Nadine Dorries jumped to defend Boris Johnson following his rather tumultuous hearing in the front of other MPs over partygate on Wednesday.
The ex-PM was hauled in front of the parliamentary privileges committee as part of the investigation into whether he had deliberately misled the Commons.
Johnson had repeatedly claimed no Covid rules were broken within Downing Street at the height of the pandemic, but he – among others – was later fined for breaching the restrictions.
The reaction to his ill-tempered appearance was not very positive, overall, with even Tory MP Caroline Nokes declaring “he’s finished” in the aftermath.
Still, Dorries, who was the culture secretary in Johnson’s government and a particularly outspoken ally of his, made it clear that the former prime minister remains in her good books on Twitter – even as backlash against him grew.
Responding to one tweet questioning why Johnson claimed these gatherings “had to happen”, she wrote: “Because the role of a leader during a crisis is to keep morale high amongst those who were working 17hr days 7/7 as morale slumps.
“No.10 was the engine room of the country, it was important to keep people turning up and working and saying goodbye to someone who was leaving was an act of good crisis leadership and management.”
Chaos then ensued, as critics rushed to quote-tweet her words and remind her of the lockdown rules the general public, especially those working in hospitals, during Covid had to face.
Once the hearing was finished, the Tory MP tweeted again: “Boris Johnson very clear today.
“Not sure there is a reasonable person in the land who would think that the committee could do anything other than totally exonerate him and not before time either.”
Twitter didn’t hesitate to point out the comments for this tweet were turned off.
Then there was the backlash against a much later tweet, where she wrote: “It was the 20-year anniversary of the Iraq invasion this week.
“Did Tony Blair at any time face the scrutiny that Boris Johnson has repeatedly been subjected to both at the dispatch box and before committees?
“No, of course not. He was a Labour PM and a remainer. #Exempt.”
Twitter was quick to point out that there were, in fact, two prominent reports into the war: the 2003 Hutton Inquiry and the 2009 Chilcot Inquiry.