Valentine’s Day hoaxer fools Downing Street, convinces aide Trump wants to send May flowers
Downing Street was left red faced on Tuesday morning after a hoaxer tricked staffers into thinking US President Donald Trump wished to send UK Prime Minister Theresa May a bunch of flowers for Valentine’s Day.
Comedian Heydon Prowse was put through to the PM’s office once he told an unidentified aide he was a “Jeff Arnold,” an assistant to White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
Prowse told the Downing Street staffer the president wanted to send May a bouquet. Apparently hoodwinked, the staffer said she could not remember off “the top of her head” what the PM’s favorite flowers were, but promised to get back with a response.
She then rang Prowse back, failing to notice his phone number was in fact a UK line, and asked if she could double check “who the gift is coming from?”
The prankster said they were “essentially from Mr Trump.” The aide responded: “Ah yes, I see, excellent, fantastic. OK, my hunch is hydrangeas.”
Prowse then cuts the prank short, saying: “OK, what we’ll also do is we’ll send over a lovely card with a picture of Mr Trump grabbing Theresa May’s p****, I mean hand, sorry, [aide laughs and says ‘Oh God’] — I meant hand obviously, sorry, that was a slip of the tongue.”
“Please pass Mr Trump’s regards on to Theresa because really he is such a lovely man and he had such a lovely time with Theresa he just wants to pass that on to her, OK?” Prowse added.
“Of course, I will certainly relay that message,” the aide replied.
The Prime Minister, who was the first European leader to meet the new president at the White House, has pledged to rekindle the special relationship between the US and Britain.
On Tuesday morning, May’s government formally rejected a petition calling for Trump to be barred from coming to the UK on an official state visit.
“HM Government believes the President of the United States should be extended the full courtesy of a State Visit. We look forward to welcoming President Trump once dates and arrangements are finalized,” a Foreign Office statement said.
Despite the government’s rejection, the petition, signed by 1.8 million Brits, will be debated in Parliament on February 20.
