A Conservative MP tweets support for Newsnight’s hatchet job on Corbyn. It didn’t end well.

Dorries Corbyn Kremlin
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Conservative MP Nadine Dorries has waded into the row about BBC Newsnight‘s recent hatchet job on Jeremy Corbyn. Journalist Owen Jones questioned the programme superimposing Corbyn’s face on an image of the Kremlin, and allegedly photoshopping his hat to look ‘Russian’. Jones tweeted a response to Jess Brammar, acting editor at Newsnight, who denied photoshopping:

But Dorries was quick to defend the BBC:

Read on...

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She didn’t have to wait long for an answer. Jones tried to spell it out in simple terms for her:

Russian money

And other Twitter users soon followed suit. First, there was the issue of the Conservatives taking money from Russia:

‘Murderous regimes’

And then there’s the tricky issue of the Conservatives’ support for Saudi Arabia:

Evidence first

In fact, Corbyn has condemned the Salisbury attack:

He also called for an evidence-based approach, in order to avoid the extremely serious risk of a new cold war:

To rush way ahead of the evidence being gathered by the police, in a fevered parliamentary atmosphere, serves neither justice nor our national security.

Saudi crown prince welcome

And Dorries’ claim that Corbyn has refused to condemn ”any other number of murderous regimes” is a bit rich. Theresa May recently hosted crown prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia when he visited the UK. Saudi Arabia’s war on Yemen has killed or injured 5,000 children and left seven million people facing famine. Yet the de facto leader of this particular ‘murderous regime’ was welcomed by the government with open arms.

In contrast, Corbyn asked Theresa May at Prime Minister’s Questions on 7 March:

As she makes her arms sales pitch, will she also call on the crown prince to halt the shocking abuse of human rights in Saudi Arabia?

But Nadine Dorries is strangely silent on her party’s support for the human rights abusing regime of Saudi Arabia.

Giving up Twitter for Lent

On 17 February this year, Dorries tweeted:

She might just be wishing she’d followed through.

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featured image via Chris McAndrew/Wikimedia  and screengrab

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