The Conservative Party has been slammed by fact-checkers over the use of emergency alert ads in the run-up to the General Election.
A series of political advertisements sponsored by the Tory Party that mimic the appearance and sound of emergency alerts have been judged to be deceptive by the UK’s leading fact-checking charity.
The ads contain the same symbol used as part of the new national emergency alert system that was rolled out across the UK earlier this year, but rather than warning users of potential dangers, they contained attack lines aimed at the Labour Party.
Examples posted on social media include one that suggests Angela Rayner, the deputy party leader, will “end our nuclear deterrent”, while another says Labour will “flatten the green belt”.
Commenting on the ads, Chris Morris, chief executive of Full Fact, said: “With public trust in political communications hanging by a thread, publishing political advertisements that mimic the format of official communications is deeply counterproductive.
“In the closing weeks of a general election, parties should be doing everything they can to encourage voters to the polls rather than relying on a deceptive shock factor.”
Recent polling by Savanta for Full Fact found that nearly three in five (59 per cent) UK adults have very little or no confidence that the political parties have run honest campaigns, and 61 per cent felt the same about political ads.
Separate research by Ipsos for Full Fact found that approximately half (54 per cent) say they tend to ignore what parties and politicians say because they don’t know if they can be trusted.
Full Fact is calling for all political parties to end deceptive campaign practices that involve using formats that appear to be something they are not. Chris Morris has written to the leaders of UK political parties to call on them to publicly pledge to not use deceptive campaigning tactics to gain votes and commit to new rules for honest party campaigning, to ensure voters can make informed decisions at the ballot box.
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