Boris Johnson Partygate scandal: People are ridiculing the Prime Minister and he and his supporters don't get to join in – Scotsman comment

Boris Johnson has a sense of humour. But it’s probably a stretch to imagine he will be enjoying the jokes doing the rounds about the implausible excuses offered up in a vain attempt to explain away his lockdown breaches.

A slice of Victoria sponge cake (Picture: Paul Larkin)

The latest bout of hilarity was prompted by Conservative MP Conor Burns, who suggested the Prime Minister had been “ambushed with a cake” and was, therefore, apparently unable to avoid a celebration of his birthday at a time when indoor social gatherings were prohibited by his own government.

Twitter user @iucounu joked: “For his bravery in the face of the cake ambush the Prime Minister has been awarded the Victoria Sponge.”

And celebrity chef Nigella Lawson quipped on social media that she would make “Ambushed by Cake” the title of her next book.

In a rather embarrassing misjudgement of the public mood, Burns seems to have thought he could enlist the help of the popular Lawson in downplaying Johnson’s actions, replying: “It’s yours if you want it! Could I include my Granny's Christmas cake recipe?”

She cut him dead. “This is just too meta. Plus, you think it's a joke? Says it all,” Lawson wrote.

As Johnson faced accusations of yet another lie – following the emergence of a Foreign Office email stating that he had authorised animals to be evacuated from Afghanistan at a time when thousands of people were trying to get out, a claim he previously dismissed as “complete nonsense” – his supporters in the Conservative party should realise people are laughing at the Prime Minister, not with him.

And they are doing so because otherwise they would cry.

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