A Tory MP last night accused the BBC of making Boris Johnson “look like Hannibal Lecter” in an extraordinary spat.
Adam Holloway, a supporter of the embattled PM, claimed Newsnight was biased because of a graphic it used to illustrate a story about his no confidence vote result.
Some 41% of Tory MPs last night voted no confidence in the Prime Minister - a worse result than Theresa May in 2018.
But according to Mr Holloway, the problem was Newsnight’s graphic - and brought a printout of it to prove his point.
He told the programme: “There is great damage to the reputation of politics and it should also do damage to organisations like the BBC.
“This programme I am on now were showing pictures of him looking like Hannibal Lecter at the beginning.”
Hannibal Lecter was the fictional serial killer and cannibal brought to life by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs and other films.
When the presenter replied “oh come on”, Mr Holloway whipped out his printout and exclaimed: “Okay, I can show you here. Look at that! He’s got razor blades.
“I mean, does that guy look like someone who has, you know, been given a birthday cake or someone who, you know, has been locked up for something at the Old Bailey?
“I mean, this thing has been blown totally out of proportion and actually we should be thanking this man.”
The incident has an echo of a row between Jeremy Corbyn supporters and BBC Newsnight, when they accused the programme of Photoshopping his hat.
The BBC dismissed complaints in 2018 that Newsnight altered a photo of the then-Labour leader to make him look more Russian.
The show used a graphic of the Labour leader next to images of Moscow as the backdrop to an item about his response to the Salisbury poisoning.
Critics said his hat was digitally altered and it was all designed to make him look like a "Soviet stooge".
Left wing commentator Owen Jones told the programme: “The media framing has been a disgrace and I have to say that includes your own programme.”
At the time, the programme insisted it had used the same backdrop alongside a picture of Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and the only thing they changed about the hat was the colour saturation.
