ELECTION: Conservative posters vandalised in Gosport

Ms Dinenage made the claims on Twitter this morning, before deleting the tweet 15 minutes later.

The tweet said: ‘So kind of Alan Durrant and Gosport Labour Party to daub not only all my posters in red paint but also a supporters car! #VoteConservative’.

Mr Durrant said he had apologised to Ms Dineage but also said a formal complaint will be issued about the incident as he feels it may have been done to deliberately effect the election result.

He said: ‘I responded by saying sorry to Caroline; the Gosport Labour Party does not condone vandalism.

‘I’m concerned that it was a deliberate attempt to skew the result of the election.

‘I feel that this is against the electoral rules and I’ve asked the regional Labour Party to see if there’s a case for this to be taken further legally.

‘She took it off about 15 minutes afterwards, so obviously she realised the implications.’

Mr Durrant said he is concerned the Twitter spat may have a detrimental impact on his chances of election.

He explained: ‘The damage has already been done; people have already seen it, so as far as I’m concerned it’s a major issue.’