Last weekend the Mail On Sunday, or 'Malice On Sunday', ran an article in which Tory MP Simon Hart accused Maxine Peake of hypocrisy after voicing an NHS recruitment advert...
Hart claimed she has been paid taxpayers' money for the job, adding "I'd have more respect for Maxine if she had forgone the fee and left it with the health service to recruit another nurse."
In a statement issued on Twitter, Maxine hit back... "To clarify, I was not employed by the NHS, but by an advertising agency who hold a pre-agreed budget of the whole of the campaign. If I had refused the fee, the money wouldn't have been returned to the NHS but to the commercial agency.
"I decided to donate my fee to the Salford Foundation Trust, of which I am a patron, who support children and young people in my area" she added "I chose to support the Trust as I believe strongly in the life-enhancing and life changing work they do..."
Maxine ends the statement with a sarcastic refrain to the Mail... "Thank you to the Mail on Sunday for allowing me to highlight the wonderful and tireless work of the Salford Foundation Trust..."
Residents can see Maxine doing more good work when she appears at the annual Peterloo Massacre commemoration on Sunday 19th August – for full details see previous Salford Star article – click here