A TORY parliamentary candidate has apologised after sharing a tweet claiming a picture of a sick four-year-old boy on a hospital floor was fake.

Anger has been mounting after the youngster was forced to sleep on a hospital treatment floor at Leeds General Infirmary as he waited for a bed.

He was pictured sleeping lying on coats and with an oxygen mask on his face as he waited for a bed on December 3 – despite having suspected pneumonia.

The hospital trust has apologised and said it had its busiest week since 2016.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been accused of being insensitive after initially refusing to look at the picture of the boy on the floor when shown by an ITV reporter.

Some have claimed the image was staged by the youngster’s mother.

Amid the row over the matter, Tory Warrington North candidate Wendy Maisey retweeted a tweet claiming the boy’s mother ‘must be a member of the Commie Corbyn cult’, which had quoted another tweet claiming it was ‘fake news’.

It has since been un-retweeted by Ms Maisey.

Furthermore, in a post in response to a tweet, the Conservative politician said she would rather not see children getting treated on floors – but added that it is ‘disgusting what some people will do to sway an election’.

It was also posted while quoting the same tweet labelling it as ‘fake news’, as well as stating it was a ‘propaganda story’.

Labour’s Warrington North candidate Charlotte Nichols has responded to the comments.

Warrington Guardian:

Labour's Charlotte Nichols

She said: “When the chief medical officer at the hospital has confirmed it was real and apologised, it’s very concerning to see Wendy circulate social media smears and conspiracy theories about a sick child and his family, particularly given one of the accounts she retweeted has a history of vile Islamophobic tweets.

“It really calls into question her suitability for a position that involves scrutinising complex legislation if she couldn’t even tell this was clearly fake news.”

The Yorkshire Post has published an open letter from its editor highlighting its efforts before publishing the story, along with highlighting ‘misleading’ social media comments on the issue and fake news following claims the image was faked.

Labour Party chair Ian Lavery said Ms Maisey, along with three other Tory candidates in the north west who are standing in tomorrow’s general election, are ‘not fit’ to be MPs after claiming it was staged.

He accused those of sharing the ‘far-right conspiracy theory’ claiming it was a hoax as ‘sickening’.

Ms Maisey has issued a statement on the matter.

She said: “My comments were made purely in response to the nurses comments at Leeds hospital that this story was untrue and my words were based on that sole news feed only, not the whole situation as it unfolded.

“We have seen similar situations where Labour activist have fabricated untruths to try and undermine the way our public services are being run by the Government purely for political purposes.

“This looked on the face of it like another one of them. I should have checked the source/account more carefully and if the story is as it seems I’m very sorry.

“My phone goes on to low light in dim light and I didn’t realise I’d retweeted that, as soon as I realised I untweeted it.

“This is not something I would intentionally share but I did however make the comment.

“On another note, I think Ms Nichols should look back at some of her terrible comments on social media inciting violence and hatred.

“This has never been reported by the local press despite being brought to their attention although national newspapers have reported her misdemeanours so seems a little biased that one tweet of mine is being singled out two days before the election.”

During its recent Facebook live interview with Ms Nichols, the Warrington Guardian did ask the politician whether she regretted any of her past foul-mouthed tweets, which were posted before she was announced a parliamentary candidate.

She said she did not regret any of the posts.

Ms Nichols added that she has been subjected to a ‘long-running harassment campaign’ against her on social media where people have either ‘chopped the context out of things’ or ‘wilfully misinterpreted’ what has been said to ‘try and spin it into something else’.