Beware the skulduggery as knives are out on election trail
Will Hayward takes a look at the election tactics that parties are exploiting to trick voters
POLITICAL parties are using seemingly non-political Facebook groups to attack rival parties.
On the back of the 2016 EU vote and Donald Trump’s election, the battle for political hearts and minds has increasingly moved online.
Even in Barack Obama’s first election win, controlling the online narrative was essential.
In this election campaign there have already been accusations of unethical activity.
Last week the Conservatives bought a website called “labourmanifesto.co.uk” and used it to attack Labour on the day of their manifesto launch.
The Tories were also heavily criticised for changing their press office account to “factcheck UK” with people accusing it of deliberately misleading the electorate that it was an independent fact-checker.
An investigation by the Western Mail has revealed that this is not the only time the Conservatives have employed questionable tactics.
People in Wales may have noticed a group popping up on their Facebook news feed called Working4UK. The group contains exclusively antiLabour/Corbyn posts.
It claims to have been formed to give “a voice to British business and raise awareness of the risks of anticapitalism”.
It also claims “we are a non-profit, non-partisan grassroots campaign and need your support”.
The Western Mail has investigated the group and found that it may not be all it appears.
So who runs the group?
The Working4UK website said it was founded by Suraj Sharma. He said that he is a “firm believer in freedom and enterprise and am fearful of the consequences of what a far left, anti-capitalist Corbyn government will bring”.
He describes himself as the “MD of a vertically integrated developer and operator of Build to Rent assets” and “has a tech and real estate background, having previously founded a B2B e-commerce platform and as CEO of a high-end residential developer”.
Fair enough, right? A non-profit, non-partisan grassroots campaign led by a businessman to put the views of businesses forward.
Well, there is a problem, both with the phrases “non-profit” and “nonpartisan”.
Buried at the bottom of the page is the line “Suraj is also a councillor of Chislehurst in the London Borough of Bromley”.
It turns out that the head of this “non-partisan” group is in fact a Conservative councillor and the vice-chairman, renewal, recreation and housing policy development and scrutiny committee at Bromley Council. He is also listed on the Conservative Party website for the area.
Yet there is no mention at all of any party affiliation on either the Facebook page or the website.
When the Western Mail approached Mr Sharma he said that his role in the Conservatives had nothing to do with him starting the page.
“Being a councillor is very much a part-time role, I am professional in real estate,” he said.
“I am petrified about what will happen if Jeremy Corbyn comes into power.”
Mr Sharma then said he had started it with other people in real estate from “different parties” despite none of them being listed on any of the websites or Facebook pages associated with Working4UK.
When asked who these other people were he would only say: “There are other people involved from other parties. I don’t want to say what parties they are from.”
When pressed, he said he didn’t think it was misleading to claim it was “non-partisan”.
He said: “I don’t think it is misleading. If people want to see what party I am from it is only a click away [on Google], I have an unusual name.”
The Western Mail put to Mr Sharma that it may be appropriate to add his political affiliation to the pages. He said: “I could do that, I have no gripes about that at all.”
He has not yet made any changes. Not for profit?
It would seem that the non-profit claim may have some question marks around it.
According to Companies House Working 4 UK Limited was incorporated on October 31 and is in fact a company, not a charity or a company limited by guarantee. It also confirms that Mr Sharma is the sole director.
Yet on the website there is actually a donations page claiming that they “need your support”.
When asked about the non-profit nature of the company Mr Sharma confirmed that the donations would be going into his bank account. He also said it would all go back into the campaign.
“I put in the seed money myself,” he added, though he refused to confirm how many donations had been made or how much money had been spent on the campaign.
Is this allowed?
Political parties have rules about how much money they can spend in elections.
However, groups not affiliated to the parties are not included in this spending – they are known as “nonparty campaigners”.
There are rules about what these campaigners have to register and they only have to register with the Electoral Commission if they spend over a certain amount of money (£20,000 in England, £10,000 in Wales).
If the regulated spending goes over one of the thresholds, then rules apply on spending, donations and reporting, and they must register. It is an offence to spend more than the threshold without being registered first.
However, if spending remains under that amount then they do not have to register with the Electoral Commision.
Regarding the donations, there are some similarities between parties and “non-party campaigners”.
Like political parties, registered non-party campaigners can only accept donations of over £500 given for regulated activity if they are from a permissible source. They must report any donations that total over £7,500 to the Electoral Commission.
Mr Sharma would not comment on whether any of his donations was over the threshold.
The Conservative Party refused to comment when approached.