Already under the cosh for slipping away before the cheese course in Normandy, Rishi Sunak had to contend with more ‘incoming’ yesterday evening in the form of a pukka West Country doctor who bearded him in Wiltshire.
Jane Lees-Millais interrupted the Conservative leader in front of a crowd of 50 supporters at the windswept ground of Melksham Town FC.
He had just celebrated his government increasing the number of GPs’ surgeries in the Chippenham and Melksham area when Dr Lees-Millais let rip.
She was standing about five yards from the Prime Minister and spoke in a stentorian voice, of the type that would once have had parlour maids, quite possibly parlour mice, diving for cover.
‘The NHS is disintegrating,’ she roared, complaining that general practitioners were being replaced by less-qualified personnel and that it was a state of affairs for which young Sunak should be thoroughly ashamed. Next patient, please!
I apologise for not producing a more verbatim account of Dr Lees-Millais’ philippic but my attention was grabbed by how Tory she looked.
She was wearing pink pedal-pusher trousers and a blue linen jacket and loafers that may well have been bought at Knees department store in Trowbridge in the 1990s. Classic shires Tory Sloane.
Probably sank Gin and Its with Camilla P-B in the old days.
No wonder Rishi’s event organisers waved her through the gate. It is a brave Tory campaign activist who tries to check the credentials of that type of bullet proof memsahib. But had they not heard that the la-di-dah types are now Lib Dem or Labour?
The other interesting thing during the doctor’s outburst was Mr Sunak’s expression. He smiled, bouncing his head from side to side in a sort of ‘okay, let’s hear your point of view’ way.
He twice made an effort to reply but Dr Lees-Millais had no intention of stopping until she had fully disgorged herself, and that was not for some time.
When she did finally run dry of juice, the initial response came not from Rishi but from a round chap on the other side of the gathering. In a broad Melksham accent he said, ‘Round here GPs spend more time on holiday than in the surgery, love’.
This won a round of hearty laughter, not least from the PM.
Over Dr Lees-Millais a layer of frost had developed. ‘Love!’ You would more readily say ‘hello, old sausage’ to Angela Merkel than you would aim the term ‘love’ at Dr Jane Lees-Millais.
Mr Sunak ‘respectfully disagreed’ with her and argued that his changes to the law, which have enabled pharmacists to undertake some functions previously reserved for GPs, have actually been popular with the public.
The event ended soon afterwards.
Mr Sunak urged the crowd to support the local candidacy of Michelle Donelan, the Science Secretary, who is currently wearing a surgical boot.
She fractured a foot on the doorsteps. I think we can probably all name one local GP she should not visit for treatment.
Tory activists drifted away, amiable but hardly pumped with optimism. The youngest on parade, Jasper Young, slept through Mr Sunak’s speech, but that was excusable as he was only 10 weeks old. He was dressed entirely in blue.
As for her ladyship, Dr Lees-Millais disclosed that she was related to the painter Sir John Everett Millais, and that she is involved in local medical councils.
The Boadicea of Swindon’s medical-dinner circuit, one fancies.
As we journalists must, I enquired after her age. ‘My AGE?’ she gasped, jowls a-quiver. ‘Just askin’,’ I gulped.
‘How old are YOU?’ she demanded. When I told her, she shot me a look to shrivel a saveloy and steamed orf.
After the Tory event, Melksham Town FC greeted the footballer Peter Beardsley as guest of honour for a social do.
Locals seemed much more interested in that than in the election.
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Quentin Letts
