Sublime. With Grant Shapps sacked as Tory chairman (a role in which he was entitled to attend cabinet) his new boss at the Department for International Development is Justine Greening — to whose Wikipedia page he has been accused of adding criticism.
After Shapps came out in favour of Heathrow expansion back in August 2012, third runway opponent Greening saw herself reshuffled from Transport to DfID the following month — allowing the Tories to start talking up aviation capacity.
In a substantial edit, the operator of a Wikipedia account described as “clearly controlled by Shapps” published references to Greening’s changing horses in mid stream — along with details of an embarrassing absence from a crucial parliamentary vote:
“Greening failed to vote in a critical parliamentary division about military action in Syria. Although in the House of Commons at the time, she was reportedly chatting to another minister in a room behind the chamber and failed to notice that the division bell had sounded.
A Tory spokesman insisted to the Guardian that the Wikipedia claims were “completely false and defamatory [and] nonsense from start to finish.”
Suffice it to say that Twitter couldn’t resist:
"Hi, foreign country. I'm Grant Shapps, the new Minister for International Development and I can show you how to get rich in 10 easy steps."
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) May 11, 2015
Exclusive: LCID get hold of leaked copy of @DFID_UK's new private sector development strategy pic.twitter.com/VlXAfGNPe0 @GuardianGDP
— LCID (@LabourCID) May 12, 2015
Set to tour the international conference circuit, the internal briefings on Shapps prepared by developing country governments should prove amusing.