Conservative election strategists were accused last night of promoting “fake news” in an attempt to discredit Jeremy Corbyn in an online attack video.
Labour said that the Tories had edited comments made by Mr Corbyn to suggest that he refused to condemn IRA bombing campaigns. The 85-second montage of quotes by Mr Corbyn has been available online for the past week and has been viewed 5.3 million times. In it Mr Corbyn is shown during an appearance on Sky News last month when Sophy Ridge, the interviewer, asked whether he could “condemn unequivocally the IRA”.
The Labour leader told her: “Look, bombing is wrong, all bombing is wrong, of course I condemn it.” Ridge responded: “But you’re condemning all bombing, can you condemn the IRA?” Mr Corbyn said: “No.”
In the Tory video the clip was cut off there but in fact Mr Corbyn continued: “No, I think what you have to say is all bombing has to be condemned and you have to bring about a peace process. Listen, in the 1980s Britain was looking for a military solution, it clearly was never going to work. Ask anyone in the British army at the time . . . I condemn all the bombing by the loyalists and the IRA.”
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn told The Guardian: “The Conservatives are running a hateful campaign based on smears, innuendo and fake news.”