Amber Rudd: This resident of Cloud Cuckoo Land was never in danger of losing her Cabinet seat in the reshuffle. What does that say about Theresa May?

… Get a bizarre answer.

Chris Williamson, Labour’s shadow minister for fire and emergency services, should know his numbers when it comes to those services’ budgets.

When he says these organisations have reserves of £143 million, to set against a budget of £2.3 billion, This Writer is inclined to accept his figures.

But look what happened when he tackled Home Secretary (yes, even after the reshuffle) Amber Rudd about the pitiful inadequacy of this amount of reserve cash.

Was Ms Rudd making up these figures as she went along? If the reserves were 40 per cent of annual revenue – meaning, one supposes, the £2.3 billion annual budget – then they would stand at £920 million, wouldn’t they? Or what was she talking about? Without hard figures to support her statement, it was meaningless.

And as for taking “a little more scrutiny to this matter, rather than treating it like some Venezuelan dictatorship” – that’s exactly what Mr Williamson was trying to do!

So, yes, it was certainly generous of Ms Rudd to suggest of herself that she isn’t living in Cloud Cuckoo Land. From this performance, it seems she is planning to take up permanent residence there.

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