PMQs: Corbyn surprises the PM with a focus on bus services

Esther McVey is under pressure to resign as Work and Pensions Secretary after misleading the House over universal credit, while the Prime Minister is surely dreading Brexit crunch talks with her cabinet at Chequers on Friday. So Theresa May looked somewhat surprised when Jeremy Corbyn chose to question her on the poor quality of local bus services at PMQs today.

At this crucial time in the Brexit intra-cabinet negotiations, and after winning several PMQs in a row by attacking May over Remainer-Leaver government divisions, many wondered why the Labour leader opted for buses. It was an unexpected move – but perhaps the right one.

Corbyn’s line of questioning carried several advantages. It allowed him to promote party policies in this area of transport: Labour would give local authorities more power over how buses operate, and earlier this year pledged to fund free bus travel for under-25s. Looking forward to the next manifesto, giving new policies an airing is a good idea.

Then there’s relevance. Of course the utter inadequacy and shocking cruelty of the DWP deserves scrutiny. But local bus service failures affect many voters across the UK, and most of them probably care more about something that has a serious impact on their daily lives than watching the Leader of the Opposition try to force the PM to sack one of her unsackable cabinet members.

The issue Corbyn opted for is an important one that rarely gets such high-profile attention, typically reserved for dusty town halls. Crucially for Labour, it has the potential to resonate particularly with the small town voters that the party must win over in order to gain power. The Tories laughed about Corbyn focussing on buses, and a few Corbynsceptics sneered, but the truth is that it caught out the PM, gave Labour the opportunity not to be ‘metropolitan elite’ in its priorities and highlighted a serious problem faced by people across the country.