Petition · past parliament
Make materially misleading statements in campaign material a criminal offence
Rejected
19 signatures
What the petition asks
Democratic decisions must be as well informed as possible and our laws need to support and reinforce an environment where good, healthy, free debate exists. Those wishing to participate in debate are likely to be informed by and rely upon campaign material and therefore this material should be true.
The standard of UK, and indeed global, politics is changing for the worse and the political arena of discussion needs to structurally change. Democracy at its heart debates the issues and holds governments to account. For democratic debate to flourish and be effective, it needs to be underpinned by laypeople being able to trust in the information contained in opposing campaign material being held to a standard of at least being factually correct, if nevertheless different in interpretation.
Why it was rejected
There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.
Timeline
| 25 Jun 2016 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 8 Jul 2016 | Rejected by the Petitions Committee |
Key facts
Signatures
19
Status
Rejected
Rejected
8 Jul 2016
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.