Nadine Dorries was quick to defend the prime minister and his alleged birthday party on Monday night – but there’s a strong chance it didn’t help.
Boris Johnson’s wife Carrie reportedly arranged a surprise birthday party in Downing Street’s Cabinet Room with up to 30 people present for the prime minister on 19 June 2020.
Invitees allegedly included interior designer Lulu Lytle, who was not a member of a member of Downing Street staff, but was decorating the prime minister’s flat (the centre of a different No.10 scandal).
At the time, the government’s Covid restrictions stated only six people could meet, and it had to be outdoors.
No.10 has not denied this gathering took place but claimed it was just Downing Street staff who “gathered briefly”, and Johnson was only present for 10 minutes.
Some cabinet ministers have already rallied around Johnson to defend him – including transport secretary Grant Shapps and environment secretary George Eustice – but it is the culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, whose comments seemed particularly out of tune with public sentiment.
When the news broke last night, Dorries tweeted: “So, when people in an office buy a cake in the middle of the afternoon for someone else they are working in the office with and stop for ten minutes to sing happy birthday and then go back to their desks, this is now called a party?”
And it was soon very clear that no-one really agreed with her.