Strange tactics by Sir Keir at PMQs. He raised the issue of broken promises on immigration, which gave Rishi Sunak a chance to sound tougher than Labour.
‘How many work visas were issued to foreign nationals last year?’ asked Sir Keir. Rishi dodged the question and blamed the unexpectedly large influx on the Ukraine war. And he mentioned his personal and very generous decision to welcome refugees into other people’s houses.
Sir Keir supplied the figure Rishi had just ducked: ‘It’s 250,000. He knows the answer. He just doesn’t want to give it.’ Rishi seized his chance to accuse Labour of plotting to scrap our borders altogether. ‘He believes in an open-door immigration policy,’ he said. Sir Keir then deployed the best gag of the session which linked the upsurge in immigrants to the Home Secretary’s troubles over a speeding offence.
‘Why does [Suella Braverman] have such a problem coping with points-based systems?’ Once he’d delivered this gentle biff on the bruise he went no further and refrained from calling for her resignation. The Home Secretary’s woes are receding, perhaps. And that will dismay the unnamed members of her staff who are clearly plotting her dismissal. Civil servants have become an executive arm of the government and they use their power to unseat any minister whose policies displease them. If the ‘speed-trap’ fails, they’ll find a fresh offence to charge Braverman with. No doubt the whispering campaign is already underway.
Civil servants have become an executive arm of the government and they use their power to unseat any minister whose policies displease them
Sir Keir tried to make capital from her recent comments about hiring more British fruit-pickers rather than relying on migrants. Echoing Marie Antoinette, Sir Keir called this a ‘let-them-pick-fruit ambition’ and he asked if the Prime Minister supported it ‘for Britain.’
Not a great look from the Labour leader. Fruit-picking has provided useful work and income to generations of student travellers. Perhaps Sir Keir never spent a delightful wine-soaked summer hopping across Europe from vineyard to vineyard. He finished by reciting a list of Tory failures and he yelled out the ancient battle-cry of his movement
‘We are the party of working people,’ he said. Fruit-pickers excepted, evidently.
Rishi fought back but with feeble materials. He trumpeted the success of Conservative policies in lifting us up the international literacy league tables. ‘Our young people are now the best young readers in the western world,’ he crowed. We, in fact, lie in fourth place behind Russia (but he didn’t mention that.) And it’s hardly a boast that quickens the pulse or brings a flush of patriotic pride to the cheeks. ‘English children can now read English thanks to the Tories.’ And he quoted a recent upgrade to our economic future. The crystal ball-gazers at the IMF have re-read the tea-leaves and changed their predictions about UK Plc. They foretell that our growth-rate will exceed that of Germany, Italy and France. But to out-pace the sluggardly behemoths of the EU is far from a worthwhile achievement. As a finale he delivered some happy tidings about ambulances which are now zipping around the place at ever faster speeds. The average waiting-time has dropped, he announced airily, although he didn’t say whether it had fallen to a week or a month.
There’s little to choose between the boasts and the policies of the two main parties. The real difference lies in the bearing of their leaders. Rishi appears upbeat, cheerful, eager to please, like a new puppy. Joyless Sir Keir has a sour overcast manner as if pursued everywhere by the shadow of some dreadful secret atrocity. Tory strategists might make more of this glaring contrast.
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