ANDREW PIERCE: Will backseat driver Mrs May trip up Bojo? 

After leaving No 10 in fairly ignominious fashion having failed over Brexit, Theresa May was praised for her commitment to public service by remaining as a backbench MP.

What a different tone, some felt, she struck from Tony Blair and his pursuit of riches, or David Cameron‘s toe-curling attempts at lobbying. 

Most MPs assumed the vicar’s daughter would speak out only occasionally, offering wise and distinguished counsel from the backbenches. How wrong they were!

For the increasingly loud and critical Mrs May is fast assuming the mantle of Ted Heath, who spent years attacking his successor Margaret Thatcher at every opportunity in what was dubbed the longest sulk in political history.

Most MPs assumed the vicar’s daughter would speak out only occasionally, offering wise and distinguished counsel from the backbenches. How wrong they were!

Today, Mrs May is at the centre of the revolt over the Tories’ popular £4 billion cut in international aid — a move that could see a stunning defeat for Boris Johnson in Parliament — while fellow former PM Sir John Major is also on manoeuvres, insisting the Government lets ‘compassion prevail to aid those in dire need’.

And this is just the latest example of Mrs May’s backseat driving. In September, she was one of 20 Tory MPs to abstain on a crucial Brexit Bill. In October, she attacked planning reforms to speed up house-building, something that had stalled on her watch.

In November, she gave a speech criticising a second lockdown: Boris left the Commons rather than sit through it. And in March this year, she criticised a Bill giving police more powers to take on protesters.

A disgruntled ex-minister mutters: ‘A speech by a former PM in the Commons used to be a rare and significant event. But May never shuts up and is sounding more like Ted Heath. He damaged his own reputation. Theresa is making the same mistake.’

For the increasingly loud and critical Mrs May is fast assuming the mantle of Ted Heath, who spent years attacking his successor Margaret Thatcher at every opportunity in what was dubbed the longest sulk in political history

For the increasingly loud and critical Mrs May is fast assuming the mantle of Ted Heath, who spent years attacking his successor Margaret Thatcher at every opportunity in what was dubbed the longest sulk in political history

Gauke uncorks pop at you-know-who 

He was once an all-powerful Lord Chancellor. Now David Gauke — who was kicked out of the Tory Party over his undying opposition to Brexit before losing his seat at the last election — is earning a crust as a columnist on the Left-wing magazine New Statesman. Says Gauke rather archly: ‘In general I think it’s better that politicians become columnists rather than columnists become politicians.’ Whoever could he mean? 

It has been speculated that if Piers Morgan doesn’t return as an anchor on Good Morning Britain, ITV executives might replace him with a woman. As if that would stop him! The defiantly un-woke broadcaster, who stormed off set in March during a furious row over Meghan Markle, now mischievously tweets: ‘I could identify as a woman if that helps.’

Energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan takes to Twitter to push her energy supplier, E.ON, into responding to complaints. 

‘There is an irony,’ she moans, ‘to the energy minister not being able to get through to customer services to sort out her house moving issues.’ Welcome to our world, Minister! 

Some scratched their heads when twice-divorced Boris Johnson was able to marry Carrie in a Catholic ceremony. But the ‘mother of all churches’ could be the right spiritual home for the PM. 

Oscar Wilde, who converted to Catholicism on his deathbed, once quipped that ‘every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future’. With his rackety private life, the PM certainly has a past. His supporters hope he has a political future, too, whatever his sins.

A costly degree of stupidity

Cambridge University’s Jesus College is planning to remove from its chapel a memorial to Tobias Rustat, a 17th-century benefactor now cancelled by Left-wing students and academics due to his links to the slave trade. 

The removal from the Grade I-listed building requires legal sanction, and a Freedom of Information request by Charles Moore, former editor of The Spectator, has revealed the costs ‘will be around £55,000 and more if we need to go to appeal’. 

That is on top of relocation itself, which ‘will cost very roughly £30,000’. Varsity, the university magazine, reports that Jesus is currently facing the biggest financial challenge in its history because of the pandemic, including rent strikes from dissatisfied students. 

Doesn’t it have more pressing matters to deal with? During these puritanical times, apparently not. 

Cambridge University’s Jesus College is planning to remove from its chapel a memorial to Tobias Rustat

Cambridge University’s Jesus College is planning to remove from its chapel a memorial to Tobias Rustat