Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

The gripping spectacle of Truss’s fight for survival

The Prime Minister won herself more time today

Liz Truss at PMQs (Credit: Parliamentlive.tv)

A week of sheer hell for the Tory leader. Plots and rumours have swirled around Westminster. Rebels are said to be roaming the corridors and gathering support for an anti-Liz putsch. And yet she’s still here. Our death-row Prime Minister strode into the chamber apparently dressed for her own funeral. Black trouser suit, white cotton blouse.

She got into trouble as soon as she opened her mouth. Her ritual answer, ‘I will be meeting ministerial colleagues and others’ brought howls of laughter from the Labour benches. Sir Keir Starmer stood up to deliver a brief and fatal inquisition. He began with a pun about a book covering her career which will be ‘out by Christmas’.

But, he wondered, will ‘out by Christmas’ be the title or the release date? The gag crashed because it’s too carefully prepared. And a pun works better when the words are visible and not just audible.

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