As campaigning enters the AI age, and Britain’s politics becomes more fragmented, misleading election advertising is no longer a theoretical risk. Our latest follow-up report, After the Vote, looks at the results of the May 7th elections and finds just how many contests were decided by tiny margins.
The analysis found that 41.4% of wards had a winning margin of less than 5%, 12.2% were won by fewer than 50 votes, and nine wards were decided by a single vote. In elections this close, misleading campaign material does not need to shift thousands of votes to affect the outcome – in some cases, a handful may be enough.
The report examines examples of questionable election advertising, including misleading polling graphics, “can’t win here” tactical-voting messages, and campaign material that gave voters a distorted impression of the real contest in their area. It also sets out why the case for reform is now urgent.
We are calling for new rules to bring transparency and factual accuracy into election advertising, including regulation of misleading factual claims, an independent database of election ads, stronger imprint rules, and protections against deceptive impersonation and deepfake-style material.
Download the full report: After the Vote
