Are you tiring of the stand-in routine at Prime Minister’s Questions? Oliver Dowden seems to be. When he first started this now regular gig for Rishi Sunak, the Deputy Prime Minister was clearly delighted that he could deliver the lines he’s been coaching other prime ministers to say for years. Today, as he stood in for Sunak for a second week running, he looked as though he could do with a break. His jokes were not well delivered: he teased Angela Rayner for wanting John Prescott’s old job (which she already has), and he also fluffed what was already a poor line about Keir Starmer hating tree huggers but being ‘very keen on hugging the magic money tree’. That was a reference to a reported put-down by the Labour leader of his shadow net zero secretary Ed Miliband. It was delivered so badly that Dowden appeared to be taking a chainsaw to his own tree joke.
Rayner was still enjoying the session, which she built around struggling families.
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