A leaflet under a Liberal Democrat imprint has been distributed making three statements supposedly from Mr Knight. The Solihull Observer investigated the claims, and dubbed them "manipulated information".
CLAIM: Julian refuses to back the expansion of Birmingham Airport because he doesn't like being woken up early.
REALITY:
"I know these plans maybe far distant and we welcome the potential knock on effect for the economy of a stronger Birmingham airport, however we don't want the densely populated areas of Solihull to be subject to plane noise. The message is simply we want the jobs but we don't want the planes." - 2014 Press Release
"every day for a month been woken in barnes at 5am by planes - this 'experiment' is a disgrace" - tweet from 2012 about a different airport. CLAIM: Julian has said 'there is nowhere he would rather be than London'. REALITY:Julian lives in Olton. In 2009, before he was selected as a candidate, he tweeted: "18 degrees c bright sunshine, just had a run by the river and the rowers..London in spring nowhere else I would rather be"CLAIM: Julian opposed the Lib Dem £700 income tax cuts for working people, claiming people would 'blow it on a holiday, car or big telly'. REALITY: Julian wrote an article in 2010 that supported the tax cut but raised concerns that the money might be wasted, and suggested that the money should be re-invested into pensions. "The Lib Dems say in their manifesto launch that they want to abolish higher rate tax relief on pensions. Now, I agree with them, but not on how the money is used." - article from 2010.
Julian says:
“The claims are laughable and I wouldn’t have taken the case further except that they are supposed to be direct quotes from me, which is 100% false. So tawdry are these attacks that at first I refused to believe that the sitting Lib Dem MP authorised them. I am assuming good faith but call on her today to ensure that none of these false claims appear again.”
So serious were the falsehoods contained within the leaflet that Mr Knight has referred it today to the Electoral Commission for investigation. The Commission protects the integrity of UK elections.
“People in Solihull like their politics clean and to be about policy not personal attacks. Politicians should work together, not be tearing lumps out of each other. I promise I will stick to fair politics and I will be asking all the candidates that have declared to date to sign a simple clean campaigning pledge, guaranteeing good conduct so that we don’t have falsehoods pedalled in leaflets. Let’s learn from this unsavoury episode.”
