The Tories provoked outrage last night after changing their Twitter account to 'factcheckUK' for the duration of the ITV debate.
A Twitter account normally used by the Conservative Party press office rebranded itself before Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn went head to head in the first debate of this election.
The move prompted a furious backlash - with the CCHQ account resorting to retweeting jokes about itself in a bid to laugh off the PR disaster.
Hundreds of furious users on social media reported the account to Twitter and the social media giant issued a warning to the Conservative Party for 'misleading' the public.
This morning Twitter warned that any further attempts to "mislead people" during the UK election will result in action.
"Twitter is committed to facilitating healthy debate throughout the UK general election. We have global rules in place that prohibit behaviour that can mislead people, including those with verified accounts," a spokeswoman said in a statement.
"Any further attempts to mislead people by editing verified profile information - in a manner seen during the UK Election Debate - will result in decisive corrective action."
Royle Family star Ralf Little even changed his Twitter name to 'Conservative Press Office' on Twitter to mock the desperate move.
He then quote tweeted the Conservatives and said: "May seem weird for us to say this but, if we’re honest, we reckon @jeremycorbyn was the clear winner. Pay no attention to misleading accounts like the one below."
Independent factcheckers FullFact hit back: “It is inappropriate and misleading for the Conservative press office to rename their twitter account ‘factcheckUK’ during this debate. Please do not mistake it for an independent fact checking service such as @FullFact, @FactCheck or @FactCheckNI”.
Even former Tory chair Baroness Sayeeda Warsi seemed surprised tweeting: “Has my Party HQ changed its name? From CCHQ Press to Factcheck UK - how come I didn’t get the memo?”
The @CCHQpress account is verified by Twitter, displaying a blue tick which is intended to denote that a user is genuine.
The Liberal Democrat press office posted an image suggesting they were reporting the account to Twitter for "pretending to be me or someone else".
They tweeted: "And people wonder why trust in politics has been eroded @CCHQPress"
Labour's David Lammy tweeted: "The Conservative Party press office @CCHQPress rebranding themselves as 'FactCheckUK' shows what disdain this party and this government has for the truth."
"The Electoral Commission must investigate and punish this blatant attempt to decieve the public."
Meanwhile, some other Twitter users also changed their display names to factcheckUK and posted critical comments about Mr Johnson.
Others changed their display name CCHQ Press Office, while Tony Blair's former spokesperson Alastair Campbell changed his display name to Boris Johnson and tweeted: "I won't get Brexit done #FactCheck".
The Twitter display name was changed back to CCHQ Press shortly after the debate ended. The Conservative Party has been contacted for comment.
