Kemi Badenoch used Prime Minister’s Questions to accuse the government of being flat-footed in its response to the war in the Middle East. The Tory leader had plenty of material to use, and she did a good job with it: running through why the UK wasn’t allowing the RAF to attack Iranian missile sites, defence spending, the spring statement and Starmer’s own weak position as Prime Minister.

Starmer dug out some of his favourite lines about Tory defence spending, and ended up offering one of his rather pompous lectures on how to be a good leader of the opposition

Starmer dug out some of his favourite lines about Tory defence spending, and ended up offering one of his rather pompous lectures on how to be a good leader of the opposition

Starmer dug out some of his favourite lines about Tory defence spending, and ended up offering one of his rather pompous lectures on how to be a good leader of the opposition – a lecture he always produces when his back is up against the wall. Indeed, the government’s inability to operate from a position of strength was the main takeaway from those exchanges between Starmer and Badenoch, though the Prime Minister later came out with a barb about Donald Trump that suggested he is still happy to take a stronger line on the US President.

Badenoch’s language this week was much more restrained, presumably in part because the session had begun with a rebuke from the Speaker about the language used in the Chamber. This was in response to last week’s ‘paedo defender party’ line from the Tory leader, who was much less savage in her exchanges today. She opened with a question asking why, given the US had taken ‘offensive action to destroy missile launch sites to defend British territory’, the Prime Minister would not allow the RAF to do the same. Starmer replied that........

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