A Labour MP has accused the founder of the Brexit Party of ‘stoking racism and anti-immigrant propaganda’ after a tweet claimed NHS operations were being sold in Pakistan.
Catherine Blaiklock tweeted that “major operations” were being sold in Pakistan to be performed by the “NHS in London”.
She said she had received the information in a text which claimed patients were arriving at Heathrow and taken to “Slough General”.
She said: “Somebody told me this is happening. This is a text I received.”
Labour Party MP for Slough Tan Dhesi said that the tweet was “fake news” and said she was “misleading the British public by creating division within harmonious communities”.
He told the Metro: “It’s so bad on so many different levels. By starting off with ‘oh I’ve just received a text from somebody,’ that’s literally just a tactic, it’s a ploy to try to say whatever they want to say in terms of their diabolical and vile views, get those out, but then try to be immune to any sort of criticism or any personal responsibility.”
Despite thousands responding to the tweet to point out the inaccuracies, Blaiklock has kept the post on her profile, and even retweeted it again to boost to her audience. Twitter has still not stepped in to remove it.
“Slough General” ended up trending on Twitter as users mocked the fact the hospital does not exist.
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Simon Maginn said: “Slough General, the hospital they don’t want you to know even exists. Google it: nothing. No reference to it anywhere, except this brave, brave warrior for truth and the ‘someone’ who told her. Without the Brexit party, how would we know about these secret hospitals at all?”
Aled Gwyn Wiliams tweeted: “Every claim in this tweet is made up. Slough General Hospital doesn’t even exist. That’s the trouble with fascism, it doesn’t have to be true, it just has to be emotive and make you angry. That’s the Brexit Party.”
Peter Smith replied: “So someone you don’t know told you that someone you don’t know is talking people you don’t know to a hospital that doesn’t exist?
I’m convinced.”
Ash Sarkar said: “You’re either a liar or an idiot. You might be both, but you can’t be neither.”
Blaiklock founded the Brexit Party as a business at the start of the year, despite Nigel Farage’s insistence that it was created six weeks before the European elections.
She resigned as leader in March to make way for Nigel Farage after her tweets revealed a history of racist views.
Commenting at the time she said: “The out-of-character comments that I made on social media some time ago were unacceptable in tone and content. After speaking to Nigel Farage, I realise that my comments fall well short of what is expected in any walk of life.”
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