Fake news!

The man once called Donald Trump’s “brain” – Steve Bannon – was at Edinburgh International Conference Centre yesterday for a chat with the BBC’S Sarah Smith, who defended his appearance saying he was a “powerful and disruptive” political force.

The person Bannon was very much not chatting with was Nicola Sturgeon, who decided to cancel her appearance on the grounds that giving him a platform risked “legitimising or normalising far-right, racist views”. Good for Scotland’s First Minister. It turned out giving him a platform also meant the spread of straightforward lies. “I think if you look at the elections in the United States, over 50 per cent of the people support us,” Bannon said.

Even if you allow the word “people” to mean “voters”, it’s nonsense. Trump’s 2016 election saw him win 63 million votes, compared with 65.9 million for Hillary Clinton, who lost because of the electoral college system. And the recent nationwide vote for the House of Representatives saw the Republicans lose by an even bigger margin.