Kemi finally has a good PMQs

Genuinely, a historic day at PMQs. The plates are shifting. Labour whips spotted that Nigel Farage’s name was on the order paper so they got a house-trained pipsqueak, John Slinger, to give Sir Keir Starmer a chance to launch a pre-emptive strike.

Slinger was called first and he asked about Farage’s remark that Reform is ‘open to anything’ on the NHS. Sir Keir took his cue and declared that the NHS will always be ‘free at the point of use’, falsely suggesting that Reform plans to scrap this principle. 

Then Farage was called. His question was salty but unremarkable. He asked Sir Keir to explain to an RAF veteran why the winter fuel allowance has been scrapped while money is available to subsidise the surrender of the Chagos Islands. What mattered was Farage’s opening comment. ‘There seems to be some panic on that side of the house,’ he said, referring to Slinger’s tactical intervention.