Labour campaign chiefs used the ads to convince Corbyn they were following his plans

Labour officials ran a secret operation to deceive Jeremy Corbyn at the last general election, micro-targeting the leader and his closest aides with Facebook ads to convince them the party was running the campaign they demanded.

Campaign chiefs at Labour HQ decided to hoodwink their own leader because they disapproved of some of Corbyn’s left-wing messages.

They convinced him they were following his campaign plans by spending £5,000 on ads solely designed to be seen by Corbyn, his aides and their favourite journalists, while pouring far more money into ads with a different message for ordinary voters.

The ruse is revealed in a new book — Ctrl Alt Delete: How Politics and the Media Crashed Our Democracy — by Tom Baldwin, who served as Ed