Oliver Dowden made quite the gaffe in the middle of PMQs on Wednesday as he muddled up the SNP’s time in government with his own party’s.
The deputy PM was covering for Rishi Sunak while he flies to Japan in his first G7 summit as prime minister.
But, it all started to go wrong for the Conservative MP when SNP’s deputy leader in the Commons, Mhairi Black, stood up to speak.
She criticised Brexit following a bleak warning from car manufacturers this week and a surprising admission from ardent Brexiteer Nigel Farage that it’s “failed”.
She said: “Even Nigel Farage can admit that Brexit has failed, so Mr Speaker, why can’t he?”
Dowden briefly mentioned the government’s attempts at international trade deals, before moving onto the offensive and discussing the SNP’s latest vow to “build a new Scotland”.
He said: “I don’t know if she’s aware but the SNP have been in power for 13 years.”
Suddenly, a huge wave of shouting erupted around the Commons – particularly because the SNP have actually been in power since 2007.
It’s the Conservative Party who were elected 13 years ago, as Labour’s deputy PM Angela Rayner reminded Dowden just moments before.
Still, Dowden carried on attacking the SNP even as the Commons were in uproar over his slip-up.
He added, “they should stop their focus on their independents, and focus on their priorities for the Scottish people,” and then quickly sat down.
But, eagle-eyed viewers might have spotted that towards the end of his sentence, Dowden seemed to be realising his gaffe and looked like he was on the cusp of laughing himself – although the rest of the Tory front bench did not seem to find it quite so amusing.
And the slip-up definitely did not go unnoticed on Twitter...