PMQs: The return of Pestminster?

Prime Minister’s Questions opened with Sir Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson agreeing that the anonymous briefing about Angela Rayner was unacceptable. The Labour leader speculated that Johnson would have ‘whipped his backbenchers to scream and shout – and that’s fine’, before demanding that he send a ‘clear message that there’s no place for sexism or misogyny’.

Johnson has been consistent on this point, rushing to distance himself from the story as soon as it emerged. It has, though, sparked a wider debate about sexism in misogyny in parliament which is likely to dominate the agenda into next week too: on which more below. Starmer’s questions, though, were dominated by the cost of living; he chose to drop partygate for the time being so he could grill Johnson on the economy. The Labour leader pointed out that Britain’s growth was set to be the slowest in the G7, asking why the Prime Minister was ‘failing to manage the economy’.

The exchanges stayed on this topic, with Johnson trying to claim that he was fixing mistakes made by the previous Labour government, despite the memories of that administration being rather distant.