Rishi Sunak says Britons ‘should be grateful’ for Boris Johnson

MORE: Downing Street denies rift between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak

“I think the job I have is hard enough and I see up-close what the prime minister has to deal with every day. It’s not an envious task and he does it admirably well.

“These are very difficult time and I am grateful that we have his leadership and I think the country should be grateful for that as well.”

MORE: Boris Johnson ruled out second lockdown to stop Rishi Sunak quitting

Twitter users excoriated the chancellor. 

@iii_turk posted: “Just when you think there’s someone who seems to be competent in government, he comes along with this rubbish.”

@BeaumontBee added: “That’s such a patronising thing to say. There is nothing to be ‘grateful’ for, as far as Johnson is concerned. Absolutely nothing.”

Rory added: “Rishi Sunak comes out with this, the day after 16,000 people tested have no idea if they have an infectious virus because somebody in the UK government can’t work a f**king excel spreadsheet properly.”

@JRodge888 wrote “Grateful… for this?” above a chart showing the UK as having one of the highest excess death rates and forecast loss of GDP in 2020, globally.

One user, by the name Yabba, quipped: “Especially those looking forward to Scottish independence and a united Ireland.”

@pepetideo wrote: “Yes… I will be very grateful when his leadership is over. Because we will not see another example of someone so grossly incompetent in our lifetimes. I hope”

“I bet he’s quite grateful that the PM is clearly shite, not done him any harm by comparison,” added one person.

Chris joked: “Seriously? Was Cummings pointing a gun at him off camera?”