Daily Mail turns on Boris Johnson over handling of A-Level results branding him a ‘dunce’

Tory-leaning paper, The Daily Mail, blasted Boris Johnson and Gavin Williamson over A-Level results on their Thursday front cover; Twitter - Credit: Archant

The Daily Mail has turned on Boris Johnson over his handling of A-Level results, branding him and education minister Gavin Williamson ‘dunces’ on its front page.

The paper, which is usually supportive of Tory governments, had the headline ‘YOU DUNCES!’ above pictures of Johnson and Williamson, on its Thursday edition.

The release comes amid a mass student revolt over how the government calculated of A-Level marks.

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Thousands of students have protested against the scores they were allocated through a computer algorithm which factored in a student’s mock exams and class grade.

‘Exam grades in chaos. Teachers in despair. Appeals set for meltdown,’ the paper wrote, summing up the mood of the nation’s students below its headline.

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The news that nearly 40% of six formers had their results downgraded from teacher predictions led to an outpouring of anger online, resulting in several trending hashtags on Twitter including #WilliamsonResign and #torychaos.

Responding to the cover, Daily Mirror political editor Pippa Crerar tweeted: ‘Daily Mail gives Boris Johnson and Gavin Williamson a FAIL. This will hurt in Downing Street.’

Stephen Baker wrote: ‘You know you’re inept if you’re on the right wing and the Daily Mail are taking the piss. What a shambles we have for a government.’

One user said: ‘You know you’ve done goofed when the Daily Mail are slagging you off as a Tory minister!’

‘Ouch…’ said another.

Chris McLean joked the Tories still had the Telegraph, while Jason England was a bit more direct.

‘If you’ve lost the tory bootlicking media, you know you’ve messed up…’ he posted, adding ‘you literally saw the #ExamResults U-turn in Scotland and learnt absolutely nothing from it, you utter pillocks. #torychaos’

John Moss quipped: ‘Williamson should resign or be fired however neither will happen because competence is no longer a criteria for ministerial office.’

Chris Stocks followed up with: ‘If we have a receipt for this government … can we return it and get another one? This one is faulty and it seems a repair is not viable.’

Cassandra wrote: ‘I was going to go against my principles and buy the Daily Mail today just so I could frame the front page and put it up in the downstairs loo. However not enough pics of ministers for me to do that. Now if only Cummings Gove and Patel were on the front page too…’