This wasn’t the fun and cocky Boris Johnson the people who voted him in seem to love at today’s PMQs.
The mask slipped on his carefully choreographed image of rustled hair, pompous Latin phrases and bumbling lines as the Emperor was declothed.
Johnson has spent his political career using his charm to get out of every situation, relatively unscathed, often leaving a trail of destruction in his wake.
But this was his A Few Good Men moment. Jack Nicholson’s Col Nathan R Jessep became Major Sleaze. Starmer looked to land blows as he cruised through.
Misled
Before the session had even started the Electoral Commission announced it would look into whether transactions related to the works on the Prime Minister’s flat, above 11 Downing Street, were properly reported.
Johnson had found some support earlier in the day from Michael Gove’s wife Sarah Vine, who said the PM can’t be expected to live in a skip.
But that didn’t cut it with the opposition during PMQs, and Theresa May too for that matter.
Keir reminded the PM that ministers who have knowingly misled Parliament are expected to resign. In response, the PM slammed Labour’s Council Tax prices.
The PM then used his journalistic experience to demand that Stamer names the sources behind the story to ensure they were not made up. If only he had done this when he worked for a newspaper himself.
Johnson tried to brushed away each allegation, but in the same way he fiddles with his hair, the mess is still there, in fact it looked worse.
John Lewis
The PM’s defence appears to be that because he has taken the work of the NHS mass vaccination programme’s as his own, it gives him the right to do whatever he wants.
He claimed he was laser-focused on the pandemic. But as Starmer pointed out, he still found time to chose wallpaper at £840 a roll, a figure that would make even the most ardent John Lewis customer blush.
The wheels had come off and he couldn’t handle the truth.
If the PM didn’t see this coming, maybe he needs his eyes tested?
Related: PMQs 24th March – Greed is good as the lunatics turn their backs on asylum
Since you are here
Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.
Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.
Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can’t do it without you.
If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.
To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.
The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.
The shop can be found here.
You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .