Theresa May’s make-or-break Tory conference speech was interrupted by prankster Lee Nelson, who tried to give her a P45 and said: ‘Boris Johnson made me do it’.
Nelson, real name Simon Brodkin, told the visibly startled Prime Minister: ‘Boris asked me to give this to you’ before turning to the Foreign Secretary and saying: ‘Tell them Boris’.
Incredibly Mrs May took the document and put it under her lectern during a speech where she coughed near-constantly and needed large gulps of water and Strepsils to get through it.
Mr Johnson looked furious at Nelson’s intervention but didn’t appear to respond but Home Secretary Amber Rudd gave him some stern words before he was led away by security.
The Prime Minister recovered to say: ‘I was about to talk about somebody who I would like to give a P45 to, and that’s Jeremy Corbyn.’
Nelson’s prank raises major security concerns because he came within touching distance of the Prime Minister with ease.
Theresa May’s make-or-break Tory conference speech was interrupted by prankster Lee Nelson, who tried to give her a P45 and said: ‘Boris Johnson made me do it’.
Nelson blamed Mr Johnson, whose own leadership ambitions and loyalty to Mrs May has dominated the Tory conference
Mr Johnson looked furious and didn’t appear to respond but Home Secretary Amber Rudd gave him some stern words before he was led away by security
Nelson, who has become known for disrupting major speeches including throwing cash on Sepp Blatter, was booed by delegates as he was taken away and yelled repeatedly: ‘Boris Johnson made me do it’
Nelson, who has become known for disrupting major speeches including throwing cash on Sepp Blatter, was booed by delegates as he was taken away and yelled repeatedly: ‘Boris Johnson made me do it’ and ‘Boris has left me in the lurch’.
Mr Johnson’s leadership ambitions and loyalty to Mrs May has dominated the Tory conference.
The incident happened just moments after Mrs May apologised to her party for her performance in the botched campaign for this year’s snap election.
She admitted the campaign was ‘too scripted, too presidential’ and said she took responsibility for its shortcomings.
After calling an election three years early in the hope of increasing her dominance in the House of Commons, Mrs May lost 13 MPs and forfeited her majority, forcing her into a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party.
She won long applause from party delegates as she said: ‘We did not get the victory we wanted because our national campaign fell short.
Lee Nelson gives Boris Johnson a thumbs up as security surrounded him
Nelson, who has become known for disrupting major speeches including throwing cash on Sepp Blatter, was booed by delegates as he was taken away and yelled repeatedly: ‘Boris Johnson made me do it’
‘It was too scripted. Too presidential. And it allowed the Labour Party to paint us as the voice of continuity when the public wanted to hear a message of change.
‘I hold my hands up for that. I take responsibility. I led the campaign. And I am sorry.’
Nelson has a track record of pulling off similar stunts. He once threw a pile of dollars at the then Fifa president Sepp Blatter during a press conference.
Mrs May’s speech was also interrupted by fits of coughing, which she laughed off.