The Tories have deceived voters since the General Election campaign started. Here's our top five most embarrassing gaffes.
1. When a Tory candidate asked his friend to pretend to be a swing voter.
Lee Anderson, standing as the Conservative candidate for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, was recorded telling his friend to pretend not to know him.
When Anderson arrived at the house with Daily Mail journalist Michael Crick, his friend loudly told him: "There's no way Labour are ever going to get my vote again!"
The Daily Mail team realised they had recorded him setting up the meeting when they reviewed the footage.
Caught in the act! Meet Lee Anderson, Conservative candidate for Ashfield, who forgets his MailPlus mic is on. Click here to see our film and his ruse to set MailPlus up with unusually friendly voter. https://t.co/0gFSdXnFLk
— Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) November 25, 2019
READ MORE: Tory candidate asks friend to pretend to be swing voter
2. The 'factcheckUK' stunt
The party's press office Twitter account rebranded as "factcheckUK" during the ITV election debate on November 19.
During the head-to-head between Boris Johnson and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the account's display name and profile picture were changed to resemble an online fact checking service. The username @CCHQ remained the same and the accounts bio read: "Fact checking Labour from CCHQ."
READ MORE: Tories blasted after Twitter account deception
Twitter issued a statement saying the party had “misled” people and promised “decisive corrective action” if any similar incident occurred. The company does not appear to have taken any action over this incident.
3. When the Tories set up a fake Labour manifesto website
THE Conservatives set up a website that claims to contain Labour's manifesto last week.
The party attempted to trick voters looking for the document by paying Google to promote the website labourmanifesto.co.uk towards the top of its results for people searching for the opposition plan.
Other than having the domain name “labourmanifesto.co.uk”, the new website features a picture of Jeremy Corbyn at the top and the headline “Labour’s 2019 manifesto”.
4. When Matt Hancock refused to admit there will not be 50,000 more nurses after Brexit.
HEALTH Secretary Matt Hancock insisted there will be 50,000 more nurses and 40 new hospitals under a Conservative government, despite claims the opposite is true.
The veracity of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s General Election manifesto promises have been called into question, with Labour saying the nursing figure was disingenuous when it included 19,000 nurses who the Tories wanted to re-train, and another 12,000 from overseas.
Pressed on whether there will be 50,000 more nurses than the current number, Hancock said: “Precisely. 50,000 more nurses. There’s currently just over 280,000 nurses in the NHS and our commitment is to take that to just over 330,000 nurses in the NHS.”
READ MORE: Matt Hancock stands by Tory manifesto pledges despite claims of ‘deceit’
Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan joined Hancock in Westminster and said there are “lots of different ways” to make sure that in 2025 there will be “50,000 more nurses”.
5. When they claimed an old video referred to the Labour manifesto launch
THE Tories posted a video of Labour politician Jess Phillips (bizarrely described as a Jeremy Corbyn ally) talking about how all politicians fail to deliver on their pledges.
It was from October, weeks before the Labour manifesto was announced, but the party presented it as if it was referring to its launch.
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