PMQs: Keir Starmer wins by clobbering Tories on investment

Prime minister’s questions: a shouty, jeery, very occasionally useful advert for British politics. Here’s what you need to know from the latest session in POLITICO’s weekly run-through.

What they sparred about: Taxes and public spending. It was vintage domestic knockabout this week as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch sought to wrongfoot Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the after-effects of a planned hike to employers’ national insurance contributions.

NI-ce to meet you: The Conservative leader tried a few deft moves to paint Labour as a high-tax, high-spend party. She slagged off his recent trip to the COP climate summit for introducing “unilateral” commitments that would only hit Brits in the pocket, tried to tease out specifics on stretched council budgets — and then focused the main thrust of her attacks on how the “disastrous” NI hike will clobber everyday employers while forcing care providers to go cap in hand for exemptions.

In her best attack: Badenoch recounted the story of Kelly, who runs an after school club and is about to see her national insurance costs balloon from £10,000 a year to an eye-watering £26,000 a year — a 150 percent increase from this budget alone. Badenoch repeatedly charged that Starmer hadn’t been across the unintended consequences of the budget, and asked him how he’d explain that hike to Kelly directly.

Robo Starmer: The PM came off as pretty robotic as he played the “blame the Tories” card in return, telling Kelly that Labour “inherited a very badly damaged” economy and was “not prepared to continue with the fiction” left by Badenoch’s party. Not sure that’ll help when Kelly’s tax bill comes in.

But but but: Starmer had much more success in re-upping what is clearly Labour’s big dividing line with the Tories — cuts vs. investment — and trying to pin Badenoch down on whether she actually opposes the cash poured into public services at the budget.

Case in point: The Conservatives had, he said, left the country in a “catastrophic state.” Labour is instead “investing in our NHS, investing in our schools” and “investing in the houses of the future.” And, throwing down the gauntlet to Badenoch as backbenchers cheered, he added: “If she’s against those things, she should say so.”

I love your budget really: Badenoch appeared to stumble on that one, responding that she is “not against any of those things” and accusing the PM of not knowing “what is going on” in his own government. She pivoted to warnings of £2.4 billion black hole in council funding, and tried accusing Starmer’s deputy Angela Rayner of green-lighting four-day weeks for lazy council pen-pushers.

PM’s flourish: Starmer took that one in his stride, blasting Badenoch for asking “fantasy questions,” and using a few variations on the idea that the Conservatives aren’t supporting any of the measures in the budget yet want “all the benefits.”

To be fair: Someone should tell this dude that that’s basically how politics works.

Trump klaxon: Lib Dem leader Ed Davey tried to get Starmer to bite after Donald Trump Jr. warned Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy that he’s about to have his “allowance” cut off. The PM didn’t go there, saying only that Britain had been “resolute and strong in our support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.”

Helpful backbench intervention of the week: South Dorset Labour MP Lloyd Hatton popped up early doors to ask the PM if he was aware of any attempt by Badenoch to distance herself from “damaging positions” that would cause “untold” pain to communities across the U.K. The Tory leader brushed the whole thing off as a planted question. Perish the thought!

Totally unscientific scores on the doors: Starmer 8/10 … Badenoch 6/10. The new Tory leader had a strong debut last week, wrong-footing the PM in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s election. This week she was punchy, but her approach seemed far more scattershot, laying into the budget only to walk herself into supporting most of its outcomes. Her most effective attack by far was highlighting the real-world consequences of the National Insurance hike — and until the Conservatives have a fleshed-out policy platform they’ll be open to the attack from Labour that they’re just picking and choosing.