Boris Johnson proudly announced in a tweet last night that he had voted in the local elections and appealed to the public to do the the same.
Only there’s a slight problem – the Tory MP lives in London and there weren’t any local elections in the capital yesterday, a detail a former mayor of the city should probably be aware of.
Cue frantic deletion of evidence.
The gaffe was spotted by comedy writer James Felton, who tweeted a link to the PolitWoops website that tracks and saves deleted tweets from MPs.
Inevitably, and perhaps deservedly, Twitter was quick to pounce of the mistake (WARNING: Coarse language ahead).
Johnson’s office later insisted he did vote in the local elections but did not elaborate or explain why he deleted the tweet.
The Tory MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip also has a home in South Oxfordshire.
It was a rough night for both Johnson’s Tory party and the Labour as both faced a backlash at the ballot box over Brexit while smaller parties and independents surged ahead.
With results in from 100 of the 248 councils where elections are being held the Liberal Democrats had a net gain of 235 seats and the Greens 34.
In particularly bad news for leading Tory backbench Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, he is now represented by a Lib Dem councillor.
Tim Warren, the Conservative leader of Bath and North East Somerset Council, has lost his seat to Lib Dem David Wood as voters punished the Tories in the local elections on Thursday.