Bent bananas Strange angles on fiction and fact as Tories twist the truth

His government, Rishi Sunak said, had scrapped plans to ban Christmas, Strictly Come Dancing, and puppies. This was a very obviously self-knowing joke. But at times at the Conservative conference it can feel as if the joke is on voters.

- Peter Walker 

In the traditionally lighthearted speech at a dinner for Westminster journalists last week, Sunak had been mocking himself for claiming, amid a watering down of green policies, to have averted policies that were never formally proposed, including mandatory car-pooling and seven different recycling bins.

Among the supposed policies seen off by the government were a tax on meat, blanket 20mph zones, councils deciding when you can go shopping, and a surprise return for the myth about EU regulations on bendy bananas.

While some of the discussions can seem ludicrous, the sense that the Downing Street operation has decided to deliberately sow untruths to seek an electoral advantage has prompted alarm.

There has been particular concern when untruths stated by ministers at conference have leaned into conspiracy theories, some with roots in antisemitic-tinged ideas.