Reform spat with Bristol council over Arron Banks’ slogan | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Reform has grow to be embroiled in a livid row with Left-wing-run Bristol council after it banned mayoral candidate Arron Banks’ three-word slogan. Mr Banks, a well known determine within the UKIP and Brexit motion, was unveiled as Nigel Farage’s candidate in his house patch of Bristol and West England.

He had already been utilizing “Banksy for Bristol” as his motto, a play on his surname and town’s well-known nameless graffiti artist. But with an hour to go earlier than the council’s deadline for submitting election branding, together with slogans, Mr Banks was knowledgeable he couldn’t use this slogan. Reform has launched a livid assault in opposition to Bristol council’s intervention, accusing it of intentionally contriving to spoil its candidate’s election hopes.

In a letter to Mr Banks, Bristol council claimed it was disallowing the slogan as a consequence of considerations about copyright.

Hitting again, nonetheless, the celebration wrote a livid letter warning: “With respect, any such restriction would be legally misconceived, unjustified, and liable to immediate challenge.

“To compound matters, this was flagged to Mr Banks and his team with an hour to go before the deadline to publish his literature, essentially preventing any meaningful ability to contest this decision and effectively barring Mr Banks from running the campaign he had intended.

“Mr Banks has very publicly and openly been using this campaign slogan since his candidacy had been announced and we are extremely concerned that this ‘concern’ was not voiced at any time before it was too late to respond.

“On this basis, Mr Banks had to make the decision to either remove the slogan or have no campaign materials by the deadline.”

Reform additionally argued that if the unknown graffiti artist objected to Mr Banks’ slogan, he had ample time to tell the celebration or the council.

“No such objection has been received, and the suggestion that someone could mistake campaign materials featuring pictures and text from Arron Banks as intending to be a public ‘reveal’ of the long-held secret identity of the artist Banksy is laughable at best,” stated Reform.

“The slogan is a clear linguistic play on Mr Banks’s surname. It is unmistakably political speech, not a commercial falsehood.

“There is no damage to goodwill, nor any actionable confusion. The common law tort of passing off has no application here.

“At no stage has Mr Banks attempted to assert he is connected with or competing with the artist Banksy. Mr Banks is standing for public office using a name he has been known by for the majority of his life as detailed in numerous public articles.”

Reform went on to accuse the council of “a deliberate contrivance brought at the eleventh hour to act as a spoiler to Mr Banks’ campaign and we will not tolerate this approach moving forward in this campaign”.

While the celebration informed the council that Mr Banks had opted to take away his slogan “under duress”, a celebration supply insisted the highest Brexiteer and businessman would proceed to make use of it.

Bristol council was approached for remark.