LABOUR’S shadow Scottish secretary has accused the Tory Foreign Secretary of spreading “fake news” about him.
Ian Murray, the only Labour MP in Scotland, hit out at James Cleverly after the top Tory claimed that he was among the politicians to have called for the UK’s nuclear weapon stockpile to be decommissioned.
Cleverly shared a Daily Mail article which claimed in its headline: “More than a dozen members of Labour's front bench call for Britain to scrap its nuclear deterrent.”
The article, which used an image of Murray, said he was in a group of Labour shadow ministers who back “unilateral disarmament through the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW)”.
The treaty says signatories – which do not include the UK – will “not to develop, test, produce, acquire, possess, stockpile, use or threaten to use nuclear weapons”.
The Daily Mail reported that Murray and a host of other Labour politicians “signed an Early Day Motion [EDM] in 2021 calling on the UK to support the TPNW and 'bring forward a credible and timetabled plan for the disarmament of the UK's nuclear weapons'”.
After Cleverly shared the article and claimed it showed “Labour would make our country weaker”, Murray hit back.
You are using an article with fake claims to make fake news. You’re supposed to be Foreign Sec for F sake. Please post the EDM the story claims I’ve signed. Is our country safe if you can’t even bother to check facts? Despicable & desperate. Our support of NATO is unshakable. https://t.co/MBSlWgljDb
— Ian Murray MP (@IanMurrayMP) July 12, 2023
“You are using an article with fake claims to make fake news,” the MP wrote. “You’re supposed to be Foreign Sec for F sake.
“Please post the EDM the story claims I’ve signed.
“Is our country safe if you can’t even bother to check facts? Despicable and desperate. Our support of NATO is unshakable.”
Murray added afterwards: “They’ve absolutely nothing left to offer but making things up as they [go] along.”
Parliamentary records of EDMs show that only one motion from 2021 mentioned the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It was tabled by SNP MP Kirsten Oswald and did garner cross-party support from 58 MPs, but Murray was not among them.
Furthermore, it does not include the phrase “bring forward a credible and timetabled plan for the disarmament of the UK's nuclear weapons” – which was quoted in the Daily Mail article.
Cleverly has previously come under fire for his use of social media after he posted a Simpsons GIF to attack Humza Yousaf.
SNP depute leader Keith Brown said at the time: “Presumably this made sense in someone’s head. That the ‘Right Honourable Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs’ thought it was a good idea, tells us where the Tories are at these days.”
The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.
