FlickrSir Keir Starmer is “too arrogant to admit he got things wrong”, Kemi Badenoch has claimed, as she pressed the Prime Minister on borrowing costs, unemployment and future tax rises.
In the first Prime Minister’s Questions since MPs returned from the summer recess, the Conservative leader also took aim at Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves.
It came shortly after deputy prime minister Rayner admitted she underpaid stamp duty on her second home and referred herself to the independent ethics adviser.
Badenoch said Sir Keir should sack her, but the Prime Minister said he was “very proud to sit alongside” his deputy.
The Tory leader claimed Sir Keir’s “incompetence is hurting real people”, adding: “There is not just a crisis at the very top of his Cabinet, there is a crisis brewing for the whole country.
“When was the last time the cost of Government borrowing was so high?”
Sir Keir replied: “On the question of borrowing costs, they have risen across the world, as the leader of the Opposition well knows.
“We are driving them down by getting debt down. That is hardwired into our fiscal rules. Those fiscal rules are non-negotiable.”
Badenoch later said: “He cannot say why borrowing is higher under him. I will tell him why it is higher – it is because the chancellor changed the fiscal rules so she could borrow record amounts.
“She maxed out the country’s credit card and that has pushed up borrowing costs. These are their bad choices.”
Sir Keir responded: “She comes straight back to talk the country down at every opportunity. She doesn’t welcome the highest growth in the G7. What about the 380,000 jobs we’ve created? She could have welcomed that.”
Badenoch said the Prime Minister is “dragging down the country”, adding: “How can he stand there and say that he’s creating jobs? Unemployment has gone up every single month under this Labour Government.”
Sir Keir referenced a quote from Badenoch in the Sunday Times saying she “inherited a giant mess and I’m cleaning it”, and said: “I know exactly how she feels.”
Badenoch claimed the Prime Minister is “floundering”, adding: “We’re not the ones referring ourselves to ethics advisers.”
She continued: “It is clear that taxes are going up for everyone except perhaps the deputy prime minister. I warned before the summer that we would face weeks of speculation about which taxes would be going up.
“The former head of the IFS (Institute for Fiscal Studies) says this sort of uncertainty is actively damaging to the economy, and now we find that we have to wait until November 26 for a budget? Does he really think the country or the markets can wait that long?”
Sir Keir replied: “She said they’re not referring themselves to the ethics adviser … that’s amongst the reasons they got booted out of office last year.
“And she complains that we’re going through the due process for a budget and going through the necessary steps. We tried a budget under their watch without going through those steps. What happened? They blew up the economy. We’ll take no lessons from them.”
Badenoch said: “This is desperate stuff from the Prime Minister. This week, he had another reset. This morning, the Prime Minister scrapped his five missions, and after scrapping his three foundations, scrapping his six first steps for change and his seven pillars for growth, the truth is this man has got no clue, zero clue.
“But this is serious, the Prime Minister’s incompetence is hurting real people. They’re losing their jobs, the cost of everything is going up, from energy bills to the weekly shop.
“This is a crisis made in Downing Street. Isn’t the truth that he is too weak to change course and too arrogant to admit he got things wrong?”
Sir Keir replied: “I don’t know what social media site she’s been on this morning, but I think the chair of the Tory party said that we were the firefighters, this Government.
“Well, in a sense, we are, because we’re putting out the fires that they created. They were the arsonist, the biggest fall in living standards on record, and blowing up the finances. We’ve spent the first year putting out their fires.”
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