The Conservative party accused of misrepresentation

The Tories have been attacked for misrepresenting one of their official Twitter accounts as a fact-checking service.

The Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) press office renamed its account “factcheckUK” during yesterday’s televised debate between Prime Minister, Boris Johnson and Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

The account was then used to tweet in favour of Johnson, all the while pretending to be a neutral fact-checking service.

Labour party MP for the Tottenham constituency, David Lammy, has called on the Electoral Commission to investigate the misrepresentation, claiming it shows “what disdain this party and this government has for the truth”.

For its part, the Electoral Commission has said that voters are “entitled to transparency and integrity” from political parties in the run-up to the general election on December 12.

The misstep by CCHQ is being widely interpreted as a blow to the Tories as they struggle to keep momentum in the middle of a general election campaign.

Not surprisingly, the Labour party’s Shadow International Trade Secretary, Barry Gardiner, tried to fully capitalise on the Tories’ social media over-reach.

“People are now asking can we trust this man at all, can we trust him as Prime Minister?” Gardiner quipped.