At PMQs this week, Sir Keir Starmer got a proper grilling for a change. Kemi Badenoch used smarter tactics: short questions sharply focused; half-truths instantly rebutted. The Tory leader abandoned her normal habit of covering the entire spectrum of Labour’s shortcomings. She focused on their worst error: economic stagnation caused by the tax-grab Budget. Why, she asked, is the Chancellor holding ‘an emergency budget next week?’
A near fib from Starmer. She’d caught him out
Sir Keir gave her a formulaic reply, crowing about his glorious achievements. ‘Record investment… three interest rate cuts…wages going up faster than prices.’
Kemi dismissed this as balderdash. She gave the true reason for the crisis Budget: ‘[The Chancellor] has destroyed business confidence.’ And she asked about the National Insurance hike. Did Sir Keir regret raising taxes on business?
Sir Keir wobbled. Instead of answering he started to flannel vaguely about the procedural details: ‘The Office for Budget Responsibility will present their numbers and there’ll be a Spring Statement,’ he said.
Then he realised that this sounded feeble so he attacked Kemi. ‘She still hasn’t,’ he began, but he changed the subject and started to boast about foreign investment again. A small error but Sir Keir has been doing this for decades. He was floundering. Kemi resumed her inquisition by mocking his favourite soundbite: ‘The only black hole is the one he’s digging,’ she said.
She asked if hospices would be exempt from the NI hike which she called a ‘jobs tax.’ Sir Keir waved this away and said that ample provision had been made for hospices.
Kemi pulled him up. Has he exempted them? That was the question. Sir Keir tossed a very large number into the air and said that hospices and children’s hospitals would benefit from this generous allocation: ‘I remember when he made that announcement,’ she said, ‘It’s for buildings not for salaries hit by the jobs tax.’
A near fib. She’d caught him out. This was good detective work. She might have made him squirm more but she was being heckled by Labour members demanding details about Tory policies: ‘They want me to answer questions?’ she said. ‘We can swap sides.’
Good day for Kemi. The question of disability payments was left to others. Colum Eastwood, MP for Foyle, mentioned a disabled constituent. ‘She will get zero. Nothing.’ He demanded to know why anyone would vote for a Labour party that treats vulnerable people like this.
Sir Keir put his hand into the Kleenex box, and he gathered his relatives around him for protection: ‘I have lived with the impact of disability in our family though my mother and my brother all my life,’ he said.
Sir Keir had it tough. No doubt. But waving a hanky like a white flag is no way to lead the country.
It’s been a lousy few days for him. The U-turn on disability payments has marked him out as a weakling and a predator. He tried to steal from the sick and the vulnerable but he lacked the guts.
At the start of PMQs he did something very strange. He was fed a softball question by a house-trained Labour backbencher, Andrew Pakes. Saluting Sir Keir’s employment strategy, Pakes praised Labour’s bold plans to end the scourge of low pay and insecure work. Sir Keir thanked him and used the question to put the Tories on the spot. He mocked Kemi for wishing to remove the burdens on employers. And he pre-emptively accused her party of stagnation: ‘They’ve learned absolutely nothing,’ he cried.
Why was that odd? Usually he lets Kemi speak before laying into her. Now he wants to stick the boot in first. He’s rattled, clearly. Perhaps he fears her all of a sudden. Sir Keir may have started the Tory revival.
Comments