What are the consequences for lying to the electorate?

[Saxie007]

What can we do to ensure that the facts given are true? If MPs, special advisors and those on the campaign trail lie and it can be proven to be untrue in a court of law is there some form of redress that the public could take?

I am primarily thinking of the £350M to the NHS claim which was clearly rubbish.

If it was advertising we could fine the company and ban the ad.

We are dealing with liers here. How can we flush them out of our political system to make sure the facts are clear and true in future debates. Politicians have no moral code. They should be ashamed and the good ones are.

Re the £350 million. I have here a leaflet from Vote Leave that clearly states the following. 'We will be able to save £350 million a week. We can spend our money on our priorities like the NHS, schools, and housing'

Best it's all about comprehension skills 'can spend' doesn't mean 'will spend'

www.voteleavetakecontrol.org/leave_ministers_commit_to_maintain_eu_funding

Here is a link to 'the promise' made to deprived areas.

'We will be able to save £350 million a week. We can spend our money on our priorities like the NHS, schools, and housing'

can . Not will. That's the subtle difference they pay the lawyers and spin doctors for

We can spend our money on our priorities like the NHS, schools, and housing

Which is a hell of a lot different from 'We are going to spend £350 million on the NHS', which is what Remain are now claiming.

And again, Farage - who made the ambiguous mistake remark, has no power over what that money is or isn't spent on anyway.

So all these people claiming that they were misleading are themselves being misleading.

It's an absolutely pointless argument because it would never stand up in a court.

If the public votes to leave on 23 June, we will continue to fund EU programmes in the UK until 2020, or up to the date when the EU is due to conclude individual programmes if that is earlier than 2020.

I wonder where they propose to get these millions promised to Cornwall and Wales from? Its certainly going to be interesting.

Sadiq Khan backtracked on his much ballyhooed promise to freeze transport fares. He did it about two weeks after getting elected, but there was never much press about it. It was a stupid promise in the first place.

Sadiq khan lied and he's not been thrown out. He promised that he would ensure no public transport rises and then as soon as he had hus feet under the table "Ah but I didnt say oyster cards, season tickets etc etc" scumbag. It's what politicians do and we are supposed to take them seriously...

OP I complained to the ASAP about an avert that clearly stated "Turkey is joining the EU" as this is, at his moment in time, not true. They answered saying that political adverts fall outside their remit. (they also had the cheek to quote freedom of expression).

So, to answer your question, there are no consequences for lying to the electorate. And there's nothing we can do about it.

I must say I never expected Farage et al to be quite so brazen and admit that they lied so early after the referendum.

1000 jobs gone at Hsbc now...............................

Great minds saturdaysurprise! Oops

That slimey creep Gove also said it .. consequences are .... he could be PM

I know our politicians lie, it's an intellectual game to them. We let them at the moment. What's stopping them?

I think we, the electorate, should demand politicians that are honest & when they are caught out, quickly hold them to account. But can we do anything more than voting them out?
I would like them disbarred from public life, or discredited somehow like a bankrupt can't be a company director, or a doctor loses the ability to practice.

I want to see the result of clearly dishonest actions by professional politicians being their punishment in law and losing the ability to hold a professional role in society.

You are getting a lot of cynical answers here OP but Y absolutely ANBU

How many would you wonder will have changed theyre minds from leave to stay knowing what they know now?????? we need to get people together and hundreds or thousands of people at a park or Wembley or wherever,get it televised and actually bloody stand up and do something for a change!!!!!!!! Anyone fancy organsising something???????

It's the fact Farage was admitting it was bullshit within hours of the result being announced.
Tasteless and brazen. He made fools of so many.

mirime, I am fully aware of how coalition government works, I'm issuing that as an example. I feel for the Lib Dems on it, but they did back track quite spectacularly, coalition or not. I'm sure that Boris et al will use similar excuses to get out of their promises.

If anything the arrogance being spouted by remainers towards those who dared vote leave has made me certain I would vote to leave.

And I totally agree, I think there is a basic degree of integrity that we should expect of our politicians

It is one thing to make a naive /hopeful promise and then realise in the weeks and months that follow that it just can be secured. Quite another to unashamedly admit within hours of a result that your promises (which were painted on the side of a bus) were utter utter bollocks

That's flawed logic mrsglow though.

No jobs have gone at HSBC.

Has anyone from Vote Leave actually refuted the 350M on the NHS? Farage was not part of the official campaign.

OP has mentioned the leave campaign (350 to NHS) specifically yes but no where have I seen them say that the remain campaign have not lied! This is not a leave vs remainers please don't make it that!

shazza why don't you organise something?

There is a demo I think, and there is the petition.
I'm not a believer in either really.

I think we should be able to do something about outrageous promises. Farage can fund his broken promises from his own pockets perhaps.

Tiggy It's being reported on the BBC website that HSBC plans to move 1000 jobs to Paris if the UK leaves the single market.