There had been a general consensus among Conservative MPs that this year’s Tory conference would be an improvement on the last so long as Theresa May could get through her speech without coughing. However, it seems the forces that be may have other ideas. With the conference due to kick off tomorrow in Birmingham, CCHQ have found themselves in the news for all the wrong reasons over their conference app. A glitch in the app meant that for at least an hour anyone who used it could access private details of people attending the event.
Several Twitter users boasted about getting hold of Boris Johnson’s personal mobile number – along with the contact details of Cabinet Ministers, police officers and hacks. The party have since apologised for ‘any concern caused’ and the glitch fixed. Given that this is a clear data breach, the Information Commissioner’s Office has said it will be making inquiries.
Embarrassingly, party chairman Brandon Lewis had been due to wax lyrical about the app tomorrow in his opening speech – as a sign of how far the party had come. That seems unlikely now. Likewise, the Tories may now have a harder time in using conference speeches to go after tech giants like Facebook over data and privacy issues.
The slip-up has gone down badly with Conservative MPs – not just because their personal details are among those that were made public. ‘The words piss-up and brewery come to mind,’ rants one. It’s hardly bodes well for what by all accounts is going to be a tricky conference for a tired party.
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