MP suspended over ‘vile' WhatsApp comments admits posting fake photo showing him at Armed Forces event
AN MP suspended over 'vile' WhatsApp comments has admitted posting a fake photo showing him at an Armed Forces Day event.
Voters spotted the image of Andrew Gwynne supposedly in his home town of Denton, Greater Manchester, was the same as a shot of him on the other side of his constituency the day before.
Mr Gwynne said: 'It was a simple mistake.
'As soon as I saw it had been posted I removed it.'
'A simple, honest mistake rectified very quickly and just a little bit embarrassing.'
The ex-public health minister is being probed over a WhatsApp group used by Manchester Labour politicians.
Mr Gwynne's constituency office stands besides Denton's Victoria Park, where the Armed Forces Day event took place.
However, it has also been the scene of demonstrations calling for his resignation and the face of his councillor wife Allison, who is also suspended, has been scrawled over on information posters.
The chair of the town's Victoria Park Community Centre aid: 'This has cut deep.
'If he thinks he's coming back, he must be deluded.
'Nobody will vote for him now.
Mr Gwynne is not the first Tameside MP to be caught up in a row over using doctored images.
In 2007, then Stalybridge and Hyde representative James Purnell was embroiled in a debate over a picture at Tameside Hospital showing other MPs, including a young Mr Gwynne.
New Labour MP issues grovelling apology after making vile post about Estonians
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