WE have now entered the political Twilight Zone.
Just ahead of PMQs we heard that in the cavalry charge of resignations that has befallen the chief comrade, one of the shadow ministers he had appointed to replace one of the dearly departed decided after 48 hours she too had had enough, saddled up and rode off into the sunset.
As Jezza rose to speak at the dispatch box, you could hear a pin drop. The Tories, who normally let out an ironic roar, kept stumm, just to underline the deafening silence on the Labour benches.
The comrades, buttocks clenched and arms folded, looked as though they were witnessing a funeral and given what has happened to their party in the last few days who could say they were not.
The chief mourner, tie slightly askew, sought to blame the Brexit vote on David Cameron’s nastiness; that disillusionment over poverty and unemployment had fuelled voters’ desire for Britain’s withdrawal from the EU.
A disbelieving Dave rose and snipped: “To try to pretend that last Thursday was a result of the state of the British economy is complete nonsense.”
The crimson tide rising, the PM then said: “I know the right honourable gentleman says he put his back into it; all I can say is: I wouldn't like to see him when he isn't trying."
At this point, Labour MPs could be seen to nod slightly to themselves.
Then, responding to another barb on child poverty figures from the hairy Leftie, it was quite clear the purple-faced PM had had enough. Insisting that if Jezza was looking for excuses as to why Remain lost, he should look somewhere else ie to himself.
Then came the zinger.
“I have to say to him - he talks about job insecurity and my two months to go - it might be in my party’s interests for him to sit there; it is not in the national interest. I would say: for heaven’s sake man, go!” blasted Dave, his voice cracking.
Externally, Tory MPs were cheering, internally, Labour ones were. Jezza sat glum-faced.
It felt like a surreal occasion: the leader of the government was calling on the leader of the opposition to resign; normally, it is the other way round.
Later, the waspish former Tory minister Sir Alan Duncan nailed his colours to the mast by signalling he would be part of the stop Boris campaign in the race for the Conservative crown.
He urged the PM to “compare the undemonstrative competence and dignity of Angela Merkel with the theatrical and comical antics of Silvio Borisconi?"
Looking a little bemused, Dave stressed he was staying out of the Tory leadership contest but quipped: "I was given lots of advice on becoming Prime Minister, one of them was not to go to a party with Silvio Berlusconi and that's one bit of advice I took and stuck to." Wise decision.
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