PMQs: Starmer’s attacks on crime flop

Rishi Sunak isn’t giving evidence to the Privileges Committee’s inquiry today. Nevertheless, he got his defence on partygate in anyway when he took Prime Minister’s Questions.

In one of his answers to Keir Starmer, Sunak told the chamber that the fine he received was investigated by a ‘senior civil servant’. He added: ‘The findings of which confirmed that I had no advance knowledge about what had been planned, having arrived early for a meeting.’ Then he joked that the Labour leader ‘doesn’t need me to tell him that: he’s probably spoken to the report’s author much more frequently than I have’. This, of course, was a reference to Sue Gray, whose name is likely to crop up a lot later today. It wasn’t the only slightly embittered sounding joke from either leader in what was a rather odd session.

Starmer led his questions on the Casey review into the Metropolitan Police, saying he accepted its findings in full, before asking whether the Prime Minister did too.