Hard Brexit Facebook ads targeting MPs 'linked to firm run by Tory elections guru Sir Lynton Crosby'
2 min read
A lobbying company run by Conservative former election strategist Sir Lynton Crosby has been linked to an online advertising campaign urging MPs to get behind a hard Brexit.
Two apparently "grassroots" Facebook campaigns from groups called 'Britain's Future' and the 'Mainstream Network' are tied to employees of CTF Partners, according to documents obtained by The Guardian.
The paper reports that the groups - which have spent as much as £1m targeting voters to get them to urge MPs to back a no-deal exit from the European Union - share an administrator who works for Sir Lynton's firm.
According to the documents, many of the most prominent pro-Brexit Facebook advertising campaigns share the same administrators or advertisers, including several employees of CTF Partners.
The group was behind a major online campaign in the wake of Theresa May signing off on her Brexit strategy at a Chequers summit last summer, with one message saying: "We voted to leave the EU, to take back control of our money and borders. The Chequers proposal does not deliver this."
Another targeted campaign prompts social media users to get in touch with their local MP saying: "A customs union is not Brexit."
Sir Lynton played a key part in the Conservatives' last four general election campaigns, and CTF also ran Boris Johnson’s two successful bids as mayor of London.
Mr Johnson came under fire from anti-Brexit campaigners earlier this year when it emerged that CTF Partners had given him an interest-free loan of £23,000 for office and staffing costs.
The Guardian report comes amid intense scrutiny of the funding of online political campaigns.
Facebook previously refused to disclose who was behind Mainstream Network following a demand from MPs on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee - which this week launched a permanent new group aimed at investigating online disinformation.
Committee chair Damian Collins said this week: "We saw during the course of our inquiry... [that] political campaigns like the shadowy Mainstream Network, which was advertising on Facebook seeking to get members of the public to lobby their MPs on what they should or shouldn’t do on Brexit.
"There are other organisations, like We Are the 52% and Britain’s Future, doing that right now. We may want to call in people like that in the future as part of investigations."
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