Tory falls foul of mayoral bid rules

A Tory bidding to become mayor of Hackney has been banned from the council's election leaflet because he broke rules by criticising the cost of its Labour administration.

Andrew Boff fears his campaign to oust Labour's Jules Pipe will suffer damage after his election address was blocked from the booklet sent to the borough's 88,000 homes.

His criticism of Mr Pipe's £75,848 salary and the £42,474 wages paid to his cabinet read: "The Mayor and his cabinet pay themselves £335,000 a year. I will end the patronage. My cabinet will cost £0 in salaries. I will not take a salary and the members of the cabinet will be appointed only if they agree not to take the salary."

He added: "I'm already a member of the GLA [where] I get paid a salary."

Hackney returning officer Tim Shields said: "Andrew Boff is listed as a candidate in the booklet. However, the election address was deemed invalid because it broke the rules concerning references to other candidates."