Steel attacks role of spin doctors

VIOLENCE:. Former Liberal Party leader David Steel has launched a stinging attack on modern day politics, hitting out at the role of spin doctors.

It comes as the Conservative Party came under fire for rebranding one of their official Twitter accounts, run by their press office, as a fact-checking service during Tuesday night’s televised election debate.

FORMER LIBERAL Party leader David Steel has launched a stinging attack on modern day politics, hitting out at the role of spin doctors.

Lord Steel insisted the increasing role of spin doctors – such as Boris Johnson’s adviser Dominic Cummings – is to be “deplored”.

And he blasted the role they do, saying: “They hand out questions for MPs to ask and they daily bombard party activists by email with ‘lines to take’.”

It comes as the Conservative Party came under fire for rebranding one of their official Twitter accounts, run by their press office, as a fact-checking service during Tuesday night’s televised election debate between Mr Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn.

Twitter issued a sharp rebuke that “any further attempts to mislead people” would result in “decisive corrective action” after the party’s verified press office account was temporarily renamed “factcheckUK”.

The Electoral Commission – the official elections watchdog – also issued a warning saying voters were entitled to expect

“transparency and integrity” from campaigners.

Senior party figures brushed off the controversy, saying it was part of their “instant rebuttal” mechanism to challenge “nonsense” claims made by Mr Corbyn , including on the accusation the Tories wanted to sell off the health service.

However opposition parties accused the Tories of adopting the tactics of Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin to deliberately mislead the public.

Lord Steel said: “All of this contributes to the diminution of individual expression or even thought in politics.

“Little wonder that the paidup membership of the United Kingdom political parties is in decline.”

He spoke out as he made a plea for constitutional reform in the UK, calling for the House of Lords to be replaced with a “more useful” second chamber.

And he also argued for there to be a written constitution.

Lord Steel was giving the Charles Kennedy lecture in Fort William, in memory of the former Liberal Democrat leader who died in 2015, shortly after losing his seat in the House of Commons.

He said he wished he – like Mr Kennedy – had opposed the Liberal

Democrats’ move into coalition with the Conservatives in 2010.

Lord Steel recalled how he had dinner with Mr Kennedy on the eve of the 2015 General Election, saying he “confessed that I had quietly abstained on the issue of the Con-Lib coalition and wished in retrospect that like him I had opposed it”.

He went on to speak about the “reduction in standards” in politics, arguing the centrepiece Commons exchanges at Prime Minister’s Question Time have now “become Prime Minister’s Insult Time, with the two protagonists exchanging well rehearsed sound bites”.

Lord Steel said: “The rot set in when the Chamber became televised and Prime Minister’s Questions became the subject of weekly electoral entertainment rather than genuine scrutiny of Government.”

Little wonder that the paid-up membership of political parties is in decline.

Lord Steel, former leader of the Liberal Party.