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Is Alastair Campbell a conspiracy theorist?

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The king of spin is at it again. Fresh from bailing out his boss Gary Lineker from another self-imposed Twitter mess, Alastair Campbell is now laying the mantle of ‘defender of the BBC’ to pick up another instead: Boris Johnson lockdown truther. Campbell, a former director of communications in No. 10 no less, must be having difficulty filling the days as he has taken to responding to viral anti-Tory tweets including this gem earlier:

Does anyone actually believe that Johnson nearly died of Covid?

To which Campbell replied ‘No’ – implying that Johnson’s experience in April 2020 was greatly overblown. For that to be true of course the New Labour guru would need to believe that NHS staff at St Thomas’ hospital willingly went on along with this charade, including sticking him in intensive cover. Does he?

So much for all that talk about ‘post-truth politics’…

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Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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