A fair few MPs felt there was no reason to come to today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, given the real action is in the Conservative leadership contest. There were spaces behind Theresa May as she took questions from Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour leader clearly hadn’t put much effort into preparing for the session, either, offering a bizarre hotchpotch of questions ranging from no-deal Brexit to the government’s record on renewables.
Those Tories who had turned up weren’t interested in asking May tricky questions: what was the point, when she has just weeks left as Prime Minister? Instead, they wanted to praise what existed of her record, with Peter Bone praising her ‘superb’ work on human trafficking, and Huw Merriman criticising his colleagues who had forced her resignation.
The main interesting takeaway from the session was May confirming that she will stay on as an MP after she has stepped down as Prime Minister. This, by the way, was something David Cameron also pledged to do, before realising that backbench life was rather dull and difficult in comparison to the high-octane world of Downing Street. May is more stubborn than her predecessor, and less bothered about earning vast amounts of money. She may actually find staying on more satisfying, too, if she is able to watch her successor coming to terms with the realisation that delivering Brexit is a great deal harder than they suggested in their campaign.
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