Sir Keir Starmer just can’t give a straight answer, can he? Kemi Badenoch mocked and mauled him today at PMQs. His own MPs have described him as a caretaker PM. She had to explain to him what that meant.
At PMQs, she said: “He is being called a caretaker, because everyone can see that he’s lost control of his party and this lot – they’re trying to replace him.
“They can make as much noise as they like. We all know that they are so busy trying to replace him that they’ve taken their eyes off the ball.
Then she asked him a series of very basic questions, starting with your energy bills.
Patrick Christys shared his opinion on the latest PMQs clash between Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch
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GB NEWS
She asked: “Let’s start with the energy secretary, who wants to recycle himself as leader.
“He said he’d cut family’s energy bills by £300. Can the Prime Minister tell the House how much have the energy bills fallen by since the election?”
He responded: “Mr Speaker, I’m very pleased to say we’re taking £150 off energy bills.”
£150 of energy bills. Whoopsie. Not true.
The Tory leader responded: “Mr Speaker, I asked him about energy bills. He could power the national grid on all of that hot air. He promised to cut energy bills by £300. Energy bills have risen by £187.”
Then she got stuck into education again. Another very basic question.
“Let’s look at someone else who’s making a mess,” Mrs Badenoch said. “Let’s look at the education secretary. Oh, there she is. Labour pledged to recruit 6,500 more teachers.
“So can the Prime Minister tell the House how many extra teachers are there since she became education sector?”
Okay, well, Sir Keir Starmer obviously went on to say there have been loads more, but is that right, Prime Minister?
“Wrong!” Mrs Badenoch blasted. Mr Speaker, there are now 400 fewer teachers since since she came into office. She’s shaking her head.
“It’s on the DfE website. Does she not check it once in a while? I can understand that the Rt Hon Lady is angry.
“We’re all angry at the mess she’s making. The Prime Minister doesn’t know what’s going on in energy. He doesn’t know what’s going on in education.”
Yikes. Then Kemi went off on police numbers. “Last year, the Prime Minister promised to recruit 13,000 more police officers. How’s that going?” she asked. “Some 3,000 more by the end of March. And we’re rising on police numbers,” Sir Keir said.
More police officers he says. Did he get that right?
“Wrong again. I asked him how many police officers. There are now 1,300 fewer officers than at the election,” said.
Gosh, he’s not having a great day so far. Kemi carried on.
“Who can the Prime Minister tell the House how many appointments have been lost to strike action since last July?
“Mr Speaker, they left the NHS in an absolute mess, an absolute mess. The highest waiting lists on record and the lowest confidence in the NHS ever.
“The Health Secretary said he would do two million extra appointments. He hasn’t done two or three or four, he’s done five million extra appointments,” Sir Keir responded.
What you’ll notice is that he’s not really answered the question again, there, has he?
“Mr Speaker, I asked him how many appointments have been lost to strike action. He doesn’t know.
“Let me tell him. We have lost 93,000 appointments to strikes since the Health Secretary gave doctors a massive pay rise,” Mrs Badenoch said.
All of this came to a crescendo, which paints a picture of just how bleak things are under Labour.
“Mr Speaker, everything is getting worse. Jobs, bills, police numbers, teacher numbers. Everything is getting worse.
“The Cabinet should be doing their own jobs. What are they doing there? Trying to compete for the caretaker’s job.
“The only person who doesn’t want the Prime Minister’s job is the Chancellor. She’s just trying to cling on to her own. Isn’t it time, Mr Speaker, that the Prime Minister admits that Labour isn’t working?” the Tory leader asked.
Well, nothing works. The Prime Minister couldn’t even lie straight in bed. And it got worse for the PM.
Hours earlier, Rachel Reeves had thrown him under the bus and blamed him for the tax rises.
Ms Reeves earlier said: “The Prime Minister and I met two, three times a week during the Budget process – that is not always the case between Chancellors and Prime Ministers, I recognise that, but there is a very close partnership between myself and the Prime Minister.
“And so we took him through all of these, um, all of the numbers and all of the options, and we decided it together as a team because that is what the Prime Minister and I am.”
So he is as much to blame for the tax rises as she is. Then she’s caught out telling more mistruths herself.
Now look at this. See if you can spot the difference.
Ms Reeves said: “And you saw that in the budget on November 26 we froze for an additional three years.
“The tax thresholds, national insurance and income tax that the previous Government had frozen for seven years. We extended that for a further three years. That’s not a breach of the manifesto.”
On another occasion, she said: “I’m keeping every single promise on tax that I made in our manifesto. So there will be no extension of the freeze in income tax.”
There you go. She said it. It’s out there. A break of the manifesto promise. Both the Chancellor and the PM are on the rack.
It used to be that the only time the PM looked good was when he was debating Kemi Badenoch at PMQs, and now that’s completely changed. He’s got nowhere left to hide.