BASINGSTOKE Labour Group (BLG) has accused the Conservatives of being “lazy” after campaign leaflets were sent out with printing errors on them.

Cards asking residents for their views on voting were sent out to residents in the borough containing headlines stating “local campaign issue to go here” and “how you can help us improve area name”.

Basingstoke Conservatives’ Cllr Stephen Reid said the cards were sent out “in error” after the Winklebury by-election, to gain a local perspective of issues, and had reached only a few homes.

However, deputy leader of Basingstoke Labour group Councillor Michael Westbrook slammed the Conservatives for “taking residents’ votes for granted in Basingstoke”.

Cllr Westbrook said: “In the last couple of years the Conservatives have closed local schools and closed local care homes. They’ve left potholes all over the place, wasted millions on consultants and shut down all of our children’s centres.

“They then have the cheek to post leaflets through our doors that they can’t even be bothered to fill out properly.

“It shows a complete disrespect for residents and I do hope at the council elections people give them the shock that they deserve.”

The cards quoted Basingstoke MP Maria Miller and Robert Taylor, candidate for Hampshire County Council elections, as saying “your views really matter to us”.

Cllr Reid branded the BLG “childish”.

He said: “A few half-prepared documents got into a pile of fully prepared ones and went out.

“It was human error. It happens. Labour put out an illegal one in Buckskin, but we didn’t go to the press. It just shows we’re a bit more grown up than them.”

Cllr Westbrook said the Labour group was not aware of the allegedly “illegal” cards in Buckskin.

Cllr Gavin James, leader of Basingstoke Liberal Democrats, said: “Labour are being very mean on the Tories. I can’t think of a campaign issue to put in, or a reason to vote Tory, so the people writing it probably wouldn’t know what to put in there either.”