Senior figures inside No10 raised concerns about the Prime Minister today after a bizarre speech to business chiefs in which he praised Peppa Pig World, compared himself to Moses and made car engine noises.
The Prime Minister was forced to shrug off questions about whether he is ‘OK’ following the bewildering address to the CBI, in which he spoke at length about his family trip to the popular theme park – complaining that the TV character looks like a ‘hair dryer’ and Daddy Pig is a bit stereotyped.
Mr Johnson also stunned bemused onlookers as he attempted an impression of a car engine as he extolled the virtues of Tesla cars, saying they are faster at accelerating from traffic lights than Ferraris.
He invoked the Moses comparison by suggesting he had descended from ‘Mount Sinai’ to hand civil servants his 10-point plan for achieving Net Zero by 2050.
After the shambolic performance, a senior Downing Street figure told the BBC: ‘There is a lot of concern inside the building about the PM….It’s just not working.
‘Cabinet needs to wake up and demand serious changes otherwise it’ll keep getting worse. If they don’t insist, he just won’t do anything about it.’
At one point Mr Johnson was left floundering after losing his place in his rambling speech, leafing through pages while the audience in South Shields sat in awkward silence. That was when he launched into his lengthy anecdote about Peppa Pig World.
Labour seized on the chaotic performance saying the ‘joke’s not funny any more’. And it could have more serious implications as Tory MPs have been increasingly frustrated over the government’s bungling on a range of issues.
Downing Street did not send out a full version of the speech until six hours after it was delivered, and even then it did not refer to his embarrassing confusion over what he was meant to say next. One government source quipped wryly to MailOnline that Mr Johnson – who still appears to have a heavy cold – might have had ‘a bit too much Lemsip’.
