++Westminster wars++

AFTER disclosure of his private WhatsApp messages revealing misjudgments during Covid, an outraged Matt Hancock says he is ‘hugely disappointed’ by the ‘ massive betrayal and breach of trust’. Perhaps now he knows how Martha — his dumped wife of 15 years — feels.

WHEn Labour MP Betty Boothroyd became the first female Speaker of the House of Commons in 1992, her party claimed she’d broken the glass ceiling for women in politics. Three decades later, not one leader of the Labour Party has been female, while the Tories have had three women Prime Ministers.

LEVELLING Up Secretary Michael Gove wants to punish parents whose kids play truant by cutting their child benefits. What, make the most dysfunctional families in society even poorer and hungrier? I thought we’d laid to rest the nasty Tory Party.