The Liberal Democrats have taken a paragraph from a 549 word comment written by a former Watford Observer reporter and used it to seemingly show his endorsement for the Watford Mayor’s parliamentary credentials in a leaflet.

Residents received the double-sided pro-Dorothy Thornhill literature through their doors last week.

It quotes a segment of a piece written in August by the Observer's ex-chief reporter, Mike Wright, in which he analysed how Mayor Thornhill’s legacy could potentially be damaged by a run for Westminster.

The Lib Dems used two sentences, including "no other politician in the town has anything resembling her profile or electoral track record".

But it failed to quote segments such as "she is not universally loved" and "a risky Parliamentary run will have implications for the Lib Dems’ chances of holding onto the town hall after Dorothy."

The Observer Owl took to Twitter this afternoon to address the leaflet.

The party apologised in 2010 after circulating a leaflet to thousands of homes which used a quote attributed to the Observer that stated: "The signs look good for the Lib Dems to topple Claire Ward".

However, that quote was in fact directly attributed to Mayor Thornhill in a story reported in the Observer back in 2007.

Watford Observer: WO Lib Dems leaflet 2010

In October 2007, five months after that original story was published, Sal Brinton, then Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate, apologised for reproducing and attributing the same quote to the Observer in a campaign leaflet.

Mr Wright, the Observer's former chief reporter, took to Twitter today after being told the Lib Dems were using his name in party propaganda.

In a series of tweets with Observer Owl, the Watford Lib Dems defended their leaflet this afternoon.

But the Lib Dems’ defence did not appear to wash with other social media users.