Nigella Lawson has expertly shut down a Conservative MP who claimed that Boris Johnson was “ambushed with cake” at his lockdown birthday party.
On Monday (24 January) reports emerged regarding yet another gathering held at Downing Street while the country was in lockdown, this time for the prime minister’s birthday in June 2020.
The party was allegedly organised by his wife Carrie at a time when gathering indoors was banned. The revelation came just in time for Johnson to be questioned about it at PMQs.
One comment that prompted widespread mockery online came from loyal Conservative backbencher Conor Burns, who defended Johnson by saying that the party had not been “pre-meditated”.
“As far as I can see, he was, in a sense, ambushed with a cake,” he added.
Responding to the news on Tuesday (25 January), Lawson mockingly suggested she might appropriate the phrase for her own use.
“Ambushed by Cake: it just has to be the title of my next book!” she tweeted.
Burns himself responded to the TV chef’s tweet, writing: “It’s yours if you want it! Could I include my Granny’s Christmas cake recipe?”
However, Lawson was unimpressed, writing: “This is too meta. Plus, you think it’s a joke? Says it all.”
Twitter users praised the Cook, Eat, Repeat author for her response, with one calling Lawson “the hero we don’t deserve”.
“I didn’t have Nigella fighting the Tories on my 2022 bingo card but I’m here for it,” another commented.
