Genuinely, a historic day at PMQs. The plates are shifting. Labour whips spotted that Nigel Farage’s name was on the order paper so they got a house-trained pipsqueak, John Slinger, to give Sir Keir Starmer a chance to launch a pre-emptive strike.
Slinger was called first and he asked about Farage’s remark that Reform is ‘open to anything’ on the NHS. Sir Keir took his cue and declared that the NHS will always be ‘free at the point of use’, falsely suggesting that Reform plans to scrap this principle.
Then Farage was called. His question was salty but unremarkable. He asked Sir Keir to explain to an RAF veteran why the winter fuel allowance has been scrapped while money is available to subsidise the surrender of the Chagos Islands. What mattered was Farage’s opening comment. ‘There seems to be some panic on that side of the house,’ he said, referring to Slinger’s tactical intervention. As soon as Farage got up, the house had dissolved into chaos. Backbenchers were shouting him down before he’d opened his mouth. He waited for silence and they shouted even louder. ‘Get on with it!’. ‘Ask the question.’ The speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, tried to pacify the louts. ‘I want to get this question over with!’ he bawled but the hooligans continued yelling at Farage. Wrong target. He has more experience of rowdy meetings than anyone in parliament. After asking his question, he repeated his aside about Labour’s fear of Reform. ‘They really are panicking, aren’t they?’
Finally Sir Keir replied. ‘The only panic is from people using the NHS who know that under his policy they’ll have to pay.’
An untruth, of course. And this high-profile deception may come back to haunt him. Labour were responsible for two tactical blunders today. They turned Reform, which has five MPs, into the second party of opposition. And they shone a light on Farage’s NHS policy which will give him ample scope to explain its merits. Terrible day for Labour.
Farage’s intervention overshadowed Kemi Badenoch’s spat with Sir Keir. She did well. She has a strategy at last. She unfurled a new attack line, ‘when Labour negotiates, the country loses,’ which is terse and adaptable to many issues. And she showcased a long-term plan to expose Sir Keir’s incompetence. ‘He doesn’t know what he’s doing.’ This is a weapon of attrition that needs to be repeated daily for years. Eventually it will work.
The two leaders tussled over the legal intricacies of the Chagos Islands. Sir Keir won the arguments but Kemi beat him in the battle of personalities. Sir Keir reverted to court-room mode and treated Kemi like a rival lawyer of inferior abilities, somewhat disorganised, incapable of grasping complex ideas, but trying her best. He huffed petulantly at her queries, shrugging, squinting, showing his impatience. At one point, he said grandly, ‘I must pick my words carefully.’ He has no idea how shifty that sounds. Kemi should encourage this strain of vanity and arrogance.
Sir Ed Davey got up and pulled a sad face. He was deeply upset by the new American plan to create a homeland for displaced Palestinians. ‘Does [the PM] personally believe that Trump recognises the dangers of statements like this?’ What a bizarre question. Who cares what the PM may or may not believe about the President’s personal attitude to his solution for Palestine? Sir Ed continued. He spoke about the ‘two-state’ fallacy and claimed that most parliamentarians support it. He begged Sir Keir to let Trump know the strength of feeling among Liberal Democrats in Westminster. ‘I hope that concerns about this will be communicated to the White House directly and firmly.’ Is he living in the 19th century? ‘Directly and firmly.’ He thinks he’s Gladstone. Or maybe his knighthood has gone to his head. Sir Ed sees himself as a medieval crusader leading a mission to pacify the middle east.
Things have changed. No one gives two hoots about the UK’s view on Gaza. Sir Ed did better on the subject of a female carer who feels that the state has swindled her. When Sir Ed contacted the minister, Liz Kendall, he was ignored. Poor Liz squirmed at this. Sir Ed has found his level. Creating peace on earth? Not really. Making a minister blush? That’s more like it.
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