Welsh Tory MP ‘likes’ fact-checking tweet in latest social media blow for Govt

A Welsh Tory MP liking an anti-government tweet is the latest social media blow to the Conservatives.

Janet Finch-Saunders liked a tweet which contained a video fact-checking several claims made by Boris Johnson since he became prime minister.

The video, which was put together by lawyer Peter Stefanovic, discussed the government’s record on emissions reductions, economic growth, nurses’ bursaries, hospital car parking, NHS spending, the Covid-19 track and trace app, and poverty in the UK.

Stefanovic shared it with the caption: “Despite an almost complete media blackout from spineless UK news channels, the public has sent this soaring 33.4 million views!

“If it’s rattling journalists and ruffling feathers now, just imagine when it hits 50 million! Let’s keep going!”

He later added: “I’ve got the stamina to keep going if you have. Let me know you’re with me,” a tweet which Finch-Saunders ‘liked’.

NHS chief executive’s ‘like’

It comes as last month NHS England’s chief executive ‘liked’ another tweet from Stefanovic, which labelled the government as “slippery, cheating and law breaking”.

Amanda Pritchard, who has been negotiating with ministers over future NHS budget, liked the tweet which linked to a story by The Independent on a government ‘playbook’ telling NHS hospitals to claim new wings and refurbishments are “new hospitals”.

The Department of Health and Social Care was accused of misleading the public over the Tories’ election promise to open 48 new hospitals by the end of the decade.

Stefanovic reacted to the story: “Lie after lie after lie. Just how the hell is Johnson’s slippery, cheating, law breaking government getting away with it?”.

Pritchard withdrew the ‘like’ after it was noticed by several Twitter users, but screenshots of it were still widely shared.

An NHS England spokesperson told The Independent that the ‘like’ was an ‘accident’ on the part of a team monitoring her account.

Nurses claim

Last month, Stefanovic has also challenged chancellor Rishi sunak’s claim that the Tories will contribute “50,000 more nurses, 20,000 more police officers and 40 new hospitals”.

He showed a clip where Boris Johnson was asking his cabinet members to repeat the figures after him, and said “Johnson’s zombie training session clearly made an impact on the chancellor.”

Then, Stefanovic went on to say that the prime minister himself admitted to Sophy Ridge on Sky News that in fact, only 31,000 nurses of the 50,000 pledged in the Tory manifesto have actually been new.

He added the government’s “levelling up agenda is based on the premise the entire country has suffered some type of collective amnesia and just forgotten” that the Tories have been in power for more than a decade.

Speaking to TLE earlier this year, Stefanovic said: “My background is in law. The very foundation of our legal system depends on trust, credibility and honesty. The same principle should apply to our political institutions.”

Andra Maciuca

Andra is a multilingual, award-winning NQJ senior journalist and the UK’s first Romanian representing co-nationals in Britain and reporting on EU citizens for national news. She is interested in UK, EU and Eastern European affairs, EU citizens in the UK, British citizens in the EU, environmental reporting, ethical consumerism and corporate social responsibility. She has contributed articles to VICE, Ethical Consumer and The New European and likes writing poetry, singing, songwriting and playing instruments. She studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield and has a Masters in International Business and Management from the University of Manchester. Follow her on: