Campaign for No-Lie Elections

Problem

In the UK we have too many  politicians making significant, false claims, particularly during election campaigns. Recent examples are  Jeremy Corbyn's claim that higher tuition fees have meant fewer students from working class communities going to university and Boris Johnson reviving the discredited claim of 350 million pounds per week saving from Brexit going on the NHS.

False and misleading claims undermine the democratic process they give voters unrealistic expectations of what is achievable - for example see the comment all countries need real-time election regulators in the Financial Times.

Solution

Require the UK government to pass legislation so that the UK's independent electoral commission has a duty to review all statements from the official campaigns; use the same test of whether they are misleading as is used by the Advertising Standards Authority and, for any statements which are judged to misleading, ensure a prompt and well publicised retraction.
Such Legislation to be ion place before the next election and no later than 11th November 2018.

Three Step Legislation

For any election campaign in the UK (General Election, Local Election, By-election, Mayoral Elections Referendum ... whatever):

1. During the campaign, all adverting, election messages or other communications are to be submitted to the Electoral Commission no later than 1hour after being first sent out.
2. The Electoral Commission is to check whether any statement in those communications is misleading, using the same criteria as the Advertising Standards Authority. Those communications are to be made publicly available via a website managed by the Electoral Commission.
3. In the event that any statement is found to be misleading (or simply false) the Electoral Commission will specify how the offending campaign body is to publicise that the statement has been found to be misleading (or false). Typically this will be an equally widely distributed communication, sent by the campaign body at their expense and worded by the Electoral Commission.

How Will This Help And Why Is It Practical

If politicians know that any misleading claim will have to be publicly withdrawn and the wording of that retraction will be defined by an independent body, they will get a judgement in advance before issuing each statement. No doubt, the statements made will be as close to misleading as possible, without incurring any sanction. The effect will be better political campaigning than we have now.
It is likely our politicians will try to dismiss the campaign saying:

• it's a great idea in theory, but not practical or
• we'd love to do it, but there isn't time in the parliamentary calendar.

There's a simple answer to each of those:

Practicality

The proposals rely an existing body (the UK Electoral Commission) which already oversees spending during election campaigns and an existing test of whether claims are misleading.
Legislative Timetable
When the UK government lost its case in the supreme court on whether parliament was needed to pass legislation to trigger article 50, an suitable slot in the parliamentary calendar was found immediately. These proposals are far simpler than Brexit.

Other Examples of False or Misleading Communications

The following examples are potentially misleading and would need review under the proposed legislation:

• David Cameron's claim that the UK leaving the EU would risk the peace and stability of Europe.
• ...
  

This Campaign

This campaign is to demonstrate to the Government large scale public support for the proposed legislation. To have it enacted by 11th November 2018.

How You Can Help