How Dave’s pals at Uber ‘plotted to stop Brexit’

They used the taxi app to urge millennials to sign up and vote

Uber was accused of political ‘back scratching’ last night amid claims it tried to help David Cameron by encouraging young people to register to vote in the eU referendum.

The online taxi firm was among 30 technology companies that attended a meeting at Downing Street last year to discuss plans to get 18 to 24-year-olds to vote.

At the time, young people were expected to vote overwhelmingly for remain. Following the meeting, Uber agreed to launch a pop-up window in its app encouraging users to register.

The adverts came just months after the former prime minister and George Osborne had allegedly given aides the job of crushing boris Johnson’s bid to introduce curbs on the taxi giant.

Last night campaigners claimed the remain camp were targeting supporters through Uber – adding it was another example of the disturbing ‘close links’ between Mr Cameron’s No10 and the firm. Tory MP Andrew bridgen said: ‘This all smacks of you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours ... It has been said that Mr Cameron called in every favour possible to influence the remain vote.

‘Clearly the remain campaign identified this demographic were core supporters of remain and were targeting them through Uber.’ Steve McNamara, of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, said: ‘You scratch my back and I will line your pocket. They were absolutely targeting remain voters.’

The Daily Mail revealed on Saturday that Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne allegedly told aides to lobby then London mayor Mr Johnson to stop him from bringing in restrictions on Uber. It then emerged that No10 had failed to divulge details of the alleged lobbying when asked to do so under Freedom of Information laws.

Calls were made yesterday for an inquiry over the alleged cover-up and the Government’s links to the US firm.

Opposition MPs pointed out that rachel Whetstone, a senior vice-president at Uber, is a personal friend of Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne. And yesterday it emerged that Mr Osborne’s former economic adviser, Guy Levin, is now a policy adviser for Uber after joining the firm last May.

Just weeks before the eU vote, Mr Cameron invited 30 firms, including Facebook, Lad bible and Snap Fashion to a meeting to discuss boosting turnout among their users. The meeting’s chairman was Daniel Korski, the aide behind No 10’s recent lobbying campaign on behalf of Uber. The following weekend, Uber launched a pop-up pushed out to users in more than 20 towns to encourage them to register. The message, in partnership with youth voter charity bite the ballot, read: ‘What could you do in the three minutes it takes for your Uber to arrive? How about registering to vote? Around one-inthree eligible 18 to 24-year-olds are still not registered.’

Last night Uber said: ‘Countries work best when everybody has a say ... Around the world we’ve encouraged people to register to vote. In April 2016 we supported the UK electoral Commission’s drive to get more people registered to vote in the local elections. We repeated this in May ahead of the eU referendum.’ A Government spokesman said: ‘The Government has long supported voter registration activity ... We worked with dozens of companies, civil society organisations and local authorities to reach groups that were underrepresented on the ... register.’

Comment – Page 16

THE EMAILS No10 SAID DIDN’T EXIST Yesterday’s Daily Mail