A Swindon businessman has said that a tweet by the Conservative party, featuring his café, is deliberately misleading people.

Marcus Kittridge runs Baristocats coffee shop in Commercial Road in the town centre. It was used by the shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves for a live interview with the BBC when she and Labour leader Keir Starmer visited Swindon this week.

A snippet of the interview was featured by the Conservative Party in a tweet on its official X account. It says: “Cat got your tongue, Rachel?” while the video show Ms Reeves not answering a challenging question from the BBC interviewer over how Labour would pay for its policies if it took government.

The edited video then shows pictures of a computer malfunction, perhaps suggesting Ms Reeves had no answer.

But Mr Kittridge is indignant at the editing of the video, which does not show the BBC interviewer acknowledging that the link had been lost temporarily and Ms Reeves could not hear her question.

He wrote to Swindon South’s defending Conservative Sir Robert Buckland and said: “The BBC filmed a live interview with the shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, at my coffee shop, Baristocats, on Commercial Road in Swindon.

“During the interview, the live team temporarily lost the audio feed between the studio and Rachel Reeves causing a few seconds delay in the transmission.

“Your party has taken it upon itself to edit this piece and use it on The Conservatives X page and the Conservatives Facebook page. It has added graphics and a caption suggesting the shadow chancellor was unable or unwilling to answer the question.

“This is highly misleading at best and deliberately deceitful at worst. It has already been seen by over 250,000 people.

“I would be interested in your view on this and would also like to lodge a formal complaint with the Conservative Party if you would be kind enough to forward this email to the relevant standards body within your party.”

A user note has been added to the Conservatives’ posting on X adding: “This video cuts off just before the interviewer says, "Rachel Reeves we may have just lost comms with you. Can you hear me?" to acknowledge a technical issue.”

The Adver has attempted to contact the Conservatives HQ press and media team and has also asked Sir Robert Buckland and Justin Tomlinson the Swindon North Conservative candidates for their comment.