Oh dear. For many years, there has been an iron rule of Labour broadcasting: when you’re in a jam, call Pat McFadden. Generations of underpaid, overworked press officers have come to respect the Paisley pugilist for performing media heroics on a scale equivalent to the Gloucestershire Regiment at the Battle of the Imjin River. Hordes of scowling hacks have come for the morning round king; most have departed, wounded, unable to land a blow on a man known as ‘chuckles’ by his rivals.
But today, something incredible happened. For on this inauspicious morning, amid the ongoing chaos of the Olly Robbins debacle, Sophy Ridge struck a blow on behalf of HM Lobby. The deceptively charming Sky News supremo pressed the Work and Pensions Secretary to reveal whether or not he had asked No. 10 if it was true that the Prime Minister had asked for an ambassadorship for his former comms chief Matthew Doyle. After an excruciating three-minute exchange, finally the mighty McFadden cracked and admitted:
No, because I don’t think the Prime Minister would be in the position of picking up a phone on a personnel matter like that…
If even Pat McFadden – PAT MCFADDEN! – can’t get the government out of this one, perhaps it really all is over for Labour. Talk about a Ridge too far, eh?
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