Almost 90% of Tory ads contained misleading claims (Picture: Reuters/Getty/Metro.co.uk)]

Nearly 90% of Facebook ads paid for by the Conservative Party in the first few days of December contained misleading claims, an investigation has found.

First Draft – a non-profit organisation which works on debunking fake news – analysed every ad promoted by the UK’s three main political parties on the social media giant in the first four days of December.

It found 88% of the Conservative’s Facebook campaigning pushed figures challenged by Full Fact, the UK’s leading fact-checking organisation.

By comparison, First Draft said that it could not find any misleading claims in ads run by Labour on Facebook over the same period.

Full Fact plays an independent role in Facebook’s Third Party Fact Checking programme, but this doesn’t currently cover ads or content from political figures or parties.

First Draft accessed the company’s Ad Library to assess the damage caused by exempting political ads from fact-checking in the run up to the December 12 election.

Facebook has refused to fact check ads from political parties or politicians

It said out of 6,749 ads paid for by the Conservatives in a four day period, over 5,000 contained the claim that the party will build ‘40 new hospitals’, either in the caption, image or link.

This figure was branded misleading by Full Fact, as it has not been costed and can’t be delivered within the forthcoming parliamentary session under the Tories current spending plans.

The government have only allocated funding for six hospitals to be upgraded by 2025, while up to 38 more will receive money to develop plans for upgrades between 2025 and 2030, but not to undertake any actual building work.

First Draft also found 500 ads which peddled the widely criticised claim that the Tories will create jobs for 50,000 more nurses if they win the general election.

The promise includes 18,500 existing nurses who the government hopes to persuade to remain in the workforce.

Inaccurate claims about the cost of Jeremy Corbyn’s spending plans to the tax payer featured on over 4,000 Conservative ads pushed at the start of December, while more than 1,000 included misleading claims about NHS investment and income tax.

First Draft said over 5,000 ads contained a claim the Tories are building 40 new hospitals, when Full Fact say in reality they are upgrading six (Picture: First Draft)

Will Moy, Chief Executive of Full Fact, said of the data: ‘This election candidates and campaigns on all sides are asking voters for their trust. Serious parties and politicians should not be recycling debunked claims or targeting individuals with bad information – we all deserve better than that.’

Facebook has come under fire for refusing to fact-check political ads.

CEO Mark Zukerberg says he does not wish to censor politicians by doing so.

Mr Moy said while Facebook has a responsibility for what happens on its platform, it should not be left to US companies to safeguard UK elections

He said: ‘Our election laws are decades out of date, and our next Parliament should take urgent steps to secure the transparency we need to protect future votes.’

The 2019 general election campaign has been branded the ‘dirtiest on record’ for the spread of lies and misinformation being ‘sanctioned from the top’.

A fake labour manifesto created by the Tories. The 2019 General Election campaign has been branded the dirtiest on record

The Liberal Democrats have also been accused of misleading voters ahead of polling day, by using inaccurate polling data and leaflets masquerading as local newspapers.

First Draft said at least 16.5% of the Lib Dems ads since the election campaign began feature claims they are the only party to beat Labour, the Conservatives or the SNP ‘in seats like yours’.

It said it has not been able to find misleading claims in Facebook adverts from the Labour Party, which has promoted far fewer ads than the Conservatives or Liberal Democrats.

However, one candidate claimed the average family would save £6,700 under Labour policies to promote herself – a figure branded ‘not credible’ by Full Fact.

The Lib Dems were also caught up in a fake newspaper scam

According to the BBC at least £2m has been spent on Facebook and Instagram over the last 30 days, and an advertising blitz is expected over the last 48 hours of campaigning.

Campaign group The Coalition for Reform in Political Advertising is calling for fact-checking of political ads to be a legal requirement after what it described as a ‘fake news and disinformation general election’.

They said at least 31 campaigns from across the four main political parties have been indecent, dishonest or untruthful.

According to their research, the most came from the Lib Dems, followed by the Conservatives, the Brexit Party then Labour.

Last week more than 20 democracy organisations said electoral reform was needed to address a ‘crisis in British democracy’ over the spread of misinformation.

The Conservative Party have been contacted for comment.