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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Claudia Cockerell

Is the Conservatives' election campaign running out of steam?

Are CCHQ getting a little tired? Cracks are emerging in their once relatively slick online operation. As well as a host of misfired emails, hare-brained ad campaigns and now-deleted tweets, many of the most important pages on the Conservatives’ website aren’t working.

The Google search results for anyone hoping to join the Conservative party, donate to the campaign, sign up to their mailing list or see the achievements so far from Sunak’s famous plan all lead to 404 pages with a big red piggy bank. ‘£2,094’ is written in big letters, a reference to the disputed claim that Labour would raise taxes by as much for the average household.

Convincing: ‘We can find you the page your are looking for’. The error page on the Tories’ website (conservatives.com)

As if that wasn’t convincing enough, some text below reads “We can find you the page your [sic] are looking for,” with a link to their manifesto (which does actually work, to be fair). 

The Conservative manifesto was launched by Rishi Sunak yesterday in Silverstone. “Clear Plan. Bold Action,” was how the PM described it on X. This statement was undercut slightly by the fact that it read “Content is not available” on the link below. 

Clear Plan? Rishi Sunak’s manifesto launch (Rishi Sunak / X)

Meanwhile, CCHQ sent out an email inviting members to do telephone canvassing with “special guest Lord William Hauge [sic]” at the CCHQ offices. As well as misspelling William Hague’s name three times in the email, they also wrote their address wrong. Pity any loyal Tory volunteer who sought out “Matther [sic] Parker Street”.

A Tory attack ad suggesting the party could come third (Conservatives / Meta)

Luckily, their advertising campaign is going swimmingly. The Conservatives recently posted a double pronged attack ad against Labour and Reform. “Reform can’t win any seats. But they can help Keir Starmer win,” the copy read. They also shared a handy graph predicting the vote share, which forecasts the Conservatives coming in third place, with four seats less than the Lib Dems. An interesting campaign tactic, if nothing else.

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