A year ago, the logjam broke and the election campaign began

The prime minister has written to John Rentoul to remind him of an important anniversary

Jo Swinson addressing Lib Dem conference  (Getty)

A year ago the country was preparing for an election. I was surprised to receive an email from Boris Johnson about it recently. It wasn’t really from the prime minister – it was a mass mailing from the Conservative Party; I subscribe to it because it is useful to know what the Tories think will encourage their supporters to donate money or to join the party. 

This “election vote anniversary” email, for example, was soon followed by another, from Amanda Milling, the chair of the party, telling me: “Keir Starmer is Corbyn’s man.” Which I thought was duff information, arriving as it did on Thursday evening, after Corbyn had been suspended from the Labour Party. 

But it was interesting that the party thought it was worth reminding its supporters that “it was one year ago today that parliament voted in favour of a general election”. It was indeed a momentous week in parliament. Johnson had managed to win a vote on the withdrawal agreement – the first time a vote for a Brexit deal had passed the deadlocked parliament. It looked as if the resistance was crumbling, as a group of Labour MPs opposed to a second referendum finally voted with the government.