Paddy Ashdown: Grant Shapps is ‘fine man’ who’s ‘never done anything dodgy’

You have to hand it to the Liberal Democrats: they know how to put out a press release. Following accusations in the Guardian that Grant Shapps or someone ‘under his clear direction’ has been editing Wikipedia pages of his rivals, the Lib Dems have put out a press release dripping in sarcasm from Paddy Ashdown: ‘Grant Shapps is a fine man and has never done anything dodgy’. Here is the full text:

Grant Shapps is a wonderful human being, a literary great and has in no way ever brought his party or politics into disrepute, the Chairman of the Liberal Democrat General Election Campaign said.

Paddy Ashdown called the Conservative Party Chairman a credit to his craft and applauded him for his contribution to writing, including for his Booker Prize-winning novel ‘Stinking Rich Three’.

The former Liberal Democrat leader also urged journalists to stop calling Mr Shapps ‘Michael Green’ – because it is definitely not funny and was entirely normal for politicians to use alter-egos.