Conservative Party Blitzes Facebook with Hundreds of ‘Desperate’ Campaign Adverts Falsely Claiming Labour Plans to Hit Drivers With a ‘National ULEZ’

The Conservative Party has been accused of pushing “desperate” lies about its opponents, after it paid for hundreds of targeted Facebook adverts falsely warning drivers that the Labour Party has committed to rolling out national road charging.

It comes as the party was also accused of trying to “mislead” voters, after it rebranded one of its social media organisations as an independent fact-checking group.

The new video adverts, which have been individualised to target areas around the country, wrongly claim that “Labour’s national ULEZ” is “coming to a road near you this July”.

Newspaper clippings about London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s ultra low emission zone are placed along messages asking “Do you want this in [the name of individual constituency]?

In reality Labour has repeatedly ruled out imposing national road charging, while Keir Starmer has attracted criticism within his own party for urging Khan to reconsider his scheme in London.

By contrast, national road pricing was actively considered by Rishi Sunak while he was Chancellor, according to the Daily Mail, which reported that he was “very interested” in imposing national charges.

A Labour source described the Conservatives’ latest ad blitz to this paper as “desperate flailing nonsense”.

The tactic mirrors that used by the party during its recent campaign against Sadiq Khan in London, when it sent out leaflets across the city which were designed to look like fake “driving charge” notices.

The leaflets contained the text “DRIVING CHARGE NOTICE. DO NOT IGNORE. WARNING. THE MAYOR OF LONDON IS PLANNING ANOTHER TAX ON DRIVERS. IF YOUR’RE NOT PREPARED TO PAY THEN SCAN THE QR CODE BELOW”.

Anyone scanning the code was then taken to a website requesting they fill out a “petition” against the new “tax”, which then collected their data.

The leaflets prompted an investigation by the Information Commissioners over allegations that they were an attempt to trick voters into handing over their data.

The Conservative Party’s Campaign Against Sadiq Khan is Based on a ‘Barefaced Lie’ Which is Designed to Harvest Voters’ Data

Susan Hall is plastering London with leaflets falsely claiming voters are about to be hit by a new charge to drive their cars

Adam Bienkov

Khan has continued to be a target for the Conservative party during this campaign, despite their defeat to him in last month’s mayoral election and despite the fact that he is not standing in these elections.

Other recent adverts sent out by the party in London feature a picture of the London mayor alongside a message claiming that if Labour wins every seat in the capital (as some election forecasts suggest could happen) “we’ll be left with no voice”.

The Conservative party’s latest campaign ads come as their press office attempted to rebrand itself as an independent factchecking organisation, during last night’s BBC leaders debate.

The CCHQ Press Twitter account was renamed “Tax Check UK” and used to spread unsubstantiated claims that Labour plans to “raise your taxes by £2,094” and impose a “Retirement tax”.

The account was later hit with a “community note” by users highlighting the deception.

The move mirrors a similar attempt by the party in 2019 to rebrand their press account as an independent “FactCheckUK” account.

At the time independent fact checkers Full Fact described the tactic as “inappropriate and misleading” and urged voters to “please.. not mistake it for an independent fact checking service.”

Responding to the latest rebranding, the organisation’s Chief Executive Chris Morris told this paper: “Conservative HQ’s decision to rebrand its social media feed in a way that could mislead people is unnecessary. Voters deserve better. “