PMQs: Love wins as Angela Rayner and Oliver Dowden pal around

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: It was the polite, loved-up battle of the deputies Wednesday as Keir Starmer continues his marathon flight to Samoa for a Commonwealth summit. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner faced off against Shadow Leader of the Opposition Oliver Dowden as questions swirl about Labour’s upcoming budget and a big diplomatic row with Donald Trump. But the main attraction was two second-in-command politicians being relatively nice to each other as the sun sets on Dowden’s time at the top.

Here we go again: Labour promised during the election campaign not to raise taxes on “working people.” But there have been weeks of speculation that the budget will hike employers’ national insurance contributions, stark warnings from economists that this will be passed on to workers anyway, and some pretty cagey responses from ministers. “What is the deputy prime minister’s definition of working people?” Dowden asked.

Keeping quiet: Rayner … wouldn’t be drawn on the specifics. Chancellor Rachel Reeves sat by her side as the deputy prime minister retorted: “The definition of working people are the people that the Tory party have failed for the last 14 years,”  she said. Blaming the Conservatives is alive and well as a strategy.

Feel the burn: The deputy PM made light of Dowden’s staunch backing for the Tories to hold a snap general election in July, gifting Labour its landslide win. “If his own side haven’t offered him a peerage, then I certainly would,” she swiped. Ouch!

End of an era: It’s Tory leader Rishi Sunak’s final PMQs next week as the party prepares to pick a new leader. Dowden marked his own “last exchange across the despatch box” with Rayner, made a lame gag about King Charles III being a “hard working person,” and treated the Labour rep to a softball question on whether the government will deepen Commonwealth ties. That’s when the love-in really started.

Ginger power: Rayner joined in the fun, declaring she would “miss our exchanges” which she dubbed “the battle of the gingers” and answered in the affirmative on the Commonwealth. She even called him her “right honorable friend,” a styling normally reserved for members of a politician’s own party.

Get a room! Dowden used his final question to recognize how the Commonwealth is “brought together by historical and cultural ties, indeed, much like the pair of us.” The deputy PM shot him a love heart — where’s Richard Curtis when you need him?

Elephant in the room: You can always rely on Donald Trump to kill the mood. Anger from the U.S. presidential hopeful’s campaign about Labour staffers flying across the pond to campaign for Harris got a mention. SNP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn jokingly asked if Rayner would join him in applauding “the brave Labour staff members.” Rayner stuck to the line of staff doing “what they want to do in their own time with their own money.” Let’s see if that holds.

Helpful intervention of the week: Newly elected Labour MP Adam Jogee asked about the government’s record on jobs, which allowed Rayner to speak at length about the government’s employment rights legislation. A thank you message from the Whips’ Office will no doubt be in the post.

Totally unscientific scores on the doors: Angela Rayner 7/10 … Oliver Dowden 7/10 …  Love itself 100/10. Both deputy leaders had a whale of a time as serious questions on the budget quickly gave way to a last hurrah for Dowden.