UKIP councillor John Whitby ridiculed for error-strewn pamphlet which misspells 'Britain'

Circulated throughout Peterborough in the wake of disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya's appeal against a perverting the course of justice conviction, the leaflet promised the city's people an "opportunity to cause an upheaval in Westminster" in the event of a by-election.

However, the pamphlet's heading read "Peterborough: Shaping Britians' future."

In its introductory paragraph councillor John Whitby then wrote: "We've been let down! As you may be aware our MP has recently been convicted of a serious criminal offence, but has now appealed against it."

The clumsy pamphlet was spotted by eagle-eyed tweeter Chris Struthers (@strutcakes), who posted an enumerated list alleging five errors.

He wrote: "1. Can't spell Britain.

"2. Misplaced apostrophe.

"3. UKIP have no MPs.

"4. Could have done with with a comma in that opening sentence.

"5. Is among the first to complain that somebody is unable to use the English language."

'A few of us proofread it'

Speaking to the Peterborough Telegraph, councillor John Whitby apologised for the circulation of the leaflet.

He said: "I typed it incorrectly and it's an embarrassment that it happened.

"A few of us misproofread [sic] it and missed two letters and a comma.

"It's important to get right, but it's an honest mistake. I'll hold my hands up."

He explains that the Peterborough branch of the right-wing political party caught the error after "200-300" leaflets had been distributed. The error was then corrected and 10,000 leaflets featuring the correct spelling of 'Britain' were circulated.

The councillor for Fletton and Stanground saw the positive in the blunder, saying: "If the only thing people can pick up is a couple spelling errors then we've done our job."