Make it a criminal offence for candidates to knowingly lie in election campaigns

The well documented “£350 million per week” claims during the EU referendum campaign was accompanied by claims of mass waves of migration following Turkey’s imminent membership of the EU. These claims could have influenced many voters, yet neither was true.

At a local level claims were recently made that the merger of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole councils was the direct result of an EU directive. Despite the claim being untrue, nothing could be done to force its deletion from campaign literature.