Boris victim of 'the greatest stitch-up since the Bayeux Tapestry'

‘The greatest stitch-up since the Bayeux Tapestry’: Boris Johnson uses speech at lavish wedding celebration to attack Tory ministers who forced him to quit Number 10 and joke about scandal-dogged time in power

• PM and Carrie celebrated at the country estate of a billionaire Tory donor 
• He used speech to he suggested that he did not deserve to be forced from No10
• Catalogue of sleaze led up to resignations of more than 50 ministers last month 

Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson used a speech at his lavish weekend wedding celebration to claim he was victim of ‘the greatest stitch-up since the Bayeux Tapestry’.

He made the remarks as he and Carrie gathered with their closest friends and family at the country estate of a billionaire Tory donor to celebrate their lockdown marriage.

In an address to guests including his Cabinet supporters and celebrities including soap star and singer Holly Vallance, he suggested that he did not deserve to be forced from power.

This is despite the catalogue of sleaze and economic woe that led up to the departure of more than 50 ministers last month, including Partygate and Wallpapergate.

According to the Times he joked that he had received ‘masses of letters to resign, mostly from my closest family’ but became ‘aware of the cloud on the horizon’.

He then likened the mass walk-out that prompted his own reluctant resignation to the famous 70m (230 foot) artwork housed in Normandy but made in England.

It comes as some of his supporters try to keep him in power by demanding he be allowed to run in the currently leadership election between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak.

Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson used a speech at his lavish weekend wedding celebration to claim he was victim of ‘the greatest stitch-up since the Bayeux Tapestry’.

He made the remarks as he and Carrie gathered with their closest friends and family at the country estate of a billionaire Tory donor to celebrate their lockdown marriage. 

The pair celebrated their nuptials in the grounds of Daylesford House in Gloucestershire, The Cotswolds

A handful of MPs loyal to Mr Johnson were invited among the 150 or so guests, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Ben Wallace, Nadine Dorries (right), Amanda Milling, the former Tory party chairman, and former culture secretary John Whittingdale (left).

The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidery depicting the 1066 Norman conquest of England and is 70m long

Mr Johnson has yet to denounce the campaign personally in public, which would be against party rules, but No10 and minister Nadine Dorries have spoken against it. 

Millionaire Tory donor Lord Cruddas, who is backing the scheme, said that the PM endorsed it over lunch.

Meanwhile Ms Dorries came under fire last night after sharing an image depicting Rishi Sunak stabbing Boris Johnson in the back.

The Culture Secretary, who is leading government efforts to reduce online harm, was accused of being ‘distasteful’ by retweeting the mocked-up Julius Caesar picture.

Business minister Greg Hands, a supporter of Mr Sunak’s leadership bid, said it was ‘appalling’ and ‘dangerous’ to share such images in the wake of the murder of Tory MP Sir David Amess. He told Sky News: ‘It’s not even a year since the stabbing of Sir David… so I think this is very, very bad taste, dangerous even.’

But an ally of Ms Dorries hit back, saying it was ‘quite obviously a satirical image of Brutus and Caesar… to provide political commentary’.

Ms Dorries was criticised last week for mocking Mr Sunak’s luxury clothing, while lauding his rival Liz Truss for wearing £4.50 earrings.

Mr Sunak today argued that the ‘Government had found itself on the wrong side of a very serious ethical issue’.

Asked about accusations that he is a ‘backstabber’, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I’m not going to comment specifically what others are choosing to say, but I will tackle the broader claim that they relate to, because I do think there is a risk that people are looking at the last few months of the Government with slightly rose-tinted glasses about what it was really like.

‘Because it wasn’t working as it should, and crucially the Government found itself on the wrong side of a very serious ethical issue, and, for me, also going down the wrong economic path, and that’s why in the end more than 60 MPs at the last count, I think, resigned from the Government, of which I, after a lot of deliberation and months of standing by the PM, I was one of them.’

Neither Mr Sunak or Ms Truss is prepared to offer Mr Johnson a Cabinet job, which ever of them takes over in No10 in September.

But the guest-list at the wedding celebration was very Truss-supporter heavy.

A handful of MPs loyal to Mr Johnson were invited among the 150 or so guests, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, Ben Wallace, Ms Dorries, Amanda Milling, the former Tory party chairman, and former culture secretary John Whittingdale. 

In an address to guests including his Cabinet supporters and celebrities including soap star and singer Holly Vallance, he suggested that he did not deserve to be forced from power.

According to the Times he joked that he had received ‘masses of letters to resign, mostly from my closest family’ but became ‘aware of the cloud on the horizon’. Pictured is his sister Rachel Johnson arriving

The guests, who included Mr Johnson’s sister, the journalist Rachel Johnson, and former Neighbours star Ms Valance, who is married to a rich property investor, enjoyed a lavish but private party at the Grade I listed Daylesford House in Gloucestershire.

It is thought Carrie had spent time carefully planning the wedding party with Lady Bamford, whose husband owns the estate, to celebrate her nuptials, 14 months after the couple initially married in a Westminster church.

Mr Johnson’s outspoken father Stanley arrives at Daylesford House in Gloucestershire ahead of the wedding celebration

In the run-up to the wedding, organisers had been seen installing hay bales outside the huge marquee where the party was held, to stop onlookers from getting a glimpse inside.

Mrs Johnson is thoughto have rented a £25-a-day bridal gown and the couple made Sweet Caroline their first dance.

They celebrated by dancing to the Neil Diamond tune, following their private wedding at Westminster Cathedral  14 months ago, The Sun reported.

In a bid to promote sustainable fashion the bride wore a silk Ruby gown from Savannah Miller, older sister of actress Sienna Miller, which usually costs £3,500 – however Carrie rented it for just £25 from London-based website Wardrobe HQ. 

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