A Ukip councillor is being mocked on social media for a series of glaring errors – including a misspelling of ‘Britain’ – contained in a pamphlet circulated around Peterborough.
Posters for councillor John Whitby were put up around the town after its MP, Fiona Onasanya, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
Labelled “Peterborough: Shaping Britians’ Future (yes, you read that right), Whitby’s poster read: “We’ve been let down! As you may be aware our MP has recently been convicted of a serious criminal offence, but has now appealed against it.”
But his call to action went viral for all the wrong reasons after Twitter user Chris Struthers pointed out the mistakes – which could have been avoided with a swift proofread.
It later emerged the leaflet was proofread – by Whitby himself.
He told the Peterborough Telegraph: “I typed it incorrectly and it’s an embarrassment that it happened.
“A few of us misproofread [sic] it and missed two letters and a comma.
“It’s important to get right, but it’s an honest mistake. I’ll hold my hands up.”
A Ukip spokesperson said it was clear Whitby was not claiming the party had any MPs and was referring to Onasanya as “our MP” as a Peterborough resident.
“That point simply isn’t fair or accurate and regards the rest, I can assure lessons have been learned but it was human error,” he added.
The mistake was caught after hundreds of pamphlets had already been put up, but a new batch of 10,000 posters has since been printed.