Embattled Theresa May attempts to have a laugh (at Ken Clarke)

The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards took place last night. Highlights from the winners include:

• Campaigner of the year: Stella Creasy
• Survivor of the year: Chris Huhne
• Inquisitor of the year: John Whittingdale, on behalf of the Murdoch-grilling Culture Media and Sport Committee

With attendant politicos and hacks rendered more forgiving by champagne, such bashes have become the setting in which troubled politicians can have a laugh (often at themselves) — and regain some initiative in the process.

With no one in government in need of a fillip more than the home secretary, one of the “lines of the night” (outside a toilet cubicle, at least) reportedly came from Theresa May in the form of this barb at Ken Clarke:

“I lock ‘em up — you let ‘em out.”

But surely that quip should have begun “I let ‘em in …”?