he year started with hope, promise and a month-long argument about whether Big Ben should bong for Brexit. It ended with anxious preparations for queues of 7,000 lorries on the motorways of Kent.
There was a very brief period of consensus at the height of the Covid crisis, following by months of bickering over the government’s handling of pandemic. Here’s a look back at the most striking, strange and significant things our politicians said during the year from hell.
“Big Ben should bong for Brexit. This was an embarrassment – it’s now turning into a scandal.”
Mark Francois, Tory MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, was hopping mad when parliamentary authorities decided it was too expensive to activate the iconic clock, which is under renovation.
Mark Francois argues that Big Ben should bong for Brexit
“We did it – we transformed the landscape of our country. The people have beaten the establishment.”
Nigel Farage took credit for the UK’s formal exit from the EU on 31 January, leading the crowd in ‘God Save the Queen’ at a celebration rally.
“It is clear that the virus will be with us for at least some months to come.”
Matt Hancock warned the country in February that something called the coronavirus may become a big problem.
“I must give the British people a simple instruction – you must stay at home.”
Boris Johnson ordered a nationwide lockdown on 24 March, bringing in the most draconian restrictions on ordinary life since World War II.
Boris Johnson announces nationwide lockdown to tackle coronavirus
“We’ve just lost four elections in a row – we’re failing in our historic purpose. We’ve got a mountain to climb. But we will climb it.”
Keir Starmer gave a downbeat speech as he was elected the Labour Party’s leader in April.
“I am confident we will get there – we will put that cherry on Dido’s cake.”
Matt Hancock promised test and trace chief Dido Harding a working contact tracing app in May, but had to scrap it a month later. It was finally rolled out in September.
“Feels to me like a symbol of subjugation and subordination. I take the knee for two people – the Queen and the missus when I asked her to marry me.”
Dominic Raab said in June that he would refuse to ‘take the knee’, a symbol picked up by the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
“I’m as fit as a butcher’s dog now … Do you want me to do some press-ups to show you how fit I am?”
Boris Johnson in a June interview, a couple of months after getting out of hospital – where he received intensive care for Covid.
“He really reminds me of Frank Spencer. I wonder if he was saying ‘ooh Betty I’ve made a boo boo with this algorithm’.”
Gavin Williamson faced huge criticism over August’s exam results fiasco – and the ‘mutant’ algorithm which saw marks downgraded. It was Liverpool council leader Joe Anderson who compared him to the hapless sitcom character.
Gavin Williamson refuses to say whether he has offered to resign over A-levels fiasco
“One antisemite is one too many – but the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons.”
Jeremy Corbyn’s dismissive response to the EHRC report in October ensured the party’s antisemitism row rumbled on. And on and on and on.
“Excuse me – did the honourable lady just call me scum!?”
Christopher Clarkson, Tory MP for Heywood, got an apology from Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner after she hurled the four-letter word in his direction during a Commons debate on Covid.
“Rumours of me threatening to resign are invented.”
Dominic Cummings suggested on 12 November that stories about his exit were made up. But the very next day we saw him leave No 10 for the final time, following an apparent power struggle with the PM’s partner Carrie Symonds.
