Keir Starmer had a much more awkward Prime Minister’s Questions than he is accustomed to. This was largely because Kemi Badenoch was armed with the latest unemployment figures, but also because the Conservative leader was agile in dealing with the Prime Minister’s responses. However, the overall lesson from the session was that Starmer now wants to frame the next election as being a battle between Labour and Reform, with the Tories a ‘finished party’.
Badenoch opened by saying the attacks on Keir Starmer’s home were unacceptable, and an attack on democracy. She then asked him why unemployment was rising, to which he replied that she was talking the country down. Then Badenoch had a good quote from a department store, Beales, which is having a ‘Rachel Reeves closing down sale’. Starmer replied:
Starmer’s grumpiness was evident with other MPs later on too
She must be the only person left in the country who thinks the economy was booming after the last government.
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