This week’s PMQs were fought between deputy prime minister Dominic Raab and deputy leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner and made a welcome change to the usual back and forth between Starmer and Johnson. The two deputies rolled up their sleeves and clashed about cuts to Universal Credit and the energy crisis, and Rayner also had plenty of jokes about Raab’s unfortunately timed holiday to Crete.
Opposition leaders – or those representing them – have a chance to ask six questions to representatives of the government. While Raab’s words, made in a book published in 2012, are galling, they have been well scrutinized in the past and certainly well documented. It seemed lazy to bring them up and even more important, it was a waste of time.
This was a good little joke about Raab’s holiday to Crete, which he made while Kabul was falling to the Taliban and was widely criticized for, so she was right to have a smirk on her face as she made. It was also a good point and captured widespread concerns that these two policies will be disastrous for working people.
As much as Raab may think the Conservative’s plan is working – as in functioning – to opponents like the Labour Party it seems that the government’s plan is to expect people to work ‘harder’ in numerous jobs with long hours to reach a minimum standard of living.
A classic political joke was made even more zeitgeisty given the energy crisis. It’s lovely stuff. Rayner was embarrassed when Raab repeated the same joke to Rayner. Dom, make your own material.
Taking on your boss’ role is always daunting and teething problems are to be expected. Raab and Rayner, who were less experienced than Starmer and Johnson, found it no different.
Raab, however, seemed happy for the show to be over and had only one refrain – “The Labour Party would have been worse than us and if they were in power we would be in lockdown,” which seemed far less meticulous than the facts and statistics Rayner rattled off with ease and poise – even if she did make a few too many holiday jokes. Even people to the right were impressed by her command of the stage.