After another long day discussing Brexit in the House of Commons, it was the job of the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, to finally close the debate with a rousing speech ahead of the votes on several amendments to the Prime Minister’s motion.
Barclay has not exactly, to put it mildly, made a huge impact since he took over the job from Dominic Raab in November last year, and most members of the public would struggle to pick him out of a police line-up. But even he might be disappointed by the reception his speech in the Commons received from his Conservative colleagues.
Along with various looks of pained agony and boredom, Mr Steerpike spied that Nick Boles (the Tory MP pushing for Norway Plus) even managed to rest his eyes while the secretary of state was speaking:
Well, who can blame him?

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