Conservatives accused of breaking election rules by running 'secret call centre' during campaign
2 min read
The Conservatives allegedly ran a secret call centre during the election campaign which may have broken data protection and election laws, according to a Channel 4 News investigation.
Market research firm Blue Telecoms was employed to make thousands of cold calls to voters in marginal seats in the build up to polling day, the probe found.
Voters in the constituencies were told that "the election result in your marginal constituency is going to be very close between Theresa May’s Conservatives and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party".
A copy of the script used by the market research firm says: "So does knowing that you live in a marginal constituency that will determine who is Prime Minister for the Brexit negotiations, does that make you a lot more likely to vote for Theresa May’s Conservative candidate or a little more likely to vote for Theresa May’s Conservative candidate, or are you still unsure, or does it not make a difference?"
The Information Commissioner's Office has said it will launch an investigation into the allegations.
A spokesman said: "The Information Commissioner reminded campaigners from political parties of their obligations around direct marketing at the beginning of the election campaign. Where we find they haven’t followed the law we will act."
Anya Proops QC, a barrister specialising in the field of data protection, told Channel Four: "If you've got a situation where the company that’s calling you is concealing their true identity or is misleading the person who is receiving the call, then that is obviously a problem under the privacy legislation."
The Conservative Party said it had commissioned Blue Telecoms to carry out "market research and direct marketing calls" during the campaign, but insisted they had not broken the law.
A spokesman said: "Political parties of all colours pay for market research and direct marketing calls. All the scripts supplied by the party for these calls are compliant with data protection and information law."
The Tories were hit by controversy after the last general election in 2015 over claims it had wrongly registered local campaign spending as national expenditure.
Around 20 successful candidates had their expense returns investigated by detectives
South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay was charged last month, along with Tory activists Nathan Gray and Marion Little. They will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 4 July.
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