'Scum-sucking' Tories: Has David Wright MP tinkered with the truth? (Updated)

DavidWrightMP – a Labour MP on Twitter – posted the two following sentences: “ivenevervotedtory because you can put lipstick on a scum-sucking pig, but it’s still a scum-sucking pig. And cos [sic] they would ruin Britain.” As Eric Pickles quickly pointed out, this is hardly the language one would expect from a Minister of the Crown.
Well, there has been no real apology from Mr Wright. Instead, we have this excuse, issued to my colleague Christopher Hope: “Somebody has tinkered with my tweet. I never said ’scum sucking’. I said ‘you can put lipstick on a pig and it is still a pig’. I need to find out how this happened.”

David Wright (Photo: PA)

But as Jonathan Sheppard amply demonstrates on Tory Radio, there was no sign of remorse after the original tweet. Instead, shortly before Conservatives’ Head of Press noted its deletion, there was only the following post: “Oh dear, upsetting Tories again. Must’ve hit a nerve”.
So, what do we think really happened? Was a Labour MP hacked on Twitter, a fact which they announced only hours later? Or did David Wright get a little overexcited, put his foot in it, and follow up with a clumsy lie? That’s certainly what opinion in the Tory blogosphere suggests.
Looks to me like this one might rumble on.
Update 11.20am: Jonathan Sheppard notes that Wright has called Tories “scum” twice before – or that he is suffering at the hands of a serial hacker.
Update 12.40pm: Paul Waugh has a letter from Eric Pickles to David Wright on his blog. It includes this quote: “The Ministerial Code states that ‘Ministers of the Crown are expected to behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety.’ (Ministerial Code, June 2007; section 1.1)”
Update 13.02pm: Guido notes that, according Twitter.com’s FAQs, “you can’t edit” a tweet once it is posted. More evidence that Wright’s claim – that someone else tinkered with his tweet – is phony. “It is the lying that will nail him,” adds Guido. (Hat-tip to Chris66.)