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By Ben King, 7 February 2001 02:00

NEWS A source close to the Labour Party told silicon.com that the party shelved the idea after a survey published last month by America's e-Voter Institute reported that online political advertising has some unintended, and potentially negative, consequences. He said: "Labour had been planning a major online campaign for this coming election. They don't necessarily think it will be important this time round [for the election expected in May this year], but they wanted to gain experience for the next election but one, when they expect it to be huge." He added: "This has all been put on hold following the problems they [the Republican and Democrat Parties] have had in the US." Dennis Kavanagh, professor of politics and communication studies at Liverpool University, confirmed the report. "The Labour Party will be giving online advertising a lower priority following what happened in America," he said. The e-voter survey indicated that online political campaigns yielded disappointing results. It showed that Gore's adverts enticed Republican supporters to vote for Bush, but did not entice his own supporters to vote for him, and vice versa. The research claimed that 60 per cent of Democrats who saw online adverts for Bush were induced to vote for Gore. The survey tracked 40,000 customers of Juno Online Services, a free ISP in the US that requires users to allow their surfing habits to be tracked. The survey covered the period from June to November 2000. Participants registered their sympathies before the study began. Their exposure to advertising was then monitored, and their voting behaviour was tracked after the election. Negative adverts were not included in the survey. A spokesman for the Labour Party denied that it has shelved an online campaign. He said: "Labour is always looking at innovative ways of campaigning and we are ruling nothing out at this stage."