"With the support triggering public debate, the management were keen to play down the reports, claiming it was “twaddle” propagated by socialists like Mrs Besant"
The playbook of the powerful has almost always been the same since the beginning. Divide and conquer, have the different parties your want to control blame each other for the problems that are ultimately your fault, make personal attacks against your enemies according to the values of the people you oppress, and ultimately, blame your opponents for the crimes you've committed, to take attention away from your own atrocities.
I think a good summary of a lot of this is "lie enough until they believe you".
I thought this was a new technique