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Nadine Dorries slammed for sharing misleading video of Keir Starmer from far-right Twitter account

Health minister Nadine Dorries outside NHS Nightgale Hospital in London; Stefan Rousseau, PA Wire/PA Images - Credit: PA

Junior health minister Nadine Dorries has come under fire for tweeting a misleading video of Sir Keir Starmer which originated from a far-right Twitter account.

Tory MP Nadine Dorries’s tweet of a misleading video of Sir Keir Starmer talking about grooming victims that originated from a far-right Twitter account; Twitter – Credit: Archant

Dorries, alongside Tory MPs Nadine Dorries and Maria Caulfield, posted a video of Sir Keir allegedly explaining why he felt grooming gang victims were not credible witnesses to the Crown Prosecution Service on their Twitter account.

Within minutes, the video was proven to have been doctored and that it had originated from a hard-right user’s account.

Dorries’ post, which has since been deleted, said the video was ‘revealing’. Social commentators and Twitter users have slammed the MP on social media.

The Guardian’s politics correspondent Peter Walker took a photo of the post, writing ‘Here’s a screenshot for if/when the tweet is deleted.’

Huffington Post political editor Paul Waugh said: ‘Pretty sure @NadineDorries is going to have to delete and apologise for this soon.’

Others criticised her for deleting the tweet while shying from an apology: ‘Deleted, but how about an apology and an admission of fault for once,’ Joe Dempsey wrote. @FormulaWin, on the other hand, called for her resignation.

A Labour source has since issued a statement clarifying that the was doctored and spread from a far-right social media account. ‘As a government minister, we hope Nadine Dorries acknowledges this and takes it down,’ the source said.

No MP involved in sharing the video has since apologised publicly.

The heavily-edited 22 second clip of Sir Keir apparently shows him saying that grooming victims are unreliable because: ‘A victim of child sexual abuse will swiftly report what’s happened to them to the police; will be able to give a coherent, consistent account, first time; that they will not themselves have engaged in any offending or other behaviour; and that they will not have misused drugs or alcohol at any stage’.

In a fuller video, it turned out that Sir Keir was actually explaining why he had changed the prosecution guidelines which no longer viewed victims unfavourably.

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