The stand-in PMQs today between Dominic Raab and Angela Rayner was more action-packed than it usually is. Raab, who is not famed for his sense of humour, came with a range of jokes that he was clearly quite pleased with. He even preceded his favourite one, a jab at Rayner for having the temerity to go to Glyndebourne and drink champagne, with a wink across the Chamber at her.
One reason why PMQs was more interesting than usual is that both party deputies are becoming increasingly prominent
He said: ‘She talks about working people. Where was she when the comrades were on the picket line last Thursday? Where was she when the Labour frontbenchers were joining them rather than standing up for the public? She was at the Glyndebourne music festival sipping champagne, listening to opera. Champagne socialism is back in the Labour party.’ His joy was short-lived: the Deputy Prime Minister was slapped down by No. 10 shortly after the session finished, with a spokesperson saying that ‘everybody should be able to enjoy arts and culture and other such things across the UK’.
One of the reasons the session was more interesting than usual is that the deputies of both parties are becoming increasingly prominent as the doubts about both leaders continue. Rayner made a lot of Raab’s continuing support for Boris Johnson. She said it was ‘no wonder the Prime Minister has fled the country’ after the two by-election defeats last Friday, and asked Raab whether he thought the cabinet would prop Johnson up all the way into the 2030s.
The DPM retorted that ministers wanted the Prime Minister to go on for a lot longer than she wanted the Labour leader to remain in position – a fair point, but that’s still not all that long. She later told Raab to grow a backbone, and asked when he was going to say ‘enough was enough’. This line was potent because it is one increasingly being used in private by Conservative backbenchers, who feel they’ve done all the heavy lifting to oust Boris Johnson and that their colleagues in government, some of whom secretly voted for him to quit in the recent confidence vote, need to start resigning to push him out. It’s one Keir Starmer has also tried to use but without the same punch as Rayner.
The tax burden attack was one of Rayner’s better policy-based questions, and was echoed later not by one of her Labour colleagues but by serial backbench rebel John Baron, who asked when the government was going to start cutting taxes in order to raise living standards. This is a battle that is raging between backbenchers and the Treasury – and indeed between Downing Street and the Treasury too. And that’s why the ‘enough is enough’ line worked well – it sums up how many Tory MPs are feeling, and it could work well with voters at the next election.
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