George Osborne takes seven weeks to produce the weirdest front page in the Evening Standard's 180-year history

The front page of today’s Evening Standard newspaper, depicting Arlene Foster and Theresa May as Austin Powers’ Doctor Evil and Mini-Me, has caused a bit of a storm on Twitter.

The faces of the Conservative and DUP leaders are photoshopped onto the bodies of the silver suit-wearing villains under the slogan ‘I demand the sum of… one billion pounds.’

In case readers didn’t quite get the joke, a handy paragraph in the corner reads: ‘Austin Power-sharing: a mock-up of DUP leader Arlene Foster as Dr Evil with Theresa May as Mini-Me from the Austin Powers film series, in which Dr Evil holds the world to ransom and demands millions of dollars.

The bold splash comes as Mrs May and Mrs Foster struck a deal to prop up the minority Conservative government.

An earlier, more sombre edition of the paper showed the two leaders shaking hands outside Number 10.

Twitter was pretty shocked by the later iteration of the newspaper, edited by former Conservative minister George Osborne, who was sacked by Theresa May when she took the helm of the party.

Some found it funny, while others weren’t impressed by the mud-slinging.

Beneath the divisive picture, the article reads: ‘Theresa May today spent £1 billion of taxpayers’ money on a deal with the Democratic Unionist Party to prop up her wobbly government.’