Brexit Day 27: 'Remind him of anybody?'

It's been a relatively quiet day so far, save for Theresa May's barnstorming first performance at Prime Minister's Questions. Even the news that the UK has given up its presidency of the EU in H2 2017 should not have come as a shock to anyone. Estonia is understood to be shuffled up six months to fill the vacated spot. I will issue an update covering May's trip to Berlin and Paris tomorrow and any other major developments that have occurred over the previous 48 hours. So today’s bulletin is very short. Enjoy the evening sunshine. See you tomorrow.

Merkel and May meet in Berlin

Just as I am writing Mrs Merkel and Mrs May are beginning their discussions on Brexit with a joint press conference. We will come back to this tomorrow.

PMQs in pictures

But Theresa May’s sigh of relief at the ends shows that it’s tough at the top (click the link to see video).

BTW …Here’s what the new frontbench looks like. That’s James Brokenshire, a trusted May lieutenant and now Northern Ireland Secretary sat to her right and David Lidington, Leader of the House next to him.

Quote of the day: Thug Life edition

At PMQs Jeremy Corbyn asked the PM about people worried about their future in work.

May, showing a flash of ruthlessness, and decent dramatic timing said: “You refer to the situation of some workers who might have some job insecurity and potentially unscrupulous bosses….I suspect there are many members on the opposition benches who might be familiar with an unscrupulous boss – a boss who doesn’t listen to his workers, a boss who requires some of his workers to double their workload, and maybe even a boss who exploits the rules to further his own career. Pausing she then asked. “Remind him of anybody?”

Michael Deacon in the Telegraph makes the point that it is cheap to compare May to Thatcher but the ‘remind him?’ moment was triple-distilled Thatcher.

For those of you who are connoisseurs of internet memes, there is a Thug Life remix of this exchange which shows quite how brutal May’s delivery was. Apparently Sky created it but then took it down.

*She didn't choose the thug life, it chose her*