HENRY DEEDES: A Starmer victory has become a collector's item…

A Starmer victory has become a collector’s item – but he finally held Sunak’s tootsies to the fire: HENRY DEEDES watches PMQs

A strange thing happened in the Commons this afternoon. Sir Keir Starmer turned in a tidy performance at Prime Minister’s Questions. Yes, really!

As devotees of this weekly ding-dong will know, a Starmer victory has become a bit of a collector’s item. But for the first time in weeks, he did a decent job of holding Rishi Sunak’s tootsies to the fire.

Not that he roasted them, mind you. It was more of a light sautéing. A quick back and forth with the blow torch, as a pastry chef would to the brittlest of creme brulees.

Mr Sunak entered the chamber with the confident air of a man still relishing his promotion to the global top table. 

He winked at one of his whips and gave a chummy slap on the back to Alex Chalk whom he recently promoted to Justice Secretary following the Dominic Raab hoo-haa.

HENRY DEEDES: A strange thing happened in the Commons this afternoon. Sir Keir Starmer turned in a tidy performance at Prime Minister’s Questions. Yes, really! (pictured: Sir Keir Starmer at the PMQs today, April 26)

HENRY DEEDES: Mr Sunak entered the chamber with the confident air of a man still relishing his promotion to the global top table

Mr Raab’s replacement as Deputy Prime Minister, Oliver Dowden, was by this point already sitting firmly in his new seat immediately to the PM’s right. 

Judging by the jaded look on Mr Dowden’s face, it’s possible he got up before the milkman just so he could baggsy it.

The PM, by contrast, looked remarkably fresh. Unlike most of his predecessors, he doesn’t look like someone who loses much shut-eye on a Tuesday night. 

Clearly he didn’t anticipate Starmer causing him too many problems beyond policing or the events in Sudan.

Instead, he surprised us. Labour’s leader launched a full blown attack on the economy. He pointed out households were £1,600 worse off under Conservatives and repeated former Tory chancellor George Osborne’s unhelpful description of them this week as ‘economic vandals’.

Usually when Sir Keir asks a question he can never resist the urge to ramble. Typical lawyer you see, they all fall madly in the love with the sound of their own voice. 

But the Commons is not a courtroom and the longer the question goes on, the longer the PM has to plan his sidestep.

This week, however, Sir Keir’s queries were short and punchy, giving Sunak less room for manoeuvre. Time and again, Starmer chipped away at the issue of Rishi’s vast wealth.

He accused him of being ‘out of touch’ and ‘clueless of life outside of his bubble’. He pointed to the number of tax hikes which have occurred on the Conservative watch – a whopping 24 in total. Gulp.

So what’s Starmer’s big idea on the economy? At the moment, his only solutions appeared to be ‘higher borrowing, higher spending… same old Labour,’ said Rishi. ‘This from Mr 24 tax rises!’ blurted Starmer, as though choking on a fishbone.

Then came the inevitable snarks about Mrs Sunak’s non-dom tax status. Rishi responded by dredging up Starmer’s unique pension deal which allows him to pay less tax, secured during his time in the Crown Prosecution Service.

Ah, said Starmer, he’d already promised to scrap that arrangement once in power. Nom-doms, meanwhile, remain a protected species.

When dogs get excited they wag their tails. Sir Keir waggles his right foot. By now he was twirling it in the air like a sparkler on Bonfire Night. 

HENRY DEEDES: So what’s Starmer’s big idea on the economy? At the moment, his only solutions appeared to be ‘higher borrowing, higher spending… same old Labour,’ said Rishi. ‘This from Mr 24 tax rises!’ blurted Starmer, as though choking on a fishbone (pictured: Sir Keir Starmer at the PMQs today, April 26

He teased Rishi over those staged photos released last year of him filling a car with petrol, which Starmer reckoned made the PM look as though he’d ‘just arrived from Mars’.

That raised a decent laugh from the Labour benches. But Sir Keir should probably keep personal barbs about Rishi’s appearance to a minimum. He too has goofball tendencies.

Tim Loughton (Con, E. Worthing) had rather more success in showing Starmer up when he rose to ask about Labour’s proposals to teach young boys respect for women in schools.

Loughton wondered whether Labour was really in any position to teach anybody about respect for women, given that its party leader had trouble identifying what a woman was and had also failed to protect Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield from appalling abuse from within her own ranks.

He sat down to loud cheers from the Tory benches, his remarks finding favour up in the public gallery, too. 

Despite being strictly against Commons rules, two middle-aged ladies clapped and bellowed their approval. Starmer would do well to heed their applause as the female vote may well define the next election.

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