Tory James Cleverly has been branded “unfit for high office” for allegedly calling Stockton a “s***hole” in Parliament - after fresh evidence called his denial into question.
The Home Secretary continues to insist he had not insulted the northern town - but instead called Stockton North’s Labour MP MP Alex Cunningham a “s*** MP”. But using Beatles-style AI wizardry, the Sunday Mirror has cleaned up an audio recording of the moment in the House of Commons, allowing voters to listen to the remark in crystal clarity and decide for themselves.
It comes after the Fab Four used similar technology to rescue a scratchy recording of John Lennon from an old audio tape. Audio experts were able to salvage the late legend’s voice from the noisy cassette, allowing Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to turn it into the very last fully-fledged Beatles song.
This newspaper used a similar technology on Parliament’s official recording, separating MPs voices from the roaring hubbub of the Commons chamber during Wednesday’s Prime Ministers’ Questions. Mr Cunningham’s voice can be heard asking Rishi Sunak to explain why “34 per cent of children in my constituency are living in poverty.”
Before the Prime Minister’s answer, a voice can be heard apparently saying “because it’s a s***hole.” The remark sparked fury among MPs and locals.
And even Ben Houchen, Conservative Mayor for the North East calling on Mr Cleverly to apologise for the alleged remark, accusing his fellow Tory of “dragging Stockton’s name through the mud”. Immediately after the exchange, allies of Mr Cleverly denied he had made the remark.
And in an interview with the Times, given on Thursday, he said: “What [Mr Cunningham] accused me of saying, I did not say.” But later that evening, Mr Cleverly’s spokesman was forced to issue a clarification - admitting the voice on the recording was his, and that he had used “unparliamentary language.”
But he insisted the Home Secretary had aimed his derogatory remark at Mr Cunningham, not at Stockton North. The spokesman said he would “never criticise” Stockton, adding that it is “a great place.”
Dr Robbie Love, a linguist and expert in swearing from Aston University, analysed the enhanced audio and ruled out the words on the tape being "s*** MP". He told this newspaper that based on his own listening of the recording, "I am confident that the sound following "s***" is not "MP". This is because I can only hear one syllable in the sound following "s***" and "MP" has two syllables."
He went on to perform further analysis of the clip in specialised computer software, which identified the frequencies of the vowel sound used in the word.
"Based on this the vowel immediately following "s**t" appears to be a type of low back vowel - like the vowels in words like car, cot, putt and fork," he said.
Dr Love added: "My analysis cannot confirm that the word is definitely "hole", but the vowel typically involved in producing "hole" is closer to the formant values observed than the vowels involved in producing both "M" and "P"."
“I'm grateful to the Sunday Mirror for putting what James Cleverley said beyond any doubt," Mr Cunningham said. He thought he could get away with it but has simply shown himself unfit for high office. Now he needs to get himself into the Commons, apologise to the people of Stockton and pack his bags.”
I grew up in Stockton and I'm proud to call it home
By Joe Dancey, Labour candidate in Stockton West
I grew up in Stockton and it’s the place I’m proud to call home today. Straddling County Durham and North Yorkshire, Stockton has a proud history and a bright future.
The Stockton to Darlington railway gave the world its first steam-operated public train service in 1825. Today we still host Britain’s export-rich chemical cluster where my own dad worked.
Stockton High Street is the widest in the country, and historic Yarm and Norton sit alongside hard-working Thornaby, Billingham and Ingleby Barwick as places where decent people graft and serve Great Britain in the NHS, schools and the Armed Forces.
We’re a proud people, but we’re also fair-minded.
Stockton gave the Home Secretary the chance to come clean, own up and come to our town to apologise. He didn’t .
To add insult to injury, Stockton South’s Tory MP, Matt Vickers, leapt to the Home Secretary’s defence, instead of defending our town.
Who was he kidding when he wrote he understood “there’s some debate about what was said and by whom”? We all heard the tape. Now the Mirror has proved it once and for all.
Instead of levelling Stockton up, Tory ministers are putting Stockton down.
This isn’t about left versus right, but right versus wrong.
James Cleverly should resign and Matt Vickers should hang his head in shame for putting loyalty to this clown before his loyalty to our town.