Boris Johnson’s first Prime Minister’s Questions was immediately embroiled in controversy after footage appeared to show him gesticulating towards Jeremy Corbyn, saying: “Call an election, you great big girl’s blouse.”
The theme of the exchanges between the two had centred around the Labour leader asking Johnson to publish details of the government’s no-deal planning documents, while the prime minister repeatedly challenged Corbyn to support his plan for a 15 October election.
As Corbyn was saying of the new prime minister: “He’s desperate, absolutely desperate to avoid scrutiny”, Johnson appeared to make the insult.
I'm no lip reader, but is this: 'Call an election, you great big girls blouse'? pic.twitter.com/9eyBNuzcuA
— Ned Simons (@nedsimons) September 4, 2019
It was immediately seized upon on social media, with users suggesting the comment was sexist and not fitting for the prime minister to say in parliament.
Johnson has form for previously using the phrase. In June 2017 he called Labour’s election campaign chief a “big girl’s blouse”. And in 2007, when Gordon Brown was tipped to be on the verge of calling a general election in an era before the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, he reportedly told a fringe meeting at the Conservative party conference in Blackpool that if Brown didn’t act: “We will say he’s wimped out, we will say he’s a big girl’s blouse.”
Johnson also raised eyebrows by swearing during the course of one of his answers in PMQs, quoting shadow education secretary Angela Rayner’s description of Labour’s economic policy as “shit or bust”. Rayner described Johnson’s performance as dreadful.
A dreadful #PMQs for Bullingdon Boy PM, responses littered with finger jabbing bluff and bluster accompanied by failed gags. He just will not answer questions on serious questions from MPs, when challenged like he was yesterday he just falls apart, what a failure, what a mess
— Angela Rayner 🌈 (@AngelaRayner) September 4, 2019
At another point, making a reference to trade deals with the US, Johnson insulted Corbyn by saying: “There’s only one chlorinated chicken that I can see in this house, and he’s on that bench.”
For his part, Corbyn refrained from insults, instead concentrating on asking why the prime minister was unwilling to publish the Operation Yellowhammer no-deal assessment documents, and why the DWP was saying it wasn’t in the public interest to disclose their research into how a no-deal Brexit would affect poverty levels.
