Rishi Sunak shares misleading political advert featuring Martin Lewis

The context

On July 3, the day before the U.K. election, Rishi Sunak, leader of the Conservative Party, shared a political advert on X (formerly Twitter) with the tagline "Stop the Labour supermajority (14 hours remaining) – Vote Conservative." The advert includes a 22-second clip from a Good Morning Britain interview with the popular financial journalist Martin Lewis, founder of the consumer advice website MoneySavingExpert.com and described as "Britain's most trusted financial advisor." 

In the video, Lewis recalls a private conversation he had with a senior member of the Labour Party, saying, "The exact phrase they use with me is, when I asked about a particular policy, they said 'We're not putting it in our manifesto because I can't commit we'll do it, but it is my aim we will do it over the next Parliament.'"

This clip is used as Lewis criticizing the Labour Party and, in effect, endorsing the Conservatives. However, the clip has been taken out of context — Lewis has publicly announced that he maintains neutrality towards political parties and has not consented to being used in the advert.

In fact

Lewis responded to Sunak's post on X, saying he is "unhappy at the weaponizing of [his] reputation in this way."

He said the advert is "a misdirection" from the original context of his remark, which was that Labour hoped to make headway on "a positive change" Lewis had been campaigning for, but "didn't want to lock it in the manifesto as it can't promise to deliver." Lewis has not offered more details on the topic he discussed with the senior Labour Party member.

"NO party's manifesto tells the full story," Lewis added in his X post. "ALL parties have things they hope to do but that aren't in manifestos – as they can't guarantee to deliver. The idea that Labour is an outlier for that is preposterous."

The Conservative Party's official X account used the same clip last week to claim that Lewis was talking about a secret Labour plan to raise taxes. "They're not telling you the full truth. Labour have said they wouldn't put up your taxes. But it's now becoming clear that they have every intention to put them up," the X post (archived here) claimed. 

"NO WHERE in this comment do I talk about taxes. And the policy that I discussed (I will keep it private as it was private) was NOT about taxes, or tax rises," Lewis replied on X.

The verdict

The X post by Rishi Sunak is misleading, as it insinuates that a popular financial journalist believes Labour is not being truthful in its manifesto. Martin Lewis, the journalist in question, has said he maintains strict party neutrality and emphasized that "no party's manifesto tells the full story." Therefore, we have rated this as misleading.

Follow Logically Facts' coverage and fact-checking of the U.K. Election here.