DOCTORED videos, dubious data and political misinformation has led some to label it the 'fake news' election.

Now the Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson has come under fire for dressing up her campaign material shoved through letterboxes across East Dunbartonshire as a newspaper.

As part of her bid to retain her seat, her supporters have distributed what is described as a "free newspaper" The East Dunbartonshire Standard which critics say looks similar to the local newspaper for the area, the Kirkintilloch and Bishopbriggs Herald.

Both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative Party have been criticised for creating campaign leaflets that are dressed up to look as if their local newspapers during the election.

Last week, The Society of Editors called for  a ban on political publications that “ape” local newspapers amid an industry fightback against the practice.

It has also been condemned in an open letter from six regional publishers including Newsquest addressed to Jeremy Corbyn, Boris Johnson and Jo Swinson.

The Herald:

But it has not stopped Ms Swinson in her East Dunbartonshire patch.

The circulating Lib Dem newspaper appears to immitate the style of the local paper, with a similar colour masthead and similar font.

It is described as the "free newspaper covering Bearsden, Bishopbriggs, Kirkintilloch, Lenzie, Milngavie and communities across East Dunbartonshire".

The Lib Dem paper says it is published and promoted by Rod Ackland on behalf of Ms Swinson at an address in Bishopbriggs, which is the MP's constituency office. He is a well known Liberal Democrat agent, who has helped electing candidates across East Dunbartonshire since 1988 and features heavily on the MP's Facebook page.

One of the local newspaper's most prominent stories this week talks of how Ms Swinson succeeded in a bid to stop the SNP from distributing a leaflet accusing her of being a hyporcrite over fracking.

Ms Swinson asked the Court of Session in Edinburgh to stop the Royal Mail from distributing the leaflet in her East Dunbartonshire constituency.

Ms Swinson's lawyers said the leaflet had accused her of hypocrisy because she had accepted a £14,000 donation "from a fracking company.""

The SNP's QC had argued there was no "substantial untruth" in the leaflet.

And Lord Pentland said a statement on the leaflet was false in substance, materially inaccurate and defamatory.

He said: "I don't consider it would be right for an official election leaflet which contains a prima facie defamatory statement to be distributed by the Royal Mail."

Ruling in favour of Ms Swinson, Lord Pentland ordered the SNP and its candidate Amy Callaghan to pay Ms Swinson's costs.

The SNP's legal team was considering an appeal.

Will Moy, chief executive of Full Fact, the UK independent fact checking charity said: 'It is inappropriate and misleading for any political party to have its campaign masquerade as independent journalism. Elections are won by small margins, and deceptive tactics rob people of the chance to make informed choices about who to vote for.

"This kind of behaviour makes people lose faith in politics. And if a party loses voters' trust before they are even elected, it will be harder for them to govern. Not all of the tactics we’ve seen in this election campaign are new, but some of the misleading online activities are.

"Our election laws are dangerously out of date. It's time for the law to require online campaigning to be transparent, as the Electoral Commission has warned."

Full Fact said there had been "quite aggressive" campaigning from all political parties and "fairly consistent" misrepresentation over other parties' positions.

Among the controversial Full Fact finds was a ‘fact-checking’ service which the Conservative Party was behind.

The Herald:

The Conservatives were accused of misleading the public after they rebranded their official Twitter account as “factcheckUK” during the televised leaders’ debate and used it to publish anti-Labour posts.

It came after the Tories produced a heavily-edited video which appeared to show Labour's Keir Starmer struggling to answer a question on Brexit policy while being interviewed on Good Morning Britain.

It had been chopped to make it look like the Shadow Brexit Secretary froze when asked by Piers Morgan about the EU's willingness to negotiate a new withdrawal agreement with Labour.

Tory chairman James Cleverly initially tried to defend the viral video by claiming it had to be "shortened" for social media.

READ MORE: Conservatives defend 'doctored' Keir Starmer campaign video

But appearing on Good Morning Britain Treasury Secretary Rishi Sunak admitted the Conservatives had gone "too far".

The Conservatives also launched a bogus Labour manifesto website which attacked Jeremy Corbyn's policies before he had officially announced his party's election pledges.

Called labourmanifesto.co.uk it purported to provide information on his promises alongside a photo of Jeremy Corbyn superimposed onto a red background.

The headlines site read: “Labour’s 2019 manifesto … No plan for Brexit. Higher taxes. Two more referendums."

Full Fact also took issue with Labour claiming that the Tories are going to do a trade deal with the US that will cost the NHS £500 million pounds a week - equivalent to about a fifth of what the UK spends on health.

Mr Moy has described it as an "extraordinary claim" and "unrealistic" but it was being repeated to voters.

Ms Swinson has herself been the target of election shenanigans.

She was forced to condemn a spoof story circulating online that she used a slingshot to fire stones at squirrels while referring to them as “pleb bunnies”.

She was asked by LBC‘s Iain Dale about her “attitude to squirrels” in response to a satirical fake news article which claimed to have unearthed “harrowing” private Facebook footage of Ms Swinson terrorising rodents in her garden.

The viral post is of a particular genre of social media hoaxes in which outlandishly fake headlines and stories are superimposed to appear as if they have been published by major news sites.

She branded the posts “very fake news”, which she described as “quite sophisticated” and “worrying” ahead of the upcoming general election.