TORY parliamentary candidate George Lee today defended spelling mistakes in his election leaflet and said it was just "a harsh reality of life".

The colourful fold-out brochure outlining the Rossendale councillor's pledges to improve education has been sent to 37,000 households across the Rossendale and Darwen constituency and contained two glaring spelling errors.

In a picture caption highlighting the party's policies for cutting the regulation on employers to improve job prospects, Darwen was spelled like the Australian version -- Darwin.

And in another picture, of local residents discussing environmental improvements, Hoddlesden was spelled "Hoddleston".

But today the 38-year-old Scotsman, who lives in Haslingden with his wife Heather and baby son Alexander, blamed the "regrettable" mistakes on an error by the printers which was not picked up on by the proof readers

Mr Lee said there were no plans to print any more leaflets and he was confident the errors would not affect his chances of being elected.

He said: "We are disappointed there were a couple of spelling errors on the leaflet.

"It was a very regrettable mistake between the printers and proof readers. But it goes to show that anyone can make mistakes.

"I don't think our message to the public will be any less valued because of this.

"Realistically, I think people make their decisions on issues and policies and they know mistakes can happen to anyone. It's just a harsh reality of life.

"I don't think they will be put off because they know that things like this happen in everyday life."

He refused to say how much the leaflets, printed by a south Wirral company, had cost.