In her best attack: Badenoch recounted the story of Kelly, who runs an after school club and is about to see her national insurance costs balloon from £10,000 a year to an eye-watering £26,000 a year — a 150 percent increase from this budget alone. Badenoch repeatedly charged that Starmer hadn’t been across the unintended consequences of the budget, and asked him how he’d explain that hike to Kelly directly.
Robo Starmer: The PM came off as pretty robotic as he played the “blame the Tories” card in return, telling Kelly that Labour “inherited a very badly damaged” economy and was “not prepared to continue with the fiction” left by Badenoch’s party. Not sure that’ll help when Kelly’s tax bill comes in.
But but but: Starmer had much more success in re-upping what is clearly Labour’s big dividing line with the Tories — cuts vs. investment — and trying to pin Badenoch down on whether she actually opposes the cash poured into public services at the budget.
Case in point: The Conservatives had, he said, left the country in a “catastrophic state.” Labour is instead “investing in our NHS, investing in our schools” and “investing in the houses of the future.” And, throwing down the gauntlet to Badenoch as backbenchers cheered, he added: “If she’s against those things, she should say so.”
I love your budget really: Badenoch appeared to stumble on that one, responding that she is “not against any of those things” and accusing the PM of not knowing “what is going on” in his own government. She pivoted to warnings of £2.4 billion black hole in council funding, and tried accusing Starmer’s deputy Angela Rayner of green-lighting four-day weeks for lazy council pen-pushers.
PM’s flourish: Starmer took that one in his stride, blasting Badenoch for asking “fantasy questions,” and using a few variations on the idea that the Conservatives aren’t supporting any of the measures in the budget yet want “all the benefits.”
