Complaints were upheld against the 'Demon Eyes' poster

The Neill Committee on Standards in Public Life recommended establishing guidelines for election adverts, as well as ways to enforce complaints.

An editorial in ASA's latest summary reports of investigations explained that since January last year, the British Codes of Advertising and Sales Promotion had not applied to any advert whose "principal function is to influence voters in local, regional, national or international elections or referendums".

The ASA report said: "In previous editions of the code, election advertising has been exempt from some of the industry rules but not others."

'Demon eyes' poster

Under those rules, ASA upheld complaints before the 1997 General Election about the Conservative "Demon Eyes" advert because it pictured Tony Blair without his consent.

"But complaints about a Labour campaign, 'Same old Tories, same old lies' were judged to be outside the ASA's remit since political advertisers, unlike everyone else, were not obliged to prove their claims," says the report.

It adds: "The voters will decide for themselves what is 'decent, honest and truthful' while any election advertising that breaches the law will be a matter for the courts to judge."