In his need, Labour’s leader is turning for inspiration to a predecessor who will scarcely be at the top of his list of role models.
Brexit has changed much for them, but less than one might think – at least when it comes to their strategic position at Westminster.
Plus: Will the 21 rebels get the whip back? And: The Tories need younger members, and so does everyone else.
“I have a Jewish member of stage who when she goes to family weddings can’t say who she works for.”
He wonders why it is that Thornberry, his usual jousting partner, is not being allowed to stand in for Corbyn this week.
Corbyn’s new stand-in was strikingly self-possessed.
“I don’t think those murderers in Derry were motivated by any thoughts about the border or about customs arrangements.”
The Prime Minister’s deputy baffled inquiry with consummate professionalism.
Esther McVey with the support of MPs from across the party is refreshing and renewing the project.
But their deputies look stricken, while the defectors are rejuvenated.
He teases Thornberry that perhaps when she voted for Article 50 to be triggered she was “present but not involved”.
But neither she nor Lidington sounded as if they expect Brexit to end in disaster.
The Shadow Foreign Secretary is making pledges her leader seems unlikely to honour.
The only explanation I can find is that she mistakenly assumed I was just another Tory public school boy, to whom she did not need to bother giving the time of day.
Jeremy Corbyn’s Surrender Bill won’t just delay Brexit. It threatens to stop it altogether.