'Significant' police investigation into Tory call centre claims
2 min read
Police are investigating allegations about the Conservatives’ use of a call centre during the general election campaign.
Channel 4 News claimed that the Tories may have breached data protection or electoral laws by employing Blue Telecoms, which is based in south Wales, to contact voters in marginal seats.
The Information Commissioner’s Office has already confirmed that it was looking into whether any rules have been broken and now South Wales Police said an investigation of “scale and significance” was underway.
A spokeswoman for the police force said: “South Wales Police can confirm it is investigating allegations relating to the Representation of the People Act 1983.
"As an investigation is underway, it would be inappropriate to comment any further at this time."
Wayne David, the Labour MP for Caerphilly who first revealed the police investigation, said he was pleased by the inquiries.
He said: “The allegations that the Conservative Party and Blue Telecoms broke electoral law during a general election campaign are extremely serious and the public need to have confidence in our electoral process. That is fundamental to our democracy.”
At the time of the Channel 4 programme a Conservative spokesman said it had not broken any campaigning rules.
“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.”
Channel 4 had claimed callers had presented themselves as working for a market research company – though there was no identifiable registration in the UK for the firm name used.
The programme also reported that the callers were prompted to ask questions that featured key Tory campaign themes when voters said they were undecided.
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