Tory MPs have taken substantially more cash for appearing on Russia Today than Labour politicians, Political Scrapbook can reveal in the wake of more hypocritical smears.

The Guido Fawkes blog has published a story attacking two Labour MPs for paid appearances on Russia Today, accusing them of “taking Moscow gold”.

The register of MP’s interests indeed shows that Chris Williamson recently received £1000 for two appearances, while Rosie Duffield received £500 for one appearance.

But the same document also reveals that four Tory MPs have taken £5,500 for appearances on the channel. It shows:

Kwasi Kwarteng, the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Chancellor Philip Hammond, pocketed £750 for an appearance on RT’s ‘News Thing’ programme in February:

Mike Freer, an assistant Treasury whip, registered £1000 from Studio Sixty Billion – the producers of the ‘News Thing’:

Nigel Evans, a prominent Vote Leave campaigner and former Tory party vice-chairman, has registered two payments worth £1500:

And David TC Davies has registered four payments of £750 in the past year:

The two payments most recently registered by Davies (highlighted above) are equal to the total amount received by Labour MPs.

This fact went unmentioned by Guido Fawkes.

It’s the second time in as many weeks that Scrapbook has called out hypocrisy from the Tories and their friends over Russia Today.

Boris Johnson said last week that it was a “scandal” that Labour MPs appear on the channel, accusing them validating “propaganda”.

This is the Oxford dictionary’s definition of propaganda:

“Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.”

You might be surprised to know then that we found 17 Tory MPs have made 54 appearances on RT in the last two years, compared to 31 appearances by 15 Labour MPs.

As smears go, this is a really bad one…