Fact check: ‘First time’ Greg Hands supporter in video is not Tory councillor

A clip on social media showed a woman named Amanda saying she was moving her support from Labour.

Thursday 27 June 2024 07:34 EDT

Greg Hands clarified his supporter was not a councillor (PA) (PA Archive)

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A widely shared X post alleged that a woman offering her support for the “first time in my life” to Greg Hands, the Tory candidate for Chelsea and Fulham, had been a Conservative councillor for 25 years.

In the video, a person named only as Amanda, said: “I have always voted Labour, and for the first time in my life I will be voting Conservative.”

Evaluation

The supporter in the video is not councillor Amanda Lloyd-Harris.

Mr Hands has since published a post on X, formerly Twitter, saying “these aren’t the same Amanda” and referring to the allegation as “disinformation”.

The person who first posted the now-deleted suggestion about a Tory councillor has apologised.

The facts

On June 26, Greg Hands, a minister in the Department for Business and Trade and the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Chelsea and Fulham, posted a video on X in which a person named only as Amanda says she will vote for him in the General Election, having previously always voted for Labour.

An X post on the morning of June 27 alleged that the woman in the video was Amanda Lloyd-Harris, a Conservative councillor for Palace and Hurlingham, a ward in the constituency. The post was accompanied by a screenshot of the councillor’s profile page on the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham website.

Although the original allegation has been deleted, the claim has been repeated by a number of other social media accounts.

Mr Hands responded on X, sharing the original false claim, and writing: “These aren’t the same Amanda. There are more than 100,000 people in Chelsea & Fulham. There will obviously be hundreds of people called Amanda. Please delete your misinformation.”

The social media user apologised in reply: “Very sorry Greg, I will now delete. I’ve been following the Tory campaign closely, so you can see how I might have got confused.”

Mr Hands, a former Tory party chairman, told the PA news agency: “They are quite clearly not the same person.”

Ms Lloyd-Harris was also approached for comment.