The Conservative party chairman, Grant Shapps, is facing an electoral challenge from a candidate called Michael Green, the name Shapps used as an alter ego to promote get-rich-quick products.
The man is thought to have changed his name by deed poll to pull off the stunt in the Welwyn Hatfield constituency. He submitted nomination papers at the last minute and is using Laurence Durnan, the editor of the website Political Scrapbook, as his election agent.
The campaign website says: “I‘ll get straight to the point: Tory chairman Grant Shapps has been pretending to be ‘Michael Green’. Well my name really is Michael Green. And I’m pretty pissed off.
“So I’ve decided to embarrass him by standing against him in his own constituency. That’s right: his secret pseudonym will be joining him on the ballot paper.”
The site has been soliciting donations in order to raise the £500 election deposit needed to run.
It adds: “This is not a joke. Okay. It is a joke, but I am still taking on Shapps in his own back yard, Welwyn Hatfield constituency in Hertfordshire.”
The candidate, who is not affiliated to a party, adds: “All supporters will get campaign updates and exclusive first access to our funny campaign video. Those giving £10 or more will be sent an official ‘VOTE FOR MICHAEL GREEN’ campaign rosette, while those giving £30 or more get a rosette AND a T-shirt (designs to be finalised).”
Shapps has been heavily criticised by political rivals for his use of a fake name to sell marketing products that promised to help clients make tens of thousands of pounds.
The story was first broken by the Guardian in 2012, when a picture emerged of Shapps wearing a Michael Green name badge at a conference in the US.
Speculation that Michael Green candidate vs Shapps is performance artist @simoncfarid. http://t.co/sHlQlG08iC http://t.co/xyEZc5izyp :grins:
— Laurence Durnan (@PSbookEditor) April 10, 2015
It returned to the headlines last month after it was revealed that Shapps had continued to pose as Green while he was an MP – something he had always denied.
There has been speculation that the new candidate could be the performance artist Simon Farid who has been recreating Shapps’s online presence as Green since the original material disappeared from the internet.
