Ancram: serious on IT

The political parties are failing to take the internet seriously, it was claimed on Monday.

With reports suggesting that the internet has had almost no effect on the general election, it was claimed that all the main political parties were ignoring the "e-voter".

The claim followed research into the time taken to respond to emails from voters.

A study found that Labour was the fastest to respond to an email inquiry - responding in just over 24-hours. The Lib Dems and the Conservatives failed to respond to the email altogether.

Gem, a company which handles the e-mail response and marketing requirements for large organizations, emailed 40 of the parties standing for election on Thursday.

Of those 40, just 13 responded to an email asking questions about the party's positions on Europe, health and education.

The parties refute claims that they have failed to embrace the new technology. All three of the main parties have brought in either their leader or a senior heavy-weight for webcasts or event launches based around their internet sites. Last week Michael Ancram staged a photocall to publicise the latest addition to Conservatives.com.

"If parties are really interested in winning over voters then they must perform better than this. Voters are just like customers and they don't like the delay, they expect the Internet to be quicker," explained Owen Lamont, the chief executive officer Gem.

According to Gem's research, the Welsh Liberal Democrats were the fastest to respond - sending a return email within an hour.

Gem said that Labour appeared to give the most technically advanced response - sending an automated response followed up later by a personalised response actually providing very comprehensive answers to the questions.

The company has also criticised some parties for failing to encourage voters correspond by email. On the UK Independence Party site Gem claimed it was hard to find an e-mail address.

The Green Party was singled out for praise, with the research suggesting it had the easiest site to navigate with a clear e-mail link on the home page - although the party failed to respond.