Parliament is in session, returned after a shortened summer recess, and politics as “normal” — following a fraught and frankly confusing post-election period — is bedding back in too.
In the coming hours, the result of the first round of MP voting in the Conservative leadership contest will be announced — peeling two also-ran candidates off the list of possible successors to Rishi Sunak. In the shadow of this vote therefore, Sunak conducted his caretaker responsibilities at prime minister’s questions today, once more, on the precipice of dispossession.
The former prime minister’s only other showing as opposition leader at PMQs, prior to the summer recess, saw him win plaudits for his sudden statesmanship. At the despatch box in July, Sunak opted to reflect self-deprecatingly on his unceremonious ouster. Echoing Keir Starmer’s words of acclamation for Team GB, he joked that British Olympians probably will not want his advice on “how to win”.
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But over time, the approach has reportedly seen some Conservative MPs — including shadow cabinet ministers — tire of Sunak’s wallowing politics, and demand that the ex-PM make some ground back for his downtrodden party.
These concerns surely weighed on Sunak over the summer, for he instigated a rather more fiery commons contest this afternoon — akin to those more irascible (dare one say “tetchy”) exchanges of pre-election yore.
In this vein, Rishi Sunak used his first question to sledge the prime minister about the decision to scrap the winter fuel payment for 10 million pensioners. Accusing Starmer of taking money from pensioners in order to fund bumper pay rises for public sector workers, the opposition leader blasted: “Why did he choose train drivers over Britain’s vulnerable pensioners?”
Starmer hit back that his government has been forced to “clear up the mess left by the party opposite”, repeating Labour’s claim about the fiscal £22 billion black hole. He told the commons: “[Ministers have] had to take tough decisions to stabilise the economy and repair the damage, including targeting winter fuel payments while protecting pensioners.”
Sunak’s plan this PMQs was to unpick and, therefore expose, the underlying narrative of Labour governance as bunkum: namely that the £22 billion black hole has compelled ministers to take “difficult”, and critically unforeseen, decisions. As such, the former prime minister sought to defend his own record, claiming that Labour has actually inherited the fastest growing economy in the G7, with low inflation and interest rates in the process of being cut.
Sunak duly charged that his successor needs to take some “responsibility” for his policies, asking again why the PM had taken money from pensioners and given it to “highly paid” train drivers. Sunak’s emphasis was that this trade-off amounted to a political choice on the part of Labour — not an unforeseeable but inevitable implication of a direr than anticipated inheritance.
The prime minister, scoffing dismissively, decried Sunak as in a state of denial about his government’s record and the reality facing its successor. He concluded that the Conservatives — if they continue to pretend “everything is fine” — could face opposition for a “very, very long time”.
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And as for one of Sunak’s potential successors as opposition chief, Starmer highlighted that Kemi Badenoch — the contest “favourite” — also once called for winter fuel payments for all but the very poorest pensioners to be means-tested. Badenoch, the shadow housing secretary, made the claim in her last shot at the Conservative leadership in 2022.
Parking this line of argument for the time being, Sunak went on to scrutinise a second controversial decision made by this nascent Labour government: the suspension of around 30 export licences to Israel, from a total of approximately 350.
The ex-PM asked how the decision “will help to secure the release of the 101 hostages still being held by Hamas”. Starmer, sounding deliberately dispassionate, responded that the region “desperately needs” to “begin the path to a two state solution”.
He added: “We will, of course, continue to stand by Israel’s right to self-defence. But it is important that we are a country committed to the international rule of law. That gives us the strength of argument with our allies on important issues. This is a difficult issue.”
As the questioning and answering continued, Starmer received the largest cheer from his benches when he affirmed that Labour is “committed to the rule of law” when it comes to selling arms to Israel.
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on X/Twitter here.
Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest news and analysis.
