Kemi Badenoch smells blood as she reminds Labour MPs Keir Starmer has let them down
The Conservative leader knows she will need Labour MPs to oust the Prime Minister, so appealed to their sense of fairness.
Kemi Badenoch had one of her stronger Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
To be fair, Sir Keir Starmer has made it easier for her in recent days.
But her ploy this week was clever: remind Labour MPs how much their leader has let them down.
The PM got off to a poor start when he effectively confirmed in the first question that he had considered giving former comms chief Matthew Doyle an ambassadorial role.
Sir Keir said: “When people leave roles in any organisation, there are often conversations about other roles they want to apply for.”
His defence was that “nothing came of this”. I am sure his MPs feel reassured.
Ms Badenoch smelled blood and appealed to those sitting behind the Prime Minister.
She said: “The head of the Foreign Office was sacked for the Prime Minister’s own failings. His backbenchers know that is not fair. Even his most loyal Cabinet members won’t defend it.”
She added: “He promised them probity.
“What he’s given them is cronyism and an old boys’ club where Matthew Doyle is being proposed as an ambassador. It’s ridiculous.”
Labour MPs went particularly quiet. And no wonder, Ms Badenoch was repeating what many of them think is true.
Ms Badenoch knows that she is unable to bring down the Prime Minister on her own.
The Tories need to convince lots of Labour MPs to back a no confidence motion. So this appeal to their sense of fairness was smart.
This whole debacle may be what ends it for Sir Keir.
It was the support of the Cabinet which saved him when Anas Sarwar called for his head earlier this year.
But if Wednesday’s session was anything to go by, they are no longer so reliable.
David Lammy, who was sat on Sir Keir’s right, looked particularly glum. Perhaps that was because Olly Robbins revealed yesterday that he was told not to tell him about the Lord Doyle ambassador stuff.
Sir Keir’s backbenchers were not giving him much support either.
The Prime Minister tried to rouse with a few lines about how Ms Badenoch had been “wrong” on several occasions.
Only the remaining loyal wet sheep (there were few) bleated out the desired chant.
What must have been pretty humbling for the Prime Minister was that the Labour MP who followed Ms Badenoch (Patrick Hurley, Southport) received a bigger cheer for talking about Labour’s NHS record than Sir Keir has received in months.
Ms Badenoch will be happy with her afternoon’s work.
But what is farcical is that she does not want a general election. In fact, no one seriously does.
Obviously Labour knows it would get a drubbing, but the Tories would also face the prospect of losing seats despite only having 116 MPs.
Even Reform may be cautious, given that their support for Donald Trump - and him personally causing prices to rise across the globe - seems to have caused them to peak in the polls.
So we are left in this very strange limbo where an election seems unlikely but no one has faith in the Prime Minister.
Maybe might work needed is a well-known solid Labour figure whose agenda party members and MPs can get behind.
What about Ed Miliband? He made a rare appearance in the chamber for PMQs and has been surprisingly honest about the poor decision-making in appointing Peter Mandelson.
Watch this space.
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