Starmer brings the spirit of Dry January to PMQs |
‘New year, new you’. One can imagine the Prime Minister repeating this most hollow of secular mantras in front of a full length mirror in Downing Street. As the embodiment of vapid and valueless 21st century Britain, the PM probably loves New Year’s resolutions. He is the walking embodiment of Dry January after all.
Yet, if he did vow to turn over a new leaf as the calendars changed there was little evidence of it at the first Prime Minister’s Questions since the recess. Mrs Badenoch focussed on two areas, not unrelated: foreign policy and the PM’s constant refusal to be scrutinised about it or any other matter. Specifically, she asked why, having committed British troops to Ukraine in a Coalition of the Willing meeting, he hadn’t bothered to make a statement to the House, something even Tony Blair – who was not unenthusiastic about boots on the ground – would have done.
Starmer simply proved her point by more obfuscation: ‘I will make a statement to the House at the earliest opportunity.’ The cry understandably came back: ‘why not now?’ Perhaps Starmer, just as he clearly has his own definition of truth, has his own........