Conservative chiefs faced a “fake news” storm today after party sources wrongly claimed that a Cabinet minister’s aide was punched outside the hospital where a four-year-old boy was photographed lying on the floor.
The row escalated as a senior Tory candidate came under fire for fuelling claims that the picture of ill youngster Jack Williment-Barr itself was staged.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland accepted that an aide to Health Secretary Matt Hancock had not been “punched” after a visit to the hospital where the four-year-old boy was taken with suspected pneumonia.
Mr Hancock had gone to Leeds General Infirmary after Boris Johnson initially refused during an interview to look at a photo of the boy on a journalist’s mobile phone.
The Prime Minister took the phone and put it in his pocket, before returning it and then viewing the picture.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Mr Buckland said there might have been “accidental contact” between a protester’s arm and the aide’s face.
“We have seen the footage. It is clearly not a deliberate punch… but it’s a scene of some sort of public disorder which I think is unacceptable,” he said.
Pressed on whether briefing the “punch” was an attempt to deflect from the photo row, he said the contact “might have been misunderstood by somebody and Chinese whispers develop”.
There have been several “fake news” claims against the Conservatives, including renaming a Twitter account factcheckUK for a leaders’ TV debate and doctoring a video of Sir Keir Starmer. Labour and the Lib Dems have also faced misinformation allegations.
On the “punch”, Jeremy Corbyn tweeted: “Invented by the Tories to divert your attention from a child having to lie on a hospital floor.”
Asked on BBC Breakfast about Jack’s mother saying she did not want his treatment used as a political football, the Labour leader said: “It is obviously awful for that little boy and the family, the way they were treated. It is a political issue, how we fund the NHS.”
The row grew after Tory Michael Fabricant, Lichfield MP since 1997 and seeking re-election, retweeted a Twitter message claiming the boy had been “‘placed’ on the floor for a photo”.
This was flatly rejected by Yorkshire Evening Post journalist Daniel Sheridan, who wrote the original story. He said: “This was in no way staged.”
Mr Buckland said Mr Johnson had apologised and shown “empathy” but Mr Corbyn claimed the row demonstrated he “just doesn’t care”.
