Reform Chief Whip Lee Anderson wrote to the Times yesterday to demand an explanation for the curious incident of the disappearing claim that Giorgia Meloni advised Badenoch not to do a deal with Reform. Guido is told he wrote:
“Sir,
Further to your newspaper being forced to disown an entirely fictitious story which claimed that the Italian prime minister, Georgia Meloni, told the Conservative Party leader, Kemi Badenoch, during talks in Rome that Mrs Badenoch “should not do a deal with Nigel Farage” (24 August), I wonder if you would do your readers the courtesy of explaining the circumstances of this gaffe. Is Mrs Badenoch’s office guilty of giving a briefing to your political editor that was so over-enthusiastic it was in fact a lie (in which case why didn’t The Times check the veracity of the claim); or is the paper of record itself at fault for publishing what can only be described as fake news?
Yours etc
Lee Anderson, Chairman Reform UK”
Meloni aides continue to insist she did not make the claim, telling the Telegraph she “never suggested to Badenoch that she should not ally with Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party,” and adding: “Meloni, who has no reason to be hostile towards Farage and his movement, renewed her respect for and friendship with Badenoch and the Tories … but did not enter and does not want to enter into domestic political dynamics and relations between British parties.” Do recollections vary?
A Tory spokesman said: “The Conservatives have not made any false claims. Reform are just making things up and peddling conspiracy theories to distract from their fishy £5 million donation scandal and the police investigation into Robert Jenrick.” Language barrier?
Lee Anderson, speaking to The Sun’s Tom Scotson, reveals the wokest thing he’s ever done: “I once had a vegetarian thought, about becoming a vegetarian. That was quickly dismissed when I had a bacon sandwich…”