PMQs: Johnson blows up own strategy with chaotic bluster

Party leaders are supposed to win their first Prime Minister’s Questions. It’s very unusual for them to lose their first session, according to PMQs expert Tom Hamilton. Theresa May couldn’t do personality, and the sparring matches between her and Jeremy Corbyn were often dull. Boris Johnson, on the other hand, is supposed to be an expert at talking his way out of tricky corners, charming his audience, exuding warmth and likability. And yet he utterly failed his first PMQs – because he can’t do detail, which the Labour leader was fully prepared to exploit.

In a throwback to the May era, Johnson refused to answer any questions. Corbyn kicked off with a probe that is relevant to the ongoing Brexit drama in the Commons and to the interests of the media: is the Prime Minister actually seeking a deal? Where is the evidence? What proposals have been put to the EU? That Johnson declined to offer any information on those points suggested that the rebels were right to sacrifice their whip to block an October 31st no deal.

Whenever the Labour leader spoke, the chamber was quiet. In contrast to the PM, he spoke clearly and stuck to his point – the lack of transparency of this government and, essentially, its untruths. By contrast, much of the rest of the session showed Johnson behaving childishly and in a thoroughly unstatesmanlike manner. This was once considered charming by some – such bluster has appealed in the past to those seeking an anti-establishment figure ‘not like the rest of them’. But at the despatch box, in the role of Prime Minister, it came across instead as petulant and chaotic.

Johnson called his opponent a “chlorinated chicken” (which makes little sense as an insult, when the PM is supposed to be defending trade deals with the US rather than reminding everyone of the anxieties around them). He said Labour’s policy was “shit or bust”. Sat down, he appeared to describe the opposition leader as a “great big girl’s blouse”. He repeated an old joke – calling Corbyn “Caracas” – that wasn’t funny the first time.

Crucially, the Prime Minister chose a deeply flawed line of attack: Corbyn’s unwillingness to agree to an early election before no deal is ruled out for next month. “He’s frit! He’s frightened!” Johnson said. But he also said that he “wants an election”, as the Spectator‘s Katy Balls points out, after frequently emphasising this week that he doesn’t want a snap poll. Essential to the Dominic Cummings strategy is for Johnson to look as if he is forced into the election that he will be calling for tonight. As per the heckle in the chamber on Tuesday evening: not a good start, Boris.