Tory MP claims BBC tried to make Boris Johnson ‘look like Hannibal Lecter’ in rant against media

‘Does that guy look like someone who has been given a birthday cake or someone who has been locked up for something at the Old Bailey?’

A Conservative MP on Monday attacked BBC Newsnight by claiming that the show had portrayed UK prime minister Boris Johnson as “Hannibal Lecter”.

Adam Holloway claimed that the media had tried to alter Mr Johnson’s image during the investigation of the “Partygate” scandal.

“There is great damage to the reputation of politics and it should also do damage to organisations like the BBC,” he said. “This programme I am on now showed pictures of him looking like Hannibal Lecter at the beginning. I can show you here.”

Mr Holloway went on to produce screengrabs of the photo used by the show.

“Does that guy look like someone who has been given a birthday cake or someone who has been locked up for something at the Old Bailey?”

On Monday night, the Tory leader won a confidence vote — even though 148 of his own MPs voted to oust him. He secured the support of 211 parliamentarians and told media that he had a “far bigger mandate” than he did when voted in as a leader in 2019, adding that he was “happy with that”.

He said: “This is very good news... an opportunity to put behind us all the stuff people in the media like going on about.”

He added: “This is an extremely good result that enables us to move on, unite and focus on delivery”. He said that there was no prospect of a snap election, adding that he was “not interested” in pursuing one.

Meanwhile, Mr Holloway in his defence of the prime minister on Monday night said that people know that the PM was not a “Jesuit priest” and that Mr Johnson did “quite brilliantly” during the pandemic.

Labour MP David Lammy has urged Mr Johnson to resign after the result of the confidence vote, in which he said Mr Johnson had “done worse than Thatcher did in 1990”.