George Osborne became caught up in a "fake news" row with the Conservative Party over coverage of Boris Johnson's Brexit bill.
The Tories put out adverts claiming the PM’s Brexit deal “passed” parliament.
But the Evening Standard, which Osborne now edits, accused the government of peddling "fake news" because the crucial bill had only passed its second reading, suggesting in principle that it had the Commons’ support.
CCHQ objected to the coverage, claiming the paper’s story was "simply not true" on Twitter .
Osborne responded personally on Twitter defending his paper's coverage and offering to “come and explain how it’s done” to party chiefs at CCHQ.
Mr Osborne tweeted: "‘I think you’ll find the Evening Standard team know the difference between a bill passing its second reading in the Commons and a bill passing Parliament. I know it’s been a while since the latter happened, but I’m happy to come in and explain how it’s done."
On Tuesday MP's backed the PM's Withdrawal Agreement Bill by 329 votes to 299 - setting up a clash on the amount of time MPs have to scrutinise it.
It is a significant threshold for Mr Johnson's deal - indicating that enough MPs are willing to support it in certain circumstances but it does not mean the legislation has passed.
MPs were set to table amendments to the bill.
But the Prime Minister "paused" his Brexit deal after the House of Commons refused to accept a bid to rush it through in three days.
Humbled by MPs, the Tory chief finally dropped his hardline pledge to leave on October 31 - and accepted it is now up to EU leaders to decide whether to delay.
