Political letter from my gp telling who to vote for

Terrible, I thought I had a letter from a reform candidate telling me to vote Tory instead of them (not that they were an option) and in the small print says promotion by the Tory candidate. I would normally vote Tory but not this time after such a misleading letter.

Makes me want to vote the opposite way when people keep telling you, who to vote. Why don't people mind their own business

Prove it's a breach of GDPR. The thread has already identified legitimate sources of this data and legally acceptable reasons for doing it.

Why is it that 99% of the time on MN when someone's spouting off about GDPR they have absolutely no idea what that means or what the regulations and guideline prohibit and allow?

The gp may be a member of a local party, and has written a letter in his own name as a supporter, the party have then mailed this to the address list which they can access. Its not likely to be anything untoward.

GP? What’s one of those? The ones in my area have been MIA for the last 4 years!!! I literally haven’t been able to get an appointment for years so I would be mightily pissed off if they sent me a letter like this.

I'm sorry, this is a terrible take. Of course medical professionals are allowed to express their political views in public. Politics isn't a dirty word, it's how we participate in our society. We have a secret ballot so we have no need whatsoever to vote how anyone tells us to whatever perceived power they have.

If it is a formal election communication it will say so somewhere on the letter "Published by ..." I think this is the most likely scenario.

You know there have been several MPs that are GPs?
Why should they not be allowed to stand for public office?

It's probably an election communication from the party and they have obtained an endorsement from a local GP (which they've agreed to be used publicly) and it happens to be your GP.

The Lib Dems have been doing this in my area, and approached a GP friend of mine and he refused to do it!

Why would they risk major legal strife by breaking GDPR (which superceded the Data Protection Act) by using their own records, when they can get the information perfectly legally via the electoral roll?

I've got letters from local GP in the post too. Not registered with them (multiple GPs in the area). Just a party member/electoral roll thing.

I really hate the term Karen but this thread …

No, the NHS is in a mess for a variety of reasons - and I wouldn’t be listening to a GP telling me who I should vote for. I’d complain.

How many times a month do you complain on average?

I will be voting for the party that instructs the GPs to actually see their patients!!

I think that's out of order and would complain. My former union used to do that do I changed to another one!

Local party agent - Right we need someone to write to local residents about appalling state of NHS and endorse our candidate ... needs to be someone they'll respect and who has knowledge about NHS...

Consults membership list... aha Dr. Bloggs local GP excellent just drop him an email to ask if we can draft something for him to put his name to..

Great he said yes, write letter get him to check it over... time for a mail merge and envelope stuffing session... Off it all goes to the sorting office..... NHS... TICK

Next... education... hmmm ... consults membership list - aha... Ms. Jones is a teacher.....

And so it goes on. I very much doubt that your GP is going through the surgery records and writing you all letters...

It's not perfectly legitimate action! It's a beach of the data protection act. And it's not up to OP to prove where they got her details from, because that is impossible for her to know. It's completely within her rights to register a complaint so that it can be investigated. Stop acting like you wrote the data protection act and know everything when you clearly have no idea.

A GP in my area is standing for election for one of the big parties. I wonder if it’s them?

It is totally unreasonable. It is not in the remit of a GP or school to try and influence how people vote.

And obviously it’s from the electoral roll on behalf of the party, not scraped from the practice’s patient list.

Why?

Anyone can access the electoral roll.

If you haven’t opted out via your annual voter registration form, then your details will appear on the marketing version of the electoral roll, which is bought by companies all over the place to access details for marketing purposes.

If you have opted out, your details still have to appear by law on the full version of the roll, held by your local election authority. This can be inspected in person. I have used this before now to find people at addresses I need to reach for work - all fully legitimately.

No GP is using patient records to send out mail shots in support of political parties. Either they have put together a mailing list via the electoral roll, or much more likely, they have given their support to one of the parties who are using them as part of one of their mail shots. Each party is entitled to one free one, all using names and addresses taken from the full electoral roll.

Not all medics think the same. I know many who think the NHS in its current form should be killed off ASAP. As a group, they vote for all parties. As individuals, they should not be making their preferences public.

The school I work at sent out an email before brexit basically telling everyone to vote remain, it went out to all staff and a letter went out to parents as well. This isn’t anything new, it might not be commonly done but it’s not illegal or breaking any rules. It’s basically just a form of campaigning, you don’t have to listen to it.