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Lloyd Evans
Lloyd Evans
PMQs: Boris’s nadir

The bombshell at bay. That’s how Boris looked at today’s PMQs. Deflated, cornered, winded and lifeless. Gone were the chuckles and the mischievous jests, the punning quips and the poetic asides. He kicked off with a scripted apology that had two objectives: to neutralise public fury and to wrong-foot Sir Keir Starmer. It did neither. Last night, footage emerged of Downing Street staff at a mock Q&A session making jokes about parties at No. 10 during lockdown. ‘I was also furious to see that clip,’ said Boris, as if suggesting that he was angrier than the angriest person in the country. He expressed his sorrow but couched it with lawyerly care. ‘I apologise for the impression that it gives,’ he said, dodging any admission of wrong-doing.

PMQs: Boris’s nadir
Lloyd Evans
Lloyd Evans
PMQs: Boris’s nadir

The bombshell at bay. That’s how Boris looked at today’s PMQs. Deflated, cornered, winded and lifeless. Gone were the chuckles and the mischievous jests, the punning quips and the poetic asides. He kicked off with a scripted apology that had two objectives: to neutralise public fury and to wrong-foot Sir Keir Starmer. It did neither. Last night, footage emerged of Downing Street staff at a mock Q&A session making jokes about parties at No. 10 during lockdown. ‘I was also furious to see that clip,’ said Boris, as if suggesting that he was angrier than the angriest person in the country. He expressed his sorrow but couched it with lawyerly care. ‘I apologise for the impression that it gives,’ he said, dodging any admission of wrong-doing.

PMQs: Boris’s nadir
Lloyd Evans
Lloyd Evans
PMQs: Boris’s nadir

The bombshell at bay. That’s how Boris looked at today’s PMQs. Deflated, cornered, winded and lifeless. Gone were the chuckles and the mischievous jests, the punning quips and the poetic asides. He kicked off with a scripted apology that had two objectives: to neutralise public fury and to wrong-foot Sir Keir Starmer. It did neither. Last night, footage emerged of Downing Street staff at a mock Q&A session making jokes about parties at No. 10 during lockdown. ‘I was also furious to see that clip,’ said Boris, as if suggesting that he was angrier than the angriest person in the country. He expressed his sorrow but couched it with lawyerly care. ‘I apologise for the impression that it gives,’ he said, dodging any admission of wrong-doing.

PMQs: Boris’s nadir
The Spectator
Boris’s lockdown rules are coming back to bite him

In normal circumstances, no one would care if staff in No. 10 held a Christmas party. But last year, Boris Johnson made parties illegal. Throughout most of December, London was under Tier 3 or 4 restrictions. Social gatherings were strictly forbidden and anyone who broke the rules was at risk of a £10,000 fine. The Prime Minister could have issued guidance and asked people to use their judgment. Instead, he criminalised non-compliance and sent the police after those who didn’t follow his rules.

Boris’s lockdown rules are coming back to bite him
Steven Barrett
No, the Downing Street party probably didn’t break the law

Was the law broken at the Downing Street Christmas party last year? A video has now been leaked showing a No. 10 advisor joking about the festivities. Yet this incident, which is currently dominating the news, almost certainly did not break the law – which is why the story is so perplexing. During the course of the pandemic, the Covid laws have changed regularly. Yet one thing has stayed largely consistent: the rules have always treated people and places differently.

No, the Downing Street party probably didn’t break the law
Alex Massie
Alex Massie
Boris Johnson is eating reality

It is neither fair nor correct to say it was obvious from the moment Boris Johnson became Prime Minister that he was not fit for the job for this was a truth obvious long before Johnson entered Downing Street. Nothing in his career suggested a man capable of making a success of one of the country’s most demanding jobs. What was foreseeable was in fact foreseen. Voters may be excused for accepting Johnson’s promise to ‘Get Brexit Done’ and for preferring him to the grisly prospect of Prime Minister Corbyn — but those Tory MPs who put that choice in front of them have no such excuse.

Boris Johnson is eating reality
Kate Andrews
Kate Andrews
Will the public take Plan B seriously?

After holding strong for two weeks, fears over the Omicron variant look set to change the government’s course on Covid restrictions. Reports this morning suggest that Plan B could be implemented as early as tomorrow, including advice to work from home and — more controversially — the introduction of vaccine passports. The timing is interesting: rumours about the possible decision landed hours after a video clip — showing the Prime Minister’s former press secretary joking about last year’s alleged Downing Street Christmas party with No.

Will the public take Plan B seriously?
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman
Boris throws his staff under the bus

What possible lines of defence could the Prime Minister come up with after the leaking of footage showing his Downing Street aides joking about a party he has spent the past week insisting didn’t happen? From the moment ITV broadcast the clip, the No. 10 Christmas party was a dead cert as the sole topic at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions. Almost as much of a certainty was that Boris Johnson would respond by getting other people to take responsibility for him. This is precisely what he did, using a question prior to his exchanges with Sir Keir Starmer to try to get out in front of the matter. He told the chamber he was ‘also furious to see’ the video, and ‘I apologise unreservedly for the offence that it has caused up and down the country and I apologise for the impression that it gives’.

Boris throws his staff under the bus

Yesterday

7 Dec 2021
Steerpike
Steerpike
Durham University to probe Rod Liddle speech

The masters of Durham University have reacted with Olympian swiftness to the hysteria which greeted Rod Liddle’s dinner speech at South College on Friday night. Students professed themselves to be ‘literally shaking’ at The Spectator columnist’s comments on sex and gender issues — poor darlings. The adults in and around campus, meanwhile, were equally eager to vent their sense of horror. The local Labour society insisted that 'Our university doesn’t owe hate a platform’ and the Students’ Union demanding the resignation of the College Principal Tim Luckhurst. And the Durham dons are at pains to show such concerns are taken seriously, issuing thumping public statements disassociating the university from such dreadful remarks and now even launching a full inquiry into the ‘incident’.

Durham University to probe Rod Liddle speech

Monday

6 Dec 2021
Steerpike
Steerpike
Rees-Mogg’s No. 10 party jibe

It’s a difficult time for liberty lovers in the cabinet. The country is £400 billion in debt, the risk of Covid restrictions linger on and there’s a Prime Minister addicted to spending. Luckily though, while the convention of collective responsibility binds our ministers tightly, it cannot entirely gag them.  Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the House of Commons, took to the stand tonight as the guest of honour at the IEA think tank. In a sly pop at Downing Street’s current difficulties over whether a lockdown-breaking party was held last December, Rees-Mogg told the fervently Thatcherite crowd: I see we’re all here obeying the regulations aren’t we? I mean this party is not going to be investigated by the police in a year’s time, you are all being carefully socially distanced I’m glad to say.

Rees-Mogg’s No. 10 party jibe
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