‘Leaked Labour messages’ about Corbyn interview arouse suspicions

Ahead of Jeremy Corbyn’s arguably disastrous Andrew Neil interview, in which he repeatedly failed to give a fresh apology for antisemitism within his party, some “leaked” messages supposedly from Labour activists started doing the rounds.

The messages warned that the pre-recorded interview was “truly horrific”, with 10 minute purely on antisemitism during which Mr Corbyn refuses to apologise to the Chief Rabbi.

So far, so good.

Also warning that Mr Neil “ripped apart” Labour’s plans to recompensate Waspi women for the pension age rise, the messages gave a list of list of ways in which Labour activists should respond.

The messages urged Labour activists to “flood all the hashtags relating to the programme” with positive stories, and warned against attacking Mr Neil, admitting the interview had gone badly or referring to the Chief Rabbi’s warnings as “smears”.

Oh, and right at the top of the list of instructions – “don’t share the info I’ve posted outside of here”.

The only problem is, many suggested the person who sent the messages – which were in blue on the right of the screen – was the same person who screenshotted them.

As quickly as some blue-tick journalists pounced on the messages, others questioned their veracity.

While some contended that the person writing the messages and screenshotting them appeared to be one and the same, the platform on which they were posted also divided opinion.

The journalist who shared them - Sky News' technology correspondent Rowland Manthorpe - has pointed out the messages could have been screenshotted on another platform before the image containing the messages were posted on a WhatsApp group, and there is no suggestion that he was either the source of the messages or party to any attempt to mislead.

But as was pointed out, Twitter messages typically feature a time code underneath each message.

Others suggested the messages were consistent with Facebook or iMessage.

Mr Manthorpe said he had contacted the poster for comment, which, if received, had not been made public by Wednesday at midday.

But suspicions and conspiracy theories had reached already reached boiling point.

While some online questioned the veracity of the messages, others couldn't help but joke.​

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