Kemi Badenoch failed to pin down Starmer at PMQs – again

Kemi Badenoch has become fixated on accusing Keir Starmer of not telling the truth at Prime Minister’s Questions, to the extent that she is neglecting to push him on individual issues. The Tory leader merely used the winter fuel payment, the impact of national insurance hikes on charities and hospices, and Brexit as devices for her grand theme of the Prime Minister not answering the question and not telling the truth. It would have been better to hammer away at one topic to make Starmer uncomfortable, rather than allowing him to do the thing that Badenoch was complaining about: dodging the issue.

The Leader of the Opposition started off by complaining about the Waspi women. She then performed an uncomfortable handbrake turn and asked about ‘another group of pensioners’. Badenoch accused Labour ministers of ‘playing politics’ on the Waspi campaign for years, before admitting ‘that we were right all along’. She added: ‘Let’s ask about another group of pensioners whose trust was broken.