The BBC tonight demanded that the Conservative Party take down ‘completely unacceptable’ Facebook advertisements featuring its political editor Laura Kuenssberg, claiming they ‘could damage perceptions of impartiality’.
The broadcaster slammed the Tories for using and manipulating footage in such a way that the presenters look to be arguing for people to vote for Boris Johnson’s party.
The adverts also included News at Ten host Huw Edwards, with their voices played over chaotic debates about Brexit.
The BBC said: ‘This is a completely unacceptable use of BBC content which distorts our output and which could damage perceptions of our impartiality.
‘We are asking the Conservatives to remove these adverts.’
The Conservative Party used BBC footage of Laura Kuenssberg (pictured above)
One clip begins with Kuenssberg, who has previously been accused by Labour supporters of bias towards the Tories, saying the words ‘a pointless delay to Brexit’.
However, the clip is taken from an archive news package from September when Boris Johnson rejected a further delay to Article 50.
The clip then jumps to Huw Edwards who says there would be ‘another Brexit delay’, his appearance is followed by footage of opposition leaders.
The BBC demanded that the Conservatives take the footage down from its Facebook page
They also used footage features News at Ten host Huw Edwards (pictured above)
It comes as distrust continues to mount for the Conservative party following its previous social media stunts.
Last week it re-branded its media Twitter account as a fact checker.
On November 19 the Tory press office was warned by Twitter that they face ‘decisive corrective action’ if they repeat a name-change stunt they pulled during the ITV election debate.
The Conservative Party press office changed their Twitter handle to FactCheckUK ahead of the debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn
The party re branded the Twitter feed for several hours, changing the name from CCHQPress to FactCheckUK during the debate.
The action was heavily criticised as the re branded account could have fooled potential voters that the messages praising Boris Johnson could have been coming from an independent fact checking organisation, rather than the Conservative Party.
The microblogging site warned the Conservative Party about their actions which were in breach of the company’s terms and conditions.
In a statement, the Conservative Party said: ‘This video uses contemporary news footage to remind voters of the deadlock and delay of the last three years caused by a broken Parliament that did everything it could to block Brexit.
‘Viewers can judge for themselves but it is clear the footage was not edited in a manner that misleads or changes the reporting.’
