Shapps Denies Editing Rivals' Wikipedia Pages

The Conservative Party chairman has strongly denied claims he edited his Wikipedia page and those of party rivals, after he was accused of removing mentions of embarrassing incidents from the site.

The Guardian reported that Wikipedia has suspended an account, named Contribsx, which has been editing Grant Shapps' page, as well as other major political figures including Conservative and Labour MPs.

Administrators told the newspaper they "believe that the account Contribsx is a sock-puppet of Grant Shapps' previous accounts on Wikipedia... and based on the evidence the account is either run by Shapps directly or being run by someone else - an assistant or a PR agency - but under his clear direction".

Sock-puppetry - creating fake online personas for "an improper purpose" - is not allowed on the site.

But Mr Shapps denied the claim. He tweeted: "It is, for the record, another false smear from the Guardian. Without any truth whatsoever."

A Conservative Party spokesman added: "This Guardian smear is categorically false and defamatory.

"It is untrue from start to finish, and was quite likely dreamt up by the Labour press office.

"Sadly it is typical of the smears coming from those who would rather not debate policy and substance."

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Shapps said the claims were "nonsense" and went "beyond smears".

There is no central Wikipedia authority, but volunteer administrators have been investigating the account after a Guardian investigation found a third of Contribsx's edits were to Shapps' entry.

The investigation found that "Contribsx also edits huge swathes of the Grant Shapps page, almost always removing critics".

It also made use of "Checkuser", a Wikipedia tool available only to "a small group of Wikipedia users" which allows them to find out the IP addresses of users.

The investigator wrote: "To clarify, I can't say either way that is Shapps' account, or run by him. All I can say is that I believe that it's a sockpuppet of the Hackneymarsh account."

The Hackneymarsh account was also alleged by the Guardian to have been run by Mr Shapps.

Under its user profile, Contribsx wrote: "I read a lot and like to dig below the surface to check and challenge conventional wisdom.

"For the most part I focus on contemporary figures, either expanding scant political biography articles which are lacking detail or editing down overly long biographies which are sometimes subject to controversy or politically motivated comment.

"My Wikipedia updates are always carefully sourced and I strive for both accuracy and balance."

In 2011, it was revealed by the New Statesman that journalist Johann Hari had created a Wikipedia account under the name David Rose, using it to attack his critics.