The Conservatives have been censured for an "unlawful" marketing campaign during the 2017 general election.

The party conducted a telephone campaign, purporting to be market research, that was ruled on Monday to have "crossed the line".

It was criticised for using a company that called voters to quiz them on their voting intention - but framed questions in a way to gain support.

This "fell outside the bounds of (legitimate) market research", the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said.

Image: The market research 'crossed the line', the ICO ruled

It ruled: "Two small sections of the written scripts used by those making the calls crossed the line from legitimate market research to unlawful direct marketing.


"The law protects people from this kind of marketing because it can be intrusive.

"As part of our investigation, we studied scripts and call recordings and were satisfied that, in general, the questions reflected a valid market research campaign.

"But we did have concerns about two sections which we believe fell outside the bounds of market research. These paragraphs referenced both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn in relation to policy choices."

The Tories escaped any legal or regulatory action, the ICO said, because "the overall campaign was genuine market research".

It said the two concerning sections were "not enough to trigger formal enforcement action when considered along with the campaign as a whole".

The ICO said it had only given the party a warning and "been clear about what we expect in the future", after Channel 4 News presented it with evidence on allegations of illegality.

A party spokesperson was asked for comment but none was received at the time of publication.