Rowling offers to pay salary of ‘truth-twister’ tweet author

HARRY POTTER author J K Rowling has offered to pay the annual salary of the person who tweeted on the Civil Service Twitter account accusing Boris Johnson of being an “arrogant, offensive truth-twister”.

The tweet was posted after the press conference during which the Prime Minister defended his senior aide, Dominic Cummings. A tweet from the account read: “Arrogant and offensive.

Can you imagine having to work with these truth-twisters?”

The statement remained live for nine minutes, during which time it received 30,000 retweets.

It was not clear whether the account had been hacked, or whether the message was posted by a disgruntled member of the service. A spokesman for the Government confirmed that an investigation was under way.

But Ms Rowling wrote on Twitter: “When you find out who it was, let us know. I want to give them a year’s salary.” She added: “I can’t remember a clearer demonstration of contempt for the people from a sitting Prime Minister. Johnson might as well have shambled into shot, given us all the finger and walked off again.”

Celebrities including Gary Lineker, the Match of the Day presenter, have also posted in support of the person behind the tweet.

Mr Johnson defended Mr Cummings for travelling to Durham for childcare during the lockdown. Ms Rowling, who is married to a doctor and suffered coronavirus symptoms, also previously angrily reacted to tweets from Ministers supporting Mr Cummings.

In answer to Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s support for the Prime Minister’s aide, she wrote: “People have missed funerals of loved ones because of lockdown. [Yet] one of the architects of the [lockdown] rules drove across the UK, knowing he had the virus. Indefensible hypocrisy and selfishness.”