MURDO Fraser has come under fire sharing a video about Nicola Sturgeon that uses "manipulated and out of context" footage from Channel 4.
Journalist Ciaran Jenkins hit out at the Tory MSP for posting a video that falsely claimed a care home worker is a nurse who is looking for answers after the SNP leader's "broken promises".
The video starts with Jackie Baillie questioning the First Minister in Holyrood, saying: "With this government, promises are made to be broken. Her promise to our young people to abolish student debt. Broken. Her promise to parents and teachers to cut class sizes. Broken."
It goes on to say Sturgeon has broken promises relating to council tax, the attainment gap, drugs, student debt, unemployment and child poverty.
Fraser shared the video to his Twitter followers, saying: "This is great."
But Jenkins hit out at the video, saying: "This video features a nurse fighting tears with the implication she works for the NHS and wants ‘answers’ from @NicolaSturgeon.
"In fact, the footage has been taken without permission from one of my TV reports and the woman is not an NHS nurse. She works in a private care home.
"She was crying thinking of the elderly care home residents with Covid who could not be saved.
"We’re all indebted to those with the courage to share these highly personal experiences of the pandemic. The last thing they need is to see them manipulated and used out of context."
This video features a nurse fighting tears with the implication she works for the NHS and wants ‘answers’ from @NicolaSturgeon
— Ciaran Jenkins (@C4Ciaran) March 30, 2021
In fact, the footage has been taken without permission from one of my TV reports and the woman is not an NHS nurse. She works in a private care home. https://t.co/Bs8Y0apZDe
The First Minister has not responded to the video yet.
It comes as the Scottish Tories have responded to accusations they are ashamed of their record on child poverty after one of their Holyrood candidates refused to talk about a proposed benefits increase.
Former MP Stephen Kerr, who is standing for the Conservatives in Falkirk West, was asked by the BBC about the SNP’s plan to double the Scottish Child Payment.
READ MORE: Scottish Tories respond to election candidate dodging child poverty question
Despite telling a Reporting Scotland journalist that he was there to talk about “rebuilding Scotland”, Kerr declined to talk about the anti-poverty proposals.
Kerr was quizzed about the Child Payment increase during an interview on a building site in Coatbridge. He said: “Today we are talking about rebuilding Scotland not breaking up Scotland. There’ll be other days when we talk about our response to that.”
The SNP suggested the Conservatives want to avoid the subject of child poverty at all costs, pointing to Marcus Rashford’s successful campaigns to force the UK Government to provide free school meals to children in England.
A Scottish Conservative spokesman told The National: "This SNP fake news and phoney grievance is a desperate attempt to distract voters from the appalling record of SNP government and their betrayal of children across Scotland."
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