Market Harborough: Campaigner concerned about signs being damaged

A Leicestershire campaigner has spoken of his “concern” after someone tried to set fire to a political banner on the side of his house.

Tim Durham, campaign director for the Harborough, Oadby and Wigston constituency of the Labor Party, raised his concerns with the police.

The incident was reported to the force in Leicestershire on Monday but no arrests have been made, a spokesman said.

He said incidents of political signs and banners at his home and on surrounding streets had “stepped up”, which he said was “very worrying”.

Mr Durham said the equipment used to put up the signs had been stolen from his home in Market Harborough and the job boards, some of them eight feet high, had disappeared from three nearby streets.

A Star of David has been painted on a campaign sign for Hajira Piranie, the Labor candidate for the Harborough, Oadby and Wigston constituency.

Mr Durham said: “It is (rather unusual) especially for this area. In Wigston and Oadby you will sometimes meet very angry people on the doorstep and understandably so.

On June 16, Mr. Durham said someone entered his garage and took a sledgehammer and an iron rod, both of which were used to build election committees, but did not take any other valuables, which he said were “very strange”.

The following weekend, Mr Durham said “someone went around and painted the Star of David on two of the signs” in the streets near his home.

He added: “That really set off the warning bells.

“At the same time, someone tried to set fire to the banner on the side of my house.

“He’s gone from being little things from childhood to obviously someone who is quite organized and determined.”

Mr. Durham said three boards, each 8 feet high and 2 feet wide and set more than a foot into the ground, all disappeared in one night.

He added: “There has to be someone of considerable strength to pick them up, probably a couple of people and then they have to have a van because there’s no way you can get them in a car. We had to use a van to distribute them.”

Mr Durham, who has lived in the area for 20 years, said he now felt unable to send his daughter leaflets.

“I don’t know whose door he’s going to knock on,” he added. “And that person might come out and that might be the person who is willing to go to such lengths to hurt somebody or a political campaign.

“The attacks on my home feel personal. You wake up with a very sick feeling in your stomach. You think about your children. You feel very angry.

“I understand that people might get upset and want to tell me, which is fine, that I’m happy to talk about people’s different opinions.”

A Leicestershire Police spokesman said: “On Monday a report was made that a banner on the side of a property had been set alight.

“No arrests have been made and inquiries are ongoing.”