The PM's Pals Can't Go On Insulting Our Intelligence

Have a search, if you dare, on the popular micro-blogging website Twitter for the phrase "deliver on the priorities of the British people". You will find yourself going down a very deep rabbit hole of Tory MPs who, on Tuesday night, felt it important to let the world know that they give the prime minister and the chancellor “my full support” and that they also can't wait to start assisting the prime minister with his plan to "deliver on the priorities of the British people”.

- Tom Peck

It is, however, crucially important that you don't read any of roughly quarter of a million or so replies to these messages. And if you're a Tory MP who, you know, wrote any of the tweets, it's even more important that you don't read them.

Because there you will find a reasonably large number of British people making very clear indeed what their priorities are.

Levelling up is not mentioned. There's nothing about schools and hospitals. They have just one priority. A new school would be nice, as would a new hospital. But the thing they want more than anything else is a new prime minister, and that is the one thing the current prime minister is absolutely failing to deliver.

It has never been clear to me what these public posts of support achieve. Politics rumbled on just fine before they were even possible. But they are a way for prime ministers to keep track of loyalty. And a lack of affirmation is often put down as a betrayal.

What's arguably more interesting to note is that these posts, while plentiful, are not ubiquitous. My own MP, Romford's Andrew Rosindell, has not managed one yet. He played a significant role in organising Johnson's victorious 2019 leadership election campaign. I interviewed him once, about why Romford, which is in London, voted so enthusiastically for Brexit.