Actor Ralf Little was temporarily suspended from Twitter for changing his profile to ‘Conservative Press Orifice’.
The Conservative Party themselves came under fire last night for rebranding their press office account to a “fact-checking service” during the televised leaders’ debate. Twitter warned that a repeat of the incident would result in “decisive corrective action”.
Oldham-born Little changed his name to “Conservative Party Press Orifice” and description to “Not a fact checker. Or the Conservative Press Office”.
The Royle Family star then told LBC’s James O’Brien: “Just been logged out of my Twitter account without explanation. Assume I’ve been suspended. Which is fine. But only if the @CCHQPress account is suspended for the same thing. Please continue to press the issue with Twitter in my absence.”
Little’s account is now back up and running under his real name. He was not the only verified celebrity to rebrand his account. Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker changed his account to mimic factcheckUK, as did The Thick Of It and Veep creator Armando Iannucci.
The Electoral Commission – the official elections watchdog – issued a warning following the incident, saying voters were entitled to expect “transparency and integrity” from campaigners.
However, senior party figures brushed off the controversy, saying it was part of their “instant rebuttal” mechanism to challenge “nonsense” claims made during the debate.
