Labour hit back at Boris Johnson for calling Jeremy Corbyn a ‘mutton-headed old mugwump’ as Tom Watson labels him a ‘cheese-headed fopdoodle’
Having said they wouldn’t react to the Foreign Secretary’s attack on the leader his deputy is set to go after him in a campaign speech
LABOUR are hitting back at Boris Johnson for labelling Jeremy Corbyn a ‘mutton-headed old mugwump’ with Tom Watson set to call him a “cheese-headed fopdoodle”.
Having initially claimed they were not going to respond in kind to the attack on their leader, the party’s deputy is set to go after the Foreign Secretary in a speech today.
In a speech to the Usdaw union’s annual delegate meeting in Blackpool, Mr Watson will say: “Boris Johnson is a caggie-handed cheese-headed fopdoodle with a talent for slummocking about.”
A ‘fopdoodle’ is defined as a ‘stupid or insignificant fellow’, while a ‘cheese-head’ is a type of screw with a raised cylindrical head.
It comes after Mr Johnson’s first campaign intervention was to use the word ‘mugwump’ to describe Mr Corbyn in a column for The Sun.
But today Mr Watson will attack his Johnson’s record in Cabinet, saying: “When we require diplomacy, Boris sows discord.
“At a time when we need a serious-minded national representative to deal skilfully with some of the most complex problems our country faces, Johnson falls back on bluster and bombast.”
Last week Mr Johnson wrote that the “biggest risk with Jeremy Corbyn is that people just don’t get what a threat he really is”.
He said: “Well, they say to themselves: he may be a mutton-headed old mugwump, but he is probably harmless.
“Do you have those feelings? Have you ever thought the leader of the Opposition is an essentially benign Islingtonian herbivore?
“Have you felt a pang of sympathy for his plight? If so, fight it.”
After a furious backlash he doubled down on his full frontal assault on Mr Corbyn – to say sorry if it upset any mugwumps.