Most damaging PMQs yet for Sunak

Throughout today’s Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, it was Rachel Reeves’s cackle that could be heard most often. 

Labour leader Keir Starmer went in hard on the diplomatic blunder surrounding the Elgin Marbles and Rishi Sunak’s petulant refusal to meet Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“In an effort to hide from his failures the PM spent this week arguing about an ancient relic that only a tiny minority of the British public have any interest in. Mr speaker that’s enough about the Tory party,” Starmer jibed. 

And for as long as Starmer asked the questions, Sunak’s faux-pas was never far from view: “Never mind the British Museum, it’s the PM who has obviously lost his marbles.”

The leader of the opposition bragged about how he was able to chat to Mitsotakis – a NATO partner, an economic ally and a key partner in curbing illegal migration to Europe – about serious stuff that really mattered. Starmer asked Sunak why he couldn’t do the same: “Why such small politics?” 

Sunak’s response was equally small, bringing up Sir Keir’s love of Beethoven’s Ode To Joy – the European national anthem. Sunak accused this admission of being proof that Starmer would always “back Brussels over Britain”. A bit of a spurious point – he could have just said Starmer has bad taste. 

Much like his policy announcements of late, Sunak lurched from one hiccup to another. His mic cut out on telling Labour “Britain isn’t listening” and as Starmer rhymed off the ways in which foreign workers can be paid less than British workers, it was clear that the Conservative party has never had any plans about reducing legal immigration. 

Possibly the best gag of the day was when Starmer said Sunak had “the reverse Midas touch. Everything he touches turns to…maybe the Home Secretary can help me out.” This was a reference to James Cleverly, the new Home Secretary, who last week was caught in the Commons using the s-word in relation to another MP.

There was a brief mention of a revised Rwanda plan which will be bulletproof in the courts. Which, of course, means it will be held up for another couple of years. 

But you really know it’s bad when your own backbenchers sail you down the river. Jeremy Wright, Conservative MP for Kenilworth and Southam, said Sunak ought to spare a couple of minutes this afternoon to talk to Wright’s oldest constituent: John Farringdon, a mere 110 and recently recovered from a bout of sickness. It may be a useful conversation, Wright suggested, as Mr Farringdon knows a thing or two about surviving against the odds.

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