Hunt protests over Johnson's use of data after receiving rival's campaign email to personal address

'Well this is awkward... definitely didn’t sign up to this mailing list,' foreign secretary tweets

Jeremy Hunt has protested over Boris Johnson’s use of Conservative data – after receiving a campaign email to his personal address from his leadership rival.

The message urged Mr Hunt to “join my campaign”, because he had previously backed Mr Johnson by “signing up to receive campaign updates or by volunteering to help”.

“Well this is awkward... definitely didn’t sign up to this mailing list,” the foreign secretary tweeted, posting the text of the email in full.

Earlier, a Hunt supporter, Harriet Baldwin, urged the information commissioner’s office (ICO) to investigate what was dubbed “foul play” in the race for No 10.

According to ICO guidelines, any candidate wishing to send emails, texts or make automated calls “must ensure that they have consent from the individuals to use such marketing channels”.

Ms Baldwin, a foreign office minister, said her email address had received “spam” from the Back Boris campaign, among four examples of apparent breaches of data legislation noted by the Hunt team.

And Ben Howlett, a former MP, has asked the party’s chairman, Brandon Lewis, to launch an inquiry after also receiving allegedly unsolicited requests.

Both suspect that Mr Johnson’s campaign has relied upon old email lists or phone numbers from previous campaigns to ask for support.

David Norris, another MP who is backing Mr Hunt's leadership campaign, told BuzzFeed News: "It’s deeply troubling that foul play may be afoot in this contest.

“I urge the ICO to look into all alleged breaches so that we can be sure the contest is being conducted within the rules.”

Mr Howlett said: “No politician is above the law when it comes to usage of private personal data.

“Brandon Lewis should conduct an urgent investigation into Team Boris’s data compliance prior to ballot papers being sent out.

“I fear there is a clear breach of GDPR [general data protection regulation] law and it is for the official Information Commissioner’s Office to determine.”

But Mr Johnson's campaign has insisted it is compliant with GDPR and the Data Protection Act.

It said calls were only made to those who had given the campaign their contact details and granted permission to use them, as well as Conservative party officials.