ASA bans 'Go home or face arrest' Home Office adverts despite being "unlikely to incite or exacerbate racial hatred"
The controversial adverts promulgated by the UK Home Office urging illegal immigrants to “go home” has been banned by the ASA on the basis that it was misleading.
The ad must not appear again in its current form
The ASA upheld two of five issues raised by complaints about a Homes Office advert targeted at illegal immigrants, however, the ad was cleared of a separate complaint of being offensive and irresponsible.
The out-of-home advert, displayed on the side of government vans, showed the mid section of somebody in a Home Office uniform brandishing a pair of handcuffs and bore text that read: "In the UK illegally?"
"106 arrests last week in your area*"
The asterisk at the end of this statement related to a footnote in small print at the bottom left-hand side of the advert which clarified that the figures referred to, "30 June - 6 July 2013 covering Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge, Barnet, Brent, Ealing and Hounslow."
Beside the footnote ran slightly larger text: "We can help you return home voluntarily without fear of arrest or detention".
The ad drew national condemnation, and 224 formal complaints.
"We told the Home Office to ensure that in future they held adequate substantiation for their advertising claims and that qualifications were presented clearly,” the ASA said.
The Home Office's response to the first two issues was that the use of the text, "In the UK illegally?" made it clear that the adverts, "did not address those who had submitted applications for asylum, those with leave to remain in the UK or naturalised British citizens."
It defended the third point on the basis that the poster offered voluntary departure as an alternative to arrest, with the ruling agreeing that the poster "was not misleading in that regard".
On the other two issues where complaints were not upheld, ASA accepted the Home Office's justifications, ruling that the advert, "was unlikely to cause serious or widespread offence or distress" and "did not contain anything which was likely to condone or encourage violence or anti-social behaviour".
Labour Peer Lord David Lipsey, mentioned in the ruling among those who made complaints, has reacted angrily to the decision:
“This ruling convicts the government of misleading the public. Taxpayers’ hard-earned cash has been squandered on paying for government ads which tell porkies. Perhaps the Home Office should be rechristened the Ministry of Propaganda.”
“I do not ask for Theresa May to resign. I ask for her to apologise, fully and frankly and if possible sincerely, for the outrage that she and her department have perpetrated. And I guess she may also want to apologise to her Coalition colleagues, who were clearly kept in the dark about the adverts.“
A small, pyrrhic victory came in ASA's conclusion that the advert "must not appear again in its current form", with the Home Office being told to make sure it had "adequate substantiation for their advertising claims and that qualifications were presented clearly."
Critics of the adverts at the time they were introduced included business secretary Vince Cable and UKIP leader Nigel Farage, although an 11 August YouGov survey found that 55 per cent of Brits were in favour of the adverts in the weeks following their arrival.
The ASA said that the ad must not appear again in its current form.