Lord Ashcroft has bit back in spectacular fashion after being snubbed by David Cameron yesterday over allegations published in a new book the peer co-authored that emerged on Monday.
The former Conservative bank-roller was one of those behind a hotly anticipated text that claimed Cameron had "put a private part of his anatomy in a dead pig's mouth" as part of a university initiation.
Downing Street refused to respond to the claims published by several national newspapers, but the Prime Minister alluded to the furore at a fundraising dinner at the Carlton Club last night.
REVENGE! Front page of Monday's Daily Mail
He told a story of having visited a doctor earlier in the day to get treatment for a bad back, a senior BBC journalist reported.
The surgeon told Cameron he would give him an injection and said: “This will just be a little prick, just a stab in the back.”
Recounting the tale, the Tory leader quipped back that it “rather summed up my day”, referring to having the personal allegations published by his close friend.
But Ashcroft bounced back on Tuesday, offering up his own jaunty retort in retaliation to the previous day's snub.
Story continues below
In a social media post, he alluded to having felt spurned over not having been offered a senior cabinet job when the Conservatives first came to power in 2010, after helping bankroll their election campaign.
"Good to see PM retains his sense of humour," Ashcroft wrote.
"We must have the same doctor. I had the same in 2010 when the PM reneged."