You might call it a punishment to fit the crime.
The Tories’ chairman has been monstered on ITV’s Good Morning Britain for releasing a doctored video – of someone, er, being ‘monstered’ on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
James Cleverly was savaged by host Piers Morgan for cynically editing footage of Labour on the previous day’s edition of the breakfast TV show.
In a car crash interview, Mr Cleverly spent more than 10 minutes trying to pretend a “fake news lie” of Keir Starmer talking about Brexit was not doctored, when it clearly was to anyone who has eyes.
In the end he tried to shut down host Piers Morgan and leave for a different interview – as he said exasperated: “For goodness sake Piers, let me finish!”
Well, the person the Tories didn’t let finish was Mr Starmer.
Yesterday’s original GMB interview saw Piers Morgan ask the Shadow Brexit Secretary why he thought the EU would give Labour a good deal, if there was a risk they’d campaign against it in a second referendum.
The doctored video, viewed well over a million times, inserted several seconds of video showing Sir Keir’s face in silence – apparently after the question.
But in reality, Sir Keir immediately replied: “Well, Piers, I have been talking to the EU, to political leaders across the EU 27 countries for the last three years, and I know very well what the parameters are of any deal they would do with a Labour government.
“We actually explored some of it in the cross-party talks that we were in with the government six months or so ago.
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“So I know that a customs union and single market alignment, and protection of workers’ rights and environmental rights and consumer rights is something that can be negotiated.”
Mr Cleverly was also slammed over the video by the BBC today, where Radio 4 host Nick Robinson told him: “You put something out deliberately to mislead.”
But by far the most scathing criticism was from Piers Morgan – who said James Cleverly’s “shameless” refusal to accept the video was doctored was “staggering”.
“You seem completely unconcerned,” he raged at the Tory HQ chief. “The Conservative Party website, the official one, posted a fake video, that had a fake moment that never happened, on TV.
“If you’re prepared to do that on day one of a campaign, why should we believe any video or anything that you guys put up?”
James Cleverly insisted: “The official Conservative Campaign HQ Twitter account put out your video.
“What we did is because we wanted to make sure the video was short and punchy we had to take out an awful lot of the waffle.”
Mr Cleverly neglected to mention that CCHQ only shared the full interview after criticism about its doctored version.
“He did answer the question. You may not like the answer!” Piers Morgan told him. “You changed the video… It’s misleading and it’s a lie!”
Even a Tory candidate apologised last night after sharing the video.
Johnny Mercer said: “It would appear this has inexplicably been doctored at the end. I apologise and will remove it. The original interview was bad enough.”
Piers Morgan said: “Johnny Mercer, who retweeted the fake one, has now put a grovelling apology out on his Twitter account for putting out basically a lie.
“And I’m staggered frankly that you’re not prepared to sit here – you’ve always struck me as an honourable, straight talker – how can you defend this? It’s fake news!”
Mr Morgan added he was “talking a load of flannel” and “defending fake news.”
Yet Mr Cleverly continued to defend the fake video in a cringeworthy exchange.
He said: “In the whole of that exchange, Sir Keir Starmer who is the Shadow Brexit Secretary was unable to credibly explain Labour’s Brexit position. That’s why we had to shorten the video.
“I would suggest that if people want to see the full video they can go to the official CCHQ Twitter feed.”
Asked if the party doctored the video, Mr Cleverly said: “We edited the video just like you edit stuff on your programme.”
Eventually after several interruptions he snapped: “For goodness sake Piers, let me finish!
“I’ve now got to go to the next studio for the next interview. We’ve already overrun.”
In other news, the Tory election campaign will finally launch today when Boris Johnson gives a street in Downing Street and a West Midlands rally.
For the avoidance of doubt, our video in this story was edited for length.
