Tameside's Green Party came under fire this week for wording in one of its election candidate's promotional material.

Political opponents from the Labour Party and local residents took a statement in a newsletter on behalf of Ashton Waterloo Green Party candidate Lorraine Whitehead to task.

In the newsletter, Lorraine stated one of her proudest moments had been when she and her husband ‘received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service for our work during the pandemic with local mental health charity the Anthony Seddon Trust.’

However, complainants branded the statement ‘inaccurate’ and ‘misleading’ pointing out that no one individual or individuals receives a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. Instead, such an honour - an organisational equivalent of an MBE - is for all volunteers working within that organisation. 

In response, Tameside’s only Green councillor, Lee Huntbach, told the Reporter: “The letter did contain an error and should have been clearer. It should also have included the fact that Lorraine and Keith were awarded ‘Special Recognition’ for their work in helping the Anthony Seddon Trust achieve the Queen’s Award.

“We stopped distributing the letter once we were informed of the confusing text. 

“We will issue a correction in our next issue of our Waterloo Greenview newsletter.

“Loraine has been a committed community champion for many years and is rightly proud of her and her husband’s achievements, especially during lockdown.

“Personally, I’m disappointed that Labour are trying to score political points from what was clearly an error in wording, given that Lorraine is already so well respected for her consistent voluntary work across the ward of Waterloo.”

But one complainant, who preferred not to be named, stated: “It is difficult to believe that this was simply a ‘wording error’. 

“The Waterloo Green Party had no previous problems in reporting the Anthony Seddon story accurately... but a few months later - during an election campaign, they changed it to ‘Lorraine won the Queen’s Award’.

We asked the Anthony Seddon Fund for a response and the Ashton-based charity issued the following statement: “The content of the electoral campaign material has been brought to our attention. 

“We were enormously proud as an organisation to receive The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service and would like to point out that it is an award for all of our volunteers associated with the charity and not for any one or more individuals. 

“In addition to this, we were honoured to receive special recognition for the work that we undertook during the pandemic, in particular the work we did during lockdown. 

“This award was specifically for those volunteers who went above and beyond during this unprecedented time.  

“We can confirm that Lorraine and Keith Whitehead are two of the volunteers who worked tirelessly throughout this period to ensure that some of our most vulnerable residents received the support they desperately needed. 

“Each individual involved was awarded with a commemorative badge to mark this award.

“We thank all of our volunteers for their continued support and welcome anybody who would like to know more about the work we continue to do to come and visit us at our centre in Ashton.”

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