Ruffled:British Prime Minister Boris Johnson,centre,looks at traditional dancers performing during the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali,Rwanda.Credit:Getty Images
Actually,it wasn’t. At the time he was speaking it was six degrees cooler in London and by day’s end,the temperature clocked 26 degrees in Kigali,and 25 in the British capital.
Pedantry aside,less than 24 hours later Johnson was feeling the chill emanating all the way from home from the mountain of fibs that have marked his career.
He woke to the news that he had lost two by-elections by savage margins and,like the recent vote in Australia,to the progressive right as well as to Labour.
In the once ultra-safe conservative seat of Tiverton and Honiton,the Liberal Democrats made history overturning the Tory majority of 24,000 with a 30 per cent swing - the largest in British by-election history.
In the red wall,Labour returned home in the seat of Wakefield with a 12.7 per cent swing back to Labour,despite criticism of Keir Starmer’s lacklustre offerings as party leader.
Oliver Dowden,Tory party chairman,immediately resigned.
“Our supporters are distressed and disappointed by recent events,and I share their feelings,” he wrote to Johnson.