Election 2019: Tories backtrack over claim aide was punched at Leeds Hospital
The Conservatives have been forced to backtrack over claims a government aide was punched by a Labour activist during an altercation at Leeds General Infirmary.
Health secretary Matt Hancock had been visiting the hospital after pictures emerged of a four-year old boy with suspected pneumonia sleeping on the hospital floor with coats for cover.
However, Labour activists turned up at the hospital in order to protest the Conservatives who are blamed for cutting resources to the NHS as a result of austerity.
Multiple journalists have reported that the aide had been punched in the face after the two groups met.
However a video later emerged showing the adviser brushing into a protester’s arm.
West Yorkshire Police waded in, saying they were “unaware” of any reports of violence.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell tweeted: “Johnson and the Tories lie and they cheat to manipulate the media. A sick child treated on the floor of a hospital and they try divert attention with a dead cat lie story. Never has our politics sunk so low in our country since Johnson took over.”
Hancock’s intervention comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson was criticised for his tone-deaf response to the picture of Jack Williment-Barr.
Johnson has repeatedly dodged the matter, instead offering a general apologie to anyone who has had a bad experience in A&E. He has also pledged to invest more in the NHS, and framed it as an issue relating to the Brexit delay.
Johnson even took a journalist’s phone away during an interview, rather than look at the picture.
Main image: Getty