The famous Twitter account, the Secret Tory, has finally revealed who runs it – and, despite much speculation, it wasn’t actually a Conservative MP.
The parody account was known for tweeting satirical takes on political drama, and has accumulated almost 200,000 followers since 2019.
The bio has a Union Jack emoji, and claims to be an “anonymous Conservative MP” and “part-time arms dealer”. Its location is also “The Tory Benches”.
But, although joking that it was run by someone actually inside the Conservative Party, it’s now been revealed that it’s operated by personal trainer and ultra marathon runner, Henry Morris.
After teasing his upcoming reveal on Tuesday, Morris had the whole of Twitter guessing which MP he could be – and then he revealed his identity in a dramatic parody clip where (what else?) he imitated famous Tory MPs pretending to try and find out who he was.
Based in Wales, Morris puts on annual amateur Shakespeare productions – and raves in Norfolk.
He told BBC News that the account “took on a life of its own almost immediately” when he started parodying backbencher and ardent Brexiteer Mark Francois online in between clients. The account’s name at the time was Mark ne Francois pas.
He said: “I remember people in the gym laughing about the account without knowing it was me, and it was very nice to have my hunch confirmed that I could make people laugh.”
Morris later altered the account’s name to Michael Govern Ready, a reference to Michael Gove and the pro-Brexit promise to have an “oven ready” deal with the EU, before it evolved into its current form as The Secret Tory.
The success of the account even led him to release a book called The Diary of a Secret Tory MP: (Almost!) True Stories from the Heart of British Politics last year.
Morris tweeted earlier in May that he wanted to leave the secrecy behind, explaining: “I’m going to stand down as an MP and tell you who I am. The Tory brand is starting to get a bit toxic and I’d love to eat kangaroo bollocks on I’m a Celeb one day.”
In his BBC interview, he apologised if fans felt “cheated” he was not a real MP – but said that was more to do with the behaviour of the real people in Westminster than his own imitation skills.
He also the broadcaster: “I have loved the wind-up, but I reckon its time to let people know who I really am. And anyway, I’m sure an AI will be able to do all this in a few weeks anyway.”
Here’s a look at just some of his recent tweets: