Kent police commissioner hopeful Ann Barnes has led independent candidates in a protest at election "unfairness" in Downing Street today.

The former Kent Police Authority chairman is calling for state-funded leaflets to be sent to all voters to "level the playing field".

She and a group of other independents claim political candidates will have an unfair advantage because information is not going to everyone.

The government will post details about candidates online and deliver them to those who request information.

However, information about candidates is posted to all households during parliamentary, mayoral and European elections.

Mrs Barnes, pictured left, claims a mail-shot should go to all homes to prevent political candidates having an unfair advantage.

She handed a protest letter at Downing Street this morning before using a giant scales of justice to demonstrate what she claims is an inequality in the election process.

She was joined by independent police commissioner candidates from Lincolnshire, Thames Valley and Sussex.

Mrs Barnes said: "The main political parties are hijacking these elections with their party money and party machines and the government is deliberately denying independent candidates the one thing that would help level the playing field – a state-funded election address to every elector.

"This is offered to all candidates in Parliamentary and European elections. We demand the same."

However, Conservative police commissioner candidate for Kent Craig Mackinlay criticised Mrs Barnes.

He said: "The rules of the PCC election have been laid out for many months.

"Indpendent candidates entering the race did so knowing that there would be no free delivery; for independent candidates now to claim that this is somehow unfair is disingenuous.

"The cost to the Kent taxpayer of a Kent-wide free election address distribution could be in the order of £1.2million, enough to pay for 40 front-line police officers."

Voters will go to the polls on November 15 in the first elections for police and crime commissioners, which will replace police authorities.

Mrs Barnes stood down as Kent Police Authority chairman earlier this month after announcing she would enter the police commissioner race.

She was first appointed to Kent Police Authority in 2001 and was elected chairman in 2005.

It is not clear who will take Mrs Barnes’s place, but it could be the deputy chairman and county councillor Mike Hill.

The authority is made up of 14 members including councillors and local people, who regularly meet with senior officers.

It will be scrapped once elections for the first set of police commissioners take place in November.