unicornnews: Tories hit out at lobbying spam

There has been much chatter in the lobbying community in the last fortnight about an email sent by communications agency Luther Pendragon to every Conservative MP and parliamentary candidate on behalf of the Association Of Home Information Pack Providers.

The email, which came from a Luther Pendragon address, was very critical of Tory policy towards Home Information Packs, which the party says it will scrap if it forms the next government later this year. The email called the policy “irrational and regressive” and accused the Conservative frontbench of having ignored “many voices and reams of evidence” on the issue.

Strangely, the email was also sent to the Tory policy makers and frontbenchers it openly lambasted. It also personally thanked each recipient for their previous responses on the issue, even though many of the current and hopeful MPs receiving the message had never previously corresponded with Luther Pendragon or the AHIPP.

The Conservative leadership reacted angrily to the email. Shadow Housing Minister Grant Shapps, both a recipient of the email, and someone specifically criticised by the letter, told PR Week: “This is one of the most crass examples of public affairs I have ever seen from a lobbying company. Spamming parliamentary candidates with political abuse from a company email address hardly displays the intelligent political awareness that Luther Pendragon proclaim on their website”.

He continued: “Email has great potential to engage parliamentary candidates with the public in the forthcoming general election. Yet the public affairs industry needs to realise that, like poorly targeted, unsolicited press releases, email also has the potential to annoy and undermine the very issues you are championing. Conservatives are happy to talk to the housing industry over our plans to scrap Home Information Packs, but personal, angry campaigns are not a great way to win friends and influence people”.

The story subsequently gained more momentum when the AHIPP accused Luther Pendragon of having sent out the wrong emails to many recipients, hence why the correspondence openly criticised some of the MPs who were actually receiving it, and the odd remark regarding past responses. The lobbying agency subsequently admitted there had been an administrative error in the distribution of the letter, adding that it should also have come from an AHIPP email address, rather than being so clearly linked to their agency.

AHIPP has now apologised to any offended Tories, though it seems unlikely even placated backbenchers or parliamentary candidates will now have much sway on this issue with Shapps and his frontbench colleagues. Luther Pendragon had already told AHIPP it wished to bring to an end its relationship with the association before the email error took place.

Posted Tuesday March 9 2010 by Chris Cooke

Related categories: Public Affairs