Labour MP Jess Phillips condemns new 'misleading' video shared by official Tory account
'I realise they wouldn’t recognise a politician speaking honestly, so it must be difficult for them,' says Birmingham Yardley MP
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Your support makes all the difference.Labour's Jess Phillips has criticised a "misleading" video shared online by an official Conservative account.
The footage posted on the party's Twitter page shows Ms Phillips discussing election manifestos and the fact that parties can find it difficult to deliver on all of their promises, as part of a book tour last month.
However the video was edited to suggest that the comments were new and that the Labour candidate had specifically been referring to the Labour Party manifesto, which was launched today.
Responding to the video, Ms Phillips claimed "nothing in the Tory manifesto had been delivered", labelled Tories "serial liars" and said they "wouldn’t recognise a politician speaking honestly".
The original interview on ITV's Good Morning Britain was shown on 3 October, when Ms Phillips was on the show to discuss her book.
She had been talking about Brexit policy during the interview, and her wide-ranging comments were in response to a general question about how well parties had delivered on their manifesto promises.
Good Morning Britain showed that video again on Thursday, as part of an interview with Labour politician Angela Rayner ahead of the the party's manifesto launch.
Ms Rayner was asked whether her Labour colleague' remarks applied to their party and if they suggested it could not really deliver on its promises.
An excerpt from that video was then taken and shared on the official Tory Twitter account, with a date displayed in the corner that suggested it had been aired on 21 November, but no mention of the fact that it was seven weeks old. The video also included a message at the top of the post that read "Corbyn ally: We can't deliver", despite the fact no such thing was said in the video.
Ms Phillips, who is running for re-election in Birmingham Yardley, said the video was "misleading" – but that it was part of a series of false posts shared by the Conservative party through the election period.
She said she was talking specifically about Brexit policy during the interview.
“It is totally misleading to share it in this context, but I can’t say I’m shocked because Boris Johnson and his party have shown themselves to be serial liars,” she told The Independent.
“I realise they wouldn’t recognise a politician speaking honestly, so it must be difficult for them.
“Nothing that was in the Tory manifesto has been delivered, so they really don’t have a leg to stand on anyway.”
The Conservatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It follows another storm after the Conservatives shared an edited video of shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, which was also originally taken from Good Morning Britain.
It also comes just days after the Conservatives set up a fake "fact checker" to endorse Boris Johnson during the election debate.
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