The cheeky move by CCHQ to rebrand themselves as a fact-checking account during last night’s debate may have got everyone talking, but could backfire as Twitter have said “Any further attempts to mislead people by editing verified profile information – in a manner seen during the UK Election Debate – will result in decisive corrective action”. Judging by the backlash this wasn’t so much a dead cat as a dead elephant…
Even right-wingers like Julia Hartley-Brewer and Susanne Evans called on CCHQ to reverse the rebrand, calling it “plain wrong” and “very stupid”. As Emily Maitlis then later pointed out, Boris was, in fact, answering questions in the debate on integrity at the same time as CCHQ was pretending to be something it wasn’t…
.@maitlis: “You were misleading the public. You were trying to coat your propaganda as hardened fact.. You dressed up party lines as a fact check service: that is dystopian.. You know that people do not trust you, so you have to put something out and call it a fact check instead” pic.twitter.com/UOyLgCx7hi
— Damon Evans (@damocrat) November 19, 2019
Still, not the worst interview performance Emily’s sat through this week…
Guido’s still waiting for the commentariat’s reciprocal outrage towards Labour’s own ‘fact-checking’ account, which, even worse than CCHQ’s stunt, doesn’t mention its Labour origins in either its name or its handle.
CCHQ’s Twitter backlash wasn’t the biggest faux pas on the social media site last night, however, as Alastair Campbell rebranded his account as ‘Boris Johnson’ and posted a number of misogynistic tweets, with one particularly distasteful one directed at Carrie.
When he changed his name back it kind of backfired:
He really didn’t think that through did he?
In an hour-long interview with an ultra-liberal, pro-EU, left-winger, Alastair Campbell covered a range of topics, not least Bercow’s impressions, his decisions in the chair and Labour’s antisemitism scandal.
Bercow’s socialist ABCs delivered in a prolonged Tony Benn impression stood out to Guido, but you can watch the full interview here. At least now you have to volunteer to put up with an hour of Bercow’s chuntering…
Tom Watson has been making a full-throated case for remaining in the EU this morning at the sycophantic pro-EU think tank Centre for European Reform. Guido couldn’t help but remember this memorable clash between Watson and Alastair Campbell just last May. Watson tears into Bad Al for not respecting the Brexit vote and repeatedly mocks the fact he no longer decides Labour policy:
“We have to listen to the whole of the British people on this Alastair and we’ve got to make sure that we honour them by saying we’re coming out of the EU…”
“What I’m saying is: you no longer decide Labour Party policy… I know you’d like to, I know they don’t pay you a lot of money as the editor of the New European…”
Campbell might have been unceremoniously shown the exit door from Labour, its Deputy Leader doesn’t seem to mind him setting the agenda again…
Jeremy Corbyn’s wife Laura Alvarez keeps a notoriously low profile, in an era of wannabe PMs flaunting their spouses Alvarez is almost invisible. However her usual discretion hasn’t stopped her sharing her views about Alastair Campbell’s expulsion on Facebook. Under a post shared by a former John McDonnell adviser greeting Campbell’s demise with “Good riddance!” Alvarez commented:
And in a Corbynista Facebook group she commented under an unrelated Skwawkbox article (attacking Tom Watson):
Not surprising Bad Al believes his expulsion was more about ideology than just enforcing the Labour rulebook…
Fresh from yesterday’s conveniently timed explusion of Alastair Campbell from the Labour Party, today it emerged that famously loyal Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn was a star speaker at a 1998 rally for the Communist Party of Britain. Corbyn’s name literally appears on the Communist Party recruitment form, the rally will have helped to drum up cash for the party’s coffers, breaking a swathe of Labour Party rules. No doubt Seumas will be ensuring that Corbyn receives the same swift treatment as Campbell…
UPDATE: Alastair Campbell tweets “This is interesting. Can confidently say I have never spoken at an event to promote and raise funds for another party”.
Hat-tip: Corbyn in the Times
Corbynista Councillor Sakina Sheikh had the tricky job of defending Labour’s double standards over the expulsion of Alastair Campbell on All Out Politics this morning. When challenged by Andrew Cooper about Labour grandees like Charles Clarke, Bob Ainsworth, Anji Hunter, and Lance Price who all publicly said they also did not vote for the Labour Party, but are yet to face expulsion, she doubled down:
“They will be [expelled]… If they have said publicly that they have supported another candidate of another party in the elections, the rulebook is black and white so I have no doubt that that will be the next steps.”
Over to you, Labour Compliance Office…
