The Conservative Party has been accused of misleading voters again with a video of Labour candidate Jess Phillips.
The edited video, posted by the @CCHQPress Twitter account, shows the parliamentary candidate saying: “You can never, ever deliver all of those things that you are pretending to deliver when you go to the electorate.”
READ MORE: Conservatives defend 'doctored' Keir Starmer campaign video
@CCHQPress has dated the video November 21, 2019 — however, the clip has been taken from an old interview, when Ms Phillips appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on October 3 to promote her new book.
The video was reaired this morning during an interview with shadow education secretary Angela Rayner.
During the original interview, Ms Phillips was questioned by Susanna Reid about keeping manifesto promises — before the General Election was announced.
READ MORE: Labour MP Jess Phillips says man arrested at constituency office
Ms Phillips said: “I think there is an argument to be said that you can never, ever deliver all of those things that you are pretending to deliver when you go to the electorate.
“In reality, things change. Globally things change, situations change. Facts change.
“[We can’t deliver it] in all cases. I can’t control the trade war between America and China and I have to, each and every day, and at the moment it is on a day-by-day basis and it is not good, and I have to say, ‘what is the best thing, the best decision I can make today to make sure my constituents are better off?'”
The video also labels Ms Phillips a “Corbyn ally” – the 37-year-old candidate for Birmingham Yardley has been a vocal critic of the Labour leader in the past, going as far as to say he wasn’t the “practical choice” for leader because people would not vote for him.
The edited video has been criticised on Twitter.
One person said: “You know she’s not just talking about Labour right, but all politicians? She’s speaking truth whereas you only pretend to use facts.”
Another added: “Edited and old. Get a grip.”
It’s not the first time the Tories have been accused of misleading the public with a video.
On November 5, they were accused of unfairly editing a video of Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer, to make him appear unable to answer a question on Brexit. However, the party stood by the edit.
The Tories have also purchased the website labourmanifesto.co.uk.
The website purports to showcase Labour’s manifesto but instead actually attacks the party’s policies. It accuses the party of promising “higher taxes” with “no plan for Brexit”.
The Conservatives came under fire for rebranding as a “fact-checking service” during Tuesday night’s televised election debate.
Twitter warned that a repeat of the incident would result in “decisive corrective action”.
Twitter and the Conservative Party did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the video.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel