A HUDDERSFIELD councillor last night accused Labour’s Saddleworth candidate of “playing fast and loose” with voters.
Debbie Abrahams’s leaflets in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election state she has lived in Newhey near Rochdale for “nearly 25 years”.
But last year – when she was Labour candidate for Colne Valley – she told the Examiner she lived in Longwood.
Lib Dem Clr David Ridgway, who represents Colne Valley on Kirklees Council, said: “I think Debbie Abrahams is playing fast and loose.
“She didn’t move to the Colne Valley, she obtained an accommodation address.
“If you’re saying that you live somewhere when you don’t, that starts to get iffy.”
Two weeks before last year’s election, Mrs Abrahams told the Examiner she had moved to the Colne Valley constituency.
She said: “I live in Longwood with my husband John. I used to live in Newhey – six miles away.
“I do think it is important to live in the constituency you wish to represent to be part of that community and that’s why I moved!”
But a Labour leaflet distributed during this month’s by-election campaign makes no mention of her time in Yorkshire.
It reads: “Debbie and her husband John have lived in Newhey for nearly 25 years.”
Lib Dems have highlighted the issue this week in a leaflet which urges Mrs Abrahams to “tell it to us straight”.
Electoral records show Mrs Abrahams and her husband were registered to a flat at Quarry Bank Mill in Longwood in 2010.
However, the couple and their daughters Dawn and Victoria were also on the electoral register for a property in Newhey every year from 2002 to 2010.
Mrs Abrahams could not be reached for comment yesterday.
