IT SEEMS even ministers in Boris Johnson’s own Cabinet can’t keep a straight face when they’re trotted out to make claims about upholding standards in public life.
When the Tories’ paymaster general, Michael Ellis MP, was sent out to defend Johnson’s standards of behaviour in the Commons on Tuesday morning, he did a jolly good job of reading out his pre-prepared statement.
“It’s a pleasure to appear before this House on this important matter,” Ellis started – and what’s more he almost looked like he meant it.
The top Tory went on: “We are fortunate in this country to have a sophisticated and robust system for upholding public standards, and the system is multifaceted.
“It is made up of interlocking and complementary elements. It is of course founded on the seven principles of public life which have been in place for a quarter of a century.”
Despite the occasional heckle, Ellis did an exemplary job of ploughing on, saying exactly what he’d been told to in a way sure not to displease his paymaster.
Nicholas True, the Tory peer sent out to deliver the same speech to the House of Lords, didn’t fulfil the role with such enthusiasm.
True, a minister in the Cabinet Office, had been tasked with reading out the same pre-prepared words as Ellis. Unlike Ellis however, he seemed to be in on the joke.
“It’s a pleasure to appear before this House on this important matter,” True also began, before pausing to let the crescendo of laughs build.
“We are fortunate in this country to have a sophisticated and robust system for upholding public standards,” he paused for further laughs, before appearing to quip: “And the system is multifaceted.”
To see the same speech delivered in such different ways by two Tory ministers was remarkable.
The FT’s political editor, George Parker, said the clip of True was “amazing”.
He went on: “A minister in the Lords reading out a statement defending the government's commitment to standards in public life as if it's a big joke.
“To be fair, his comic timing is excellent. Cabinet minister Natalie Evans can hardly contain herself.”
Evans, the Tory peer who serves as the Leader of the House of Lords, can be seen behind True throughout the clip.
With reports that rebels are on the move seeking to topple Johnson even before the summer recess (which begins on July 21), laughter from his own ministers is not something the embattled Prime Minister will welcome.
