WITH the finishing line for COP26 in sight, Boris Johnson might have expected the week ahead to be dominated by all things green. Instead, following the Owen Paterson omnishambles, he is having a “code red” moment of his own.

Castigated by John Major, poll ratings plummeting, bad headlines, and an emergency debate in the Commons today: Mr Johnson may be wishing he had stayed longer in Glasgow.

“One of the worst crises to engulf Boris since he arrived in Downing Street,” said one usually supportive Sunday paper.

Mr Major was not the only ghost from the Conservative past to turn up over the weekend. David Mellor, appearing on Sky News’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday, called the Johnson administration a shambles. “And that’s on a good day,” he added.

The Mellor interview ended with the ex-Minister complaining about the way Phillips had introduced him. The Sky presenter had mentioned Mr Mellor’s resignation and revelations about a holiday in Marbella. The former MP was just reaching peak pique when the line to his home in Dorset went dead.

It was not the most bizarre moment of the day. That award went to The Andrew Marr Show and the presenter’s attempt to play counsellor to Scots actor Brian Cox and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

Former Labour supporter turned SNP cheerleader Cox meets Labour leader named after party founder? Should be interesting.

READ MORE: Cox says UK no longer united

The first sign that fun and games were afoot came when Marr, interviewing Cox to tie in with the new series of Succession, and the publication of his autobiography, Putting the Rabbit in the Hat, promised that the two would talk about politics later. Odd. Why a two-part interview? Was this some strange new BBC reinterpretation of the rules on balance? Would Cox have to be interviewed alongside an actor who had left Labour for the SNP?

All was revealed when Marr was joined by Sir Keir and Cox together at the end of the show. “We used to have sofa chats on this programme,” said a delighted Marr. “We’ve got one again at last.”

It was more like speed dating. Marr began by recounting what a prominent Labour supporter Cox had been. But then the switch to the SNP. “Tell us briefly why.”

With only a few minutes left in the programme, Cox looked taken aback, then pointed to his watch. “Andrew, we really haven’t got time,” he pleaded, but then gave it a whirl anyway. Chief among the reasons for his disillusionment had been Iraq and Tony Blair’s “hubris”.

“I saw the party going in a certain direction and I was really very concerned because I am a socialist,” said Cox. “I’m riven about the party. I totally agree with Keir on so many things, but my country was traduced for long enough, time and time again.” Citing the Thatcher years and Scotland’s 62% vote to remain in the EU, Cox said the country had been “sidelined”.

Cue Marr the mediator. “Keir, is there anything you could say to Brian to win him back?

Keir, Brian, Andrew, we were all on first name terms now.

Keir hoped so. “It is certainly true that we have to do a lot of hard work in Scotland,” he said. The most important thing was respect.

READ MORE: Starmer accuses Johnson on Paterson case

“Listening to Scotland has to be an essential part of this. Not an afterthought, not a secondary consideration. I actually do think there is a lot we would agree on and that is a good basis for building the future.”

Marr reminded the Labour leader that there was no way his party could make it into government without winning seats in Scotland.

He asked Sir Keir if there was “any kind of new arrangement you could make with the SNP, any kind of conversation" that would help get him to Number 10?

“No, Andrew,” came the unsurprising reply. “There is no basis for a deal before we go into an election, nor coming out of an election.”

Over to Cox for his response. Marr said he was looking like an unimpressed Logan Roy, the mercurial media magnate he plays in Succession, but then Dundee-born Cox smiled.

“It’s a hard question, it’s a painful question,” he said of his relationship with Labour. He had been “devastated” when the Conservatives won a “red wall” of former Labour seats at the last General Election.

“Principally I’m a socialist, but I have to put my country first." And that was it. Counselling session over. SNP 1 (still)-Labour 0.

What, meanwhile, was the state of play with Boris Johnson? The Prime Minister started COP26 by saying that the world was 5-0 down at half-time in the match against global warming. Then a couple of goals were clawed back by, among other matters, an agreement to halt deforestation.

That was before the Paterson own goal. George Eustice, still in Glasgow and still doing his thing at COP26 as Environment Secretary, was also on duty as Minister for the Sunday shows.

“A Westminster storm in a teacup,” was how he described the row to Trevor Phillips. Thangam Debbonaire, shadow leader of the Commons, called for her Conservative counterpart, Jacob Rees-Mogg, to resign. “His position is untenable.”

Labour against Tories, Tories against Tories. Not even Marr, with his mediation ambitions, would fancy taking on those cases.