Wellingborough Tory newsletter advising members to talk ‘nonsense’ mocked by Keir Starmer at PMQs

The December edition of the newsletter offers advice to local politicians and members by telling them to ‘say the first thing that comes into their head’ – even if it’s ‘nonsense’ if engaged in political debate.

It also highlights how a large part of Donald Trump’s success is by ‘weaponising fake news’ and indicates that there are ‘lessons we can learn from Trump’.

And Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer wasted no time in heckling Prime Minister Boris Johnson about the contents of the newsletter this afternoon [December 16].

Sir Keir said: “I for one often wonder where the Prime Minister gets his advice from. Well now I know, because I have here the official newsletter of the Wellingborough Conservative Party. It’s not on everybody’s Christmas reading list, but it is a fascinating read because it gives a lot of advice to wannabe politicians.

“It says this: ‘say the first thing that comes into your head, it will probably be nonsense and you may get a bad headline but if you make enough dubious claims fast enough you can get away with it’.

“The December edition also includes the advice ‘sometimes it’s better to give the wrong answer at the right time rather than the right answer at the wrong time’.

“So my final question to the PM is this, is he the inspiration for the newsletter, or is he the author?”

Mr Johnson did not directly answer the question, instead trying to turn the tables on Sir Keir, and criticising him for not offering his own points of view on issues of the day.

The PM said: “What I think the people of this country would like to hear from the right honourable gentleman in this season of goodwill is any kind of point of view at all on some of the key issues. This week he couldn’t make his mind up on whether kids should be at school or not, last week he couldn’t decide whether to support the government to fight COVID, he couldn’t make his mind up on Brexit. He can’t attack the government if he can’t come up with a view of his own. All I want for Christmas is a view.”

The newsletter highlights how fake news ‘often makes headlines and crowds out genuine news’ and that ‘honest politicians therefore find themselves pushed off the front pages’.

It states: “Stand-up comedians have the answer to fake news. They all have to learn how to deal with loudmouth hecklers in the audience. It they don’t learn, then their careers die very quickly. You say the first thing that comes into your head. It’ll probably be nonsense, but it knocks your opponent out of his stride and takes away his headline. You then have a few seconds (possibly minutes) to reword it, say that you misspoke, were misheard, or whatever. You may get a bad headline saying that you spoke something silly, but you can live that down. Meanwhile your opponent is knocked off the news-feed.

“It runs counter to everything that traditional politicians are taught – viz, never say anything that is not 100 per cent accurate. The problem is that 100 per cent right, two weeks late equals defeat. Sometimes, it is better to give the wrong answer at the right time, than the right answer at the wrong time.”

It is not yet clear which individual or individuals will have written the newsletter, but the Local Democracy Reporting Service approached the Conservative leader of the Borough Council of Wellingborough, Councillor Martin Griffiths, to get his view on the content of the newsletter.

He said: “I don’t remember the parts that were being referred to. But I think it’s a real distraction and what we should be concentrating on is making sure that our residents are supported through this terrible situation that we are in [coronavirus]. Other than that I don’t wish to comment any further.”

Meanwhile Councillor Rob Gough, an independent councillor who represented the Conservatives for the Earls Barton ward on both the borough and county council until May, said the content contained within the newsletter was ‘weird’.

He said: “It just seemed bizarre to be putting stuff like that into the public domain. I don’t see why they should be encouraging people to say the first thing that comes into their head.

“America is a completely different country and I don’t see the stuff you see over there really working over here. I would have thought that telling the truth is the minimum requirement for any political party to be honest.”