We learned two important things from today’s session of Prime Minister’s Questions – the second of the parliamentary term, and the last before the House rises again tomorrow for the conference season recess.
The first is that the way the winter fuel allowance has been withdrawn as a universal benefit to all pensioners is still causing major trouble for Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves.
Unsurprisingly given the emotive debate in the Commons yesterday and vote, which saw 53 Labour abstentions (albeit with a dozen authorised absences), this was the topic Rishi Sunak chose to lead on. Mirroring the precise, technocratic questioning style Keir Starmer so effectively employed when he was on the other side of the House, Sunak pressed the Prime Minister on the details. When would he publish an impact assessment on scrapping this support for all but the poorest pensioners?
In response, Starmer retreated to his refrain of the “£22bn black hole”. As with some of his election campaign catch phrases (“son of toolmaker”, “sticking-plaster politics”), we are already starting to see him rely on this line as a reflex, deflecting all criticism of the choices he has made so far as PM by trying to blame the last Tory government. Instead of trying to explain the reasons for means-testing this payment (pensioners as a cohort are one of the wealthiest demographics, and were protected by the Conservatives for 14 years while wages stagnated and benefits for working people were cut), he tried to dodge it. His response to Sunak was to ask his predecessor to apologise for the state the Conservatives left the economy in, and chants of “Apologise!” rose up from the Labour benches.
Sunak was not to be deterred. He asked again about an impact assessment on the policy in his second question (with the same response), then used his third to remind the House of Labour’s own analysis in 2017 that means-testing the winter fuel allowance would lead to 4,000 deaths, asking Starmer: was the estimated figure now higher or lower?
It was a great question, made more awkward for Starmer by the abstentions (and one outright rebellion) in the vote. He didn’t have an answer. Labour MPs behind him looked uncomfortable – there were more than a few eye rolls, with the “£22bn black hole” line starting to get tired.
It was very odd, therefore, to see Sunak suddenly swerve and switch topics just when he seemed to have Starmer pinned, using his last three questions to discuss agriculture. True, today is British Farming Day (MPs on both sides of the House could be seen wearing supportive sheaves of wheat on their lapels), but the questions lacked both focus and political bite. You could almost see Starmer and his front bench sigh with relief.
This is the second big thing we learned today: as long as the Conservative Party is still led by a caretaker while the interminable leadership contest winds on, its attacks will be muted. Sunak doesn’t have the authority or the firepower to really hammer Starmer, and today it showed. It is unclear why he chose to focus on farming, when another three awkward questions on pensioners would have been more politically effective. It allowed him the chance to jibe Starmer about his preferring landscapes over political portraits (a reference to the removal of a portrait of Margaret Thatcher from Downing Street), but it let Starmer off the hook as a crucial moment.
Other Tories tried to pick up the thread with various degrees of anger, including the new Mid Bedfordshire MP Blake Stephenson furiously asking if Starmer would prioritise “eating or heating” were he a poor pensioner struggling this winter. Ed Davey also raised the issue, while directing criticism at the last government for leaving the country in this state.
But the most notable question outside Sunak’s allocation came from Nigel Farage. The chamber notably hushed as he stood up and, in his first intervention at PMQs, the Reform leader highlighted the scenes of inmates being released early from prison this week. The silence didn’t last: Farage referred to prison space being freed up in order to house “those who’ve said unpleasant things on Facebook” and mentioned “two-tier policing”. The phrase is associated with the far right and was propagated during the riots in August – now Farage has brought it into the Commons. There were boos and jeers across the House, including from on the Conservative benches. Farage and his fellow Reform MPs looked smug. A reminder to Starmer that tricky moments can come from all over at PMQs, even if the Tories haven’t yet found their mojo.
[See also: Kamala Harris made Trump look like a loser]
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