A Kent MP has accused the BBC of depicting Boris Johnson as Hannibal Lecter, the notorious fictional mass murderer.

Gravesham MP Adam Holloway made the claim last night in an interview just hours after Mr Johnson survived a vote of no confidence but saw 148 of his Tory MP colleagues rebel.

In an extraordinary intervention on BBC’s Newsnight, he took to task the media’s portrayal of the partygate scandal and accused the programme of altering Johnson’s image to liken him to the fictional serial killer made famous by Anthony Hopkins.

“This programme now will show pictures of him looking like Hannibal Lecter,” he said.

He then proceeded to show to the camera what appeared to be a screengrab of the Conservative leader that he claimed had been altered and featured razors.

“Does this look like some guy that has been given a birthday cake or someone who has been locked up at the Old Bailey?" he asked.

"This whole thing has been blown out of proportion when actually we should be thanking this man.”

“When the British people voted for him and gave him an 80-seat majority they knew they were not voting for a Jesuit priest.

"What we have seen over the last few months there has been a drip, drip, drip of stuff that factually has amounted to nothing but has done great damage to his reputation with my constituents, who send me emails asking ‘can I assure them that I had not attended any of Boris’s receptions?”

He added: “There is great damage to the reputation of politics and it should also do damage to organisations like the BBC.”

He also praised Mr Johnson for his "brilliant handling" of the Covid crisis.