Scott Morrison has accused The Project of twisting the facts with now-viral footage of a rural fire service volunteer called Jacqui, who bluntly told him, ‘you’re not my prime minister”, while shaking his hand.

Stung by the criticism online he had been ‘slayed’ by retiree Jacqui in what looked like a smiling-assassin takedown at the Mudgee evacuation centre, the Prime Minister took to social media on Tuesday to declare she was, in fact, British.

It all came after Mr Morrison was introduced to a woman named Jacqui on Monday.

“This is the Prime Minister,” the member for Calare, Andrew Gee, told her.

“He’s not my prime minister,” Jacqui quipped as she continued to shake the PM’s hand.

Tweet from @GreebBush

The retiree was hailed “a hero” by social media users for the remarks.

“Classic, she got to say to his face what a lot of are thinking. Must have felt so good. Congrats Jacqui, you’re a star,” said one.

“Is there somebody with a hose around for that burn?” said another.

But the Prime Minister insists it was all in jest.

“I’m not her PM, because she’s British. Boris Johnson is,” Mr Morrison said.

Indeed, as Jacqui joked with me yesterday, I’m not her PM, because she’s British, Boris Johnson is. But with local MP Andrew Gee, we made a decent pitch for her to become an Aussie yesterday. She & the other RFS volunteers have been doing an incredible job battling these blazes. pic.twitter.com/28z3c4bTMG

— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) December 23, 2019

“We made a decent pitch for her to become an Aussie. She and the other RFS volunteers have been doing an incredible job battling these blazes.”

In a longer version of the clip, which Liberal sources have accused the Ten Network’s The Project of “selectively editing”, the trio continue to joke about when Jacqui is going to become an Australian citizen so Mr Morrison can be her prime minister.

“We need to sign you up as an Aussie,” Mr Gee said.

“And you can be!” added Mr Morrison.

Mr Gee has also released a clarification on Facebook, to back the PM amid the intense criticism.

“Jacqui is a British citizen, not Australian, with quite a clear British accent,” he said.

“We were jokingly trying to get her to sign up for Aussie citizenship after Jacqui lightheartedly pointed out that ScoMo wasn’t her PM for that reason. Boris is Jacqui’s PM.”