read the riot act

She sang with Muppets, talked with the aliens and read the riot act to Philip Seymour Hoffman.

He added that the "idiocy" of Mr Hancock's response, as well as then-attorney general Suella Braverman, risked undermining Covid laws, adding: "I'm ready to read the riot act as required."

Health Minister Eluned Morgan has said she read the "riot act" to executives but didn't have the power to sack them.

“He definitely gets pulled aside and read the riot act,” Roday told me.

"It reads a lot like a stern but polite reprimand of a child caught red handed who needs to be read the riot act," he wrote.