Carol Vorderman suffers a blow in her scrap with the Tories

Carol Vorderman’s campaign against the Tories suffered a setback today after the ex-Countdown host climbed down from a row with the party’s chairman Greg Hands. Vorderman sent a number of tweets earlier this year over Hands’ alleged involvement in the awarding of a £25 million PPE contract. But Vorderman has now issued a statement appearing to back down from her earlier claims. She wrote on Twitter:

‘I’m happy to accept Mr Hands’ assurance that his role in the process was simply to refer the approach to the JACT, and that there was no impropriety on his part.’

Hands told Mr S he is ‘delighted’ the tweets were removed but called on Vorderman to go further and say sorry.

The row erupted after emails emerged from Mark Higton – a former chairman of the Hammersmith Conservatives – to Hands with information about supplying ventilators and PPE during the height of the Covid pandemic.