Thank God! Today was the last Prime Minister’s Questions before Christmas and so Sir Keir and Mrs Badenoch began their speeches with seasonal greetings. Was a Christmas truce about to break out? Unlikely; Sir Keir couldn’t resist a poke at Reform’s Russian problems. ‘If wise men from the East come bearing gifts, this time report it to the police’ he scoffed. Today, Nigel Farage, Sir Keir’s very own Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, loomed down on proceedings from the Commons viewing gallery. Even he chuckled at this opening gag.

The death of Tiny Tim is genuinely more likely to bring about a smile than the Prime Minister’s gags

Things got less Christmassy still when the Leader of the Opposition opened with a reference to the PM’s abysmal performance at the Liaison Committee and his self-pitying moan that when he pulls levers nothing happens.

Mrs Badenoch asked whether he blamed himself or the levers. There was perhaps a subtle nod both towards the terrible relations between Downing Street and some of the rest of Sir Keir’s party and the profession of the PM’s progenitor here: a bad tool always blames his workmen, as the........

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