Tories slate Labour political broadcast for using actors – just as THEY did. And the claims are true
Not actors: One of Labour’s claims involved NHS patients being left on trolleys in corridors for hours at a time. Here’s photographic evidence of it – and these people aren’t actors.
Comedy Conservative James Cleverly has an extremely short memory – or he thinks we have.
He was among several Tories who tried to attack Labour for a new party political broadcast that highlights the plight of the National Health Service – using actors.
Shock! Horror!
But didn’t the Conservatives use actor Charlie Watson in a recently-aborted campaign to whitewash Universal Credit? Yes they did. And when did that happen? Only two weeks ago.
Here’s the Conservative Party’s tweet about it – they even went to the lengths of putting together a video clip:
We wouldn't normally share a Labour TV ad.
But we can't let them get away with this 👇 pic.twitter.com/fnp2cDUw7c
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) February 13, 2019
And here’s Mr Cleverly’s not-very-cleverly tweet:
Labour is going to desperate lengths to try to weaponise our #NHS & talk down the amazing work it does. The fact they had to use actors to deliver this scaremongering tells you a lot.
@Conservatives have given our NHS an extra £20bn, the biggest cash funding increase in history pic.twitter.com/POF3G0knQe— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) February 13, 2019
Here’s the Labour PPB. Pay particular attention to the very first line of text:
This is what the NHS crisis looks like.
Here’s an exclusive look at our latest political broadcast. pic.twitter.com/9CQ9qaWfwb— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) February 13, 2019
James, here, hammers the point home, in response to the Tories’ ridiculous attempt to use the casting call against Labour:
https://twitter.com/James4Labour/status/1095783558252244993
He went on to say the information in the Labour film gave a true representation of the current NHS crisis. But you don’t have to take James’s word for it.
Here’s Tom Kibasi, director of the progressive think tank IPPR, with an entire Twitter thread explaining the facts Labour’s actors were conveying:
CLAIM: NHS staff are "Exhausted, overworked, undervalued"
FACT: 58% worked additional unpaid hours, 43% were satisfied with how their organisation values their work, & 38% report20d feeling unwell due to work related stress. (NHS Staff Survey 2017)
VERDICT: True
(2/20)
— Tom Kibasi (@TomKibasi) February 13, 2019
CLAIM: "they ain’t got the staff"
FACT: Total workforce vacancy rate of 8.7 per cent in 2018/19 Q2. It translates to 102,000 vacancies in the quarter. It is worse for nurses at 11.6 per cent. (NHS Improvement)
VERDICT: True
(4/20)
— Tom Kibasi (@TomKibasi) February 13, 2019
CLAIM: "There’s people on trolleys, in the corridors, for hours on end?"
FACT: In January 2018, 81,000 patients waited for 4-12 hours on trolleys, and 1,000 waited more than 12 hours (Kings Fund).
VERDICT: True
(6/20)
— Tom Kibasi (@TomKibasi) February 13, 2019
CLAIM: "Last year, 25,000 operations were cancelled due to the winter crisis."
FACT: In Q4 of 2017/18, 25,502 elective operations were cancelled, 1.3 per cent of elective admissions, the highest on record. (NHS England 2018)
VERDICT: True
(8/20)
— Tom Kibasi (@TomKibasi) February 13, 2019
CLAIM: "someone who’s waited six months for an operation it’s been
cancelled again"FACT: 11.6% of patients were not treated within 28 days of having their surgery cancelled (NHSE 2019).
VERDICT: True
(10/20)
— Tom Kibasi (@TomKibasi) February 13, 2019
CLAIM: "Hundreds of GP surgeries have closed under this Govt affecting more than a million patients"
FACT: 202 GP practices closed or merged in the year to June 2017, while only 8 opened. The million figure was extrapolated from FOI requests (Pulse 2018)
VERDICT: True
(12/20)
— Tom Kibasi (@TomKibasi) February 13, 2019
CLAIM: There’s not enough practice nurses or receptionists.
FACT: There were 23,135 practice nurses and 50,512 receptionists in Sept 2018. (NHS Digital 2018). This implies GPs are under-leveraged with less than one nurse per GP.
VERDICT: True
(14/20)
— Tom Kibasi (@TomKibasi) February 13, 2019
CLAIM: "That’s if you can get to one, if it [A&E] hasn’t been closed, or “downgraded”."
FACT: FullFact say this is speculative, since A&Es haven't closed. There are, however, multiple plans for some A&Es to be closed or 'downgraded'.
VERDICT: Partially true
(16/20)
— Tom Kibasi (@TomKibasi) February 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/TomKibasi/status/1095762772158238725
CLAIM: "Health and social care cuts have been linked to 120,000 excess deaths in England."
FACT: 2017 BMJ study shows correlation between austerity & excess deaths (this does not necessarily mean causation)
VERDICT: True, (but with caution to not over-claim)
(20/20) ENDS
— Tom Kibasi (@TomKibasi) February 13, 2019
Tory supporters have quibbled with some of the points Mr Kibasi makes; they would.
But they can’t say the claims are entirely false, and they can’t say Labour didn’t make clear that actors were being used. Not with any truthfulness, anyway.
Labour can say both about the Tories’ Universal Credit campaign.
And Mr Cleverly? Perhaps someone should suggest that the wisest thing for him to say is nothing at all.
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Back when Blair was still PM an actor who’d appeared in a party political broadcast by the Conservatives told a paper he didn’t support the Conservatives, but he had to take the role after New Labour made it a condition of receiving benefits that you cannot turn down “suitable” work. Seems it’s about what suits the employer not the worker.
it’s cleverly though, cleverly by name, not by nature, sounds like a generic conservative trait
Nasty Tory hypocrites – yet again.