Telegraph faces investigation over email 'begging' readers to 'Vote Tory'

Paper promises it 'will not use your information for any other purpose than that for which you give it'

Street vendors with copies of The Daily Telegraph on the day of Margaret Thatcher's funeral on 17 April, 2013 (Fred Duval/Getty Images)

The Telegraph newspaper is facing an investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for an election day email that encouraged readers to vote Conservative.

The email came from editor Chris Evans, who told readers that he was taking the "unprecedented step" of sending them the paper's 7 May leading article, which endorsed the Conservative party.

Many recipients of the email said that they did not know that the paper had their email address, or said that they had only registered to receive specific newsletters, like those about sport or technology.

The email appears to have been sent to every address on the paper's mailing list.

The ICO is investigating a small number of complaints into the email. It will assess whether the mass email breached the Data Protection Act, or privacy and electronic communications regulations. Their decision is not expected for a few weeks.

The sending of the mass email may have breached the Telegraph's privacy policy, if the message was sent to people who didn't consent to receive such messages when they signed up to newsletters.

Some Telegraph newsletters do not have tick boxes at the sign-up stage, where users can say what kinds of emails they want to recieve. Where these tick boxes are not there, the Telegraph promises it "will not use your information for any other purpose than that for which you give it."

Speaking to The Guardian, a Telegraph spokesperson said: "The Telegraph's email leader, urging our readers to vote for the Conservatives, was sent to our customer database and the response has been overwhelmingly positive."

"If any readers did recieve this email in error, we will, of course, take steps to make sure this does not happen again."

The Telegraph supported the Conservatives in the election, publishing a letter from 5,000 small business owners on its front page on 27 April, who expressed their support for the party.

The paper's headline on election day was "Don't do something you'll regret", urging readers to not let Labour win the election.