LABOUR HOPEFUL’S UGLY SPAT

CRUMBRIA: 17.6.2026

CRUMBRIA’S wannabe Labour mayor David Allen has been listening carefully to voters on Facebook — before telling one of them he would “always be ugly”.

Usually politicians kiss babies on the campaign trail but the former plod – albeit responding to repeated jibes about his weight – told a voter: “I can always lose weight, you will always be ugly.”

The reply? “Least I’m not 3ft 2!”

All just bantz, apparently.

Mr Allen, the county’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, is running for the shiny new Mayor of Cumbria job due next year.

When Crumbria gets its mayor, Allen’s £68,000-a-year PFCC job disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving the former policeman and NHS high-up, chasing another well-paid public sector post.

(Average mayoral salary? £90,000.)

Yet attempts to connect with the plebs appear to have attracted roughly 80% boos from more than 300-plus comments.

When one asked whether it was right for Allen to use a Facebook page carrying the title “David Allen – Cumbria Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner” to push his mayoral campaign, Mr Allen replied that it was his “private Facebook page”, not an office one.

Why make his personal page look and sound so official, then?

And on his campaign posters, such is the electoral asset of standing for Labour, the party name is printed in a font so tiny it requires a Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass.

But the real belter is his online “listening” survey.

The form insists: “David wants to hear from YOU!”

How touching.

Yet the survey comes partially auto-filled:

— making David Allen first choice for Mayor of Cumbria;

— making David Allen second choice for Mayor of Cumbria;

— selecting Reform as the party people would “definitely not support”;

***Have your say – providing the drop down boxes haven’t already said it for you!***

Only by navigating the drop-down do users get to change the form’s pre-prepared choices.

One commenter wrote on the officially unofficial Facebook page: “Don’t trust this survey. I looked and some sections are completed with Allen’s name.”

Meanwhile, political party Putting Cumbria First has also noticed that Mr Allen so enjoys its slogan that he has started using it himself.

Mr Allen, under photographs of himself surrounded by Labour canvassers, tells followers: “I don’t really do politics…”

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