The Conservatives targeted voters in the country’s most marginal seats with tailored Facebook and Instagram advertisements featuring warnings about how a Labour government would increase the cost of petrol and heating and hike inheritance tax.
A Telegraph audit of the Tories’ digital offensive reveals a highly targeted operation aimed at key seats the party was attending to defend, and those it hoped to gain from Labour.
A final Facebook assault launched last weekend included advertisements warning that Labour’s plans would put petrol up by 16p, heating bills up by £65 and cost households over £325,000 in inheritance tax. […]
The Conservatives also spent significant amounts on targeting videos at traditional Labour voters in an attempt to persuade them to overcome their allegiances.
One, which the Tories paid £10,000 to target at one million Facebook users, showed a BBC clip of a life-long Labour voter in the Black Country saying the party had “fallen apart” under Jeremy Corbyn and he was voting for Boris Johnson as he “liked what he was trying to do.”
Adverts warned Labour’s plans would put petrol up by 16p
The advertisements ran alongside those carrying the Conservatives’ national messages of “ending the uncertainty” and “getting Brexit done”.
From Tuesday, the Tories targeted advertisements at Conservative-held marginals with two key messages: First, that Mr Corybn was ‘12 seats away’ from becoming Prime Minister with the help of Nicola Sturgeon and Jo Swinson, and second that the Conservatives only needed “nine more seats” for a majority to “get Brexit done”.
Among the seats targeted were Iain Duncan Smith’s Chingford and Woodford Green seat, which had just 2,400 votes separating him from Labour, and Calder Valley, which the Tories held by only 609 votes.
The Tories warned heating bills would go up by £65 under Labour.