The car Rishi Sunak was photographed filling with petrol does not belong to him, Treasury sources have confirmed.
On Wednesday evening the chancellor tweeted a picture of himself to mark one of the measures introduced in his spring statement - a 5p cut in fuel duty.
“It’s 6pm - the biggest cut to all fuel duty rates ever has just come into effect,” he said.
But the car, a Kia Rio, actually belonged to a Sainsbury’s employee.
The chancellor is however understood to have paid for the petrol out of his own pocket.
He was also filmed awkwardly fumbling an attempt to pay for can of coke in the service station with his bank card.
Sunak, who is seen as the frontrunner to replace Boris Johnson should the prime minister ever get ousted bu his party, is infamous for using social media to promote himself and his policies.
On the eve of the spring statement he released a photograph of his speech on A4 sheets of paper laid out in two neat rows and another one of him reading a newspaper article about himself.