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.
