In the Commons on December 7, 2021, Labour MP Karl Turner asked the then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak a very specific question:

“The Chancellor was evasive when interviewed by the media last week, but we need a clear answer on this very important point because many people across the country made great personal sacrifices during the lockdown. So will he categorically deny in the House that he or any of his officials or Spads attended any of the Downing Street Christmas parties on 27 November or 18 December last year?”

Rishi gave a broad categorical answer:

“No, I did not attend any parties.”

Four months later, in April 2022, Rishi paid a Fixed Penalty Notice fine for attending the famous Downing Street birthday party with cake for Boris. As far as Guido can see that answer Rishi gave to Karl Turner does not fit the fact of his fine for attending a party. Guido can’t recall Rishi correcting the record. Or does it not matter when this PM misleads the house over the same party?

After congratulating the BBC on adequately implementing guest transparency standards, Guido sees ITV is yet to follow suit. Reporting on an anti-Tory campaign, ITV News wrote an article about claims made by a GP and army veteran Simon Taylor, in which he slammed the government’s handling of the health service and claimed “It was easier to get patients seen in Afghanistan.” They described him as “a GP in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire”…

Simon is no mere GP, however. He has a long track record of Labour Party activism. In the 2017 election he made a campaign video for former Labour MP John Mann; alongside a long track record of local campaigning.

This shouldn’t have been too hard for ITV to pick up. Though Labour MP Karl Turner also seemed blithely unaware of the GP’s mutual comradeship in the fight for socialism…

Just a GP protesting outside the constituency office of Bassetlaw Tory MP ⁦@Bren4Bassetlaw⁩. ⁦@itvnews⁩ https://t.co/0IrKhJYhma

— Karl Turner MP (@KarlTurnerMP) January 10, 2023

As always, Simon has a right to air his views, however broadcasters should contextualise them.

Yesterday, Labour MP Karl Turner went tonto over what he described as the Government’s mishandling of PPE contracts. Speaking in the Commons, Turner demanded an apology from the frontbench saying that a local supplier, Arco, had been excluded from consideration because “they weren’t on the VIP list“. They “didn’t get a sniff”, according to a fuming Turner…

Here’s what Arco say on their own website about their involvement in procurement:

“Our knowledge was called on extensively as we joined the national effort to reduce the spread and shield those who were most at risk from the virus. Over 291 NHS Trusts placed orders directly with Arco, with an average of 108 orders per day.

We sourced and distributed over 140 million face masks, 18 million gloves, over 50,000 coveralls and 500,000 hygiene products to the NHS, ambulance services, local authorities, and other public health bodies and critical industries.

Some of our biggest requests were £20 million worth of powered respirators and filters for the new NHS Nightingale hospitals, as well as orders for thousands of FFP2 and FFP3 respirators masks.”

They distributed over 163 million items to the NHS and other public bodies during the pandemic. Something more than “a sniff” in any world outside Karl Turner’s and probably quite useful to very many thousands of patients and staff…

Liz Truss today provided journalists with the honest yet disappointing update that negotiations on a UK-US trade deal would not start in the “short to medium-term”. Naturally Labour MPs were quick to jump on this admission with criticism. Gareth Thomas called it a “huge failure“, Sarah Champion argued “This failure lies squarely with Truss”, Karl Turner asked “What’s gone wrong?” and Marsha de Cordova took it as reason to claim “The PM has already failed at her job”. Damning…

Those lines are quite a pivot from hyperbolic statements they made on the dangers of a US trade deal. Gareth claimed “the NHS will be at risk… never mind the chlorinated chicken & the increase in US agricultural imports that could hit our farmers hard”, Sarah said “No thanks” citing concerns over food safety and animal welfare, Karl insisted it would involve “flogging our NHS off” while Marsha called it a “disaster for working people”. They have only become keen on the deal they opposed now it is off…

Despite much of the chattering classes embarking on self-flagellation, Britain’s American trade prospects remain good. The United States remains the UK’s largest trading partner, while the UK is second only to Germany on their list. Katy Balls points out that Liz has cleared the Cabinet of protectionist voices, whilst aiming for a backdoor to a US trade deal through the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans Pacific Partnership with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Japan. It’s not all doom and gloom.

Shadow Health Minister Rosena Allin-Khan had to delete the tweet in the early hours of yesterday morning after sharing a fabricated rumour that vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi secretly received vaccines for himself and his family in Wandsworth this weekend. Zahawi had not received the vaccine. At the same time, the handful of Labour MPs who shared the fake news also deleted their tweets. Barbara Keeley, Karl Turner, and former Leigh MP Jo Platt had joined in the unsubstantiated pile on…

Sharing any information about a patient is bad enough. That Allin-Khan, a registered doctor who works at the Wandsworth hospital in her story, amplified this untrue rumour, makes it even worse. The General Medical Council does not tend to look favourably upon doctors who go around sharing rumours they hear about their own hospital’s supposed patients…

Dr Allin-Khan then tweeted and subsequently deleted a half hearted apology. No doubt LOTO was not impressed with its tone…

“I’ve deleted my previous tweet to Nadhim Zahawi as I understand that people were seeing it as a pile on, which was absolutely not my intention, and for that I apologise. I await a prompt response to the email I sent him about the matter which I hope is answered in good time.”

Eventually a real apology came about at 1:08 AM yesterday morning:

.Thank you for apologising, the accusation was not true. It is sad you chose to act like this, we all need to work together to beat this awful disease.

— Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) January 3, 2021

Strangely, the gaggle of Labour MPs who were so keen to jump on the made up rumour about Nadhim Zahawi have been totally silent about an MP who did jump the queue. Birmingham Labour MP (and Shadow Procurement Minister) Khalid Mahmood procured himself a Coronavirus vaccine at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital early last week, despite being only 59 years old, and not being eligible for a vaccine until the spring. Mahmood boasted to his constituents that:

“It’s not very well known, but at the end of the day any vaccine unused because people have not turned up for their appointments is made available at the QE vaccination hub – we can’t afford to waste any vaccine doses. I joined a queue at about 3pm and got a vaccine.”

Those who run the hospital, however have condemned the action, saying the end of day doses for the public, especially without an appointment, and the queue Mahmood joined was for NHS staff who were encouraged to take unused spots at the end of the day. A local source tells Guido that a doctor tipped Mahmood off about the queue, after which the Labour MP headed to the hospital and “just hung around waiting for it.” No doubt Dr Rosena and her colleagues had simply not heard about this news…