Rishi Sunak called out for 'data harvesting' in the sneakiest of ways

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been called out for “data harvesting” by stealth in a recent social media post.

2024 is an important year for the Conservatives as a general election is expected to take place “in the second half of this year”. With the party’s reputation arguably in tatters thanks to numerous scandals, Sunak is on a mission to bolster votes in any way he can.

In one post on X/Twitter, Sunak pointed to the lowering of the National Insurance tax rate as a way that he is helping “working people”, despite experts arguing that a large proportion of workers will see this saving “offset by the tax rise that is effectively coming in April” when personal tax thresholds are frozen.

As part of his X/Twitter thread, Sunak posted a link and urged people to use the online form to “calculate your savings from our tax cut”.

But, the post was plastered with a community note which informed people that filling out the online form the link sends you to “will sign you up to the Conservative Party mailing list”.

The website's privacy notice said: “By completing this survey, you are giving us information about your thoughts on the Autumn Statement.

“If you also tick the box to consent to us staying in touch, we will also use your data to stay in touch, and to inform the Conservative Party's broader campaigning efforts.”

One person commented: “Nothing to see here, just our Prime Minister harvesting data. I was under the impression that this was illegal, but that can't be right, because he's always on the right side of the law... If you forget about his Covid Parties, the Rwamda scheme, etc.”

Another said: “This is crookery at the highest level, are you not ashamed Rishi?”

“2024 is 7 days old and our Cretin-in-Chief, or rather his team who manage this account on his behalf, are running a phishing scam. The Tories are the drip tray of British politics; a sneering bunch of mendacious, self-obsessed narcissistic mouth breathers,” someone else wrote.

Comedian Nish Kumar simply said: “Incredible.”

Sunak’s post is one of several, since the start of the year, that has been hit with a community note, leading to accusations that the PM is deliberately misleading the public.

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