Tory jitters mount at political drift of Boris Johnsonâs government
Analysis: lack of substance in PMâs âlevelling upâ speech adds to growing discontent as summer recess nears
Boris Johnsonâs speech in Coventry was widely criticised for its lack of policy detail. Photograph: David Rose/AFP/Getty Images
Boris Johnsonâs speech in Coventry was widely criticised for its lack of policy detail. Photograph: David Rose/AFP/Getty Images
Sat 17 Jul 2021 02.00 EDT
Boris Johnsonâs levelling up speech in Coventry on Thursday was billed as the moment the prime minister would set out the substance behind the central idea of his premiership.
Johnny Mercer and the Tory loyalty problem spectator.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from spectator.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Everyone’s mum – or Mam, as we say in the North East – has their favourite embarrassing story about their children.
Mine loves to recount how, aged eight, I answered the door to a Conservative candidate out canvassing, and upbraided the poor man at length on how wrong he was about everything.
I was born and bred in Middlesbrough, only a few miles from Hartlepool, into a family steeped in Labour loyalty.
My parents weren’t party members: You didn’t need to be. ‘Labour was in the air we breathed,’ I said to my mother yesterday, as we discussed the Hartlepool result. ‘No’, she replied, ‘it was more than that, it was in the blood and bone’.