The National:

RIGHT-WING Westminster gossip blog Guido Fawkes has been left red-faced after their “fact check” of the SNP was “fact checked” in turn, and found to be completely wrong.

The blog, published by Paul Staines, had attacked the SNP for claiming that the prevalence of coronavirus was lower in Scotland than it was in England.

In an article embarrassingly titled “FACT CHECK: NATIONALISTIC SNP’S COVID RATE FALSEHOOD”, the blog claimed to debunk a statement made by SNP MP Stewart Hosie on the BBC.

Describing the SNP as “smug”, the blog hit out at a claim the SNP also made on social media that the “latest ONS data shows Covid is less prevalent in Scotland than England”.

Guido Fawkes wrote: “There’s just one problem: despite Sturgeon’s love of restrictions, stricter rules, the closure of clubs and semi-lockdowns in other hospitality venues, their Covid prevalence stats are just not true.

“While the SNP cite ONS statistics, the Government’s Covid dashboard spells a different picture for cases by nation for the last seven days.

“Not only does England have a lower prevalence than Scotland, it has the lowest prevalence of all four UK nations despite having almost no legal restrictions. The lockdown lovers always say they’re following the science… except when they aren’t.”

The article was misleadingly tagged as a “fact check”.

An actual fact checker, fullfact.org, then stepped in.

“Guido Fawkes used less reliable data to talk about the true level of recent Covid prevalence than the SNP,” it starts.

It goes on to say that the UK Government dashboard source used by Guido Fawkes is “more likely to show a biased picture” and said that “strictly speaking” it doesn’t actually show prevalence at all.

Summing it up, fullfact wrote: “The SNP was correct about this, citing reliable recent data from the ONS. Data from the coronavirus dashboard shows a different picture, but is less reliable for this purpose.”

Commenting, SNP MP John Nicolson said: “I assume everything in Guido is malevolent nonsense and never read any of it.”

Stewart McDonald MP called the fullfact piece: “A good counter to the disinformation and alternative facts of amateur bloggers.”

The SNP’s Murray Foote added: “Imagine @GuidoFawkes having your fact check fact checked to find your fact check is factually not based in fact.”

Unsurprisingly, this is far from the first time Guido Fawkes has seen an attempt to be clever backfire spectacularly