Boris Johnson’s loyalist Nadine Dorries has been criticized for a meme showing Rishi Sunak using a knife to kill Julius Caesar

London:

One of the main cronies of outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and supporter of Foreign Secretary Liz Truss as his successor, who has been very vocal about attacks on Rishi Sunak, was criticized on Sunday for retweeting a “dangerous and disgusting” image of the former chancellor.

Culture Minister Nadine Dorries reposted a tweet on her social media account showing an image of Johnson dressed as Roman leader Julius Caesar and Sunak stabbing him in the back, a reference to his killer Brutus.

Business Secretary Greg Hands, who is backing the ex-British-India minister in the race, told Sky News the post was “appalling”.

“I find it distasteful and I find it, less than a year after our colleague was stabbed, very, very distasteful, even almost dangerous,” he said.

Referring to the stabbing of Tory MP Sir David Amess by a voter last year, he added: “It hasn’t even been a year since Sir David was stabbed… so I think that’s very, very bad taste, even dangerous.” But an unnamed ally of Dorries’s pointed out that it was “obviously a satirical image of Brutus and Caesar,” photoshopped to provide political commentary.

“Some people will of course want to be intentionally insulted,” the ally said.

He is running to become PM. His name is @RishiSunak . pic.twitter.com/RMeApX9s7n

— beam | #BackBoris #LizForLeader (@Thank youBoJo) July 29, 2022

Dorries has previously attacked Sunak’s sense of expensive clothing as a sign that he was out of touch with the British electorate and accused him of leading a “reckless coup” against his former boss.

“I am bitterly disappointed that Boris Johnson, like him, was removed in a ruthless coup led largely by Rishi Sunak,” she said.

According to a report in the Observer newspaper, it is claimed Sunak’s team will be urged to revamp his “general election” style campaign in favor of a grassroots effort and strike directly with the estimated 180,000 Tory members in a last ditch effort to defeat them speak Liz Truss to the conservative leadership.

Truss was the preferred candidate to succeed Boris Johnson in opinion polls and bookmaker odds.

“The tuning is very smooth, you don’t have to do much to shift it. We’re making this way too complicated. There are brilliant people in charge but I’m just worried we’re fighting the wrong campaign,” said a Sunak who supports the Tory MP, the newspaper said.

Another MP said: “The stuff they have their people produce is general election social media stuff. This is about party members. It should just be about getting rishi and key supporters to as many members as possible. They’re trying to get MPs for them, but it’s mostly producing social media graphics.”

A third ally said: “I think it’s looking quite difficult for him but I can’t give up hope just yet. There are many MEPs who speak to their associations. There is still time. It would be absurd to just submit the applications for the next four weeks.” Postal ballot paperwork for the election will begin arriving at Tory members’ addresses from next Thursday, with the deadline for receiving completed ballots being the evening of May 2 The result will be announced on September 5th.

(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by TOI.News staff and was published by a syndicated feed.)