Angela Rayner and Oliver Dowden shared a tender moment today at Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions as they bade farewell to each other. This will be the last time the pair face each other across the House because the Tories are – finally – about to pick their new leader who will bring in their own deputy. ‘I will miss our exchanges, the battle of the gingers,’ joked Rayner, who got through the questions easily.
Dowden used his last session to try to pin Labour down on its planned rises to National Insurance contributions for employers. His opening question was: ‘Mr Speaker, what is the Deputy Prime Minister’s definition of working people?’ That was the question journalists asked repeatedly during the general election campaign to try to reveal the sleight of hand Labour was performing in its manifesto pledge to not raise taxes on working people.
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