Boris Johnson’s failure to control international travel has been exposed by Yvette Cooper

I have sometimes wondered what might have happened if the senior Labour backbencher had run for the party leadership in 2010, writes John Rentoul

Cooper was the only MP who made the PM look really uncomfortable (Getty Images)

Yvette Cooper is the new Marcus Rashford. That is, she is the latest to seize the title of “the real leader of the opposition”. This is unfair on Keir Starmer, and indeed on Rashford himself, both of whom are doing a good job in forcing the government to provide adequate food to children in need. 

But the only time when Boris Johnson came unstuck yesterday during his appearance in front of the Commons Liaison Committee was when Cooper, chair of the home affairs select committee, asked him an obvious question about travel restrictions. 

The prime minister said he was “taking steps” to restrict arrivals from Brazil and South Africa, where new variants of coronavirus have emerged, and she said: “What are those steps?” When Johnson blethered in reply, she repeated the question.