Third time lucky: after two disappointing sessions, Kemi Badenoch seems to have finally found her feet at PMQs.
The leader of the opposition arrived in the chamber today armed with a clear plan to destabilise Keir Starmer, and she followed through.
Badenoch kicked off with a straightforward trap concerning Rachel Reeves’ comments at the CBI conference on Monday that she would not be enacting further tax rises or borrowing in this parliament. Would the Prime Minister make the same pledge? Of course he would not, nor would anyone expect him too. But the Chancellor’s commitment has been seized upon by the Tories and filed away for future use if the government has to rethink its economic plans over the next few years – which it may well have to. And Starmer’s refusal to repeat that commitment in the House provides ample ammunition for Conservatives arguing he cannot be trusted to keep his promise.
The rest of the questions followed the economic theme. Badenoch brought up slumping business confidence and the risk of job losses from both the Budget and Labour’s flagship employment rights bill. She also found time to mention tractors blockading Westminster as farmers protested the changes to inheritance tax, and – of course – the online petition calling for another General Election (covered by both me and Ben Walker earlier this week), which now has nearly three million signatures. Badenoch’s lines were short and sharp (maybe she has learnt from Angela Rayner’s rapid fire answers in last week’s deputy PMQs face-off), she didn’t let herself get distracted by the kind of culture war student politics that derailed her in her second attempt, and the specificity of her questions made Starmer’s predictable soundbites about “fixing the foundations” seem even more waffly than usual.
The Prime Minister had one effective defence: the Tory leader’s wavering over her own party’s economic plans. In short: they don’t have any. Again, he brought up her misguided admission that she supported the investment Labour was making while opposing its tax increases – the line that Badenoch “wants all the benefits of the Budget but doesn’t know how she will pay for them” has well and truly earned its place on the PMQs bingo card. And the confusion over whether or not the Conservatives would reverse Labour’s employer’s national insurance rise was also helpful. Put simply, until the Tories get round to deciding what it is they now stand for and putting together a proper policy platform in opposition, Labour will always be able to dismiss them as unserious.
But aside from that, Starmer was reduced to PMQs clichés, accusing Badenoch of “carping” and “shouting from the sidelines”. If this all feels very familiar, it’s easy to understand why: Rishi Sunak’s go-to PMQs defence was that Starmer was “sniping from the sidelines”. Look how that turned out for him. The Prime Minister also took a shot at Badenoch for “jumping on every bandwagon that’s passing” – a criticism Tony Blair used to frequently make of his PMQs sparring partner William Hague in days gone by. It proved effective for Blair – we’ll see if it has the same charm for Starmer.
Overall, the PM looked like he was struggling today. He got a rousing cheer for reminding the House that “We had a massive petition on the 4th of July in this country”, and another for reminding Badenoch that the EV mandates she was slamming were introduced by the last government when she herself was business secretary. But attacking the Tories for “living in this fantasy world that everything apparently was fine for 14 years” won’t work forever. And while Labour might find Badenoch’s accusation that Starmer “is making things worse” unfair, the polls increasingly suggest that is how the public feels too.
I wrote last week that the government should be wary of the Tory line that its agenda is singling out people who don’t vote Labour. Badenoch punched that bruise again today, calling the Budget “an attack on farmers, an attack on workers, an attack on pensioners”. Starmer needs to come up with some kind of defence for this, or risk looking petty and vindictive. He also needs to be ready for obvious traps regarding commitments not to raise taxes or borrowing further, and find a way to neutralise the concerns over the employment rights before they bubble over and derail the whole project. Today, he looked unprepared and flustered – while Badenoch came across as cool and reasonable. That’s not a vibe Labour can allow to solidify.
[See also: The UK’s broken system makes losers of us all]
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