A Conservative MP and the party’s mayoral candidate are facing questions after a man convicted of election fraud was pictured delivering leaflets with them.
Matthew Smith, a former UKIP county councillor who admitted allowing false signatures on nomination papers in 2015, was seen among Tory volunteers in Wroxham last weekend.
He was pictured alongside Broadland and Fakenham MP Jerome Mayhew and Tim Passmore, the Conservatives’ candidate for the 2028 mayoral election and Suffolk's police and crime commissioner (PCC).
Mr Smith is understood to be an officer for the Great Yarmouth Conservatives and joined the party sometime after the 2024 general election.
The photograph, posted on Mr Mayhew’s Facebook page, shows Mr Smith in a black hoodie among a group of volunteers, several of them holding leaflets bearing Mr Passmore’s name.
Carli Harper, the leader of the Labour group at Norwich City Council and the party's mayoral candidate, described Mr Smith’s involvement as "an extraordinary lapse of judgement".
"Matthew Smith was convicted of electoral fraud, an offence that strikes at the very heart of our democracy," she said.
"Of course people who have served their sentences deserve the opportunity to move on with their lives.
"But there is a world of difference between that and inviting someone convicted of electoral fraud to help you win an election.
"Tim Passmore wants voters to trust him with the leadership of Norfolk and Suffolk. He needs to explain why he thinks campaigning alongside someone with this conviction is appropriate.
"The public are entitled to expect better judgement from those seeking high public office."
When approached for comment, Mr Mayhew suggested Mr Smith’s involvement was a sign the Tories were winning over supporters from the right.
He said: "Reform and UKIP supporters are increasingly seeing the Conservative Party as the best future for our country.
"This person volunteered to help deliver residents’ surveys."
Despite standing among the volunteers in the photograph, Mr Passmore has distanced himself from Mr Smith.
A spokesman for the PCC said: "I have heard from Tim who has no knowledge of the gentleman in question or the reasons why he was present.
"As far as Tim knows, he was merely delivering leaflets and not canvassing. However, he had nothing to do with Tim."
Mr Smith was UKIP county councillor for Gorleston St Andrews and the party’s parliamentary candidate for Great Yarmouth until he stood down after being charged in 2014.
At Norwich Crown Court in January 2015, a jury cleared him of seven counts.
At a retrial that June, he admitted one charge of allowing false signatures on nomination papers for the 2013 Norfolk County Council elections. A second charge was left on file.
The court heard that seven of the eight nomination forms submitted by UKIP contained forged signatures.
He was given 200 hours of unpaid work, ordered to pay £3,227 in costs and disqualified as a county councillor.
Sentencing him, Judge Anthony Bate said such offences risked undermining the "hard-fought" battle to restore the reputation of politics since the age of rotten boroughs.
He also received a five year ban from holding public office.
He stood as in independent councillor in the 2023 local elections in Great Yarmouth, finishing fourth with 386 votes.
He is understood to have had some involvement with Reform in recent years.
Marcus Pearcey, a local businessman expected to stand as an independent in the mayoral election, said Mr Smith deserved a second chance.
"To be honest, I’ve never met this man. He’s done wrong and, as I understand it, served his sentence. I believe people deserve a second chance," he said.
"Less politics, more kindness."
This newspaper has approached Mr Smith for comment.
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