At PMQs and then before the liaison committee, the prime minister’s cluelessness is exposed for all to see
It’s no great secret that Boris Johnson has problems with women. And not just his wives, girlfriends and IT advisers. So going in to prime minister’s questions to face Angela Rayner – a working-class former care worker and the type of woman he has probably never previously encountered – who was standing in for the self-isolating Keir Starmer, Johnson’s sole objective was to try to avoid being his normal aggressive, condescending, patronising self. And though he did occasionally peer across the dispatch box, as if to check whether Rayner was from another planet, he did just about hold it together. There were no jokes or insults. This was about as close to polite as Boris can manage.
Rayner appeared understandably nervous at first – this was her first outing at PMQs – but quickly got into her stride with a story about a man called Keir who couldn’t get to work that morning, before reminding Boris that she had once worked in the care sector and did he have a clue what the average wage for someone working in that profession was? He didn’t, but wasn’t bothered. He was just focused on trying not to sound too rude.
