The levelling up secretary took exception to the ‘Cones Hotline’ criticism.

Michael Gove is the latest Tory minister to find himself caught up in a spat on Twitter, and to come out the worse off.

Food critic and journalist Jay Rayner, criticised the government’s latest policy announcements, labelling them ‘desperate.’

“Listening to the new Tory government policy announcements, each more desperate than the last, I think it’s fair to say we have reached the ‘Cones Hotline’ stage of this administration,” he wrote.

Despite the tweet not mentioning Gove personally, the cabinet minister decided to wade into the conversation, responding:

“What is it about fixing unsafe buildings, giving tenants in social housing more rights, ending no fault evictions, empowering metro mayors, tackling rogue landlords, extending childcare and new schools for children with special needs which is ‘desperate’?”

Rayner hit back with a few home truths, responding: “You’ve had 13 years to sort all this. Indeed, in 2016 you specially voted against a bill that would have required landlords to make rented homes for for human habitation. Why were dangerous homes of the sort that contributed to the death of Awaab Ishak [a toddler who died in mouldy social housing in 2020] fine by you then?”

At this point, Gove decided to give up and didn’t respond. The comments ignited something of a storm on Twitter though, with users posting their own responses to the levelling up minister.

“Because they’re Labour policies that are watered down and rushed through. How can we trust a government that introduced the bedroom tax and benefit sanctions to be now on the side of the people who need help the most with rogue landlords and childcare?” asked writer Lucy Beaumont.

“Doing it immediately before a GE rather than in the last 12 years you’ve been in office,” someone else tweeted.

Others seized the opportunity to poke fun of the ‘Cones Hotline.’

Rayner’s ‘Cones Hotline’ reference was of course in reference to an initiative announced by John Major at a Tory Party conference in 1992, following a spate of delays on motorways in Britain. The introduction of the hotline was intended to allow members of the public to enquire about roadworks and report areas where traffic cones were placed for no apparent reason. The project, which cost several thousands of pounds to run a year, was widely viewed as a waste of government resources, and was wound down several years later, becoming an embarrassment for the government and the butt of political jokes ever since.

It has even developed into a wider concept known as ‘Cones Syndrome,’ a term used when politicians are in panic to be seen to be doing something, but can’t think of anything sensible to do.

Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward

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