Sir Keir Starmer will want to forget today’s PMQs. And fast.
The Labour leader began with a strategic error. Instead of hounding the Prime Minister on a single issue he chose three unrelated topics: Covid, army numbers and steel production. Typical Sir Keir. Why use effective tactics when useless ones are available?
To be fair, he had a trump card up his sleeve. The Tory manifesto in 2019 specifically ruled out cuts to the size of the military. And in a newspaper interview, Boris said that the number of 82,000 personnel would be maintained. But 10,000 are about to go.
So the PM fibbed. The game was up. And what happened? The greased piglet wriggled free. Boris brushed aside Sir Keir’s evidence and claimed that he’d preserved every job in the army and had invested on all kinds of excitingly destructive new toys. Chunkier tanks, tastier gunboats, zippier fighter-jets and a beefed-up nuclear capability.
Sir Keir was growing irate at Boris’s refusal to accept that he’d fibbed
It was bit scary to see the PM palpitating with martial bravura at the despatch box.
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in