We are delighted that The Green Party of England and Wales has signed up to Reform Political Advertising and Compassion In Politics’ pledge for the elections on May 5th. We welcome their leadership on the issue of misleading electoral advertising and encourage other parties and candidates standing for election to sign up too.
Ask your council candidate to sign the pledge also using our online tool. It will take you less than a minute.
The pledge is to:
– Campaign with respect, integrity, and compassion.
– Communicate honestly, ensuring that claims made in political adverts are fact-checked, reliable, and traceable.
– To be open and honest about any mistakes, and to seek always to improve the conduct of our politics locally and nationally.
Co-Leader Carla Denyer stated:
“Disinformation damages democracy. Elections shouldn’t be about winning by any means.
We can all think of examples of misleading ads, be it the Brexit campaign bus or the Conservative Party changing their Twitter account to Factcheck UK during the 2019 leaders debate.
In the Green Party we think that political ads, like commercial ads, need to be regulated. The deliberate publication of factually incorrect content to influence a referendum or election should be an offence. Unfortunately, the Government disagrees – rejecting a recommendation from the House of Lords on regulating electoral ads in 2020.
In the current climate, where lies in politics have become so commonplace, we need leadership from all the parties to improve the quality of discourse during the elections, this May and always.
So on behalf of the Green Party of England and Wales I am delighted to sign up to Reform Political Advertising and Compassion In Politics’s pledge for factual accuracy in electoral advertising.
I encourage other parties to sign up to this pledge too.
Let’s lift the standard of debate.”