Barry Shamilow and Trickster May But PM’s lie is worse than singer’s charade

BARRY Manilow stopped himself punching me on the nose but it was a near thing.

That incident, many years ago, came to mind earlier this month when the US singer revealed he was gay.

He confirmed he had been in a relationship with his business manager Garry Kief since 1978 but had kept his sexuality a secret for fear of disappointing fans.

Good for Barry to have the guts to come out – and his fans are delighted for him.

But it was not like that when I brought the subject up.

Denials

I was on tour with him in America to write a profile – not an assignment I relished.

I knew little about him and didn’t much like his syrupy music, so I asked those who did what I should talk to him about.

And that was how I came to ask him if he was gay.

He sprang at me, furiously spitting denials, and I’m sure I was within a whisker of being thumped.

Now, you may take the view this was none of my business and that if Barry had flattened me it would have been no less than I deserved. Or you may feel it was wrong of him to lie – although, in his defence, attitudes were different in those days.

I can find no such excuse for Theresa May.

She said five times there would be no early election and, just as I believed Barry back then, so I believed her. More fool me.

Hell, only last weekend I was on TV, confidently asserting there was no way she’d call an election because she would never break her word.

But she saw the ComRes poll in last week’s Sunday People, giving her a 21- point lead over Labour, and the temptation was too great.

I don’t know about you, but I shall never trust a word she says again.

To casually break such a firm pledge means that nothing she says can be relied on.

It’ll make it harder to get a good Brexit deal, because our EU partners won’t trust her either now.

Barry croons: “Ready to Take a Chance Again?”

Not a chance, Mrs May.