Boris seeks divine intervention in a bid to f ight f lab

I HEAR that the daily No 10 Covid-19 press conferences are not long for the world. Downing Street aides are exasperated at the time the TV addresses take up when some clearly haven’t added to the nation’s understanding. As the crisis fades, the number of briefings will be reduced.

WHERE is Rebecca LongBailey? The once-ubiquitous Corbynista, who got only 27 per cent of votes in the Labour leadership election, was swiftly demoted to Shadow Education Secretary. But she’s barely been seen publicly for weeks, despite schools being top of the news agenda. ‘She’s been sent to broadcast gulag,’ whispers a source.

BORIS Johnson has turned God to help shift the pounds after his brush with death, I can reveal. After telling colleagues that his 17st weight was a major factor i n his severe case of Covid-19, the PM has a new mantra: ‘Don’t be a fatty in your 50s.’

Now t he 55- year- old has sought assistance in his mission to become a ‘thinnie’.

Back exercising again, Boris, right, was seen wearing his usual motley range of training gear last week. His plans to jog around nearby parks were ruled out by security concerns, so instead the PM is driven from Downing Street each morning to Lambeth Palace, the splendid Thames-side home of the Archbishop of Canterbury. He works out with a personal trainer in the three acres of private gardens.

Relations between the leader of the Church of England and Prime Ministers have been rocky in recent years. Rowan Williams described David Cameron’ s‘ Big Society’ agenda as‘ waffle ’, while Margaret Thatcher and Robert Runcie continued their feud until their deaths.

But it seems there is peace and goodwill between Boris and Justin Welby. Old Etonians sticking together, as ever…

LABOUR is trying to learn some harsh lessons after its Election thumping last year. The Tories hired wellpaid foreign-born strategists to win votes in traditional Labour heartlands but I’m not convinced about the Left’s new foreign inspiration – Homer Simpson. Last night, Young Labour hosted a virtual campaigning tutorial ‘on what everybody’s favourite 90s cartoon, The Simpsons, can teach us about organising’.

The talk involved a screening of ‘the classic episode Last Exit To Springfield, in which Homer becomes a union activist’. D’oh.

A WARNING to all MPs: read the small print of the Parliamentary Constituencies Bill when the plan to redraw boundaries is debated after the half-term holiday.

Sneaky Ministers have devised a cunning plan to stop MPs whose constituencies are set to be radically altered – or even abolished – from blocking the plans once they see the details drawn up by independent experts.

Unlike during previous reform attempts, MPs will get only one vote to launch the review and not a second to kick it out if they do not like the results.

A wise Whip whispers: ‘ The backwoodsmen always try to block this, but not this time.’