ONE of York’s election candidates has apologised to a rival after being threatened with legal action over campaign literature sent out by his party.

Leaflets supporting James Alexander, who is standing for Labour in the York Outer seat, repeated allegations made against the constituency’s Liberal Democrat candidate, Madeleine Kirk, that she broke City of York Council’s code of conduct by failing to declare a £5,000 donation from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. However, it did not mention that the authority’s standards committee’s assessment sub-committee ultimately decided no further action should be taken against Coun Kirk, who represents the Strensall ward.

That led to the Liberal Democrats approaching solicitors to demand an apology from Mr Alexander and vowing to take further action for defamation if this did not happen.

In a letter sent to the Liberal Democrats’ legal representatives, Mr Alexander said: “I accept that the donations were properly made and received.

“I apologise for any misunderstanding or distress caused to Coun Kirk by my previous suggestion that she had been reported to the standards committee for financial irregularities.”

The York Outer Liberal Democrats had accused Mr Alexander, who is also a York councillor and represents the Holgate ward, of making “false statements in his literature to defame our candidate” and that there would be “a case for defamation to answer if an apology is not made”.