SNP accused of 'misleading' online campaign

Although the site has no SNP imprint voters who enter their postcode are encouraged to send messages of congratulations to their local MP if they live in an SNP held constituency

The Scottish National Party (SNP) is being accused of a “deliberately misleading” online operation to persuade voters that only their MPs oppose the planned cuts to Universal Credit.

Scottish Lib Dems have called out the nationalists on a “Reject the Crunch” website which encourages voters to take action against chancellor Rishi Sunak’s planned £20-a-week cut to the benefit.

Although the site has no SNP imprint or badging voters who enter their postcode are encouraged to send messages of congratulations to their local MP if they live in an SNP held constituency.

Voters in seats held by other parties, including Lib Dems and Labour who also oppose the cut, are urged to publicly send tweets to their MPs to oppose the move.

Wendy Chamberlain, the Lib Dem MP for North East Fife said the website looked like a deliberate attempt to mislead voters.

Chamberlain, the Lib Dem Scottish spokeswoman in the Commons, said: This website not only appears to credit these cross party efforts to the SNP alone but also to use these devastating cuts as opportunity to invite constituents to thank SNP MPs.

This is at best disingenuous and in poor taste at best but at worst looks like a deliberate attempt to mislead constituents on what their MPs are doing and where they stand on this issue, she said.

But David Linden MP, the SNP Work and Pensions spokesman, said it was the Lib Dems who should be apologising.

He said: After a decade of Tory-Lib Dem austerity cuts, the UK has the worst levels of poverty and inequality in north west Europe and millions of families are struggling to get by. Instead of attacking others, the Lib Dems should be apologising for helping the Tories impose cuts.

He said: The SNP will continue to lead the campaign for a U-turn on Tory plans to slash Universal Credit by £1040 a year, which will send levels of poverty soaring and wipe out the benefits of progressive SNP policies like the Scottish Child Payment.