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Category: Peter Stefanovic

  • Parliament will tolerate Boris Johnson’s lies but draws the line at wearing chinos

    Apparently it’s fine to lie through your teeth in parliament if you’re Boris Johnson – as long as you’re not wearing chinos or jeans while doing it. That’s what people on Twitter are inferring the House of Commons speaker’s new rules mean. And they’re not happy.

    Smarten up!

    BBC News tweeted:

    It reported that House of Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle has updated the rules on “behaviour and courtesies” for MPs. This includes a dress code. The Times‘ Matt Chorley gave a helpful list on Twitter of just what Hoyle was telling MPs they couldn’t wear:

    Hoyle’s new rules specifically say that MPs should wear “business attire”, and if they don’t then the speaker can boot them out. But on Twitter, many people spotted an issue with Hoyle’s rules of conduct: namely the tolerance of Johnson’s repeated lying:

    That Johnson video

    Peter Stefanovic’s video that documents Johnson’s lies has now had nearly had 34m views. And he was not impressed with Hoyle, either:

    As Bywire News reported, Johnson’s untruths included:

    Claim 5: On the 17th of June 2020, during PMQs [Prime Minister’s Questions], the Prime Minister said “There are hundreds of thousands, I think 400,000, fewer families living in poverty now than there were in 2010”.

    This is not true. A parliamentary watchdog already issued Johnson with a warning over his previous lies about poverty. Moreover, some of the media, like Good Morning Britain and Sky News, have reported on Stefanovic’s video. But the BBC specifically hasn’t.

    Blacklisted?

    Byline Times writer Brian Cathcart believes it’s because the public service broadcaster has “blacklisted” Stefanovic’s video. He called it “perverse” that the BBC would do that, noting:

    Is the BBC afraid of setting a precedent of placing itself under an obligation to report every political video that achieves 33 million views? It’s a feeble argument, but if it does believe that why doesn’t it say so? Does it doubt Stefanovic’s motives? Does it believe that the number of views has been fiddled? Again pretty daft, but again, let it say it.

    For the moment, the BBC looks about as bad as it could: as though it has blacklisted someone for criticising the Prime Minister.

    So, if our public service broadcaster doesn’t care about (or is actively trying to hide) the PM’s lying, why should the speaker be bothered? He clearly isn’t, given that his priority seems to be what MPs are wearing in parliament. Moreover, one of his deputies threw Labour MP Dawn Butler out of parliament for calling Johnson a liar. And Hoyle himself has done little to address Johnson’s lies since telling him off in March. So it’s left to social media, some of the corporate press, and Stefanovic to keep bringing the PM’s lies to the public’s attention.

    Featured image via Sky News – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Now Sky News has exposed Boris Johnson’s lies

    Sky News has finally picked up on campaigning lawyer Peter Stefanovic’s video about Boris Johnson’s lies. Because on Wednesday 28 July, a Sky News host left a Tory minister squirming to defend the PM’s repeated untruths.

    Defending Dawn

    On Tuesday 27 July, Kay Burley interviewed Labour’s Andy McDonald on Sky News. He was discussing Dawn Butler calling Johnson a liar in parliament. After Butler stated this fact, the speaker threw her out. McDonald said:

    I agree with Dawn. I think he is a liar… We’ve all seen Peter Stefanovic’s Twitter. I think it’s now [on] about 29m views – setting out very clearly where he has lied over the things that he says at the despatch box. … I’ve never know a prime minister where… the first default setting is there’s another lie coming. It’s whatever comes into his head. I think we’re in a pretty poor state in terms of our democratic credibility

    Almost 30 million people have seen Stefanovic’s video. As The Canary previously reported, on 7 July Good Morning Britain (GMB) had the lawyer on to discuss the PM’s serial lying. As Stefanovic said:

    the public really do care about the almost rampant lying that we are witnessing in parliament at the moment. And the film itself appears to have become a public protest at the outright lies that we are being seen told on the floor of the house practically every week.

    And now, Sky News has followed GMB‘s lead.

    Defending the indefensible

    On 28 July, Burley was interviewing work and pensions secretary Thérèse Coffey. She played her the clip of McDonald calling Johnson a liar and noted Stefanovic’s video. Burley asked Coffey if it was:

    difficult to defend [Johnson]?

    Predictably, Coffey tried to. She said:

    Not at all. I’m quite saddened by what’s happened. A lot of this is done to drive small clips on social media. I work in the House of Commons. The chamber is a place where often we come together, mainly about issues on which we disagree… I know the prime minister has led from the front in tackling covid

    But Johnson’s lies go way beyond Twitter trends. Full Fact has documented them. It concluded that it couldn’t “determine” if the PM was lying because “because you’d need to know that they intended to deceive people” but it noted that Johnson:

    has corrected none of the errors

    Lies, lies, lies

    Back to Sky News, and Burley tried to stop Coffey, saying:

    He does tell lies, though. He’s been sacked twice for lying, hasn’t he?

    Coffey ignored this and continue to waffle. So, Burley tried again, saying:

    Can you not accept that he does tell lies?

    The minister continued to spout effective BS:

    All I will say is the British people backed Boris to be prime minister. He’s doing a great job… All this trivia that’s generated by people just trying to get media clips I’m afraid doesn’t work. We’re in a grown up situation. He’s leading the country, and I’m very proud he’s my prime minister.

    Johnson’s lies: where’s the BBC?

    Burley got one last dig in:

    And it doesn’t matter if he lies.

    To which Coffey was still “proud”.

    The minister’s predictable defence didn’t exactly say Johnson doesn’t lie. It was more glossing over the fact. But at least Burley and Sky News have finally picked up on Stefanovic’s video. Which, at the time of publishing, is better than the BBC. Because the public service broadcaster continues to completely ignore Johnson’s perpetual lying to parliament and the nation.

    Featured image via Sky News – YouTube and UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Marr still won’t call the prime minister a liar

    Millions of people have seen Boris Johnson lie. ITV‘s flagship breakfast show even allowed a debate about it. So, you may have been hoping the Andrew Marr Show was going to tackle the issue. But if you were – prepare to be disappointed.

    A viral video on GMB

    Peter Stefanovic is a campaigning lawyer. He’s been vocal on issues surrounding the NHS, disability rights, and others. Recently, a video he produced about Boris Johnson’s lies to parliament has gone viral. As of 12pm on Sunday 11 July, it’s had nearly 26 million views on Twitter alone:

    Until 7 July, the corporate TV media had not reported on Stefanovic’s video – nor Johnson’s lies. But then, Good Morning Britain (GMB) did. The show had Stefanovic on. He said:

    the public really do care about the almost rampant lying that we are witnessing in parliament at the moment. And the film itself appears to have become a public protest at the outright lies that we are being seen told on the floor of the house practically every week.

    So, would Marr follow GMB‘s lead and allow Johnson to be called a liar? Not likely.

    Marr just can’t say it

    Marr had vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi on the show. First, the host showed a clip of the government’s chief scientific advisor Patrick Vallance. Vallance said that the vaccine “weakened” the link between cases and hospitalisations. But he noted it wasn’t a completely “broken” link. Zahawi said he agreed with Vallance, but he also knew where Marr was going with this.

    Because the show then cut to Johnson during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). The PM said that the vaccine had:

    severed the link between infection and serious disease and death.

    Marr put it to Zahawi that what the PM said was “wrong”. Of course, the vaccine minister defended Johnson. Then, Marr asked him if the PM had ‘misled’ parliament by saying this. Zahawi disagreed. But throughout this bit, Marr couldn’t bring himself to say the word ‘lie’:

    Clearly, thinking the BBC‘s flagship Sunday political programme would call out the PM as a liar (or even allow a debate on whether he is or not) was too much to ask. It’s a damning indictment when the non-publicly funded ITV is holding our corrupt politicians to account more than the public service broadcaster is.

    Featured image via the Andrew Marr Show – YouTube and Chatham House – Flickr

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Peter Stefanovic exposed Boris Johnson’s lies live on GMB

    Good Morning Britain (GMB) has finally shown a viral video on the PM’s lies. It’s had over 25 million views. What’s more, GMB got the video’s creator on to talk about it. And he was adamant that, despite what some people say, the public do care about the PM’s “rampant” lying.

    Blatant fact: Johnson is a liar

    Peter Stefanovic is a campaigning lawyer. He’s been vocal on issues surrounding the NHS, disability rights, and others. Recently, a video he produced has gone viral. It’s about Boris Johnson’s lies to parliament. As of 11am on Wednesday 7 July, it’s had over 25 millions views on Twitter alone. As Bywire News reported, the video started a cross-parliamentary campaign. It called for an inquiry into Johnson’s lies. Every opposition party got involved, except Labour. Bywire noted that Johnson’s untruths included:

    Claim 5: On the 17th of June 2020, during PMQs [Prime Minister’s Questions], the Prime Minister said “There are hundreds of thousands, I think 400,000, fewer families living in poverty now than there were in 2010”.

    This is not true. A parliamentary watchdog already issued Johnson with a warning over his previous lies about poverty. But so far, much of the corporate media has ignored Stefanovic’s video – and Johnson’s lies. As The Canary previously reported, sometimes BBC hosts even actively try to shut down mentions of Johnson’s fibs. So, enter GMB to give Stefanovic and his video a platform:

    Stefanovic bringing the fire

    Stefanovic said that compared to Johnson, his video was accurate with its claims:

    Everything that I said in my film has been carefully fact checked by various sources. And so what the prime minister is saying there is provably false.

    He was also debating the issue with Johnson’s biographer Andrew Gimson. He tried to defend Johnson. But as Stefanovic pointed out:

    There are going to be different people interpreting this film in different ways. So, you’re going to have some people looking at it as I do, and say ‘well – this prime minister is telling bare-faced lies every week’.

    Host Susanna Reid tried to interrupt him. But Stefanovic didn’t waver. He continued, saying:

    you’re going to have some people looking at the film saying ‘well, the prime minister simply hasn’t got a clue what’s going on in the country’

    Reid also put it to him that the public may not care that Johnson lies. But as Stefanovic said, the reaction on social media to his video meant:

    the public really do care about the almost rampant lying that we are witnessing in parliament at the moment. And the film itself appears to have become a public protest at the outright lies that we are being seen told on the floor of the house practically every week.

    “People care about lying”

    As Stefanovic summed up, saying of his late parents:

    I remember their stoic honesty. They would never lie; they would never deceive; they would never mislead. And I believe that the majority of people in this country feel the same way. And that’s why so many people have driven this film of mine to 25 million views… People do care about lying… I wouldn’t lie. You wouldn’t lie. I don’t expect our parliamentarians to do it either.

    Indeed. So, now we wait to see if the BBC will follow GMB‘s lead.

    Featured image via ITV Hub – screengrab and Sky News – YouTube

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on The Canary.