Keir Starmer came to Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) with a spring in his step. He announced that he owned ‘a rare unsigned copy’ of Liz Truss’s memoirs. ‘The only unsigned copy,’ he added with a chortle. Then he asked Rishi Sunak to justify the calamities of Truss’s premiership.
‘He should spend less time reading that book,’ said Rishi, ‘and a bit more time reading the deputy leader’s tax advice.’ That scuppered Sir Keir’s day in parliament. To wriggle out of trouble he played the class war card, and he accused Rishi, ‘a billionaire prime minister’, of ‘smearing a working-class woman.’
Rishi deserves great credit as a witty, fleet-footed Commons performer.
A Labour backbencher tried another Truss-related ambush and asked the PM to name Liz’s greatest achievement. Rishi was ready. He praised her work as foreign secretary signing a series of trade agreements that turned the UK into the world’s fourth largest exporter. No one saw that coming. Rishi deserves great credit as a witty, fleet-footed Commons performer. But if he forfeits his majority at the next election he’ll go down as one of parliament’s greatest losers.
The house seems to be full of tree-hugging, pacifist backbenchers who call constantly for a ceasefire in the Middle East. These hippy MPs must have been thrilled at the weekend to see that Iran’s murderous attack on Israel had been repelled with virtually no casualties. What a victory for the anti-war movement. And yet none of them praised Israel and its allies, including Britain, for neutralising the swarm of air-borne weapons fired at civilian areas by Iran. How strange.
The cause of peace has died on the lips of the pacifists. Only George Galloway brought up Israel/Palestine and he asked Rishi about his recent phone call with Benyamin Netanyahu. Galloway’s question, which was simply an advert for his brand, accused Israel of killing and maiming ‘100,000 Palestinians’ since last October. He didn’t mention the hostages or Hamas’s attempt to re-start the Holocaust. From Rishi all he got was an earnest, flavourless reply.
The atmosphere that greeted Galloway’s question was conspicuously surly. A hostile silence simmered all around him. He just can’t seem to make friends in the Commons. But each time he gets thrown out, Boomerang George comes flying back again.
Many backbenchers attacked their local councils and urged voters to replace them at the 2nd May elections. Rishi spoke up for the mayors of the West Midlands (Andy Street) and Tees Valley (Ben Houchen) and lambasted Birmingham council for hiking council tax by 21 per cent. He mentioned this outrage three times but his message for London, where Sadiq Khan faces re-election, was more subdued. ‘Kick him out and vote for Susan Hall’ he advised. At least he remembered her name.
The Tory campaign to elect Hall is about as robust as the Church of England’s support for Christianity. Effectively, her cause is non-existent. Whisperers will tell you that the Tories want Sadiq Khan kept in office because his control-freak leadership embarrasses Sir Keir. Very unlikely. The Tories don’t have that level of strategic acuity.
Stephen Flynn’s loss of form continued. The SNP leader has a problem at PMQs. He needs to attack Labour, his main rivals in Scotland, while putting a question to the Tory leader. He tied himself in knots today by asking Rishi if he agreed with Gordon Brown’s warning that the Union is threatened.
‘Scotland is far stronger inside the UK,’ said Rishi with a shrug. Flynn moved on to Labour’s doubts about IndyRef Two. This has nothing to do with Tory policy and he had to parcel up his question in irony and paradox. ‘Does he welcome the fulsome, whole-hearted and warm support of the Labour party in denying the people of Scotland a say over their own future?’
Rishi tittered. He pointed Flynn towards the result of IndyRef One in 2014. Flynn’s brand of irony doesn’t work in the Commons. He should use brute force instead.
Rishi gets witty at PMQs
5
13
17.04.2024
Keir Starmer came to Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) with a spring in his step. He announced that he owned ‘a rare unsigned copy’ of Liz Truss’s memoirs. ‘The only unsigned copy,’ he added with a chortle. Then he asked Rishi Sunak to justify the calamities of Truss’s premiership.
‘He should spend less time reading that book,’ said Rishi, ‘and a bit more time reading the deputy leader’s tax advice.’ That scuppered Sir Keir’s day in parliament. To wriggle out of trouble he played the class war card, and he accused Rishi, ‘a billionaire prime minister’, of ‘smearing a working-class woman.’
Rishi deserves great credit as a witty, fleet-footed Commons performer.
A Labour backbencher tried another Truss-related ambush and asked the PM to name Liz’s greatest achievement. Rishi was ready. He praised her work as foreign secretary signing a series of trade agreements that turned the UK into the world’s fourth largest exporter. No one saw that coming. Rishi........
© The Spectator
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Andrew Mitrovica
Mort Laitner
Nikkei Editorial
Rami G Khouri
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
