Message from editor backs David Cameron’s government and tells readers to oppose the most ‘leftwing Labour leader for a generation’

The Telegraph has taken its support for the Conservatives a step further by using its marketing database to urge people to vote Conservative via email, in what the newspaper’s editor Chris Evans describes as an “unprecedented step”.

Some recipients turned to Twitter to express their surprise, saying they had only signed up to the newspaper’s technology and finance emails. Others complained they had not handed over their email address to receive political messages from the newspaper.

The missive, sent to people who had “agreed to receive marketing messages by email from Telegraph Media Group”, is signed by Evans and includes links to the newspaper’s election day leader article, other political coverage and an offer for a free 45-day digital subscription.

Ukip runs double-page Daily Telegraph ad as paper prints front-page attack Read more

Responses on Twitter were mixed..

Harriet Smart (@harrietlcsmart) Eew how have you got my email address @Telegraph - I'm not a 'reader' of yours pic.twitter.com/TsSextE7oJ

Anna H (@fohoboo) Received the Telegraph email urging me to vote Tory (er...no) how did they get my email address? Never read their rag, who sold my address?

rach (@rachel_h) So I once signed up to the Telegraph wkly Tech Roundup, so I've received the paper's VOTE TORY begging email.

Kevin Satizabal (@Kevinsatizabal) Subscribed to Telegraph Financial newsletter, but wake up to an email saying: "the Telegraph urges its readers to vote Conservative quote

The email was sent hours before the newspaper published a front page urging readers to vote Conservative rather than Ukip under the headline “Don’t do something you’ll regret”.



Stating that Thursday’s election is the most important since 1979, when Labour prime minister Jim Callaghan lost to Margaret Thatcher, the email reads: “Do we continue under the Conservatives with the open, enterprise-led economic approach that has underpinned our prosperity for nearly 40 years? Or do we revert to an old-style, ‘government-knows-best’ culture championed by the most leftwing Labour leader for a generation?”

It also says debates about a hung parliament and an SNP “surge” are a “distraction” from a straight choice between David Cameron or Ed Miliband as prime minister.

It concludes: “The Daily Telegraph urges its readers to vote Conservative.”