JK Rowling pledges to pay salary of rogue civil servant for viral tweet

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has pledged to pay a year’s salary for the rogue civil service employee who sent the internet into meltdown yesterday after labelling Prime Minister Boris Johnson ‘arrogant and offensive’.

Following his backing of senior aide Dominic Cummings, who travelled 250 miles to Durham despite strict lockdown rules, the PM was hit with swift backlash.

One such slamming came from the official Twitter account of the civil service, which was taken over by a rogue employee.

Sharing their distaste for Mr Johnson’s Sunday evening address, they posted an ‘unauthorised’ tweet which read: ‘Arrogant and offensive. Can you imagine having to work with these truth twisters.’

It remained online for 10 minutes before disappearing.

The Cabinet Office later tweeted: ‘An unauthorised tweet was posted on a government channel this evening.

‘The post has been removed and we are investigating the matter.’

Following the message, Rowling replied: ‘When you find out who it was, let us know. I want to give them a year’s salary.’

Cue many people claiming they were the culprit behind the message, in the hopes of being bankrolled by the billionaire author for the next 12 months.

It’s perhaps of no surprised Rowling picked up on the tweet, after it was reportedly shared by around 25,000 users and liked by almost 40,000 before vanishing.

Now it merely lives on in the masses of screenshots.

Many joked that whoever wrote the tweet was ‘following their instincts’ – a reference to the PM’s defence of Mr Cummings when he said he ‘followed the instincts of every father and every parent’ when he reportedly sought childcare from his parents in County Durham.

BBC Newsnight policy editor Lewis Goodall wrote: ‘This has just been tweeted from the UK Civil Service account. This is the craziest political weekend for a long time.’

Rowling had previously voiced her anger at Mr Cummings when she responded to a tweet from Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, who argued: ‘Taking care of your wife and young child is justifiable and reasonable, trying to score political points over it isn’t.’

She wrote: ‘People have missed funerals of loved ones because of lockdown.

‘Many have had to look after their own young children while ill. One of the architects of the rules keeping those people housebound drove across the UK, knowing he had the virus. Indefensible hypocrisy and selfishness.’

Got a story?

If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.