Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg has admitted he was wrong to claim Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn voted against the Good Friday Agreement.
The hardline Brexiteer made the false claim during an interview on Channel 4 News about EU withdrawal and the Northern Irish border issue.
Asked if it was worth sacrificing peace in Northern Ireland for Brexit, the Tory MP said: “I am unaware of any Brexiteer who is in favour of abandoning the Good Friday Agreement. It’s Jeremy Corbyn, incidentally, who voted against the Good Friday Agreement when it came to Parliament.”
Rees-Mogg later accepted he had been incorrect but failed to say sorry.
Corbyn backed the landmark 1998 Good Friday peace deal, but had previously opposed the Anglo-Irish Agreement of the 1980′s.Corbyn backed the landmark 1998 Good Friday peace deal, but had previously opposed the Anglo-Irish Agreement of the 1980′s.
Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner was quick to wade in, tweeting: “I am sure the newly formed intrepid Tory #fakenews unit will swing into action, investigate and then correct this mistake? Oh wait.......”
Rees Mogg is the second high-profile Conservative MP to make false claims about the Labour leader.
Ben Bradley, vice-chairman of the Tory party, alleged that Corbyn had “sold British secrets to communist spies”.
Corbyn was alleged to have met Ján Sarkocy, a Czechoslovakian diplomat in London who was expelled as a spy in the 1980s. Corbyn rejected the allegations as “ridiculous smears”.
After a threat to sue Bradley for libel, the MP apologised unreservedly, saying: “I fully accept that my statement was wholly untrue and false.”