This time last year, Boris Johnson marched into the summer recess with the lumbering swagger of an all-conquering prizefighter. In his first appearance in the Commons as Prime Minister, he pummelled Jeremy Corbyn through the ropes. Battered. Banjaxed. Jezza looked so punch drunk it’s a mercy he didn’t require smelling salts. Boris rarely emerges quite … Read more
Sir Ed Davey’s face was a picture. A whirling, twirling swirl of yee-haw, whoop-dee-doo delight. Golfers know the one: that pop-eyed look of pleasure that players pull, half shock/half ecstasy, as their ball plops into the hole from long distance. Like the novice hacker who’s just chipped in from a bunker, the acting Lib Dem … Read more
Boris Johnson blasted his way to victory over Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs, though it wasn’t pretty. A triumph of bludgeon over rapier, blunderbuss over pistolet. As displays go, this was a ragged, up-by-the-scruff-of-the-neck sort of performance. What tennis coaches call ‘winning ugly’. But it was no less enjoyable for that. Prime Minister Boris Johnson … Read more
PMQs is back. No, I don’t mean back as in back after the recess. I mean back, back. As in back to its punchy old self. The session was rowdy, even if there were only 50-odd members in the chamber. With the TV screens gone and the noisy SNP lot back in situ, there was … Read more
Downing Street is forced to deny bizarre claim Boris Johnson was wearing an EARPIECE and was ‘being fed answers by Dominic Cummings’ during bruising PMQs – but is it just a ‘weird flap of skin’ in PM’s ear? Labour MPs were among those who suggested he was receiving help today Social media wags suggested images … Read more
Boris Johnson blasted Sir Keir Starmer for being ‘negative’ today as the Prime Minister faced a tough grilling over Government failures in the coronavirus testing regime. They clashed as Mr Johnson and his leading ministers faced growing criticism over its early handling of the pandemic and a decision to abandon widespread testing for non-medics. Routine … Read more
Bond aficionados will know that early in each story comes an inaugural meeting between hero and foe. A chance encounter over highballs, perhaps, or a high-stakes hand of chemin de fer. The tone is formal yet courteous. Compliments might even be exchanged. Yet beneath this faux chumminess lingers a whiff of menace. There was a … Read more