Lib Dems win prize for the best press release of the General Election campaign

Lib Dems responded to accusations that Grant Shapps edited his rivals' Wikipedia pages by mocking him as 'a literary great'

Paddy Ashdown with voters on the streets of Eastleigh yesterda (Susannah Ireland)

It is undoubtedly the best press release a political party has sent out during the entire election campaign and perhaps the best contribution the Liberal Democrats have offered.

Instead of writing a standard statement condemning the political opposition of foul play, the Lib Dem response to accusations that the Tory party chairman edited his political rivals’ Wikipedia page took a different approach.

“Grant Shapps is a wonderful human being, a literary great and has in no way ever brought his party or politics into disrepute,” an ironic press release from the party said.

It went on: “Paddy Ashdown [chairman of the Lib Dem election campaign] called the Conservative party chairman a credit to his craft and applauded him for his contribution to writing, including for his Booker Prize-winning novel ‘Stinking Rich Three’.

The Tory chairman Grant Shapps went by the pseudonym of Michael Green in his former business (Getty)

“The former Liberal Democrat leader also urged journalists to stop calling Mr Shapps ‘Michael Green’ – because it is definitely not funny and was entirely normal for politicians to use alter-egos.”

It was all sparked after a user claiming to be a Wikipedia administrator reported and suspended an account on suspicion it was being used by Mr Shapps or “someone acting on his behalf”.

Paddy Ashdown, the chairman of the Lib Dem election campaign, went on to say: “Grant is a wonderful guy - he is a credit to the Conservative Party, a fine sportsman and reads a book a day. We could all learn a lot from him.

“He has led the Tories with exemplary skill and if, like me, you have been lucky enough to meet him – you know you have been touched by greatness. Quite simply, a colossus.”

One of Wikipedia's users, who claimed to be an administrator for the site, suspended an account called “Contribsx” after discovering it had regularly deleted references to Mr Shapps’ former business pseudonym Michael Green, which he used to pose as a multimillion-dollar web marketer. Last month he was forced to admit he had "screwed up" over his denial that he held a second job posing as Mr Green while also an MP in 2006.

An investigation by the Guardian discovered a third of the edits made by the Contribsx user were to Mr Shapps’ Wikipedia page, while the rest came in the form of unflattering entries on the pages of Mr Shapps’ senior Conservative colleagues, including Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, International Development Secretary Justine Greening and David Cameron’s election chief Lynton Crosby.

Wikipedia guidelines ban the use of what it calls “sock-puppetry” – creating fake online identies “for an improper purpose,” such as to mislead other editors, disrupt discussions, distort consensus or avoid sanctions”.

The online encyclopaedia’s administrators, who are selected volunteers, told the Guardian that they “believe that the account Contribsx is a sockpuppet of Grant Shapps’ previous accounts on Wikipedia ... and based on the evidence the account is either run by Shapps directly or being run by someone else – an assistant or a PR agency – but under his clear direction.”

A Conservative party spokesman said: “This Guardian smear is categorically false and defamatory. It is untrue from start to finish, and was quite likely dreamt up by the Labour press office. Sadly it is typical of the smears coming from those who would rather not debate policy and substance.”

The tongue-in-cheek press release from the Lib Dems finished the statement with a nod to the name of the suspended account: "This Press Release has been edited by Wikipedia user Contribsx."

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