Zac Goldsmith election placard defaced with swastika

An election placard for Conservative politician Zac Goldsmith has been defaced with a swastika, ahead of polling day on Thursday.

The Tory hopeful for Richmond Park posted a picture on Facebook, of the blue poster  which simply reads ‘Conservatives’ outside a house, which had been vandalised with the Nazi symbol.

Goldsmith said: “Lots of you have emailed me about defaced posters in the last few days. We will make sure to replace all of them. You know you’ve lost the argument if you have to resort to stuff like this”.

The former London Mayoral candidate will contest the Richmond seat for the third time since 2015. He resigned as an MP in 2016, triggering a by-election, in which he ran as an independent in opposition to the proposed Heathrow expansion. He lost to Liberal Democrat Sarah Olney, but has since been re-selected as the Tory candidate.

Goldsmith, who is not Jewish, has previously told Jewish News he has suffered from anti-Semitism online due to his name.

Last week, Nazi swastikas were also daubed on the posters of Tory candidate Sheryll Murray, who is standing for re-election for South East Cornwall. She condemned the attack and said she was “sickened”, whilst Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed the incident had been reported as criminal damage.