PM Claims Gogglebox Appearance 'Essential' for Understanding 'Real People,' Says Critics Just 'Envious of His Sofa Skills'

The Prime Minister has found time for Gogglebox. Somewhere in Downing Street, an inbox is still waiting.

Andy Burnham makes no apology for the appearance. He says it helps him understand real people, which is an odd claim from a man whose diary has no gaps for anyone who isn’t already on a ministerial payroll.

Kemi Badenoch says she is “amazed” he has time. That is the most generous reading available, and she has clearly chosen it for the cameras.

The defence rests on a simple idea. The public watches Gogglebox, so the Prime Minister should watch it too, preferably from the same sofa, preferably with a cup of tea in hand. Nobody has yet explained what he learned that a constituency surgery would not have taught him for free.

Is this a serious use of a national leader’s afternoon? No. The sofa has now received more sustained attention from Number 10 than most of the papers that have landed on the Prime Minister’s desk this month.

He has called the critics envious. Their envy is noted. So is the sofa’s approval rating, which nobody has yet thought to measure.