Carol Vorderman has been forced into a humiliating climbdown over tweets about Tory chairman Greg Hands.
The former Countdown star claimed the senior Conservative MP was involved in the granting of a personal protective equipment (PPE) contract to lifestyle firm Luxe Lifestyle during the Covid pandemic in 2020.
But Ms Vorderman, a fierce critic of the Tories, has now deleted a series of tweets about Mr Hands.
She also shared a new post saying she accepted his role was only to refer the company to officials and that there was “no impropriety on his part”.
Ms Vorderman said: “I’ve been contacted by Greg Hands MP in response to my tweets about his involvement in the granting of a Covid-19 healthcare contract to Luxe Lifestyle in 2020.
“While the awarding of this contract was unfortunate, and there remain serious questions about the VIP Lane, I’m happy to accept Mr Hands’ assurance that his role in the process was simply to refer the approach to the JACT, and that there was no impropriety on his part.”
Mr Hands welcomed the post but urged Ms Vorderman to go further and apologise.
He said: “After a six-month campaign of defamation & vilification, Carol Vorderman has today finally withdrawn her allegations.
“She accused me of ‘illegal corruption’, phoning a friend to say ‘here’s a nice little £25.8m PPE contract for you mate’ and having my ‘hands in the cookie jar’.
“These tweets were defamatory and damaging.
“I am delighted that today she has removed 22 false and defamatory tweets, videos and more.
“Also, the JACT was not ‘a VIP Lane’ – it was the Government’s official collection point for such offers. She should now apologise.”
The ex-Countdown star has been a vocal critic of the Conservatives on Twitter.
She was embroiled in a long-running war of words with Tory minister Johnny Mercer’s wife Felicity Cornelius-Mercer.
Ms Cornelius-Mercer accused Ms Vorderman of being a “celebrity attack dog” and “inciting people to hate all Tories”.
