The Prime Minister’s interview on the Andrew Marr Show yesterday showed that despite claims to the contrary, Cameron isn’t lacking in passion; the PM was full of fight and his normal self-confidence. But there was one question he did falter over. ‘You told the Countryside Alliance magazine recently that your favourite sport was foxhunting’, Marr declared. ‘Is that really true?’. Cameron looked utterly bemused, but Marr was so keen on the question that he repeated it: ‘You said: “It’s my favourite sport which I love.” Is that true?’
Perhaps unsurprisingly, a Twitter-storm erupted at the news that Cameron had apparently ‘admitted’ to his favourite sport being foxhunting. But where on earth did they find that quote? Marr claimed it was from a piece Cameron had written in the latest issue of the Countryside Alliance magazine, which was posted out to the organisation’s members in March.
It’s no wonder that Cameron looked bemused. After all, he had said nothing of the sort. Here’s everything he actually wrote about hunting in the magazine (and which is available to read online):
‘There is definitely a rural way of life which a born and bred Londoner might struggle to understand. I have always been a strong supporter of country sports. It is my firm belief that people should have the freedom to hunt, so I share the frustration that many people feel about the Hunting Act and the way it was brought in by the last government. The Hunting Act has done nothing for animal welfare. A Conservative Government will give Parliament the opportunity to repeal the Hunting Act on a free vote, with a government Bill in government time.’
That’s absolutely all Cameron says about hunting in the whole piece. He doesn’t say he hunts, and he certainly doesn’t say it’s his favourite sport.
So why would the BBC claim that he had? Could it just be a cheap shot, in a bid to smear both Cameron and his bid to repeal the hunting act? Or is it simply class warfare – an attempt to paint Cameron as a fox-hunting, Old Etonian toff? Either way, there’s no denying that the corporation ought to improve its fact checking. Simply making up quotes is a tactic worthy of Russia Today – not the BBC.
Update: Andrew Marr has now responded on Twitter, saying that it was a ‘cock up not conspiracy’:
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