Today was Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs). It is held every Wednesday afternoon when the House of Commons is sitting and sees the Prime Minister spending around half an hour answering questions from MPs.
PMQs forms an important part of British political culture. Due to the drama of the sessions, it is among the best-known parliamentary business in the country, with tickets to the Strangers' Gallery (the public gallery) for Wednesdays being the most sought-after parliamentary tickets. It is also shown live on TV.
Today was Theresa May's first PMQs since she became PM - they are also the last PMQs before parliament's summer recess - and she wasn’t merely channelling Mrs Thatcher, she was practically doing a Spitting Image impression of her and wiped the floor with the Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn....
Remind you of anybody? At her first PMQs, Theresa May goes full Thatcher
By Michael Deacon
Parliamentary Sketchwriter
20 July 2016
The Telegraph
I certainly don’t think anybody can be the new Margaret Thatcher,” Theresa May told the Telegraph, days before she became Prime Minister. “She was absolutely unique.”
I believed Mrs May when she said that. But now I’m not so sure. Because today, at her first PMQs as PM, she wasn’t merely channelling Mrs Thatcher. She was practically doing a Spitting Image impression of her.
For Labour, Jeremy Corbyn asked her about unscrupulous bosses. Look how she responded.
Margaret Thatcher as portrayed on Spitting Image. Or is it Theresa May? Credit: Rex Features
“I suspect that there are many members on the Opposition benches who might be familiar with an ‘unscrupulous boss’,” shot back Mrs May witheringly. “A boss who doesn’t listen to his workers. A boss who requires some of his workers to double their workload. Maybe even a boss who exploits the rules to further his own career.”
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, speaks during Prime Minister's Questions Credit: PA
Before delivering the pay-off, she leant over the dispatch box, glared coldly at her prey, and whacked up the volume.
“Remind him of anybody?”
Well, I bet I know who that punchline reminded him of.
New government: Theresa May is flanked by Chancellor Philip Hammond, Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson
Look, I know it’s cheap to liken Mrs May to Mrs Thatcher. I’d never thought they had much in common, beyond being Tories and women.
But the way Mrs May delivered that last line: the icy imperiousness, the deepening of the voice, the thudding sarcasm… It was uncanny. More than uncanny, it was chilling. I felt as if I’d seen a ghost. Or at least heard one.
Naturally enough, Tory MPs were in ecstasy. They were wailing, gasping, groaning for more. Their excitement was downright unseemly. They were watching the Labour leader receive a spanking. And, by the sound of things, feeling quite envious.
Theresa May stood against Tim Farron, now the leader of the Liberal Democrats, at the general election of 1992 Credit: NCJ Archive
Next to be Thatchered was Tim Farron. At the general election of 1992, noted the Lib Dem leader pleasantly, he and Mrs May had stood as rival candidates for the same seat.
“I’m very happy to remember the days that he and I spent campaigning in North West Durham,” she replied. “Little did voters know that the two unsuccessful candidates in that election would become leaders of political parties. Although as I would point out to the honourable gentleman…”
May voice off; Thatcher voice on.
“...My party’s a little bit bigger than his!”
Tory MPs moaned with joy.
Bear in mind: Mrs May didn’t use to be like this. In all her long years as Home Secretary, the only joke I remember her cracking at the dispatch box was a limp pun on the surname of Mark Reckless. She is not generally listed among the leading improvisational comics of her generation.
In other words: that “Remind him of anybody?” gag will have been not only scripted, but rehearsed. The way she leant over the dispatch box to deliver the punchline – she’ll have practised that. The way she deepened her voice for it – she’ll have practised that, too. And I refuse to believe she didn’t have a particular forebear in mind.
“Absolutely unique”? Maybe not any more.
Watch Theresa May's first PMQs:
Remind you of anybody? At her first PMQs, Theresa May goes full Thatcher
PMQs forms an important part of British political culture. Due to the drama of the sessions, it is among the best-known parliamentary business in the country, with tickets to the Strangers' Gallery (the public gallery) for Wednesdays being the most sought-after parliamentary tickets. It is also shown live on TV.
Today was Theresa May's first PMQs since she became PM - they are also the last PMQs before parliament's summer recess - and she wasn’t merely channelling Mrs Thatcher, she was practically doing a Spitting Image impression of her and wiped the floor with the Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn....
Remind you of anybody? At her first PMQs, Theresa May goes full Thatcher
By Michael Deacon
Parliamentary Sketchwriter
20 July 2016
The Telegraph
I certainly don’t think anybody can be the new Margaret Thatcher,” Theresa May told the Telegraph, days before she became Prime Minister. “She was absolutely unique.”
I believed Mrs May when she said that. But now I’m not so sure. Because today, at her first PMQs as PM, she wasn’t merely channelling Mrs Thatcher. She was practically doing a Spitting Image impression of her.
For Labour, Jeremy Corbyn asked her about unscrupulous bosses. Look how she responded.
Margaret Thatcher as portrayed on Spitting Image. Or is it Theresa May? Credit: Rex Features
“I suspect that there are many members on the Opposition benches who might be familiar with an ‘unscrupulous boss’,” shot back Mrs May witheringly. “A boss who doesn’t listen to his workers. A boss who requires some of his workers to double their workload. Maybe even a boss who exploits the rules to further his own career.”
Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, speaks during Prime Minister's Questions Credit: PA
Before delivering the pay-off, she leant over the dispatch box, glared coldly at her prey, and whacked up the volume.
“Remind him of anybody?”
Well, I bet I know who that punchline reminded him of.
New government: Theresa May is flanked by Chancellor Philip Hammond, Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson
Look, I know it’s cheap to liken Mrs May to Mrs Thatcher. I’d never thought they had much in common, beyond being Tories and women.
But the way Mrs May delivered that last line: the icy imperiousness, the deepening of the voice, the thudding sarcasm… It was uncanny. More than uncanny, it was chilling. I felt as if I’d seen a ghost. Or at least heard one.
Naturally enough, Tory MPs were in ecstasy. They were wailing, gasping, groaning for more. Their excitement was downright unseemly. They were watching the Labour leader receive a spanking. And, by the sound of things, feeling quite envious.
Theresa May stood against Tim Farron, now the leader of the Liberal Democrats, at the general election of 1992 Credit: NCJ Archive
Next to be Thatchered was Tim Farron. At the general election of 1992, noted the Lib Dem leader pleasantly, he and Mrs May had stood as rival candidates for the same seat.
“I’m very happy to remember the days that he and I spent campaigning in North West Durham,” she replied. “Little did voters know that the two unsuccessful candidates in that election would become leaders of political parties. Although as I would point out to the honourable gentleman…”
May voice off; Thatcher voice on.
“...My party’s a little bit bigger than his!”
Tory MPs moaned with joy.
Bear in mind: Mrs May didn’t use to be like this. In all her long years as Home Secretary, the only joke I remember her cracking at the dispatch box was a limp pun on the surname of Mark Reckless. She is not generally listed among the leading improvisational comics of her generation.
In other words: that “Remind him of anybody?” gag will have been not only scripted, but rehearsed. The way she leant over the dispatch box to deliver the punchline – she’ll have practised that. The way she deepened her voice for it – she’ll have practised that, too. And I refuse to believe she didn’t have a particular forebear in mind.
“Absolutely unique”? Maybe not any more.
Watch Theresa May's first PMQs:
Remind you of anybody? At her first PMQs, Theresa May goes full Thatcher
