Amid COBRA meetings and calls with world leaders, Keir Starmer appeared before the House of Commons Liaison Committee on Monday afternoon. Made up of the chairs of the various Commons select committees, the committee invites the Prime Minister to appear before it several times a year for 90-minute question-and-answer sessions in which the work of the government can be scrutinized.
Under Boris Johnson, Liaison Committee hearings were sometimes unpredictable affairs, with the then prime minister occasionally appearing unprepared for key parts of his government’s agenda.
On Monday, Starmer was, as expected, quite well informed. He stumbled on a point of fact only once, when he was asked by committee chair Meg Hillier to name specifically the countries that would benefit from the safeguards linked to the UK’s decision to give the United States the use of some British military bases. Otherwise it was a competent, if somewhat bland, performance. Starmer was mostly able to shut down difficult lines of questioning by either promising an answer at a later date, referring to ongoing reports or investigations that limited what he could say, or pledging to write to MPs with further information.
But here are four things we learned:
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Too soon to say about power support
The prime minister said a COBRA meeting on Monday morning to discuss the government’s response to the economic challenge of the Iran war would feed into a statement by the Chancellor in the House of Commons on Tuesday. But he said it was too early to tell what action might be needed when the current energy price cap expires in July. He was also asked about comments in The Sunday Times by his own cost-of-living czar, Richard Walker, Iceland’s former boss, calling for a “profit cap” to stop alleged price rises as a result of the war. Starmer said he had yet to discuss the proposals with Walker – making it clear that capping profits is not government policy – but that the government was still considering the “right approach” to raising prices.
He remains angry about his legacy
Starmer was constantly under pressure over defense spending, an issue that is becoming something of an albatross around his neck. It was Starmer’s misfortune to come to power at a time when a historic lack of spending coincided with a series of unpredictable global conflicts, and he takes every opportunity to blame the Tory-led ministries of 2010-24 for the current dire state of the armed services. He appears to be genuinely angry at the legacy left to Labor by the previous government. At one point, Starmer’s temper flared after he was repeatedly criticized by Bernard Jenkin, the sole Conservative in Monday’s session, over the still-unfinished defense spending plans. When Jenkin said the prime minister’s attitude “reeks of great complacency”, Starmer shot back in a raised voice: “it smacks of the fact that for years there was under-investment from the last government”.
He has learned to laugh at President Trump
The prime minister has been repeatedly criticized by Donald Trump since the pair’s public disagreement over the war in Iran. The most recent example was the President on Sunday retweeting a UK Saturday Night Live skit which showed a distraught Starmer struggling to deal with the current international crisis. But the prime minister seems to be taking it on the chin. When asked, he said his position would not waver despite “pressure” from foreign leaders. He told the committee with a smile, “I understand exactly what’s going on.”
Multiple reviews
My slightly fanciful takeaway from Monday’s session was that, for Starmer, many of the most contentious political issues in Britain today are the subject of an independent review, which will report “in full time” and that is “really important” in providing that the government can take a decision “at the right time”. A little unfair, perhaps. But he is inclined to rely on outsourcing decision-making when faced with difficult questions in these hearings.
In its first months, the Labor government commissioned over 60 independent reviews, consultations and working groups to generate recommendations on a range of policy areas. A number are still waiting to report back. While defenders would say these will generate better and stronger solutions to the country’s problems in the long term, the number of decisions being outsourced to non-ministers has exacerbated criticism within Labor that the government has been too slow and not political enough in its approach.
(Further reading: The Labor left is cheating)
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