Idle Toad

The Idle Toad was a registered English political party which fought elections in the South Ribble district of Lancashire, England.

The Idle Toad
LeaderTom Sharratt
Founded30 January 2003
Dissolved1 November 2014
Headquarters14 Coupe Green,
Hoghton,
Preston,
PR5 0JR
IdeologyLocalism
Website
http://lob.org.uk/Idletoad/

History

The party originated in 1997, when Labour Party councillor Tom Sharratt was deselected. He started printing a local newsletter, named the Idle Toad,[1] and stood thereafter under this party description, holding both his South Ribble Rural East on Lancashire County Council and Coupe Green and Gregson Lane seat on South Ribble District Council.[2]

Sharratt formed the Idle Toad party with fellow councillor Barrie Yates in 2002.[3] It was registered with the Electoral Commission on 30 January 2003. The party was community based and not linked to any specific political ideology.

The party had three councillors on South Ribble District Council by 2007.[4] Yates and Jim Marsh, another party councillor, resigned from the party that year, joining the Conservative Party soon after.[3][1] Marsh later sued the party over a comment in its newsletter describing him as a "defacator". Sharratt countered that this was a misprint, and should have described him as a "defector".[2] He was censured and ordered to apologise to Marsh. He later won an appeal to this order.[1]

Decline and dissolution

Following the 2013 county council elections for Lancashire, the Idle Toad Party was left with no remaining councillors.[5] It was statutorily deregistered by the UK electoral commission in November 2014.[6]

See also

References
  1. "Idle Toad hails victory for 'free press'", Lancashire Evening Post, 18 November 2009
  2. "Toad in a hole at 'spelling mistake'", Lancashire Evening Post, 18 August 2009
  3. "Lancashire County Council elections special", Leyland Guardian, 26 May 2009
  4. "Blue tide sweeps across South Ribble", The Citizen, 4 May 2007
  5. "Vote 2013 Results for Lancashire", BBC News, 3 May 2013
  6. "Registration PP273". The Electoral Commission. Retrieved 20 February 2018.


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