BORIS JOHNSON is beginning to look like an unlucky Prime Minister. All he wanted to do was get Brexit done and announce great infrastructure projects for the north, but then the greatest pandemic for a century comes along and blows him off course.

This week was supposed to be his big reset but he’s forced to self-isolate even though it is unlikely that he has been reinfected, and then in a Zoom call to his own northern backbenchers he somehow says Scottish devolution has been a “disaster”.

For Labour, he’s right: devolution has been disastrous and it is difficult to see how they will ever form a UK government again without winning back some Scottish seats.

But Mr Johnson, who has spoken in favour of devolution in the past and whose Government sees devolution to new mayors in Durham and North Yorkshire as a part of the levelling up process, can’t really think that devolving powers to local people is bad – he made his name as mayor of London through using devolved powers.

In the past, Mr Johnson has managed to wheedle his way out of mishaps, but this mis-speaking will be held against him by the Scottish nationalists. This self-inflicted wound suggests that Mr Johnson’s luck is running out.