Lib Dem stunt mocking spoof estate agency 'May & Co' backfires
The party is promoting a spoof estate agents as part of their campaign against Tory plans - to the anger of a real-life business.
Friday 2 June 2017 17:26, UK
A Liberal Democrat election stunt has backfired after the party upset a near century-old business.
As part of their campaign against Conservative social care plans - dubbed a "dementia tax" by opponents - the Liberal Democrats created a spoof "May & Co" estate agents.
But the party's bid to draw attention to the Tory proposals - which involve including the value of a person's home when calculating their care funding - suffered a setback when they were made aware of a real-life May & Co.
John Yianni, the owner of the London estate agent, revealed he was alerted to his firm's fake namesake when he began receiving "weird" phone calls and the company's Twitter account "started hotting up".
Speaking to Sky News, Mr Yianni described how people began asking "why are you getting involved with the Lib Dems?", adding: "It's not a nice thing to happen to you, especially when you get stupid people ringing you up.
"We have been around since 1920s - before the Lib Dems."
Mr Yianni said he had received an apology from the organiser of the campaign stunt, with the Lib Dems subsequently renaming their fake firm "Theresa May & Co" and altering the address of a spoof website.
But the proprietor of the actual May & Co insisted he was still waiting for an apology from his local Lib Dem candidate Sir Vince Cable who, Mr Yianni revealed, had now "lost my vote".
He said: "I've had a few clients taking the very kind mickey but haven't had anyone saying 'we won't use you'.
"In all seriousness, this sort of stuff stays around forever. People searching the internet and Twitter - even though they've pulled it - you can still find it if you're tech-savvy."
He added: "As a small business what are we going to do? Take it on the chin, I suppose."
A party source suggested an apology from Sir Vince would be "another avenue" for the party to say sorry to Mr Yianni - but insisted their campaign against Tory social care plans would be continuing.
Sir Ed Davey, who is standing as a candidate in Kingston and Surbiton, launched the "Theresa May & Co" spoof adverts on Friday.
The former Cabinet minister attacked the Conservative proposals as "probably the most heartless thing I've seen in national politics from any political party in my career in politics".
Supported by activists brandishing posters of the now renamed fake estate agency, Sir Ed said: "The Lib Dems will lead the campaign against this unfair Tory dementia tax."
Claiming nine out of ten homes in the UK would be affected by the Tory social care plans, he added: "We'll speak up for those families who will be hit dramatically by Theresa May & Co's estate agent."