THERESA May and Conservative high command were mocked after the Cabinet reshuffle began amid a series of embarrassing social media mistakes.
Chris Grayling was incorrectly announced as party Chairman before the job was given to Brandon Lewis, whose appointment was itself revealed in a botched tweet.
As the ministerial shake-up got under way, the official Conservatives Twitter account incorrectly tweeted an image appearing to confirm Mr Grayling's appointment at around 11.40am before swiftly deleting it.
Around 20 minutes later Mr Lewis was seen entering No 10 and within an hour he was announced as party Chairman and Minister Without Portfolio.
Yet Downing Street’s official Twitter account was forced to delete its announcement of Mr Lewis's hiring after it misspelled part of his job title "Porfolio", before re-posting a correct version.
The social media mix-ups came months after an internal review of the Tories' disastrous election campaign, in which the party lost its Commons majority after being outfought online by Labour, said the party should "urgently upscale" its digital department.
As details of the mistakes emerged, several opposition MPs mocked the Tories and Mrs May, turning the PM's "strong and stable" election slogan against her, with one suggesting she had a reverse Midas touch.
The picture announcing Mr Grayling's appointment was also sent to a majority of the party's MPs by Conservative HQ’s political director Iain Carter before he deleted it and said it was sent in error, a party source said.
But his correction was too late for Tory MPs Rebecca Pow and Sheryll Murray, who had posted the image and were forced to delete it as a source close to the Transport Secretary said he had not been seen by Mrs May.
Labour’s Pat McFadden tweeted: "The stage fell apart at their conference. Their website is down. And they have screwed up their headline appointment. I remember John Smith making a speech once about John Major being the man with the non-Midas touch."
Fellow Labour MP Peter Kyle posted: "The wheels are off before the engine has even started. The next chapter in Theresa May's 'Strong and Stable' premiership begins as each previous chapter ended: humiliated and weak."
The SNP's Peter Grant said: "Alternative explanation. Theresa May 'I'm going to make Chris Grayling party chairman. Oh yes I am!' Tory MPs 'Oh no you're not!'"
Liberal Democrat chief whip Alistair Carmichael added: "You have to hand it to the Conservatives, messing up your own reshuffle takes a whole new level of incompetence.”
But James Cleverly, the newly appointed Deputy Chairman, said the "mis-tweet" appeared to have been caused by an over-excited member of Tory HQ staff.
“That was probably someone at CCHQ getting a little bit over-excited because reshuffle day is obviously a big and exciting day," he added.
Meanwhile, among the appointments to boost Tory Central Office was Maria Caulfield, who was made the party’s vice-chair for women.
But pro-choice activists condemned the appointment as Ms Caulfield led parliamentary opposition to proposals to decriminalise some later abortions, arguing that any attempts to change the law would bring "unjust and oppressive change" and put women and unborn children at risk.
The British Pregnancy Advisory Service said it was "shocked" by her new role while the Women’s Equality Party said: “For the Conservatives to appoint as vice-chair for women someone who seeks to limit women’s reproductive rights runs counter to the purpose of that role and makes a mockery of this weekend’s briefing that this reshuffle is designed to boost equality.”
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