Great stuff from Kemi Badenoch at PMQs. She was entertaining, tricky, probing, unpredictable. If she keeps this up she may attract more Tory members to the chamber on Wednesdays. Many seem to find other things to do. She began by calling Sir Keir a liar:
‘Speaking about the employment bill last week he misled the house. He was not on top of his own bill.’
Up popped the Speaker. ‘We can’t accuse the Prime Minister of misleading the house.’
That got everyone’s attention. Kemi should try it each week
That got everyone’s attention. Kemi should try it each week. She rephrased her question and started to go through the bill in detail. She quoted paragraphs, subclauses, numbers in brackets. She knew the fiddly bits in the margins that nobody looks at. An intriguing approach. Sir Keir didn’t like it. He seemed rattled by her for the first time. Hs replies were hectoring and emotional. ‘She’s got a nerve,’ he snapped at one point.
Kemi called the bill ‘an adventure playground for lawyers’, and quoted an Exeter businesswoman who is now ‘terrified of taking on new staff.’ The worst provision is a right for workers to litigate against their employers on their first day at work. ‘Job in the morning, tribunal in the afternoon,’ said Kemi.
Sir Keir didn’t dispute the substance, only the timing:
‘She’s talking absolute nonsense…You can’t start work in the morning and go to a tribunal in the afternoon.’
True. To get a tribunal going takes ages, because lawyers move so slowly. Sir Keir defended the bill and said it offers ‘dignity’ and ‘protection.’ This suggests that its inherently undignified and risky. That’s how Sir Keir’s sees the world of work. All employees are kidnap victims and they need help negotiating their release as soon as they’re dragged into the office and handcuffed to a radiator.
Kemi got to the heart of it and slammed the bill as ‘the biggest expansion of trade union power for a generation.’ Cue a hooray chorus from Labour members.
‘Thank you,’ said Kemi. ‘The public will have heard them cheer.’
The Tories were given some free ammo by the Lib Dems. Sir Ed Davey asked about a Barnstable hospital which a local surgeon described as a ‘ticking timebomb’. Twelve operating theatres are needed. Only four are functioning. The rest will take a decade to arrive. Sir Keir dodged the question by praising the surgeon for feeling anger at the Tories and their ‘underfunded, unachievable, empty promises.’ That’s his only answer. Blame the future on the past.
Starmer used the same ploy against Clive Jones, the MP for Wokingham, who represents the Lib Dems but looks like a Reform politician. He’d filled the public gallery with his pals from the constituency to heap extra pressure on the PM. Their local hospital needs repair. ‘It’s crumbling as we speak,’ said Jones. Labour’s plan is to replace it by 2037. He asked Sir Keir to ‘explain why he thinks it’s acceptable [for NHS staff] to dodge buckets of water from leaking rooves for 18 years.’ Sir Keir said it was all down to Boris. We haven’t heard this particular excuse at PMQs from the Labour leader. And Boris is the last prime minister but three. The fact is that Sir Keir pretends that the Tories are still in office when it suits him.
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