Police have dismissed a complaint that a Ceredigion Liberal Democrat leaflet was “misleading”.

Dave Bradney, a Labour Party member from Llanrhystud, complained to police and Ceredigion council’s Electoral Services Department over a bar chart in a Lib Dem leaflet that he said “seriously misrepresents the voting pattern in the Ceredigion constituency at the 2017 General Election”.

He said the bar chart lowers the Labour and Conservative vote percentage from 2017 in relation to the Plaid and Lib Dem parties to insist that the first two “cannot win here”.

“It is easy to calculate what the respective heights of the bars in the bar chart should be, based on the votes cast for the various parties,” Mr Bradney said.

“On that basis, this chart understates the Labour vote in that election by 27 per cent, and the Tory vote by 37 per cent.

“This is because they want to make the case that ‘Labour and the Tories cannot win here’.”

Ceredigion council Electoral Services Department told Mr Bradney they “remain neutral”.

The complaint was dismissed by police, who said “the contents of the leaflet do not contravene the Representation of the People Act 1983.”

Mr Bradney said that dismissing the appeal meant that political parties can “say whatever they like”.

A complaint over that leaflet was also dismissed by police, but the Ceredigion party apologised over the claims.

Ceredigion Liberal Democrats have been asked to comment, but no response has been received.

See this week’s south papers for the full story, available in shops and as a digital edition on Wednesday