Westminster Digital
British video production company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Westminster Digital was a British video production company[1] founded by Craig Dillon in 2017[2] which specialized in producing promotional sixty to ninety-second Facebook clips about local issues for Conservative Members of Parliament.[3][4][5] The company is said to have produced videos for most of the candidates in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election[6][7][8] and for up to 50 MPs during the 2019 United Kingdom general election.[9]
| |
| Founded | 2017 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Thomas Corbett-Dillon |
| Headquarters | London, UK |
The company was renamed WD International Holdings in February 2024, at which time Companies House reported both its accounts and confirmation statement as being overdue.[1]
History
Craig Dillon, a former YouTuber[10] and Sky News digital producer,[9][5] who studied TV production at the University of Westminster,[11] founded the company as Westminster Analytics in November 2017.[1] The company was renamed Westminster Digital in May 2019 and Thomas Dixon was appointed managing director in August of that year.[1] In November 2020 Dixon was registered as having ownership of around one-third of the company's shares, with the remainder under ownership of the founder and CEO, Dillon.[1]
Westminster Digital's collection of up to £165,000 (according to one estimate)[12] of government funds for the creation of Facebook videos and other social media content for MPs was controversial.[13][14] Despite the MPs claiming the expenses legally as payments from their office costs budget and justifying them as cheaper than employing a full-time communications staff,[12] critics have called them a waste of taxpayers' money.[13][14] Although no complete public list of MPs who have claimed for services from Westminster Digital exists,[12] their clients are known to have included Michael Gove, Matt Hancock, Sajid Javid, Liz Truss and Boris Johnson.[7]
The company's managing director and minority shareholder Thomas Dixon resigned[1] and their work on the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election campaign for Penny Mordaunt was concluded[15] in July 2022. This followed accusations of astroturfing[15] and a viral appearance by CEO Craig Dillon (under the pseudonym Thomas Corbett-Dillon) on Tucker Carlson Tonight,[16][17] which was described as a “distraction”.[15] In September of that year, Dixon's minority share in the company passed to Thomas Borwick's College Green Group.[1]