Robert Jenrick faces calls to apologise for sharing 'doctored' comment by Labour minister

Robert Jenrick faces calls to apologise for sharing 'doctored' comment by Labour minister Reform's Robert Jenrick sparked anger by sharing a clip on social media suggesting Jo White said 'I don't care if we stop the boats'. Ms White shared a full clip in which she can be heard saying it is her 'number one priority' Reform's Robert Jenrick is under pressure to apologise after being accused of sharing a doctored quote from Labour's new migration minister to score points. The former Tory sparked outrage by posting a clip suggesting Jo White - who was announced as part of Shabana Mahmood's Home Office team on Wednesday - told constituents she dd not care about stopping small boats. Ms White later posted a full audio, making it clear she had said: "I don't care who will stop the boats... my number one priority is to stop those boats." In a post on X which was later deleted, Mr Jenrick claimed she had said: "I don't care if we stop the boats." And he claimed that Andy Burnham "clearly doesn't give a stuff about stopping the boats". On Thursday morning he said he had deleted the post, but denied he was wrong to post it. An outraged Ms White wrote posted a recording of her comments to constituents, saying: "Robert Jenrick is spreading a false account of what I said at a meeting with my constituents last year. "This recording proves what I said. Reform have deliberately twisted my words to mislead the public. They should withdraw their false claim and immediately apologise." Mr Jenrick's post was deleted, but he has not posted an apology. Labour MP Jacob Collier posted: "In sharing a doctored audio clip of Jo, Jenrick and Reform are once again showing their desperation and departing from the boundaries of healthy, democratic debate." And Mike Tapp, who was a Home Office minister under Keir Starmer, wrote: "Robert Jenrick should apologise for spreading misinformation about a Labour Minister. Fair and contentious debate is fine, spreading lies and misinformation is not." In an interview with Talk TV's Jeremy Kyle, Mr Jenrick claimed he had been sent the clip by people who were at the meeting. He said: "I made the, I thought, perfectly reasonable point of putting that out into the public domain and asking her to explain what is her actual position. Now, she says that the recording isn't quite right, and that if you have a quality recording, she's saying something different. 2So, look, I am a fair minded person. I said late last night, you know what, I'll delete this. Let's give her the benefit of the doubt and let's see what she actually does." Asked if he had made a mistake by putting it out, Mr Jenrick said: "No, I don't think so. But, look, I'm. I am prepared to give people the benefit of the doubt. I don't know exactly what happened at this meeting because I wasn't there." However a Reform UK spokesman pointed the finger at news site Guido Fawkes, which it said was the source of the shorter quote shared by Mr Jenrick. He said: “We’ve always trusted Guido Fawkes as a source of information, but perhaps on this occasion they didn’t get the full picture. "We await Burnham’s first mention of the small boats - he clearly doesn’t give a toss."