LAST week, the Conservative Party was widely condemned for changing the Twitter handle of its campaign headquarters account to “Fact Check UK” during ITV’s leadership debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.

Independent fact-checking organisation Full Fact called the Tory’s actions “inappropriate” and “misleading”.

Earlier this month, the party was also criticised for doctoring a video of the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer. The video showed Mr Starmer apparently struggle to answer a question on the party’s Brexit position, when in reality, he gave an immediate answer.

And on the day the Labour manifesto was launched, the Conservatives launched a spoof website pretending to back the manifesto - but actually attacked it.

Hexham’s Conservative candidate, Guy Opperman, said he was focused on the campaign in the constituency.

He said: “I am 100 per cent focussed on running a positive and local campaign that highlights the fantastic strides forward we are making along the Tyne Valley and in Ponteland.

“Unemployment has nearly halved here since 2010, we are seeing new schools built and investment in high quality patient care at Hexham General Hospital, and our precious green belt is being protected.

“I am very proud of my local record and, in this campaign, I am concentrating my efforts on making the positive case for re-electing me.”

It’s not just Conservatives who have been accused of misleading the public.

Earlier this month, senior Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran admitted that bar charts deployed by the party can be inaccurate.

Polls showing the party far ahead of Labour in North-East Somerset were criticised due to the small print under the graph, which showed that the figures were from a poll of local residents asked which party they would back if they knew Tories and Lib Dems were neck-and-neck, with other parties trailing far behind.

Indeed, the party’s candidate for Hexham, Stephen Howse, has argued that only the Lib Dems can defeat the Tories in Hexham - despite the fact that the Lib Dems trailed Labour by more than 12,000 votes, and the Tories by more than 19,000.

Mr Howse has called on all candidates to be honest with the electorate.

He said: “We are living in worrying times, with our own government undermining the very concept of facts and truthfulness.

“With such huge issues at stake, it’s more important than ever that people are able to access good quality information and can trust what politicians tell them.

“I hope the other candidates for Hexham will join me in promising to uphold basic standards of honesty and decency. It’s the least the people we want to represent should expect of us.”

Labour, too, have been accused of scaremongering over the NHS. Its claims that a trade deal with the US could cost the health service £500m extra a week for medicine were based on the unlikely idea that the NHS would pay US prices for every single drug it uses.

But Labour’s candidate for the election, Penny Grennan, praised the honesty seen in the local campaign so far.

She said: “Telling lies and distorting the facts erodes the trust between politicians and the electorate. This is the ultimate betrayal of trust.

“Locally, this has been a clean campaign, except for a misleading tactical voting graph put out by the Lib Dems, which we have asked them to take down.

“Elections should be fought on policies and voting records not on slurs, otherwise it brings us, and our democracy, into disrepute.”

Meanwhile, the Tyne Valley’s Green candidate, Nick Morphet, claimed the Green Party were different to the others.

Indeed, the party was yet to be hit by a scandal over the truth, unlike the others in this campaign.

Mr Morphet said: “The Brexit referendum of 2016 was plagued with lies. This year’s general election is shaping up to be no better.

“A lack of trust in politicians leads to widespread disillusion and a reduced voter turnout, while disinformation affects election results, undermining democracy. The Green Party is different.

“Our honesty and integrity are undeniable. A vote for the Green Party at this election will be a vote for the truth.”