LAURA Kuenssberg was forced to issue a clarification about a claim made by Grant Shapps during his interview on Sunday morning.
The Cabinet Secretary was quizzed over Johnson’s honours list, specifically whether some names had been removed by Rishi Sunak’s team.
Shapps denied claims the Tories were trying to “pack the Lords” with Conservative supporters.
At the end of his interview, the Energy Secretary claimed: “I think Gordon Brown in his resignation list appointed 50 new peers, 50 new people to the House of Lords.
Surprise, surprise the Tories are lying that Gordon Brown had a resignation honours list.#bbclaurak - "Gordon Brown actually had a dissolution honours list, which gave rewards to members of all political parties."#Ridge pic.twitter.com/IM9ehJnCHZ
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) June 11, 2023
“We’ve seen a very small list actually from this current list. I actually think the system if anything is a bit too slow to reflect the political realities of people voting in a particular direction.”
However, later on in the show, Kuenssberg was forced to issue a small “clarification”.
She explained: “For all you political pub quiz champions out there, you might have noticed it already, Grant Shapps said that Gordon Brown had a resignation honours list.
“In fact, he had a dissolution honours list, which actually gave rewards to members of all political parties.
“We like to make nerds happy on a Sunday morning so that clarification is something you can entertain your friends and relatives with throughout the day.”
Glad to see this was - almost - corrected later in the same programme, but I don't think a cabinet minister telling blatant lies on national TV is something that only concerns "political nerds" like me. https://t.co/aw6nTr2CwS
— Kevin Schofield (@KevinASchofield) June 11, 2023
Shapps also said the Conservatives and those outside the party do not miss the “drama” that came with Boris Johnson’s leadership.
Asked whether the Privileges Committee partygate inquiry into the former PM was a witch hunt, Shapps replied: “No, I don’t think that is true. I really like Boris and I worked very closely with him and thought he had many qualities.
“I think people both in the Conservative Party and outside don’t miss the drama of it all.
“What we’ve got now with Rishi Sunak in Downing Street is getting on with the job, Downing Street under new management as it were, getting on with people’s priorities.”
He said he had “no reason” to think the Privileges probe was akin to a “kangaroo court”, as suggested by Johnson in his resignation statement.
