To Coventry and not one, not two but three Conservative revolutions – on matters green, innovation and skills.

Nobody does understatement in elections; everything is in primary colours. Boris Johnson decided to make the vast pantechnicon that is the Chineseowned London Electric Vehicle Company the backdrop to his first major speech of the election campaign.

The company makes black cabs, electric ones, which fitted in well with the PM’s “green revolution” message.

Indeed, in the vast hangar there was an array of Hackney cabs to provide the metaphor for the Tory leader’s theme of getting the green light from the voters and driving the country forward beyond Brexit. The three revolutionary messages of the speech were kindly briefed out with background notes for HM Press.

The only thing was that Boris didn’t much dwell on them, concentrating more on political point-scoring against what he regards as the gruesome twosome of the Opposition: Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon.

The “green revolution” was meant to cover how everyone, south of the Border, would be within 30 miles of an electric charge-point; upping the amount of energy consumers get from offshore wind by 2030; investing £800 million in carbon capture and storage clusters and helping energy-intensive industries decarbonise to meet the Government’s net zero 2050 target.

The “innovation revolution” was meant to highlight how a future Tory government would double to £18 billion in five years the spending on research and development, which would help develop a range of “transformative technologies,” including a national space strategy and support for nuclear fusion. The “skills revolution” was meant to involve transforming the further education system, levelling up the “entire country,” that is England, with a £1.8 billion rebuilding programme.

All Government contracts for major infrastructure projects will have to use UK apprentices and there will be the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to replace European Union funds for projects post Brexit.

Ironically, as Boris talked up the Tories’ great green revolution hours earlier, Tesla, the electric car-maker, announced it had decided to invest in a new factory not in the UK but in, er, Germany because of the uncertainty over Brexit.

The pro-Remain LibDems jumped on the unhappy development, naturally, saying: “You couldn’t make it up.” They added: “This completely demolishes the Johnson and Cummings Brexit fantasy and shows their deluded plans are already costing the country vital investment and making us all poorer.”

Back in taxi heaven, the PM was currying favour with the workers, admiring the “traditional contours” of the Hackney cab and its similarity to a “black bowler hat”. Blessed were the taxi-makers.

Boris rambled on yet again about getting Brexit done and how there was a lot of potential to be unleashed. Indeed, there was a lot of unleashing to be done as he spoke of how companies were poised to invest, noting that there was a “pent-up tidal wave” of money set to flow across the country once we got that pesky Brexit out of the way.

“We’ve got a great deal,” said Boris. “Ready to go. Just add water.”

The workers liked that and laughed. Which encouraged him to offer another metaphor, saying the UK-EU agreement was the “Blue Peter Deal; it’s one I made earlier”.

By now, it was not clear if the taxi-makers were laughing with Boris or at him. The PM set out the Johnson vision of Tory nirvana, where people were safer on the streets, the air was cleaner, people had more hospitals, the kids were better educated and opportunity was spread across the whole country. There was more.

A Britain that was united and levelling up. Better transport. Better broadband. And millions more trees. “In 10 years I confidently prophesy a confident, proud, strong and whole United Kingdom.

More united than ever, flying that red, white and blue flag, that represents the best of our values.” But his sharpest comments were reserved for an attack on the gruesome twosome before the assortment of media types and overalled taxi-makers.

He noted that Mr Corbyn, like a political contortionist, had wrapped himself up in an awkward-looking position on indyref2 that meant his policy was “veiled in mystery”.

Despite the chief comrade’s protestations, Boris pointed out his “yokemate of destiny” had made clear she wanted another shot at independence next year, full stop.

He posited the scenario of voters waking up on Friday the 13th and finding the “nightmare on Downing Street: a Corbyn-Sturgeon technicolour coalition of chaos”.

The PM then, looking at a gaggle of Tory office staff, asked: “Is that what you want?” To which the dutiful Conservatives shouted in unison: “No!” Earlier, the PM had experienced his own nightmare; not in Downing Street but in Stainforth, when he decided to visit the poor folk of Yorkshire, who had suffered the deluge.

One frustrated local woman, who was pushing around a wheelbarrow, refused to speak to the distinguished visitor. “I’m not very happy about talking to you so, if you don’t mind, I’ll just mope on with what I’m doing,” she said politely.

Another unimpressed local observed unhelpfully: “You’ve took your time Boris, haven’t you?”

Later on in his trip, he was reprimanded by local Labour councillor Susan Durant, who told him he should have come to South Yorkshire when the flooding had started last week.

“It took you over five days, you should have been there Saturday morning, having a meeting, making sure that these people get help and support,” she said. Taxi for Mr Johnson!