 free conservative MPs have shared a video which purported to show that Labour leader Keir Starmer had been dismissive of the victims of child sexual exploitation when he was director of public prosecutions. So the MPs in question were Lucy Allen. So she's quote tweeting this tweet from N. James World. We'll look at the original tweet in a moment. She says, this suggests a total failure to understand grooming, a dismissive attitude toward child sexual exploitation and a belief that the victims brought it on themself. So quote tweeting the same tweet, Maria Corfield MP wrote, the true face of Labour leader, hashtag shameful and Nadine Doris, who was a shadow health minister, quote tweeted the video saying revealing. Now at least those first two tweets, it seems like something very serious. Obviously, if he had been dismissive of victims of child sexual exploitation, that would be appalling. Let's look at the tweet they were sharing. So this is the video that all three of these Tory MPs shared were made included the assumption that a victim of child sexual abuse will swiftly report what's happened to them to the police, will be able to give a coherent and consistent account first time that they will not themselves have engaged in any offending or other behavior, and that they will not have misused drugs or alcohol at any stage. So that video is presented as saying, this is why or this is how Keir Starmer approached child sexual exploitation. So it's saying Keir Starmer would only accept a witness to child sexual abuse if they had swiftly reported the abuse had given a consistent account from the first report had not themselves broken the law or use drugs and alcohol. Now that would be pretty shocking. And also that is how the state has functioned and it is incredibly shocking. But that video of Keir Starmer is completely misleading and also obviously so. I don't think the MPs really can claim ignorance in this moment. But let's look at the full clip now. Just how much of an acknowledgement is this that the methods you've been using up until now, albeit everyone has been working very hard, but the methods you've been using up until now just have been really in the wrong mindset and so misguided. These guidelines are a recognition that the approach that's been taken in the past was the wrong approach. It was based on a number of assumptions which don't withstand scrutiny. The guidelines change that and they require the police and prosecutors to focus intensely on the allegation actually being made and not so much on the weaknesses or vulnerabilities that are invariably there in some of the victims that come forward. Could you just expand a little on what you mean by the kind of things that were going wrong? Just give us some kind of obvious examples of how the previous guidelines weren't really up to standard. The assumptions that were made included the assumption that a victim of child sexual abuse will swiftly report what's happened to them to the police, will be able to give a coherent and consistent account first time, that they will not themselves have engaged in any offending or other behaviour and that they will not have misused drugs or alcohol at any stage. Those assumptions do not withstand scrutiny. They've got to change. The guidelines make that clear and so this is a clear break with the past. So I mean it couldn't be clearer. Kia Sama was saying this is how it used to work and this is precisely why we're changing our guidelines and what these Tory MPs have shared is the bit where he says this is how it used to work and they're saying that's his justification for how he was operating in the CPS. So it's a complete reversal of what actually happened and I mean this Nadine Doris at least she's a government minister. She's a health minister. She should have very important things to do at the moment without sharing nonsense fake news about the leader of the opposition. Well she should but would you trust Nadine Doris with very important things to do? That's true. God that's terrifying isn't it actually that she is a health minister. I often think of her just as a sort of joke character but that she does have a position of responsibility is absolutely terrifying. So I mean I quite recently had had a clip go viral around far right Twitter around the yes lads we're winning right where it was clipped out of context and in the context it would show you that I'm taking the piss out with a very view which is then being assigned to me when it's taken out of that context and set center around. Now the reason why it's able to go so far is because it's being propped up by an existing ecosystem of hatred bigotry and far right ideology. Anyone with the you know faint and semblance of media literacy would have even looked at that clip and gone well she's clearly being facetious right so she can't be seen to genuinely mean what she's saying because of her delivery. Now if you look at Keir Starmer's even the edited clip it's very clear that he's saying these worthy assumptions being made so you have to be really willing somebody to embody the worst characteristics that you have already assigned to them in order for you to make that mistake. So it's not something which is born simply a ignorance it's really building on something that's already there and that's how these clips go viral and what's worrying is that what had once been you know a sometimes flimsy and other times a robust firewall between the establishment parliamentary right and the extreme far right has completely been decimated in part because of Brexit but also because of you know Boris Johnson's willingness to shift his party in that direction you know speak to that cohort of Britain and you know at best turn a blind eye and at worst encourage those views amongst his own MPs and so you've got you know sort of clusters of MPs who've kind of always been flirting with a very strange kind of you know white nationalist conspiratorial resentment who are ideal candidates to platform and signal boost this kind of you know falsified conspiracy theory regarding Keir Starmer. Now what's really good is that Keir Starmer has enough pull with the media at this moment in time to be able to have you know those who are sympathetic towards him rebut this view it's you know deleted by Nadine Doherty and so on and so forth that no apology has been forthcoming yet and it hasn't damaged him at the level of mainstream media just yet but we're still very early into his leadership and if we've got senior conservatives playing this dirty now when we're still four years out officially from an election and you've also got that kind of you know you know what's that fascist ecology of conspiracy theories and rumours already having a decent amount of traction both on the internet and making their way onto the conservative you know government benches that's worrying. I'm just going to go to a couple of past tweets from Nadine Doherty because she does have form she has form sorry that's the phrase isn't it in terms of tweeting far-right accounts and being basically awful online so let's get up this first one I think it's from 2018 is it can we get out this tweet so she says ministers are you having a laugh and what she's doing is quoting there another far-right accounts this one of Keir Starmer was also a far-right account saying Muslims can receive benefits for multiple wives just that's from the 17th of September 2018 obviously you know that's a Tommy Robinson supporting account anyone who's not a complete idiot can recognize that so either she isn't a complete idiot and she shouldn't have a position of responsibility in the British government or she is actively sharing far-right material potentially both yeah I think those two do often go together actually don't know it's strong theory there Ash and our next tweet our next piece of evidence so here she is quote tweeting a video from Sadiq Khan back in 2018 so his I think video is about hate speech and she says how about it's time to act on sex-abusing grooming gangs instead hashtag Telford grooming hashtag Rotherham hashtag priorities hashtag leadership now Sadiq Khan is mayor of London he's from London we know his dad was a bus driver so what does he have with Telford grooming or the appalling grooming that was going on in in Rotherham what possible reason could she be quote tweeting Sadiq Khan to say that other than that he is a high-profile Muslim politician no other explanation that tweet hasn't even been deleted by the way so this is a health minister currently in government who has quite obviously abused the most high-profile Muslim politician in the country and that scene is completely acceptable appalling the political response to these tweets there's also an issue here I thought in terms of when this was first shared this could be a good opportunity for Keir Starmer to clear the air because we know that these videos are going to be going viral during this period especially on WhatsApp groups potentially undergrounds you know people will see that clip and you know without any context they might think oh that is pretty bad maybe Keir Starmer doesn't care about grooming maybe he's someone who really dismisses girls who've been sexually abused and I thought because it's been a you know he can maybe take Nadine Doris to court he can get her to apologize publicly get a bit of profile on it and so that that will mean that it will have been a story that is publicly debunked but he didn't he didn't go for that I suppose I'll ask you Aaron if you think that was a missed opportunity on his part so let's get up this graphic which was what the Downing Street spokesman said so this was the response to Nadine Doris from the Conservative Party these tweets have rightly been deleted the MPs involved have been spoken to by the whips office and reminded of their responsibility to check the validity of information before they post on social media sites now that could not be a weaker reprimand check the validity of information before they first post on social media now that's like that you know that seems like they've posted that oh sorry the local I'm a constituency MP and the local news agent is there's been an accident there blah blah blah not sharing some far-right video which is obviously doctored which is smearing the leader of the opposition in the middle of a national crisis that that's ridiculous but then this is Labour's response this is also from that BBC article so Keir said he was satisfied with the actions taken by the party and the MPs who have deleted the tweets there are more important thing in the world to concentrate on than a doctored video of me he added now I mean from my perspective obviously there are more important things in the world to concentrate on than a doctored video of Keir Starmer but also I mean there are plenty of libel lawyers in the world who aren't currently working on coronavirus so whilst yes Keir Starmer should be focused on coronavirus there's nothing wrong with outsourcing that particular job to clear the air on this and to make sure that Nadine Doris has to face more consequences and getting this most minor slap on the wrist that says you have to check the validity of information before tweeting a far-right account I mean come on sir Keir ring ring pondicata rock I thought he was a prosecutor Aaron what do you think about this no I agree with you I think they should have made an example of her you need to create what you know what we'd call an electric fence so just just do not share ridiculous things about Keir Starmer because you know what happens in Nadine Doris she ended up in court and she had to publicly apologize but alas no but I agree with you from the perspective of political strategy I think it's an inestitute thing to just ignore it won't go away it will keep on happening Keir Starmer's bet is that he'll be sufficiently Teflon to deal with it I mean I think that's partially true I mean what's interesting is you watch that video and you go wow this guy is a knight of the realm he's the former head of the DPP and he's just he comes across so measured and so dull right which is what you want in a DPP you want a sort of quite a straight down the line procedural bureaucrat effectively you're administering a really important part of the state you don't want Jeff Goldblum is what you're trying to say but even this guy who couldn't be more dour you know these lunatics like Nadine Doris have to present as kind of this unhinged leftist like he's happy with grooming is like this this person his personality couldn't be and I have political misgivings about Keir Starmer range of areas he couldn't be further away from what you're trying to present him as so I think and and this is gonna be a real correctives a lot of people you saw James O'Brien saying oh they're attacking him because he really dismantled Boris Johnson at the MQ's no they will do this to any Labour leader Ed Miliband Gordon Brown people forget they did it with Tony Blair at the beginning of Tony Blair's leadership of the Labour Party his son went to the oratory school it's a grant maintaining school it's not a public school in London and the right wing media tried to tear him apart and he was he was actually really personally hurt by the whole thing Sherry Blair farm also they will try and John Major was just so bad ultimately and Blair was actually pretty good it didn't really wash but they're going to try this again and again and again with Keir Starmer and like I say his bet is he can he can push back on it but we have to remember Tony Blair the mid 90s was a very different technological era and like you say we don't know the extent to which this goes through WhatsApp and back channels and so on those aren't public facing media and so I think you're absolutely right he should have made an example of her yeah I mean I suppose the difference here is that if this was Jeremy Corbyn then you would have had some Labour backbenches tweeted and then it would have become a news story because no one in the mainstream media would have had any interest in debunking it whereas because it's Keir Starmer and they think he's a respectable politician they will rally around him in a way that they never did with the previous leader of the Labour Party who had you know smeary videos tweeted about him all the time and they would always become a big news story because it would be Labour backbenches that would force it onto the front pages because people say well if Labour MPs think it's serious then it must be serious but also don't forget right Corbyn's chances in 2017 after two years of being produced in the media and Corbyn's chances in 2019 after four years of being produced in the media were two very different things 2017 he nearly becomes Prime Minister 2019 it is electoral decimation so in terms of how Keir Starmer should play this it's does he want to intervene when there is perhaps less leniency for him in the media when perhaps for whatever reason there could be more you know factional infighting in the Labour Party or much more you know aggressive styles of interrogation at PMQs you know or does he want that kind of you know underground you know underground far-right media ecology to have reached a tipping point before he intervenes I'm of the view of nip it in the bud make an example of Nadine Doris and it means you can tackle these things absolutely head on and you do it at a time when you have the most media support that you will probably ever have as leader of the opposition even from you know newspapers like The Telegraph you know you can't bank on that two three four years down the line and for Labour leaders who have you know held on to the leadership for the bulk of a full parliamentary term it's been pretty bleak when it comes to recent elections so for me it's a matter of strategy it's not a matter of Keir Starmer's politics and I understand that he wants to come across as rising above the fray as statesmen like you know with a sense perspective but I think that this could grow very ugly I think that it it will grow very ugly and I think that he has to crack down as hard as he can as soon as he can