Christmas: Downing Street lights accidentally switched on by MP - BBC News
Carolyn Harris accidentally switches on No 10's Christmas lights early while trying to get inside.
The festive lights outside No 10 have now been officially switched on

A Welsh MP unwittingly turned on Downing Street's Christmas tree lights after mistaking the switch for a doorbell.

Carolyn Harris, Labour MP for Swansea East, went to No 10 for a meeting last Wednesday, but when the door failed to open, she pressed a grey button nearby.

The door then opened at the same time as the Christmas tree lit up.

Ms Harris said she thought it was "so funny" that she had turned on the lights an hour earlier than planned.

She told BBC Radio Wales: "I got to the door and I'm waiting for the door to open and it doesn't.

"I think 'that's odd, I thought the door automatically opened'. So I looked on the wall and there's this grey box, so I think it's a doorbell, so I press the grey box - the front door does open - but the Christmas tree lights came on at the same time.

"I get inside and I say 'the tree looks lovely' and they say 'yes, the prime minister is going to switch them on at five o'clock for the carol service'.

"So I said 'I think you'll find I've already done that', so I had to go back outside to turn the tree lights off, which was quite funny, especially when the prime minister did turn them on an hour later and they didn't work the first time he tried it."

Carolyn Harris unknowingly beat Boris Johnson to the punch by turning on the lights an hour before we was schedule to

Ms Harris then poked fun at the incident on social media, when Boris Johnson's failed attempt to turn them on was reported in the national press.

She said she "cried laughing" with fellow MPs afterwards, adding: "I don't know if the prime minister will be very happy that somebody beat him to it after the week he's had."

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