A Tory minister has admitted it was “wrong” if his party posted something “inaccurate” on social media after Martin Lewis slapped down one of their tweets.
Business Minister Kevin Hollinrake was grilled about a post by Tory HQ on X/Twitter that claimed a video of Mr Lewis suggested Labour will put up people’s taxes. The furious MoneySavingExpert website founder tore apart the Conservative attack ad, quickly pointing out that “NO WHERE” in the clip had he spoken about taxes. Instead he said he had actually been referring to a “positive change” Labour was hoping to introduce.
Asked about the post, which Sky Presenter Wilfred Frost described as “certainly an exaggeration, if not an outright fabrication”, Mr Hollinrake said: “I think if we’ve tweeting something that’s inaccurate, that’s wrong. We shouldn’t do that. We don’t need to be inaccurate because the Labour Party have been quite clear.”
Mr Hollinrake, who is running to be MP for Thirsk and Malton, admitted he “regrets” some of the gaffes made by the Tories over the election campaign. “Do I regret some of the mistakes that people have made over recent weeks? Of course I do, of course,” he said. “It is a distraction from what really counts in this election and what counts in the election is the next five years.”
He tried to explain that Tory HQ did not need to publish “inaccurate” posts claiming Labour was putting up taxes Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s recent comment that the Labour manifesto is “not the sum total “of its spending plans was proof. But his explanation was torn apart by Mr Frost who pointed out the same could be said for the Tories, who did not mention the Rwanda plan in its 2019 manifesto which has “cost an absolute fortune”.
The Sky presenter said: “It’s fair to say that both manifestos as we sit here today for 2024 there’ll be things that come up in the next Parliament that aren’t mentioned.” As Mr Hollinrake scrambled to say he does “not believe so”, the TV presenter hit back that that was “a ludicrous thing to say” and emphasised that in 2019 the Tories could not predict they’d have to spend huge amounts on the pandemic on the war in Ukraine.
The Tory minister then finally admitted he “can’t promise that” every single pound the party would need to spend in the next Government is set out in their manifesto. He then went on to claim “Labour has other plans” despite Mr Starmer assuring his plans are “fully costed”.
The row between Mr Lewis and The Tories erupted on Wednesday after the party posted of video, which was taken from Wednesday’s Good Morning Britain episode, where the money expert spoke about how he has behind the scenes discussions with the Tories and Labour. He said: “I had a conversation with a senior member of the Labour Party, a private conversation, as I do with both parties and the exact phrase they used with me, when I asked about a particular policy, they said: “We’re not putting it in our manifesto because I can’t commit. We’ll do it but it is my aim we will do it over the next Parliament.”
The Conservatives bizarrely posted the clip with a caption reading: “They’re not telling you the full truth. Labour have said they wouldn’t put up your taxes. But it’s now becoming clear that they have every intention to put them up.”
Mr Lewis hit back on social media: “NO WHERE in this comment do I talk about taxes. And the policy that I discussed (I will keep private as it was private) was NOT about taxes, or tax rises, it was about something that would be a positive change.”
The Tories have attempted to make tax issues the central focus of the election campaign but their attacks have been backfiring. Rishi Sunak was accused of “lying” after repeatedly telling viewers during an ITV General Election debate at the start of the campaign that Keir Starmer would hit Brits with £2,000 tax increases.