
Once again, it was a day of open goals for the Tories to score against Labour: the ongoing volatility in the UK economy and the tricky situation faced by Rachel Reeves, the resignation of city minister Tulip Siddiq amid a foreign corruption scandal, the row over the Chagos Islands handover, and most recently the suggestion that former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams could be in line for taxpayer compensation if the government repeals parts of 2023 Northern Ireland legacy legislation.
Kemi Badenoch went for all of them – with mixed success.
Having been burned in previous weeks, the Tory leader had a few extra tricks up her sleeve. First, she tried to pre-empt Keir Starmer’s inevitable defence that Britain’s current economic woes are the result of global factors and the inheritance handed to Labour by the last Conservative government. The Prime Minister must have known that he was going to have to go on the offence today. He used the line anyway, sharpened with today’s unexpectedly positive news that inflation is down. Then he took the fight to Badenoch, calling the Tories “economic vandals and fantasists.”
Her second trick was to once again try to box in the government by goading Starmer to rule things out, in this case further tax rises this year and an emergency Budget year if the economic situation continues to deteriorate. Badenoch did not specifically ask how secure the Chancellor’s position was, but the implication was there in her questions. Starmer’s answers are unlikely to satisfy anyone or kill the speculation that Reeves could be in trouble. He didn’t rule out tax rises, saying only that the government has “an iron-clad commitment to our fiscal rules” and that it “can’t just tax our way out of the problems that they left us”. As for Reeves, “the Chancellor will be in place for many, many years to come” was the assessment. Which isn’t the same as committing to keep her in place for the length of the parliament. Make of that what you will.
Somebody ought to give Badenoch some advice about momentum, because sandwiched between these economic questions was a jibe about the Chagos Islands. This has become a particularly hot topic among Tories as rumours fly that the government is rushing to sign of a deal that would see the UK pay Mauritius £9bn as part of the handover deal to lease the Diego Garcia military base. Badenoch wanted to know: “Why does the Prime Minister think British people should pay to surrender something that is already ours?”
It was a strong line, but Starmer clearly knew it was coming, reminding the House that the negotiations on the handover were begun by the last government. (Avid politicos might remember the row in October when it emerged all this had been kicked off by none other than former foreign secretary and at-the-time Tory leader contender James Cleverly.)
That wasn’t the only example of Badenoch lobbing over an attack she seemed sure would land, only to have it thrown right back at her. The most awkward topic for the PM by far this week is Tulip Siddiq’s resignation – both the irony of a minister in charge of anti-corruption being investigated by another country’s anti-corruption commission, and in the difference in tone between Starmer’s warm words towards and the bluntness with which he responded to the resignation of Louise Haigh in November.
Badenoch asked a leading question about whether the UK’s National Crime Agency would assist Bangladesh in its investigations into Siddiq’s family, only to be hit by a barrage of righteous indignation. The target? Shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel, who was sitting right beside her. Starmer compared Siddiq’s self-referral to the independent adviser on ministerial standards and swift resignation to a Boris Johnson era scandal when Patel was found to have broken the ministerial code and refused to resign. Now, she is back on the Tory frontbench: “What a contrast, thank god the British public chucked them out”.
How well it landed is up for debate. It’s been four years since the report into Patel’s bullying behaviour came out, and most people outside Westminster can barely remember that she used to be Home Secretary, let alone the details of the row, whereas the Siddiq story is fresh. Still, it was yet another example of Badenoch struggling to break free of the Conservatives’ record, made all the harder by the fact she chose to appoint Patel to a top job.
All in all, there was a sense today that everyone was spoiling for a fight. Badenoch faced some audible heckles – cries of “your fault” when she pointed out that borrowing costs were at a 27-year high, and mutters of “absolutely pathetic” when she suggested Reeves had been appointed because Starmer wanted the first female Chancellor rather than someone actually qualified for the job. The Tory leader had some good ammunition but seemed unprepared for the force of the defence when she tried to use it.
Her final question was such a mish-mash of topics that Starmer laughingly brushed off as a “barrage of complete nonsense”, using the opportunity to return to his preferred fighting ground. After briefly dealing with the Gerry Adams issue (a sombre response about the existing legislation being unfit because it gives immunity to terrorists), the Prime Minister suddenly smiled. He brough up a letter he’d received “from a Tory voter in a Labour seat”. Of course, it was Liz Truss, who last week sent a cease and desist letter to Starmer complaining that him saying she’d crashed the economy was damaging her reputation. “It was actually crashing the economy that damaged her reputation,” Starmer quipped, barely able to conceal his amusement.
It’s a line Labour will be returning to again and again if the economic situation does not improve, and at some point they might regret tying bad economic news with one specific politician (look out Rachel Reeves). But it did give the PM to chance to end his head-to-head with Badenoch on a high this week. Not what she would have wanted, given all the open goals…