Jeremy Hunt laughs at left-wing website The Canary after they wrongly blame him for scandal in Welsh NHS
The Health Secretary was wrongly blamed for Cardiff hospital workers facing huge parking fines
FAR-LEFT website The Canary was today caught spreading “fake news” by accusing Jeremy Hunt of causing an NHS scandal which actually took place under a Labour regime.
The Health Secretary mocked the absurd blunder, joking: “Love the Canary.”
The site, which is notorious for inflammatory and wildly exaggerated pro-Corbyn stories, covered the case of doctors and nurses at a Cardiff hospital who have been sued by a private parking firm.
Staff at the University Hospital of Wales have to pay at least £68,000 and could face an eventual bill of millions after they refused to pay parking charges and lost a subsequent lawsuit.
The Canary’s report of the case had a large picture of Mr Hunt, with the headline: “Jeremy Hunt should be ashamed of this despicable attack on NHS staff”.
The beginning of the article read: “On Friday 14 July, a court handed down a judgement summing up the state of our NHS. It ruled that NHS staff owed a private company £39,000.
“All because Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt holds NHS workers in such contempt he refuses to listen to their pleas for help.”
The Health Secretary posted a link to the page on Twitter, saying: “Love the Canary.
“Blamed for attack on NHS staff by private parking contractor. It's in Wales - where Lab runs NHS.”
Jeremy Corbyn also shared a news story about the scandal - before he apparently deleted it when he realised that it is more likely to reflect badly on the Tories than Labour.
Because health policy is devolved, Mr Hunt has no responsibility for overseeing the NHS in Wales.
Instead, the health service in Wales is controlled by the Welsh Government, which has been Labour-run for nearly 20 years.
Workers at UHW racked up thousands of pounds in fines because they refused to pay to park at their own workplace.
When Indigo, the company which controls the parking there, sued them, they were ordered to hand over £39,000 in fines and another £29,000 for legal costs.
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It has been claimed that in total staff have refused to pay as much as £13million - with one nurse supposedly owing £150,000 in unpaid charges.
The Canary has previously come under fire for spreading a conspiracy theory about a PR firm organising the failed coup against Jeremy Corbyn last year.