Mandy Richards, Labour’s prospective MP for Worcester, has insisted her legal battles with MI5, MI6, the Metropolitan Police, the British Army, Thames Water and her gas, electricity and broadband suppliers, Royal Mail, Hackney council, Progress, her GP and the freeholder of her flat “were all above board”. In a nearly thousand word long statement posted on Facebook, Richards says she discussed the court cases with Labour before she was selected:

“Between 2015 – 2017 there were a number of unexplained incidents in and around my home including home invasion, theft, a car break-in, computer hacking, bike tampering, mail tampering, a fridge fire and electrical surges rendering my computers and mobile phones unusable. This all coincided with a series of serious unexplained health conditions.

For over 18 months I liaised individually and separately with each of the agencies that were ultimately named in the court proceedings of March 2017, following up on repeated requests for assistance and investigation and following all their protocols in place for dealing with claims and complaints. Through this protracted process I was having to endure life threatening levels of loss of blood, unexplained levels of heavy metals in my system and incidents within my home including environmental pollutants, that could potentially have caused loss of life…

This then led onto direct enquiries made to MI5 & MI6 with the same outcome. They would neither confirm nor deny, but stated that if any surveillance activity had taken place it would have been proportionate and within the realms of the law…

As both of the above cases named ‘Progress’, a campaign group associated with the Labour Party, and Hackney Council as respondents, I discussed the matters at length with executive officers from the Party prior to the Worcester selection process commencing. Documents related to both cases have also been in the public domain for some time. I apologise to Labour Party members for any consternation or upset the articles published this weekend may have caused, but I can assure you categorically the cases brought were all above board.”

She is still a Labour candidate tonight…