DVLA and NHS sites being used to spread pro-EU propaganda
DRIVERS looking to tax their cars and workers checking their pensions are being directed to online “propaganda” backing EU membership.
NHS sites are directing users to pro-EU propaganda
The Government has placed an innocent looking weblink on several of its official websites.
However, when visitors click on it they are taken to an online version of its controversial £9million pro-EU leaflet.
Dozens of sites, including the Treasury, Department of Health, Department for Work and Pensions, the Ministry of Justice and the DVLA, now carry the link.
This weblink sends users to pro-EU publicity
Last night Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen said: “The Government is determined to use every lever of power to try and affect the result, which is quite clearly undemocratic. The referendum has now become a threeway contest – between Remain, Leave and the Government.”
The Government is determined to use every lever of power to try and affect the result, which is quite clearly undemocratic
The gov.uk websites received 922 million hits last year.
Once a user clinks on the referendum link they are taken to the Government’s own site, which explains: “Why the Government believes we should remain.”
It also features a video backing the Remain case. Brexiteers have long feared they will be outgunned in the debate, not only by the might of the Government but also by the European Commission.
Last night it was revealed that a group of worried MPs has written to EC President Jean Claude Juncker urging him not to fund a propaganda campaign supporting Britain’s continued membership of the EU.
The letter, signed by 26 Eurosceptic MPs, demands urgent assurances about the role the EC intends to play in the UK’s forthcoming referendum.
Dozens of sites, including the Treasury and Department of Health now carry the link
MPs who signed the letter include Labour MP Kate Hoey and Conservative MP Graham Brady, Chairman of the influential backbench 1922 Committee.
Brussels has previously intervened with publicity activities both in a referendum in Croatia in 2012, which saw the country joining the EU after voters backed membership, and in a referendum in Ireland on the Lisbon Treaty back in 2009.