Matthew Smith, a former UKIP county councillor who admitted allowing false signatures on nomination papers in 2015, was seen among Tory volunteers in Wroxham last weekend.

He was pictured alongside Broadland and Fakenham MP Jerome Mayhew and Tim Passmore, the Conservatives’ candidate for the 2028 mayoral election and Suffolk's police and crime commissioner (PCC).

Matthew Smith attends Norwich Crown Court in 2024 (Image: Robert Colman)

Mr Smith is understood to be an officer for the Great Yarmouth Conservatives and joined the party sometime after the 2024 general election.

The photograph, posted on Mr Mayhew’s Facebook page, shows Mr Smith in a black hoodie among a group of volunteers, several of them holding leaflets bearing Mr Passmore’s name.

Carli Harper, the leader of the Labour group at Norwich City Council and the party's mayoral candidate, described Mr Smith’s involvement as "an extraordinary lapse of judgement".

"Matthew Smith was convicted of electoral fraud, an offence that strikes at the very heart of our........

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