An elderly political campaigner was left shaken after being attacked while on the electoral trail.

An 84-year-old woman was reportedly shouted at and pushed during a canvassing session for Labour in Herne Bay on Saturday morning.

The pensioner was supporting Dr Coral Jones, who is standing for the party in North Thanet in Thursday's General Election.

A spokesman for the Parliamentary hopeful said: "There was an altercation between a woman shouting, pushing and shoving at a Labour member.

“It was an altercation between two women and a disagreement about politics. There was a tiny bit of shoving; it was quite small. There were no fisticuffs.

“She was shaken and taken for a cup of tea, but it was all resolved. She isn’t going to make a complaint.”

The spokesman says it happened between 11am and 12pm on Saturday.

The incident has been condemned by the party, which says another Labour activist was also “physically and verbally assaulted”.

The spokesman added: "It has been an unpleasant election in that our canvassers and leafleters have taken a lot of being shouted at and a general level of anger.

“There’s an awful lot more antagonism on the streets and downright anger than one would expect usually in an election.

“There are an awful lot of people around here who haven’t really been canvassed.

“People are saying, ‘I’ve made up my mind’, and there’s no debate. That debate has been squashed in Thanet because of a lazy safe-seat attitude.”

Dr Jones is running against incumbent Conservative Sir Roger Gale, Angie Curwen for the Liberal Democrats and Rob Edwards for the Green Party.

Police say they have not received any reports following the incident.

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