Petition · past parliament
Tighten rules on political advertising
Rejected
21 signatures
What the petition asks
Political advertising is currently not held to the standards of truthfulness, decency or honesty required in commercial advertising. We apply far stricter rules when selling a toaster, than when selling the electorate a manifesto. We require the same high standards for all advertising.
True democracy can only stem from an informed populace, and misinformation undermines this principle.
The most obvious example of this recently comes from the EU referendum, where the Leave campaign repeatedly claimed that we spend £350m per week on the EU.
This figure was robustly shown to be untrue early on in the campaign, but continued to feature prominently on advertising throughout. The ASA was unable to act on inaccurate information due to the exemptions on political advertising.
The most obvious example of this recently comes from the EU referendum, where the Leave campaign repeatedly claimed that we spend £350m per week on the EU.
This figure was robustly shown to be untrue early on in the campaign, but continued to feature prominently on advertising throughout. The ASA was unable to act on inaccurate information due to the exemptions on political advertising.
Why it was rejected
There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.
Timeline
| 24 Jun 2016 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 8 Jul 2016 | Rejected by the Petitions Committee |
Key facts
Signatures
21
Status
Rejected
Rejected
8 Jul 2016
Follow this petition
Sign in to get an email when the government responds, a debate is scheduled or held, or the petition closes.
Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.