WES Streeting has denied a bizarre conspiracy that he burnt down a pet shop while at university.
The Shadow Health Secretary finally addressed the outlandish claims during a no-holds-barred interview on The Sun’s new show Never Mind The Ballots.
Watch Never Mind the Ballots on The Sun’s YouTube channel and thesun.co.uk.
Streeting has been dogged by the bizarre pet shop claim from online trolls for more than a decade.
But he told The Sun’s Political Editor it’s a “completely made up story”.
However the Labour politician admitted “fanning the flames of the conspiracy theory” by winding up Twitter trolls from time to time.
The rumour has bubbled away in the weirder corners of social media for years, starting with the claim he torched the “Kitty Corral pet shop in 2004”.
As one unhinged Facebook user claimed: “Wes wanted to join an exclusive club at his posh university and they jokingly said if he burnt down a pet shop he could join.
Also on tonight’s episode of Never Mind the Ballots:
“He burnt it down that night, and was caught on CCTV but his connections convinced the owners not to go through with prosecuting.”
In 2015, Streeting poured petrol on the fire by joking to one user: “The charges were dropped because of lack of evidence and that’s all there is to it”.
And now he has finally set the record straight, telling Never Mind the Ballots: “I’m not often complimentary about my Twitter trolls…but there was one troll a good few years back who mocked up this totally fabricated interaction between me and someone else on Facebook, where I was accused of burning down a pet shop at University to get into a University drinking society.
“And my favourite bit about this totally false story, completely made up, no truth in it whatsoever is that someone said that my powerful and well connected dad got me off.
“Now, my dad’s a car salesman who lives in Romford. But the pet shop truthers are still out there.”
Streeting admitted stirring the online rumour occasionally, saying: “I’ve got to hold my hands up… I did go and see the Pet Shop Boys a few years ago, and did tweet a picture with three flaming emojis.
“So I may have fanned the flames of the conspiracy theory.”
On the show, the Labour MP was grilled on a range of issues by our Political Editor Harry Cole.
And Streeting blasted the “scandalous” way children questioning their gender have been treated by the NHS.
The Labour firebrand backed a landmark new report which found teens suffered irreversible changes based on weak evidence.
And he put on notice NHS trusts who said they won’t cooperate with the recommendations.
Dr Hilary Cass’s four-year review published today found children have been let down by a lack of research and evidence on the use of puberty blockers and hormones.
Mr Streeting told our Political Editor Harry Cole he backs the “thorough” and “thoughtful” report.
He added: “I think she (Hilary Cass) has done a really important piece of work.
“But I think it does raise some serious concerns that are pretty scandalous actually.
“I think we have got to ask ourselves: why is it that we have seen medical interventions that have been given on the basis of very weak evidence?
“How is it that clinicians have been silenced or afraid to come forward?”
The Labour representative also said he was “pretty angry” that despite the review being commissioned, NHS trusts are refusing to cooperate.
Mr Streeting went on: “I want to send a clear message to them that under a Labour government, there will be accountability and that you’re not going to get away with it.”
