Ministers have been accused of using more than £100,000 of public money to flood local newspapers and Facebook with “Tory propaganda”, with just weeks to go before the local elections. Facebook adverts paid for by the UK government in the past week are promoting levelling up spending in more than 30 areas, including many places where the Conservatives are hoping to make gains or defend council seats in May.
It has also used taxpayer cash to pay for wrap-around adverts to cover the front page of local newspapers, boasting of “levelling up” across a map of the UK with the union flag. Places targeted include tight council areas such as Southend, Great Yarmouth, Derby, Wolverhampton and Walsall as well as general election marginals such as Darlington, Blyth Valley and Stoke-on-Trent. For example, in Southend, where the council is currently in no overall control with 23 Tories, 13 Labour and 14 other parties, the Facebook advert says: “Levelling up means: a £12m institute of tech to develop the skills of the future in Southend.” It is targeted at more than 1 million people and has had 400,000 to 450,000 page impressions, according to the Facebook ad library. There are also reports of radio adverts and even digital billboards in town centres. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities refused to say how much was being spent on the advertising campaign, saying it was ongoing and would be published in future, but the cost is likely to be far higher in total than the £100,000 spent on Facebook ads alone.
The government has launched the spending campaign just before the official “purdah” period that prevents it from making public announcements or running campaigns, leading to accusations that it is using public money for political purposes. The ads have infuriated Labour MPs, but they have little power to do anything about it because of a lack of regulation around election advertising. However, some have considered whether to put in complaints to the National Audit Office about the use of public money. Lisa Nandy, the shadow levelling up secretary, said: “There are serious questions to answer when ministers who can’t find any new funding for their flagship levelling up policy can suddenly find bags of public money for Conservative propaganda ahead of the local elections.
“No wonder the much-trailed plans were met with such disappointment. This is now a government so lacking in ambition that it literally has to pay people to promote its flagship policies.” A Conservative source said the claims were “yet more nonsense from a Labour party that has no plan for Britain, and admitted they had run out of money last time they were in office”. A government spokesperson added: “These claims are untrue. Our levelling up campaign is running across the UK with areas chosen to portray real-life examples of levelling up already happening in towns and cities across the country, backed by more than £5bn in funding. “Our landmark levelling up white paper sets out a blueprint for how we will reverse this country’s geographical inequalities, spread opportunity and transform communities throughout the whole country.”