Nadine Dorries doing three consecutive car crash interviews was astonishing TV

Nadine Dorries has been ridiculed online after attempting to defend Boris Johnson following his appearance in the House of Commons on Monday, appearing in three back-to-back car crash interviews in support of the prime minister.

The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spoke to BBC News, Sky News and Channel 4 News, which made for extraordinary viewing.

It came after the prime minister became the subject of a backlash after attempting to distract from Labour criticism on the Sue Gray report, accusing Sir Keir Starmer of failing to prosecute disgraced entertainer Jimmy Savile when he was head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).

As a fact-check by Reuters last October concluded, there is no evidence to support the claim despite it gaining traction online.

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When Channel 4 news presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked Ms Dorries about the "fake news" perpetuated by the prime minister and described the claims as an "old meme repeated by conspiracy theorists", the minister said "the prime minister tells the truth".

She also repeatedly shook her head and insisted: ‘I don’t know the details.’

When pushed, Ms Dorries told Guru-Murthy "I’ll have to take your word for it", before adding: "There are lots of things that Keir Starmer shouldn’t have said."

In another uncomfortable encounter, Ms Dorries described a Sky News story on the report as "pure fiction and guesswork".

"I would like to just deal with the facts if that's ok," she added, before saying that the report had "some quite useful, accurate, observations and recommendations".

Another interview with BBC News also saw Ms Dorries claim that the people criticising Mr Johnson over the Sue Gray report were the same people who had hit out at his leadership since before he was even elected leader of the Conservative party.

She also said the prime minister had ‘given his apology’ and that ‘we'll wait to see’ what the Met Police's findings are.

Social media users were quick to react to the interviews, with some comparing her appearance on Channel 4 News to a Catherine Tate sketch.

Elsewhere, the prime minister has been branded a “disgrace” after he falsely accused the leader of the opposition of being behind a failure to prosecute Savile.

A former chief prosecutor said it was “not true” that the Labour leader failed to prosecute Savile – a claim made by the prime minister in the Commons on Monday.

‘This leader of the opposition, a former director of public prosecution – who used his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile, as far as I can see – he chose to use this moment to continually pre-judge a police inquiry,’ he said at the time.

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