Political column – October 18

It was all her fault, he told her, if she was in for another mauling. Also the fault of her Cabinet who can't even agree a lion cage policy.

And of course, Jeremy is right. Mrs May has the wrong mindset for negotiations with the EU. Despite all appearances, she thinks she is the lion. Would you believe it!

She was pawed, clawed, bitten and toyed with at Salzburg. But you should have heard her roar when she got back to London.

Now, if it was Jezza there in the Brussels cage studying those fangs at close quarters, he would negotiate with the lion and come to a reasonable solution, like perhaps offering it an arm and a leg to be getting along with.

Certainly he would adopt a more huggy approach.

You never know, he might even opt to stay in the cage. After all, for Labour "all options are open."

Prime Minister's Questions isn't really a very good warm up for negotiations with the EU. There is only one Jeremy Corbyn, not 27 of him.

Brexit was his subject of the day, understandably, although it was maybe a little surprising that he did not choose to slip in a question about Saudi Arabia, and nor did anyone else.

It was a noisy session, with the Speaker intervening on several occasions to restore order.

"The Conservative Party has spent two years arguing with itself instead of negotiating a deal in the public interest," he said.

"Now, just days before the deadline, they're still bickering among themselves. The Prime Minister and her government are too weak and too divided to protect people's jobs, our economy, or ensure there is no hard border in Northern Ireland.

"So the Prime Minister has a choice. She can continue to put the Tory party's interests first, or listen to unions, businesses, and put the interests of the people of Britain first. Which is it to be?"

What it was to be was a list of what Mrs May considers to be the wonderful things the Tories have been doing.

As she completed each item (freezing fuel duty, low unemployment, an end to austerity, etc) there was a cheer from the Tory benches.

"Labour can play politics. Conservatives deliver for the people of this country."

She sat down to cries of "more, more" from her backbenchers.

Now for that lion...