Rayner outsmarts Dowden at PMQs battle of the deputies

Few politicians have looked more pleased with a joke than Oliver Dowden did with his first offering at Prime Minister’s Questions today. He was deputising for Rishi Sunak, who is in Berlin, while Angela Rayner stood in for Keir Starmer. Labour’s deputy leader decided to address the police investigation into whether she broke electoral law on, telling the chamber: ‘I know the member opposite is desperate to talk about my living arrangements. But what the public wants to know about is what this government is doing about their living arrangements.’ She asked about when ministers were really going to ban no-fault evictions.

Dowden then produced his joke, with a very excited smile. ‘To begin with, it is a pleasure to have another exchange with the right hon. Lady in this house, our fifth in 12 months. Any more of these and she’ll be claiming it as her principal residence.’ He added that MPs are in fact voting on no-fault evictions later today.