Even though she’s a quiet person and is not known for small talk, Theresa May had a conversation last week with backbenchers from the Commons.
The ex-prime minister also seemed unusually lively and jocular when she took her seat inside the chamber.
Her delight in the discomfort caused by Boris Johnson was evident. She still holds him responsible for her return to the backbenches. This is where she had been living with bitterness since the day she was ousted from the Conservative Party leadership.
‘She is grinning from ear to ear,’ said one of her senior former ministers. ‘She scents blood and is enjoying it. It is now a shameful backseat driver. She is turning into another Ted Heath who glowered from the backbenches all the way through Mrs Thatcher’s leadership.’
As she took her place in the chamber, the former prime minister seemed unusually lively and bright. Evidently, she enjoyed Boris Johnson’s discomfort which she continues to blame for her fate on the backbenches.
While Mrs May may not have made any public comments on Downing Street, many of her former colleagues, who are some of those who were expelled from the Tory party because of Brexit, did so.
These are all part Operation Revenge.
Gavin Barwell was Gavin’s former Downing Street Chief of Staff, which she promoted to the Lords.
Many Tory MPs were outraged by his series of criticisms last week.
A poll that showed for the first-time that Johnson is wanted to be fired by most of its respondents was retweeted by the peer.
‘The Tory party has always been ruthless but more than any other previous leader Boris Johnson’s position is based on being seen as an electoral asset,’ he said.
Another relic from the past to take to the airwaves was Anna Soubry, who quit the party in February 2019 in protest at the Government’s Brexit policy.
Of course, all these enemies of Mr Johnson have been encouraged, ironically, by a Brexit supporter – a man who seems to be eaten up by revenge: Dominic Cummings. Cummings was asked to quit Downing Street immediately in November 2013. He has been gossiping on the sidelines since then.
She voted for The Independent Group for Change in Broxtowe, where she polled a shocking 8% against the Tory candidate, who had 48%.
‘The party is over. You are done. Go. Resign Boris Johnson,’ said Miss Soubry who was predictably given a slot on the BBC for her attack.
David Gauke (an ex-justice secretary) was also involved in the removal of the Tory whip by Johnson due to his position on Brexit.
‘It is mystifying that there could be a culture inside No 10 that rules could be ignored.
‘How on earth could that possibly have happened,’ he asked, adding that the PM had lost his moral authority. ‘The answer is to change the Prime Minister.’
This is the same David Gauke who, after losing the whip, stood as an independent in his Hertfordshire constituency at the election and polled 25 per cent compared with the Conservative candidate’s 50 per cent.
All these May supporters are united by their hatred of Johnson and Brexit. Here, they see a chance to get their own back on the man who managed to make it happen – a task at which Mrs May so conspicuously failed.
Another who has joined in is John Bercow, the first former Speaker to be denied an automatic peerage in 300 years and a man who famously drove a car with a ‘Bollocks To Brexit’ sticker on it while in office.
David Gauke was a former justice minister who saw the Tory whip being removed because of Mr Johnson’s stance on Brexit. He also put in the knife. ‘It is mystifying that there could be a culture inside No 10 that rules could be ignored. ‘How on earth could that possibly have happened,’ he asked, adding that the PM had lost his moral authority
To retaliate against Mr Johnson, he went to radio to vent his fury.
Mr Bercow, who defected to the Labour Party this year, said: ‘Boris Johnson is regarded as a habitual liar, someone who has made his career through ducking, dodging, diving and deceiving people. I have known 12 PMs and by a country mile Boris Johnson is the worst.’
Coming from an individual who is widely regarded as the worst Speaker in living memory, it is an insult that’s unlikely to give Mr Johnson sleepless nights.
He will be more disappointed – though perhaps not surprised – by the attacks from Ruth Davidson, the former Tory leader in Scotland and another Remainer, who has in the past accused Mr Johnson of ‘peddling lies’ and of being ‘pathetic’. Her relationship with Mr Johnson has been fraught and she was surprised when he made her a member of the House of Lords.
‘I’m astonished he signed it off,’ she said. ‘Genuinely astonished. When it came through, I was like “are you f****** kidding me?”’
But despite her elevation, her message posted on Twitter last week was hardly supportive: ‘None of this is remotely defensible.
‘Not having busy, boozy not-parties while others were sticking to the rules, unable to visit ill or dying loved ones. Not denying facts that can be easily proven. Not taking the public for fools.’
Of course, all these enemies of Mr Johnson have been encouraged, ironically, by a Brexit supporter – a man who seems to be eaten up by revenge: Dominic Cummings.
Cummings received a directive from Downing Street to leave immediately in November 2013. Since then, he’s been gossiping on the sidelines.
This week, however, he went into overdrive, even releasing details of the layout of the Downing Street interior to try to show Mr Johnson must have known if an illicit party was taking place, and predicting the Prime Minister would ‘be gone before the next election … probably summer’.
Johnson does not see this. He has launched his own fightback, which is telling. His allies at the weekend condemn the BBC as ‘shamefully frivolous, vengeful and partisan’ over its coverage of the Partygate row.
He also went on the offensive last night to put a rocket under the nation’s Covid booster programme, saying everyone over-18 should be given the chance of a booster by the end of the year.
It is an indication that Mr Johnson – once known among colleagues as the ‘greased piglet’ for his ability to escape tricky situations – has no intention of giving succour to the vengeful plotters calling for his head.