Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs: The pure panto of Rayner vs Raab

This was far more enjoyable than the Boris and Starmer show

(ParliamentTV)

A tasty duel at PMQs today. The party leaders were absent and their understudies, Dominic Raab and Angela Rayner, traded insults across the dispatch box. Their styles are polar opposites. Raab is laconically deadly. Rayner is brashly entertaining. And their sartorial choices reflect their different approaches. She wore a chic white frock offset with black side panels – quietly fetching. He was in a dull, slush-grey suit – a ruthless advocate reporting for duty. 

Battle commenced. Rayner claimed that Boris’s overseas trip was proof that he had ‘fled the country’. And she mocked his promise to remain in office for years on end. ‘Limping on until 2030. Will the cabinet prop him for this long?’

It was a lot more fun than the uneven contests between the plodding Starmer and the bulldozing Boris

Raab’s lip curled sarcastically. ‘We want this prime minister to go on a lot longer than she wants the leader of the Labour party to go on.’

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in