Boris Johnson's Covid rules confusion reflected the palpable sense of chaos at Number 10

What a shame the further education college Boris Johnson visited on Tuesday doesn't offer a course in the art of political communication.

Twice the Prime Minister boasted of having had a go at some of the 462 subjects offered by Exeter College in Devon, "from particle physicist to cake decorating".

But it soon became apparent that rather than spending the morning "bricklaying and shaving wood", the Oxford graduate may have been better served reading his briefing notes.

For after Mr Johnson had hailed the "usefulness" of "practical skills" (like, for example, knowing the latest coronavirus rules), it quickly emerged that Dilyn the dog had eaten Mr Johnson's homework.

Amid mounting confusion over the lockdown restrictions, he was asked to clarify (as seen in the video below) whether people from two households in the north-east of England were allowed to meet in a pub garden.

It is the kind of question that has flummoxed even those fortunate enough to have been educated at Eton. Earlier on, Gillian Keegan – a skills minister, no less – had been unable to clarify the new curbs, which come into effect at midnight.

That the Prime Minister fared no better compounded what was already shaping up to be one of the most shambolic days of the Johnson administration.

Getting into even more of a muddle than Ms Keegan, Mr Johnson mixed up the legal ban on two households socialising indoors with the "rule of six".

"It is six in a home, six in hospitality but as I understand it, not six outside," he declared with the confidence of a classicist who has just gained a B-tech in Pandemic Sociology.

The only problem – and it is a fate that occasionally befalls the sharpest of intellects – was that he was wrong.

As he was later forced to clarify in yet another cringeworthy U-turn: "In the North-East, new rules mean you cannot meet people from different households in social settings indoors, including in pubs, restaurants and your home. You should also avoid socialising with other households outside."

Well, that clears that one up, then.

Naturally, Labour were quick to jump on Mr Johnson’s mistake (watch the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, give her reaction in the video below).

The deputy leader, Angela Rayner, also went for the jugular.

"For the Prime Minister to not understand his own rules is grossly incompetent," she said. "These new restrictions are due to come into force across huge parts of the country tonight. The Government needs to get a grip."

Yet while an embarrassing misstep for Mr Johnson to make, the unedifying episode also laid bare the failings of a Downing Street operation that has appeared behind the communications curve for weeks.

Amid a Tory backbench rebellion over the Covid rules, which has seen the PM compared to Dr Strangelove and Oliver Cromwell and accused of employing 1984 tactics, it had arguably never been more important to get Tuesday’s speech right.

But once again, rather than focusing on what is undoubtedly a worthy attempt to finally put further education on a par with higher education (as outlined by Mr Johnson in the video below), the headlines ended up reflecting the palpable sense of chaos and confusion inside Number 10.

If the Prime Minister doesn't even understand the rules, what chance have an increasingly exasperated general public faced with the threat of ever more draconian fines?

They say advisers advise and ministers decide, but many could have been forgiven for wondering why on earth the PM had been presented to the press and public without having been properly schooled in the latest guidance.

Anyone who has ever worked in further education could have told Downing Street that there are some learners who are seemingly unable to absorb a brief longer than two pages. There's a name for such students – they're called "journalists".

Although many are exceptionally bright, they need the salient facts clearly set out before them, preferably in bold 14-point sans serif script on a laminated piece of A4 paper. And that needs to happen even when – as Mr Johnson put it so succinctly – "they graduate with degrees that don't get them the jobs they want" and then "go on to acquire new skills".

Inadvertently echoing the mood of a frustrated nation over the Government's discombobulated coronavirus response, the PM declared: "We need this nimbleness now!" as he urged Britain to "build back better".

Yet with the foundations collapsing under his feet and the ceiling threatening to cave in, his new-found bricklaying skills have arguably never been in more demand.

The question most Tories are asking right now is this – at what point does Mr Johnson tear it all down and start again?