Comedian Joe Lycett has confessed his anger at the UK Government prompted the fake Sue Gray report he tweeted.
Joe went viral and caused chaos among MPs who panicked over his ' fake version' of the senior civil servant's expected investigation into claims of Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Number 10 and across Whitehall during Covid.
The report including her views on an alleged birthday gathering for Boris Johnson.
Joe, 33, has now explained online that he was angry at the Government after MPs broke the rules while his friend died in lockdown 2020.
In a letter on Twitter he said: "I write comedy sometimes as a way of using anger.
"I’m angry right now for probably the same reason many other people are angry.
Talking of his friend who passed away during lockdown, he explained: "He had been ill for a number of years and towards the end I had helped as a part-time carer. I watched him slip away, gradually, over months, and all that comes with it.
'It’s a long story for another time. But he died, at the start of lockdown, and I wasn’t there because I was following the rules, and we had a tiny insufficient funeral, because we were following the rules, and I drove his kids away from that funeral back to Birmingham without any sort of wake, because we were following the rules, and it felt unnatural and cruel and almost silly, but we did it because we followed the rules.
"So I suppose like thousands of others with their own stories, I’m angry about that."
He added he is "not a political comic particularly and rarely if ever make outwardly political statements".
He also said of the Tories "this lot" are more into "power and little else".
"To hell with my dead friend, they think, and all your dead friends and dead relatives. You followed the rules and we didn’t but we’re in power and that’s all that matters so spin on it.
"So I get angry and I write a few jokes about Sue Gray’s report, a report which will probably change nothing and we’ll all be here again in the not too distant future, in some other scandal, with some other liars.
"But for now you might wonder how it feels to have been described in the papers as having caused these people ‘chaos’ and ‘mayhem’ and ‘mass panic’ because of a few jokes."
He ended: "Let me be clear: it feels absolutely f**king fantastic."
Joe put out the fake report on Thursday saying: "BREAKING: Leaked Sue Gray report reveals shocking abuse of the rules. Hard to see how the PM can cling on after this."
The imagined report contained writings about a 'culture of Covid-19 regulation breaking at Number 10 Downing Street’ and that ‘games were played that were known as “slow dance” and “pass the a**ehole”'.
There was also a reference about WhatsApp groups being made to ‘organise gatherings’ and the chats were called ‘definitely a meeting’ and ‘down it street’.
Joe’s file also claimed 'Hear’Say’s Pure and Simple' was played at one of the parties, and everyone took ‘twateral flow’ tests.
An email address ItsAllSueGravyBaby@aol.com was given at the bottom of the 'report'.
Despite it clearly being a fake, the Cabinet was thrown into chaos when it was released with some believing it be real - and leaked.
Joe also posted some text messages on Twitter he said were ‘from someone who works for a cabinet minister’.
They said: "I work in Parliament for the Conservatives and I think you need to kno… Your tweet this morning was read as an actual serious leak from Sue Gray’s report."
"‘U had MP staff literally running around panicking from what it said. Panic dialling MPs like we need to discuss this right now."
‘[People were saying] “I can’t believe she used the phrase ‘down it street’.”
It ended: "Absolutely legendary work, well done."
Boris Johnson is still awaiting the real report from Sue Gray which could trigger a vote of no confidence in his leadership.
Met Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has also announced a criminal investigation has been opened.
