The Science and Technology Secretary was forced to defend a highly misleading clip posted by the Labour Party.
Labour ‘misleading’ over Reform social media post
A top Labour minister was called out by a Sky News host after the party published a highly misleading clip of Reform UK’s by-election candidate on social media. Following Reform announcing their candidate as broadcaster and academic Matthew Goodwin, Labour immediately began attempting to discredit their opponent.
The party published a video on social media showing Mr Goodwin saying: “I was lucky enough – or unfortunate enough – to be in Manchester a few days ago, and the energy in this room is ten times what it was in Manchester!” Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell – a Manchester MP – blasted: “Trot on… you aren’t welcome in Manchester next time either.” However it quickly emerged that Mr Goodwin had not been referring to Manchester the city, but to the Conservative Party conference that had been held there that year.
Mr Goodwin was announced yesterday (Image: Getty)
This morning top Labour minister Liz Kendal was called out over the deliberately misleading clip, with Sky News host Sophie Ridge condemning it as “really misleading”.
“He’s talking about the Conservative conference,” she said. “He’s not talking about Manchester is he?”
The science and technology secretary stuttered, as she insisted: “I’ve only just seen that. I think the party is right to call out people and their views.
“I don’t know what he’s referring to there, that was a very brief clip, you’ll forgive me until I look into that. But I do think it’s absolutely right that we call out different parties for what they do.”
Ms Ridge interrupted to say parties should do so “accurately”.
This morning Keir Starmer claimed Mr Goodwin and Reform UK would “tear people apart”, and accused them of failing to address the most pressing concern of voters.
Keir Starmer claimed Reform’s candidate will ‘tear people apart’ (Image: Getty)
Speaking to GB News the Prime Minister claimed: “There’s only one party can stop Reform, and that’s the Labour Party.
“And we can already see what the by-election is going to be about, which is Labour values, which are about delivering, focusing on the cost of living, with a strong record actually, of that constituency, of what we’ve already done versus Reform.
“You can see from their candidates what politics they’re going to bring to that constituency, the politics of division, of toxic division and tearing people apart.
“That is not what that constituency is. That’s not what Manchester is about.
“So this is a straight fight between Labour and Reform, and there’s only one party that can stop the politics of Reform in the by election, and that’s the Labour Party.”
