This afternoon the Prime Minister chaired the second meeting with business bigwigs on his ‘Build Back Better’ council, whose membership includes John Lewis supremo Sharon White, Heathrow chief Lord Deighton and Charlotte Hogg of Visa. The dry-as-dust press release to mark the occasion is replete with the usual jejune platitudes beloved of Whitehall mandarins for the government’s ‘Plan for Growth’ and forthcoming ‘Innovation Strategy.’
What the dispatch did not mention however was a typically Johnsonian jibe at the expense of his former chief adviser. Following the news yesterday that GlaxoSmithKleine will support the manufacturing of up to 60 million doses of the Novavax coronavirus vaccine at its Barnard Castle plant, Mr S suggested that could have been ‘what Dom was doing in Durham all along’ – a reference to Dominic Cummings lockdown trip almost a year ago.
But Johnson is clearly a Steerpike devotee as during this afternoon’s meeting he took the chance to riff on the theme, pausing during the call to reference the news and joke to the business leaders that ‘What Dom was actually doing was scouting out the complex.’
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