Piers Corbyn agrees he was ‘naive’ after he was tricked into ‘accepting’ £10,000 on condition he stops criticising AstraZeneca vaccine

Piers Corbyn has admitted he was “naive” after he was tricked into ‘accepting’ £10,000 on condition he stops criticising AstraZeneca vaccine.

YouTubers Josh Pieters and Archie Manners pranked the anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist by posing as investors in the vaccine who wished to support his cause on the condition that he laid off AZ and focused on other vaccines instead.

Asked by a reporter if it was “naive” to accept the cash he agreed, saying:

“Yes it is, it is.”

“In public of course people often give cash but not large amounts... this was a large amount but they said they had lots of money and they wanted to help and wanted to be anonymous.

“So I took it perhaps naively thinking it would all be safe.”

Of course, it was not all safe for the conspiracy theorist, who believes that coronavirus doesn’t exist and has been arrested for breaking lockdown In the viral video, Pieters and Manners explained that they contacted Corbyn to arrange a meeting. To film and prank Corbyn legally, they said, they had to actually invest in the company so bought one share for £100.

The pranksters then arranged to meet him and took out £10,000 in cash, which the showed Corbyn then switched with Monopoly money when he was distracted.

Upon meeting Corbyn, Pieters said he was an investor in the jab. He said:“It’s not from a personal standpoint it’s more of a case of, it’s good business.”

Pieters said he wanted to help him and pretended he agreed with his views. He then showed him the £10,000 in cash and said it was “a statement of intent”

“We’d love to keep funding you,” he said.

“That’s brilliant!” Corbyn replied.

“As long as I can accept it with no insistence on any policy changes or anything that I’m doing.”

Manners said: “We’re not asking for a change in policy or anything but if there is anything that could be done to focus a bit on Pfizer or Moderna... that would be a useful thing.”

“Knowing that I was an investor in AstraZeneca with a financial interest in the other vaccines doing badly, Piers Corbyn started writing down benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine,” Pieters claimed in a voiceover to the video.

“We weren’t insisting on any policy changes but it seems Mr Corbyn was open to the idea of accepting our donation and focusing his efforts on Pfizer and Moderna,” he added.

Pieters also claimed that his money came from a family business. When he accepted the money, Corbyn said:

“If people ask where’s this come from I’ll say... it’s a businessman who runs restaurants.”

He added that he wouldn’t say anything about it coming from AstraZeneca.

Pieters concluded: “Whether people choose to get a vaccine or not is entirely their business. But listening to people who spread misinformation about vaccines, particularly when they are willing to accepting £10,000 made from vaccines is a different matter altogether.”

Responding to the video, which has been praised by the likes of Piers Morgan, Corbyn explained his side of the story and admitted the prank was “skillful”. He said:

“While I’ve been distracted... they put the money in the bag and then I went home and I didn’t look at it until later because obviously you don’t want to open those things in public and when I got home... a pack of monopoly money!

“I have to say I burst out laughing because they’d done it so well, it was so skillful. It was in a nice setting in Sloane Square... free pizza, they paid for a pizza... I don’t even know if they paid for that thinking about it but they probably did.”

Indy100 has contacted Piers Corbyn for comment.