United Kingdom

Aboard his government’s ghost ship, Johnson is bored and ministers are mutinous News

When the Treasury set up an emergency meeting between Nadhim Zahawi and the energy companies on Thursday, officials were told the night before that a “representative from Number 10” would attend to oversee discussions on how to ease the cost of living.

A few hours before the meeting, the chancellor’s team established that the representative would be Boris Johnson. The Prime Minister is apparently “so fed up” with running what is essentially a “zombie government” that he has announced he will come along.

On Friday, Johnson decided to join Zahawi on a trip to Wales to see representatives of Airbus, a routine meeting where the prime minister is not usually seen dead, prompting one ministerial aide to suggest that Johnson was “giving off David Brent vibes “,