Vivienne Westwood spoke to Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard on Good Morning Britain today as she revealed why she was taking part in a stunt to protest Julian Assange’s incarceration. However, the fashion designer wasn’t pleased with the way the presenters introduced Julian and her support for him.
The founder of WikiLeaks took refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012.
He was then handed over to British authorities by Ecuador in April 2019.
The WikiLeaks founder is now serving a 50-week sentence in Belmarsh Prison and is fighting extradition to the US over leaking government secrets.
Kate and Ben spoke to Vivienne today as the fashion designer plans to be suspended 10ft above ground in a birdcage in protest.
However, after introducing a brief history of Julian, Vivienne hit out at the presenters and accused them of “misrepresentation”.
Clashing with the pair, she said their clams about her friend were “just not true”.
Ben began: “Can you explain to us what you’re doing today and what the stunt is about?”
Vivienne replied: “Well first of all, I just want to say that your introduction is exactly the total misrepresentation that’s been going on for all that time.
“None of any of this is actually true, he’s been trapped and it’s been a collusion of all the government’s involved. America, Britain, Sweden.
“And from the very beginning starting with a honey trap, he’s been completely trapped. It’s a set-up organised by the CIA.”
Explaining her stunt, she said: “I am a canary and canaries are whistleblowers but Julian is not exactly a whistle blower. He is the source of publishing whistleblower information and he does an amazing thing.
“When he in 2006 established WikiLeaks as a safe haven for whistleblowers and so I’m whistleblowing about the fact Julian is not a whistleblower.
“But Chelsea Manning is a whistleblower and for that reason we got the collateral murder video which shows corruption and crime of America and it went viral.
“We need the truth about Julian Assanage and here I am whistleblowing the truth. None of this is true.”
More to follow…