Tories delete misleading social media video of Labour MP

The Conservatives have deleted a tweet with Jess Phillips criticising manifestos in an interview recorded in October.
The Conservatives have deleted a tweet with Jess Phillips criticising manifestos in an interview recorded in October.

The Conservatives have taken down a misleading social media post which presented a 2018 clip of a Labour politicians as if it took place today.

Timed to go out while Jeremy Corbyn unveiled Labour’s 2019 manifesto, the clip shows Labour candidate and former MP Jess Phillips criticising manifestos and saying parties can “never” deliver on what they promise to the electorate.

But the Tory media account timestamped the video of Ms Phillips as if she spoke today - despite the interview actually having been broadcast in October.

Just before 3pm, the @CCHQPress account then put up a corrected video, with the correct timestamp. The original clip was up for at least three hours.

The Tories posted the clip this morning with the title “Corbyn ally: We can’t deliver”.

Jess Philips responded by calling the video “so misleading”.

It is the second time the Tory party has been accused of using its @CCHQPress account to mislead the public this week.

During Tuesday’s leadership debate between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn, the account rebranded itself as “factcheckUK”.

Twitter said it would take “decisive corrective action” if the Tories tried to mislead people again.

The rebrand was heavily criticised by actual fact-checking accounts.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson (2nd right) during a visit to David Wilson Homes in Bedford while on the campaign trail for the General Election.
Boris Johnson's Tory press team appears to have deleted a misleading Twitter video. (PA Images)

Full Fact brandished the move as being “inappropriate and misleading for the Conservative press office to rename their twitter account ‘factcheckUK’ during this debate”.

Foreign secretary Dominic Raab said it had been clear the account was a Conservative one and said: “We make no apology for having an instant rebuttal to all the nonsense and lies put out.”

Labour’s manifesto was launched in Birmingham today, and the document includes pledges on Brexit, public ownership and education.

Mr Corbyn was forced to intervene when BBC journalist Laura Kuenssberg was booed by a section of the crowd when trying to ask him a question.