PMQs: Starmer finishes on top as he brands Tories ‘dead party walking’

Prime minister’s questions: a shouty, jeery, very occasionally useful advert for British politics. Here’s what you need to know from the latest session in POLITICO’s weekly run-through.

What they sparred about: The economy, mostly. Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch picked Keir Starmer’s brains on the U.K.’s grim economic outlook — and got an unwelcome reminder of the Liz Truss era in reply.

Here we go again: There was a brief consensus as Badenoch condemned a fire at Starmer’s north London home as an attack on democracy. Then she was on the march: why is unemployment on the up?

Rising to the bait: Like a stuck record, Starmer repeated his greatest hits by laying into Badenoch for the “disastrous Liz Truss mini-budget.” Labour will not let that one go. In return, the Tory leader stressed there was “no point blaming everyone else” and sung her party’s praises in power.

Shutting up shop: Badenoch’s questions went from the general to the specific, highlighting department store Beales’ last shop bringing down the shutters with a “Rachel Reeves closing down sale.” “What does the prime minister have to say to all the people who have lost their jobs?” Badenoch probed. While the PM, unsurprisingly, regretted any job losses, he turned the tables back on Badenoch’s scepticism about Britain’s new trade agreements.

Strong message here: It was in this answer that Starmer’s new attack line, doubtless scripted carefully by No.10 strategists, got through the waffle both leaders can be guilty of. The PM said the Tories were “sliding into brain-dead oblivion,” echoing interviews in which he has said Nigel Farage’s Reform UK will be Labour’s main opponents next time round.

On yer train! As a former trade secretary, Badenoch said the government should “not over egg the pudding” of their trade agreements, while dismissing a “tiny tariff deal” with Donald Trump. Starmer sounded apoplectic, urging Badenoch to “get the train” to the Jaguar Land Rover plant in Solihull after tariffs on U.K. cars were slashed.

But but but: He didn’t promise unemployment would be lower next year.

Grand finale! The personality clashes didn’t let up. The Tory leader said “Labour isn’t working” (geddit?) while the PM called the Tories a “dead party walking.” Someone’s had their Weetabix.

Getting personal: Badenoch ducked asking Starmer about the government’s migration reforms, leaving that to Plaid Cymru’s Westminster Leader Liz Saville-Roberts. She said “somebody here has to call … out” the PM’s change of rhetoric towards immigration. Asking Starmer if he has any belief “which survives a week in Downing Street,” he responded: “Yes, the belief that she talks rubbish.” That got laughs from colleagues, at least.

Helpful backbench intervention of the week: Labour’s North Warwickshire and Bedworth MP Rachel Taylor commended Starmer’s trade agreement with the U.S., asking, in an especially hard-hitting question, whether the PM would continue standing up for all workers. In a major, possibly era-defining development, Starmer confirmed he would do exactly that. What a revelation!

Totally unscientific scores on the doors: Badenoch 6/10. Starmer 7/10. Starmer was able to play off the main advantage of government — showing action, particularly on trade deals the Conservatives didn’t land. Most notable though was not his anger towards the Tories, but his sheer dismissal of their relevance. Expect those arguments to ratchet up towards the next election, as Reform and the Tories battle for the right-wing vote.