If you’d missed Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader, and pitched up to business questions in the Commons today, you might not have noticed that much had changed, initially. Labour had a good frontbench team scrutinising the government, with Angela Eagle leading in her customary dry manner. She asked questions about the skills gap, while Tory ministers complained about Labour’s legacy from its time in government and tried to provoke the Opposition over the Trade Union Bill. Not much change there.
But there were differences, even if Labour looked as though it was functioning vaguely effectively after a turbulent few days. The first was that Tory frontbenchers and backbenchers such as Peter Bone could now return to an old theme of Labour confusion over the European Union. In days of old, they would tease the Opposition for refusing to offer a referendum at all, but now they teased the party for having a leader who is minded to leave the bloc.
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