With Keir Starmer away at the NATO summit in Ankara, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy stood in the despatch box on Wednesday. This was the penultimate session of the Starmer era PMQs. The prime minister will make his final bow next Wednesday before handing over the reins of the Labor leadership on Friday to Andy Burnham and then stepping down as prime minister the following Monday after a handover at Buckingham Palace. Here are some things we learned from the session.
We are in political oblivion
Not only the prime minister was absent today, but also the future prime minister. About ten minutes into Wednesday’s questions session, Deputy Prime Minister James Cleverly, the Conservative stand-in for Kemi Badenoch, finally asked the question everyone wanted to know the answer to: “The soon-to-be Prime Minister – is he in the room somewhere?” The opposition MPs put their necks in a theatrical manner. “Nooooo.” At another point, Labor backbencher Noah Law asked a question which he freely admitted was dependent on what happens “when the right hon member for Makerfield comes in”.
All of this was a reminder that we are currently in a strange interregnum in which no important issue can be resolved without Burnham’s say. He has largely left the House of Commons since his return to Westminster. Perhaps that will make his first appearance, perhaps at Prime Minister’s Questions in September, all the more triumphant.
Complicated issues will not go away
In his bid to embarrass Lammy, who is the current Justice Secretary, Cleverly chose to lead with questions about the early release of prisoners, particularly violent sex offenders. He demanded an apology from the government and assurances from the government that no rapist or pedophile would be released later this year as the government tries to clean up prisons. Of course Lammy, who doesn’t know if he’ll be in the same job in two weeks, can make no such guarantees. It also cleverly went after government adjustments to the threshold for jury trials.
In a scathing intervention from her seat on the front bench, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told Cleverly and the Tories: “You have to apologise; you left this mess.” We again feel the lack of a leading force at the top of the government as we wait to see what future these policies hold. Furthermore, the tricky questions about Lammy brought home to the Labor bench that a change at the top will not remove all of the government’s problems. Burnham could eat cans of worms for months.
Burnham’s words may haunt him
While he has entered a relatively quiet period as he prepares for government, Burnham has been a vocal political commentator in recent years alongside his role as mayor of Greater Manchester, giving his position on a range of issues. As he moves closer to power, the downsides of having stated views in so many areas become more apparent. Take today’s question from Greens MP Ellie Chowns, who simply asked Lammy if he would agree with MP Makerfield’s view that proportional representation in British general elections is an idea “whose time has come”.
Electoral reform, while favored by the Greens and most Lib Dems, is a very divisive issue in Labour, not least because PR could result in a whole bunch of Labor MPs losing their seats if we move to a more pluralistic, coalition-based form of politics. Instead of answering, Lammy dodged the point by attacking a Green councilor who had made racist comments about him and Cleverly, saying that’s where the party needs to start if it wants to clean up politics. While this time Lammy managed to avoid a tough question about one of Burnham’s past comments, government representatives will face a lot more when the next prime minister takes over.
Farage’s gamble may have backfired
We had to wait for Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper’s round of questions before we got to the big political story of the day: Nigel Farage’s self-engineered fight with Earl Binface in Clacton. While less than 24 hours ago Farage was pitching this race as a “people vs establishment” primary, it has quickly turned into a by-election fought largely against a comedian with too much time on his hands, as the main parties made it clear they would not stand candidates in an attempt to undermine Farage. The strategy seems to have worked, at least on the green benches. The three reform MPs who attended Wednesday’s hearing looked inappropriately angry – shouting “chicken!”. (Richard Tice), “cowards!” (Lee Anderson) and “why don’t you stay?” (Sarah Pochin) from their sitting positions – while the rest of the House laughed at Farage Clacton’s game.
(Further reading: Nigel Farage aims to upend the narrative with his snap election game. It won’t work)
