PMQs: Starmer’s prickly questions over Sunak’s wealth

A Labour leader opening Prime Minister’s Questions with a description of the luxurious private schooling that the Conservative Prime Minister enjoyed doesn’t sound particularly informative – or indeed relevant – to many voters. Keir Starmer’s opening question this afternoon was this: ‘Winchester College has a rowing club, a rifle club and an extensive art collection. They charge more than £45,000 a year in fees. Why did [Sunak] hand them nearly £6 million of taxpayers’ money this year in what his Levelling Up Secretary calls “egregious state support”?’

What Starmer was trying to do today was to draw together his recent policy announcement on ending the charitable status of private schools and similar noises made by senior Tories including Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove. The Labour leader wanted to paint Sunak as weak – as well as loaded – by arguing that he was too weak to do the right thing and use the millions of pounds in tax breaks enjoyed by private schools to better fund state education instead.