Oh dear. Tory loyalists have been out in force the past two days, desperate to save Boris Johnson’s flailing premiership. Mr S has heard of at least one boosterish Boris-backer quoting the words of Margaret Thatcher in November 1990: ‘I shall fight on, I fight to win!’ Unfortunately, as another MP muttered back: ‘Maggie resigned two days later.’ An excruciating interview by the Prime Minister on Tuesday backfired spectacularly, while the efforts of party whips to ‘encourage’ colleagues have resulted in Will Wragg denouncing them as ‘blackmail’ before his select committee today.
Still, cometh the hour, cometh the Fabricant. The honourable member for Lichfield has been doing his level best to dig Boris Johnson out of his self-inflicted hole by manfully taking to Twitter to defend him at every turn. Unfortunately, this being Fabbers, the unfortunate MP seems to have turned a bunker into a crater with his attempts to spin for Boris. First, he appeared to substantiate Wragg’s suggestions that Tory whips have been blackmailing and bullying MPs:
If I reported every time I had been threatened by a Whip or if a Whip reported every time I had threatened them, the police wouldn’t have any time to conduct any other police work!
Saying the quiet part out loud, some might say.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in