You always know there's an election round the corner when you start receiving emails putting forward conspiracy theories or suggesting you are biased.

I received one earlier today from Andrew Ward, election agent to Tony Morrell, who is standing as an independent in the Hartlepool Mayoral election on June 4.

It came under the heading: "Is The Northern Echo supporting Stuart Drummond?"

Mr Ward went on to express his concern that The Northern Echo's sports editor Nick Loughlin had been spotted at Durham Cricket Club on Saturday with Stuart Drummond, the man who was famously elected Mayor of Hartlepool while standing as H'Angus The Monkey.

"My concerns are that if the box was sponsored by your newspaper, it would appear to be a visible show of support of Mr Drummond, especially during the Mayoral election in Hartlpool," says Mr Ward.

"If your reporter was attending as a guest of Mr Drummond, then again it appears that he may be trying to gain some influence with your newspaper by inviting your colleague, Mr Loughlin."

Mr Ward goes on to advise me that this liaison is "raising some eyebrows" on the High Tax Hartlepool website.

The truth is this...Nick Loughlin and Stuart Drummond are long-standing friends. Their friendship goes back a long way before Mr Drummond donned his monkey suit and became mayor.

I don't see any reason why they should not go to a cricket match together. The hospitality box wasn't sponsored by The Northern Echo. It was simply a case of Mr Drummond asking his mate to accompany him to the cricket. No more, no less.

Nick Loughlin is the Sports Editor of The Northern Echo and, therefore, has no influence whatsoever over our political coverage. He knows a lot more about the penalty box than the ballot box.

Indeed, the only time the Hartlepool election has featured on The Northern Echo sports pages lately was when Mike Amos devoted most of his Backtrack column to a feature about...Tony Morrell.

Funnily enough, it was Stuart Drummond who emailed then to question whether it was fair to give Mr Morrell such positive exposure without mentioning the other candidates.

I told him I could see no reason why a sports column like Backtrack should not feature an eminent sportsman who was standing as an election candidate.

So in answer to the question at the beginning of Mr Ward's email, The Northern Echo is not supporting Stuart Drummond, Tony Morrell or anyone else.

Frankly, there are far more important things to worry about.

Nevertheless, I've instructed our sports editor to wear a cunning disguise from now on whenever he's out with his mates.