Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Conservatives have set up a website that purports to contain Labour’s manifesto, in a bid to trick voters looking for the document.
The governing party paid Google to promote the website labourmanifesto.co.uk towards the top of its results for people searching for the opposition plan.
It is the latest underhand tactic to have been employed by the Tories, who were earlier this week accused of running an authoritarian-style disinformation campaign to confuse voters about opposition plans.
The party was branded “dystopian” by senior EU politicians after it set up a fake fact-checking service that was actually broadcasting messages from the Tory press office to unsuspecting voters.
Other than having the domain name “labourmanifesto.co.uk”, the new website features a picture of Jeremy Corbyn at the top and the headline “Labour’s 2019 manifesto”.
Once users are on the page, it notes in smaller writing further down that it is “a website by the Conservative party”. The page then launches into Tory talking points and PR messages instead of the party’s actual manifesto, which was released on Thursday.
Labour’s manifesto includes a windfall tax on oil companies to fund an overhaul of the economy, a pledge to build 100,000 council homes a year, plans for a "final say" referendum on Brexit, and extra cash for the NHS.
The opposition says it will not raise income tax for taxpayers earning under £85,000 a year, representing 90 per cent of taxpayers – though businesses and the wealthy will be asked to pay more through a rise in corporation tax and a new tax on second homes.
The real Labour manifesto can be found here.
The Tories have been strongly criticised throughout the campaign for pumping out fake news and disinformation. Last month the party doctored a video of the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, to misrepresent the party’s policy: a second referendum with a choice between Remain and a soft Brexit.
During the first general-election debate on Tuesday night, the Tory press office's Twitter account was rebranded “factcheckUK” and removed any obvious mention of the party. It then tweeted endorsements of Boris Johnson.
Bona fide fact-checking organisations condemned the move as “inappropriate”, while Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s Brexit coordinator, said the move was “dystopian” and beyond what even the far-right regimes of eastern Europe might try.
A Conservative Party spokesman said the party "makes no apologies for highlighting what Jeremy Corbyn has made clear himself time and time again", adding that he "doesn’t have a plan for Brexit and that without that, he has no credibility on anything else".
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments