Calls made on behalf of political parties
23 June 2017

Channel 4 News has conducted an investigation into calls made on behalf of the political parties in the run up to the general election.

The report suggests that a third party call centre acting for one of the main parties misled members of the public by claiming to be from an ‘independent market research company’, cold calling prohibited numbers and undertaking paid canvassing on behalf of the Party. If verified, these activities would be in clear contravention of the MRS Code of Conduct. Concerns have been raised by MRS directly with a number of political parties in relation to similar practices in the past.

We will be writing to the Party in question in due course to inform them that if these actions are verified, then they would potentially be in breach of our Code of Conduct and that we would then be obliged to refer the issue to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

MRS has also responded by issuing a reminder to members about the Code of Conduct assurances.