There are worries that the move could favour the Tories in particular, given the party’s greater access to financial resources.
Behind in the polls, the Tories are turning desperate in their bid to do all they can to win the next general election.
They have openly engaged in gerrymandering in an attempt to tilt the electoral playing field in their favour, from introducing voter ID requirements that put younger people and minorities at a disadvantage to redrawing constituency boundaries.
And now the worry is that they could be about to bombard your phone with unsolicited texts, picture messages, videos, voicemails and emails. Reported in the Financial Times, proposed amendments to data protection laws, ‘would give the government the ability to exempt political parties from prohibitions on unsolicited direct marketing’.
While all political parties will then have the ability to send such messages, there are worries that the move could favour the Tories in particular, given the party’s greater access to financial resources.
The Tories however insist that they do not have any immediate plans to use such campaign methods for now, with Stephen Bush writing in the FT: “The Conservative government insists that they have no plans to use the powers immediately and that they would, in any case, require a further parliamentary vote to trigger the “switching-off” of the ban on direct marketing. But Labour sees the changes as part of a bigger programme of measures designed to tilt the electoral playing field towards the Tories, from the recent introduction of a requirement to present ID in order to vote to changes to how constituency boundaries are drawn.”
Infamous for their U-turns and failure to stick to their promises, there’s no guarantee the Tories won’t fill your phones up during the next general election with unsolicited texts and messages.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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