This week’s government announcement on “Restoring Trust in Our Democracy” includes some welcome proposals. Most notably for us, a strengthening of the imprint regime that will require clearer labelling of who is behind political campaign material.
This is a win for our campaign. It is a topic we have long campaigned for.
Too often, voters have been targeted with leaflets and online ads that masquerade as independent or even from rival parties – content that would never be permitted in commercial advertising. We’ve exposed examples of this ourselves. For example, the tactics by the Conservatives over the last few years to use Green Party branding in their leaflets.
We also campaigned against, and complained about, Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey sending letters to the electorate purporting to be from TFL and City Hall. These misleading tactics erode trust in our political system, and it’s encouraging to see the government finally move to address this.
But while transparency on who is speaking is essential, it is only half the issue. The far greater threat to our democracy in our view is what is being said.
The government’s statement rightly speaks about the need to protect elections from disinformation. Whilst there isn’t a specific mention of electoral advertising content regulation one paragraph stands out.
In section 83, the government signals support for a new code of conduct for campaigning, stating:
“This will have a positive impact on the level of trust the public has in political parties, candidates, and campaigners, with more confidence that campaigns are being conducted with honesty and integrity and are not intentionally attempting to mislead the public.”
That final phrase “not intentionally attempting to mislead the public” is key. It captures the very heart of what we at Reform Political Advertising have long campaigned for: regulation to stop political actors making misleading or false claims in their advertising.
We certainly welcome this apparent openness to a new code of conduct and believe it could offer a valuable route forward. In fact, we already have the beginnings of what such a code could look like for election advertising.
We tested political appetite to sign up to an advertising code during the last mayoral elections. Six London mayoral candidates, including Sadiq Khan, The Green Party and Liberal Democrat candidates signed up to our voluntary ad code. Other current and former politicians that supported the code included Neil Kinnock, Andy Burnham and Tracy Brabin. The will for real “change” on this topic is there we believe. In addition our independent Election Advertising Review Panel chaired by David Puttnam demonstrated how oversight could work in practice.
We will now be seeking to engage with MPs, political parties, and the government directly to make the case that regulating electoral advertising content must form part of this new campaigning code. Any serious attempt to restore trust in democracy must address not just tone and civility, important as those may be, but the factual accuracy of electoral advertising.
Ask a member of the public what erodes their trust in politics, and they’ll point to politicians making misleading claims. Polling we conducted with Opinium around the General Election reinforced very similar results from research we’ve conducted over several years. It found 76% of the UK voting public would “support it being a requirement in the UK that factual claims in election adverts must be accurate?” Only 4% would oppose such a measure. The public is clear: they want honesty, not just transparency.
In today’s fast-moving, digital-first campaign environment, failing to include electoral ad regulation in this bill would be a missed opportunity of historic proportions. The Elections Bill aspires to make campaigning honest, transparent and trustworthy. That won’t be achieved unless we ensure the content of election advertising that amplifies the reach and frequency of campaigns’ messaging is held to the similar basic standards of factual accuracy we already demand of every other form of advertising.
We’re ready to work constructively to ensure this essential reform is included.
