Boris Johnson has said he was “delighted” to see the Conservative Party win the seat of Clwyd South - even though it did not.
The foreign secretary used an article in The Sun today to defend Theresa May’s disastrous election campaign which saw her lose her overall majority in the Commons.
Having been forced to publicaly deny speculation he is eying up a Tory leadership challenge, Johnson used his column to attack Labour’s performance.
“But at the risk of stating the obvious, Jeremy Corbyn Did Not Win This Election. He didn’t even come close. Yes, he picked up Kensington – but then he also lost Mansfield,” Johnson wrote.
He added: “I am delighted to see that we Tories have just won Clwyd South – the seat where I was first defeated in the great Blair landslide of 1997.”
The only problem? The Conservatives did not win the seat. It was held by Labour - as its re-elected MP pointed out.
Susan Elan Jones won the seat with a majority of 4,356 and over 50% of the vote.
Johnson’s article, published late on Sunday evening, has since been edited to remove the inaccurate claim. But this is what it said:
David Davis this morning said parts of the Tory manifesto will be “pruned away” as May prepares for a showdown with Conservative MPs amid anger over the way the party saw its majority wiped out in the general election.
May sought to stave off another Tory civil war ahead of her appearance before the backbench 1922 Committee by bringing former justice secretary Michael Gove in from the cold less than a year after she sacked him.
His appointment as environment secretary came after former chancellor George Osborne branded her a “dead woman walking”, warning that she could be ousted from No.10 in a matter of days.