MPs want to ban polling firms from giving data to hedge funds before it’s public
Some firms are said to have made a small fortune on the day of the Brexit referendum after getting information before exit polls were published.
POLLING FIRMS should be banned from flogging “lucrative” data to hedge funds before it’s made public, furious MPs claim.
Tory MP Nicky Morgan said damning evidence from the EU Referendum suggested the City’s watchdog should be put in charge of the sector.
The former Cabinet Minister – now chair of the Treasury Select Committee – said it appeared hedge funds made a small fortune from being given information by pollsters before exit polls were published on Referendum night.
Some gained from a stunning rise in the Pound sparked by inaccurate claims Remain would win.
Others benefited from more accurate information that Leave had won – allowing them to ‘short’ the Pound before others.
Damian Lyons Lowe – head of Survation – is thought to have sold a private poll predicting Leave to multiple clients.
Former UKIP chief Nigel Farage twice said Leave had likely lost – despite indications Brits had decided to vote to cut ties with the EU.
In a letter to the British Polling Council, Nicky Morgan said pollsters shouldn’t be allowed to sell data to any private clients before it’s made public.
And she claims they shouldn’t be able to fund public polls with revenues from private clients.
In the letter to BPC chief sir John Curtice, she says: “During election and referendum campaigns, polling companies present themselves as neutral observers of public opinion.
“Yet behind the scenes, they are selling private polling data to hedge funds to make profitable trades.
“It’s understandable why polling firms are attracted to this more lucrative private work.
“But there is a perverse commercial incentive to provide misleading information to the public, whilst providing more accurate - and lucrative - analysis to private clients.”
Bloomberg in June claimed hedge funds hired YouGov and at least five other polling companies in a bid to gain a financial advantage in the Referendum.
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Pollsters have always sold surveys to private clients, but under UK law they are not allowed to release exit-poll data before voting ends.
Earlier this summer, Tory MP Bob Seely called for a parliamentary inquiry into the use of private polling data.
Labour peer George Foulkes added: “The case for statutory regulation of polling companies is now overwhelming.”
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