Rory Stewart caused uproar among Conservative supporters after tweeting he'd been given a top comms role in No.10.
The former cabinet minister has been an outspoken critic of Boris Johnson since leaving the Tory party and politics.
He has even started up a podcast with Tony Blair's right-hand man Alistair Campbell.
But Mr Stewart had many fooled when he made his announcement on the morning of April 1.
He announced: "It is an honour to have been asked by the Prime Minister to serve as Director of Communications for No10 Downing Street.
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"I am looking forward to working with the PM, Ministers and Members of Parliament on the issues that matter most to our country."
Despite the timing of his tweet, some were clearly fooled, and questioned why Boris Johnson would make such an appointment.
One wrote: "Why would he bring a Remainer into the fold?"
Another added: "He's like Liz Truss and I think this shows her increasing influence."
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While one responded with: "So what in you and your colleagues' minds are the issues that matter most to the rest of us or are you simply going to continue on gaslighting the nation while ignoring what we all actually need?"
Liz Truss once told Mr Stewart that she found foreign affairs “really boring” and being Foreign Secretary was bottom of her wish list, he has alleged.
Ms Truss, who has held the senior cabinet role since September 2021, was also accused of seemingly thinking the job is “about Instagram”, by former Downing Street director of communications, Alastair Campbell.
Mr Stewart, who was international development secretary for a period in 2019 but quit the Cabinet after Boris Johnson became party leader, made the comments in the first episode of the new podcast, The Rest Is Politics, which he hosts alongside Mr Campbell.
The former Penrith and the Border Tory MP, who also sat as an independent after being sacked by his party, said there is a sense that “nobody really prioritises foreign affairs, or haven’t for a long time in British politics”, adding that Ms Truss once told him the “last thing” she would want to be was Foreign Secretary.
He said: “I remember when I was running for the Foreign Affairs Committee, as I started, and then later to be chair of (the) Defence Committee, Liz Truss saying to me ‘I can’t understand why you’re obsessed with foreign affairs, I find it really boring – the last thing I want to do is to be Foreign Secretary’.
“Actually she was speaking for a whole generation. All these people wanted to get on the Treasury Committee… nobody wanted to do foreign affairs and defence. Britain was already beginning to turn very, very inward.”
