Democratic Institutions: Threats

Lord Doyle Excerpts

Thursday 25th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Doyle (Non-Afl)]

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, for making today’s debate possible. We have already heard some very interesting contributions. It is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Gascoigne, who has set out a compelling case around the challenges of the politics we face today. We have both had the privilege of spending time working in No. 10, and I think I know where some of his frustration comes from.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Stowell of Beeston and Lady Featherstone, rightly challenged us to make sure that we do not look at this debate through just one end of the telescope. We can do two things at once; there is more we need to do to put our own house in order while recognising what I will focus on—the legitimate concerns around misinformation and disinformation in our politics today. This is not to absolve ourselves but to ensure that we can get across to citizens the information they need to make informed choices at elections.

Two things are happening at the same time: the rise of misinformation and the collapse we have seen in local media as it has moved more online, with the rise of Facebook groups and similar platforms for local news. This has been highlighted in the report by the Social Market Foundation No News is Bad News: The Hidden Threat of Unchecked Local Misinformation, mentioned by the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones. Some of its key findings were that nearly half of Britons seek out local news through social media—more than any other source except television—and that more than a third use local social media groups as their main news source.

The problem is that we face an epidemic of misinformation online. The SMF’s analysis showed that nearly one in 26 news-related posts on Facebook was misinformation. On X, that figure jumps to an alarming one in four. This matters even more because there is not that balance of respectable journalism for people to compare and contrast the information with. The local media landscape is completely different—and in places non-existent—from the one I started working in 25 years ago. Unlike the noble Lord, Lord Frost, I very much welcome the Government’s announcement this week that trustworthy information will be more visible, but what do we do where there are not local news sources to boost? We need to make sure that there is a national focus on maintaining vibrant local media.

It should come as no surprise that elections are a ripe target for those at home and abroad who trade in this misinformation. Recent council elections and parliamentary by-elections have shown just how intense this can be. For the avoidance of doubt, I am not prosecuting this argument motivated by single-party interest. Misinformation has been tracked as being directed across the board at a range of individuals, parties and issues. In the Makerfield by-election, misinformation quadrupled as a share of news posts. The Social Market Foundation report found that one in six items shared in groups contained information that was false. This cuts through to voters. Luke Tryl from More in Common confirmed that misinformation about the candidates, such as Andy Burnham,

“has come up unprompted consistently in focus groups we’ve run in Makerfield, seemingly largely from Facebook: some believe it others don’t, but no doubt this stuff has a real impact”.


We have rightly spent a lot of time in this House debating the impact of social media on children, but I humbly suggest that we need to spend more time looking at educating adults too. I do not mean a ban, obviously, but a recognition of the need to increase digital literacy and awareness to build more resilient citizens in our democracy. Can the Minister set out what the Government are doing to increase digital literacy? Is the Defending Democracy Taskforce looking at this, given the overlap with ensuring that we have free and fair elections?

Of course, this proliferation of mis and disinformation has done great harm outside of election time, too. We see it with conspiracy theories as they relate to international events or to domestic tragedies that we have seen—the noble Lord, Lord Cryer, spoke of the Southport tragedy. Can my noble friend the Minister update the House on the Government’s experience of working with platforms at times of crisis and their level of responsiveness? Would the Government consider a clear duty requiring platforms to respond rapidly when local authorities, police and the NHS identify false content during a crisis?

As we have said, not all this misinformation is with an explicit desire for a political outcome. Plenty is driven by opportunists attempting to use AI-generated content to simply profit from political division in the UK. The right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Leicester spoke very eloquently on this and the challenges there are, and I am sure many in your Lordships’ House will have seen some of the recent content involving the leader of Reform UK and the Governor of the Bank of England, which has been designed simply to promote financial investment schemes.

There can be no doubt that platforms need to be made less fertile for misinformation. I believe Ofcom should test platforms’ ability to tackle misinformation and fake accounts, publish the results and take action against poor performers. The tech companies must set out their plans, such as surge moderation and boosting of trusted information. Social media platforms should be mandated to heighten vigilance towards deceptive, synthetic content, and ensure any media relevant to the election that is manipulated by AI is labelled as such.

I do not see this debate as a counsel of despair but a wake-up call that we need to look at the forces ranged against us in our democracy. I believe there is still time to ensure we can preserve the values we all cherish and to ensure we can move forward, confident in our democracy and the way it operates.