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Mark Rosser is nervous. ‘You’re the second person to call me today. Why are you doing this? Are you checking up on me?’ I’m actually seeing if it’s possible to book a room at his Crown Lodge B&B in Harlech, Gwynedd. The answer, apparently, is no. ‘Are you mad? I’m not even allowed to leave … Read more
Rishi Sunak has finally been tripped up. ‘He got away with it for a while,’ says a Minister. ‘He’d set out a plan. Then go away. Then have to come back a couple of weeks later and set out another plan. ‘At first it looked like he was being flexible. But now people are starting … Read more
When is Sir Keir Starmer going to grow a pair? ‘The shine is starting to come off,’ a Shadow Minister complains. ‘It’s all very well showing you’re competent. But there are times when you need to roll up your sleeves and attack.’ Labour’s leader is not attacking, but pirouetting. On the Rule of Six. On … Read more
What you have to understand is there are four people who are running the country now,’ the Minister says. ‘But none of them is Boris. Dom [Cummings], Michael [Gove], Rishi [Sunak] and Carrie [Symonds, the PM’s partner]. That’s it.’ Last week, Tory MPs moved from despair to resignation. Many have given up waiting for the … Read more
Dishy Rishi is about to be put on furlough. ‘People have lost perspective,’ an ally of the Chancellor tells me. ‘We’ve spent £350billion protecting the economy, but we’ve now reached the point where this isn’t even registering. ‘Someone said to him last week, ‘Why aren’t you doing anything for the theatre?’ We’ve given the theatres … Read more
It’s basically the Nixon ‘Madman strategy,’ the Minister explained to me. ‘They want the EU to think they’re crazy enough to go for No Deal, and that will spook them into giving enough concessions that we can strike a deal.’ Perhaps it will. But there’s one major difference between Nixon’s threat to nuke the North … Read more
Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Johnson? Just after 4pm on Wednesday, Boris’s carefully cultivated reputation as a Churchillian champion of British liberty crumbled like stale Stilton cheese. ‘We will boost the local enforcement capacity of local authorities by introducing Covid-secure marshals to help ensure social distancing in town and city centres, and … Read more
It is The Guardian – inevitably – that has been leading the sneers. ‘As millionaires inside and outside of government lean on us to stop working from home, what are we really missing?’ the bible of woke Britain intoned last week. ‘If you want to feel like you’re in an office again, just wad a packet … Read more
When is someone going to speak for London? The greatest city on the planet is being left to die a slow, silent death. Every day in the capital is like a Sunday now. The Square Mile lies largely abandoned. Whitehall is solely patrolled by armed police and a small handful of inquisitive tourists. Footfall on … Read more
Former JCB driver Billy Brown feels Boris has let him down. ‘I thought I was voting for someone with balls,’ he tells me caustically. Billy voted Tory for the first time last December. But he thinks the Covid crisis has seen the Prime Minister lose his way. ‘Boris should have sacked that Cummings fella. Everyone … Read more