March 8th is Delivery Day!
New government guidance on the pandemic advises both that leafleting and door-knocking by political parties is allowed from Monday 8th March.
For the Liberal Democrats this is a 'call-to-arms' to invigorate our campaigning in key seats from Crewe to Carlisle and from Diggle to Whitehaven ahead of the elections on Thursday 6th May - less than ten weeks from now.
Leafleting, like postal deliveries from the Royal Mail or leaflets from takeaways or other local businesses has been allowed throughout the pandemic, but the updated rules on canvassing are informed by the impact of the combination of the vaccine rollout and recent lockdown restrictions.
Iain Donaldson, North West Lib Dem Campaigns Chair welcomed the news saying, "In recent weeks the Conservatives have sought through political announcements to give the impression that leafleting by volunteers was no longer allowed.
"These were misread by some people as health announcements but they were never related to the COVID situation nor the opinion of the government's health advisors.
"It was a deliberate attempt to silence democracy through ensuring only they and Labour were able to campaign, as the two parties that have by far the greatest funding through millions of pounds each year of business and union donations.
"As Liberals committed to a fair, free and open democracy in this country we challenged this repeatedly and are pleased the Conservatives have now backed down"