Nigella tells MP Conor Burns she’ll use ‘Ambushed by Cake’ for her next cookbook

Nigella Lawson has given the Tory MP who suggested the Prime Minister had been ‘ambushed by cake’ short shrift on social media, after he responded to her joke that the bizarre phrase might inspire the title of a future cook book.  

Yesterday Bournemouth West MP Mr Burns’ comments sparked widespread ridicule online when he defended the Prime Minister over an alleged birthday party – with a Union Jack cake and singing – in the Cabinet Room on June 19th, 2020.

The Northern Ireland minister said Mr Johnson was working in the room before people came in and presented him with the baked treat, adding: ‘He, as far as I can see, he was in a sense, ambushed with a cake.’

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TV cook Nigella Lawson joked to followers on Twitter on Tuesday evening that she was thinking of calling her next book ‘Ambushed by Cake’ after Northern Ireland MP Conor Burns coined the phrase while defending the Prime Minister’s alleged 56th birthday party in June 2020

Yesterday Conor Burns, MP for Bournemouth West, defended the Prime Minister after it was revealed he attended a gathering, complete with a Union Jack cake and singing, that was organised by his wife Carrie in the Cabinet Room on June 19, 2020 – he later responded to Ms Lawson’s tweet saying she was welcome to use the phrase for a future book

Boris Johnson holding a birthday cake presented to him by staff during a socially distanced visit to Bovingdon Primary School on June 19, 2020 – the same day as the birthday bash

On Twitter, Nigella found her name trending on Tuesday evening after the popular television cook suggested the phrase ‘just has to be the title of my next book!’  

Mr Burns responded an hour later to Ms Lawson, saying: ‘It’s yours if you want it! Could I include my Granny’s Christmas cake recipe?’

He was given short shrift by the domestic goddess…who riposted: ‘This is too meta. Plus, you think it’s a joke? Says it all.’ 

Social media had earlier erupted with #ambushedbycake hashtags poking fun at the remark, with one picturing a Colin the Caterpillar cake alongside the caption: ‘Eyes of a killer.’

Another tweet photoshopped an advert of an injury lawyer holding a cake, asking: ‘Have you had an accident or been ambushed by cake in your place of work?’

And a third meme capturing a megaphone being stuck out of a police car towards a passerby was accompanied by the words: ‘I’d be careful, Madam. There are reports of people being ambushed by cake.’

A day of high drama and chaos in Westminster yesterday started when Scotland Yard chief Dame Cressida Dick announced that the Metropolitan Police will finally probe alleged lockdown breaches in Downing Street and Whitehall. 

Senior Cabinet ministers including Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries downplayed the seriousness of the PM attending the bash. 

They insisted that the gathering of around 30 people specifically to mark the PM’s 56th birthday in June 2020 could be seen as a extension of the workplace. 

Mr Burns told Channel 4 News on Tuesday evening: ‘You can characterise these things in different ways. My understanding of that, from what I know of it, and I know as much as you do or your viewers at home know, the Prime Minister was out on a visit.

‘He came back, he was working in the Cabinet Room. People came in and presented him with the cake on his birthday, they sang happy birthday. He was there for about 10 minutes.

‘It was not a premeditated, organised party in that sense, that the Prime Minister himself decided to have sent out. 

‘He, as far as I can see, he was in a sense, ambushed with a cake. They came to his office with a cake, they sang happy birthday, he was there for 10 minutes.

‘I don’t think most people looking at that at home would characterise that as a party.’ 

Questioned over whether his defence of the PM was ‘farcical’, the MP for Bournemouth West said: ‘He’s our leader, I support him. I want him to continue as Prime Minister. 

‘I want him to show the British people what we can do in government to make their lives and their communities better.

‘Of course, we want to draw a line under this, and that’s why we want the Sue Gray report to come forward as soon as she is ready.

‘We want the Met to get on with looking at whatever they’re looking at, and then to make their findings public and then the public ultimately will judge.’ 

Downing Street has conceded staff ‘gathered briefly’ in the Cabinet Room following a meeting after it was alleged 30 people attended and shared cake despite social mixing indoors being banned