Think twice before you repeat gossip from Westminster – take it from someone who knows

Recently, a friend revealed that I was the subject of a scurrilous rumour – and it’s not funny, writes Salma Shah

The lingering feeling that untruths are believed without challenge is unsettling (PA)

There’s no smoke without fire, the saying goes – and yet, in the Westminster village, you could argue that it’s actually all just smoke with plenty of mirrors. If success in politics is simply perception and optics, then the currency that underpins it is gossip.

Recently, a friend revealed that I was the subject of a scurrilous rumour. To save blushes, I won’t specify – but you can guess the nature of this malicious gossip was suggesting inappropriate behaviour. The rumour is untrue and upon hearing it I laughed heartily. It was even funnier to hear fake details that were supposed to make this rumour plausible – told by someone I’d never met – to a close friend of mine as if it were gospel truth.

On reflection, I thought it less funny. For years, ostensibly serious and clever people have assumed something about me that is not only untrue but portrays me in the most negative way I could imagine. It’s hurtful to think your talent or hard work or diligence were ignored and the sum of your effort was reduced to a belief in a cheap lie. It hasn’t harmed me in any way, to date, but the lingering feeling that untruths are believed without challenge is unsettling.