“Real responsibility for this lies with the people who decided to cover the matter up in the first place…presumably it was Downing Street” pic.twitter.com/ccqSViLnpw

— DailySunday Politics (@daily_politics) January 23, 2017

Sir Craig Oliver has lost it with Julian Lewis after the Tory Defence select committee chair claimed this morning that David Cameron’s spin doctors had covered up the Trident misfire. Sir Craig put out a statement blasting Lewis for “making these claims without any evidence”. On the Daily Politics Lewis doubled down:

“A very senior former Cameron spin doctor has rung up my office in a state of great anger, saying they never knew anything about it. I have to say it was a great pleasure to convey the message to Sir Craig Oliver that he ought to issue a press release on the subject, and I hope he will do so in great detail and depth. But nevertheless, if he didn’t know, did the Prime Minister know? And if the Prime Minister knew, why didn’t he make the matter public and why didn’t he tell even his closest spin doctors?”

Sir Craig’s statement was on behalf of a “spokesman for Mr Cameron’s media team“. When the spokesman needs a spokesman, as someone once said…