Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs: Rishi whirs like a supercomputer

‘Hold your nerve.’ Rishi’s ill-judged advice to voters last Sunday was perhaps his worst blunder yet. At PMQs it came up half a dozen times. Sir Keir Starmer made the first attempt but he was too verbose to inflict real damage. ‘Rather than lecturing others on holding their nerve why not locate his?’

He exposed Rishi’s confused housing policy and asked if any credible expert believes that the government will reach its house-building target this year. Rishi wriggled deftly and chucked out a few helpful statistics. ‘More homes are meeting our “decent homes” standard, the housing supply is up 10 per cent… and first-time buyers are at a 20-year high.’

Central government loves tower-blocks full of taxpayers and local government loves meadows full of butterflies

Not that any of this helped, as Sir Keir pointed out. ‘He crumbled to his backbenchers and scrapped mandatory targets.’

Both parties are caught in the same dilemma. All MPs want houses built in other MPs’ constituencies. It’s a fight between SW1 and the regions. Central government loves tower-blocks full of taxpayers and local government loves meadows full of butterflies. Rishi said that members of the shadow cabinet had voted for extra housing in Westminster but returned to their constituencies and campaigned for more green fields. Sir Keir barely bothered to take a swing at Rishi today. ‘He’s given up,’ he said with a shrug. But the evidence suggests the contrary.

Rishi is very hard to beat on policy detail (even when his position is plainly contradictory). His eloquence, his memory and his level of preparedness are exceptional and he can deliver an answer as smoothly as a supercomputer. Yet he has warmth and affability too. Sir Keir thinks Rishi is a pushover so his attacks lack force or acuity. He just quacks out soundbites. ‘Tory mortgage bombshell… shattered dreams… millions abandoned… people pushed into economic misery. ’ He added a new one.

‘At least [the PM] isn’t claiming they’re the party of home ownership any more because we are,’ he said. No evidence. Just another title to trumpet to his fan club. Sir Keir looks like an undead leader sleepwalking his way to power. And his backbenchers tried to stir the zombie to life. ‘Weak,’ they shouted as Sir Keir droned through his lines. ‘Weak!’ They were hoping Starmer might rehash Blair’s famous description of John Major as ‘weak, weak, weak.’ Or was their ‘weak’ aimed at their own leader? Rishi evidently considers his opponent a lightweight.

‘As he hasn’t taken the time to understand the detail, I’m happy to explain it again,’ he suggested helpfully. Then he turned to Stephen Flynn, of the SNP, who referred to his ‘hold your nerve’ gaffe.

‘What a nerve,’ said Flynn. He asked Rishi when he ‘last struggled to pay a bill.’ Rishi straight-batted his reply and listened to Flynn’s follow-up which advocated reversing Brexit and increasing public sector wages. Both policies, said Rishi, would lead to higher borrowing and lower growth. He accused the SNP of ‘complete economic illiteracy.’

Labour’s Chris Bryant scolded the PM for ‘lecturing my constituents’ and he pointed out that Rishi has managed Britain’s economy ‘for 1,323 days.’ (A reminder that Rishi isn’t the only one with a head for figures.) Bryant opened fire with deadly effect. ‘The highest inflation in decades. The highest tax-burden since the second world war. And the largest drop in living standards ever!’

Rishi wasn’t troubled. Nearly all his teeth showed as he smiled like a greedy head boy opening a newly confiscated tuck box. He listed the policies supported by Labour that would hurt growth: tens of billions in extra borrowing; unaffordable wage rises; scrapping access to domestic energy supplies.

‘It’ll make things worse for years to come,’ he said. Bryant listened with his jaw set grimly. He obviously fancies himself as leader of his party but the bollard appears unbudgeable.

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