If a Prime Minister’s Questions before a Budget is rather lacklustre, then this is normally easily excused as being the Leader of the Opposition not putting as much prep as usual into a session that no-one will watch. But while today’s performance from Jeremy Corbyn was indeed lacklustre, it wasn’t any different from his offerings over the past few months.
The Labour leader decided to focus on the lot of women in this country, given it was International Women’s Day at the weekend. He started with what seemed a pretty reasonable opener, which was demanding sick pay for those on zero hours contracts, particularly care workers who will need to self-isolate if they have coronavirus symptoms for the safety of those they look after. Boris Johnson replied that the government would ensure that people did not lose out as a result of doing the right thing, and then Corbyn moved on. It fell to the SNP’s Ian Blackford to pick up this point when he asked his two questions: he pressed the Prime Minister on the level of sick pay in the UK relative to other countries.
But Corbyn could have pressed the Prime Minister further both on the general impact of coronavirus and also on any of the questions he chose to stitch together into a messy patchwork for the rest of his stint. He didn’t, even though Johnson offered inadequate answers on topics such as funding for women’s refuges. He is certainly not trying to make Labour MPs miss him when, finally, he steps down from leading their party next month.
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