: ‘that every false statement in relation to thee public character of a candidate may in one sense reflect upon the candidate’s personal character, but before there can be an illegal practice in terms of the statute, the false statement of fact must be directly related to the personal character of conduct of the candidate.’
Lord Ross
(1979) SC 393
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – The North Division of the County of Louth 1911
Madden J explained the Act: ‘The Act of 1895 afforded a further protection to constituencies and to candidates. The mischief against which it was directed was an abuse of the right of free discussion by the dissemination among a constituency of . .
Cited by:
Cited – Watkins v Woolas QBD 5-Nov-2010
The petitioner said that in the course of the election campaign, the respondent Labour candidate had used illegal practices in the form of deliberately misleading and racially inflammatory material.
Held: The claim succeeded, and the election . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 August 2021; Ref: scu.425815 br>