Like Boris but with less aplomb: Raab survives PMQs

Angela Rayner had an enjoyable six rounds against Dominic Raab as their pair deputised for their respective party leaders at Prime Minister’s Questions today. She didn’t lack material, for one thing: the energy crisis, the universal credit cut and of course the deputy Prime Minister’s luxury holiday in Crete all gave Rayner plenty to pummel Raab with. He didn’t respond well.

Throughout the row over his badly-timed holiday, Raab showed a tendency to make things worse by trying to quibble over the details. He did so again today: he could quite easily have ignored a throwaway line from Rayner about him reportedly squabbling with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss over who gets Chevening, but instead couldn’t resist pointing out that it is ‘funded by a charity’. Not only was this a dry comeback in a session that was always going to be a knockabout rather than a nerdy debate about policy, it was also not a very good way of making a gossip story go away.