Was Milton Keynes Conservative's Twitter litter picture a bit of a con?

MP Iain Stewart and candidate Ben Everitt donned fluorescent yellow jackets yesterday to be photographed as worthy citizens picking up litter.

But people were quick to notice that the place they were clearing of rubbish was none other than the Conservative Club car park in Bletchley.

Ben Everitt, who is standing for the Tories in MK North, had posted the picture on Twitter with the caption: "Me and Iain Stewart did a spot of litter picking this lunchtime. Back out talking to voters now, despite the rain."

The photo shows an animated Mr Stewart holding open a plastic sack while Mr Everitt, with a look of concentration on his face, empties a litter picking tool into it.

Local Labour councillor Paul Williams responded with a tweet saying: "Is this a joke? Looks remarkably like the Conservative Club car park in Bletchley. Are you really pretending to do community litter picking in a car park? Happy to show you guys what actual litter picking looks like."

Other comments from people included: "Hardly a litter pick on the streets is it? A set up shot to try and fool the electorate" and "Amazing how quickly these manifestos become rubbish on the streets!"

The Citizen tried to contact both Mr Everitt and Mr Stewart for a comment this morning. Neither has yet responded.

But a Tory spokesperson said: "Labour seem very upset that we are keeping our car park tidy but don't seem to care that it was a load of Labour leaflets that had been thrown there."