PMQs: 6 things to note about the tense Thornberry-Lidington exchange

With Theresa May in Northern Ireland, David Lidington and Emily Thornberry stood in for the main party leaders at PMQs today. The pair usually offer spikier, more humorous exchanges than those of the main party leaders, but this week presented us with a much less entertaining viewing experience. Brexit had raised tensions, and the Prime Minister’s de facto deputy appeared terrified of committing news.

Andrew Bridgen made a contribution worth noting.

The Tory backbencher and hardline Brexiteer was the first to ask a question, and took the opportunity to highlight a recently surfaced video of Jeremy Corbyn in 2009 calling the EU a “Frankenstein” and making the case against repeated referendums in Ireland. (“I’ve just got a feeling they’re going to keep on voting until they get the answer they want,” the Labour leader said, echoing the arguments of anti-‘people’s vote’ campaigners.)

Bridgen used this footage as evidence that Corbyn agrees with him that there should be no second EU referendum, and asked Lidington to concur. This particular Tory backbencher can hardly be expected to follow any party line, but it shows the Conservatives as a whole have not yet decided whether to emphasise Corbyn’s long-held Euroscepticism, and in turn Labour’s splits over the EU, or ignore it and claim the opposition wants to “frustrate” Brexit.

Thornberry kicked off with a gag.

To the delight of members on the Labour benches, Thornberry started: “I’m so glad to renew my acquaintance with the minister for the Cabinet Office – or as the newspapers always call him, effectively the deputy Prime Minister. Surely the only occasion these days when the words Prime Minister and effective are used in the same sentence.” This is why people look forward to these ‘fake’ PMQs – though unfortunately this was the only witty comment of the session.

Lidington was shifty.

It was widely expected that Thornberry would press her sparring partner on customs union membership, as David Lidington is known to be one of those in government pushing for a softer Brexit. The Tories were fully expecting that approach; as Ken Clarke said later, the two were “trying to find detailed point on which they disagree” though could reach an agreement in five minutes if it were left to them.

It looks as if Lidington was indeed afraid that the Shadow Foreign Secretary would succeed in forcing a slip-up. The Cabinet Office minister employed the Prime Minister’s usual tactic of not answering any questions, and no repartee was forthcoming. Once the head-to-head with Thornberry was over, he was much more relaxed, with a strong and lengthy attack on the SNP government in response to Ian Blackford and an emotional reply to a colleague’s question concerning the recent house fire in Stafford.

Thornberry backed Article 50 extension.

Although Labour did whip for the Cooper amendment (advocating Article 50 extension if the government could not pass a deal by the end of February), and Keir Starmer has described a Brexit delay as “inevitable”, which practically everyone in Westminster agrees with, the opposition party is not entirely comfortable supporting the move. The fear remains that it risks confirming perceptions of a metropolitan Labour Party blocking Brexit, so Corbyn and his spokesman are careful to frame this outcome as being the fault of the government.

But Labour is getting more comfortable about explicitly endorsing it. Without caveats, Thornberry asked: “Does the minister not agree that the sensible, cautious thing to do at this late stage is to seek a temporary extension of Article 50, so that we have time to see whether negotiations succeed or if they do not to pursue a different plan?”.

Thornberry summed up the reasons for backing customs union membership.

“The technological solution is a non-starter. A permanent backstop will never be acceptable to the ERG or the DUP. The only solution that will actually work is a full customs union,” she argued. While a customs union will never be acceptable to the ERG/DUP either, it is key to getting Labour on board with the deal. Whether a Brexit deal passes is still a question of whether the non-binding political declaration on the UK’s future relationship with the EU is changed.

The Tory frontbench was more male and pale than ever. 

No effort was made to make up for the gender diversity usually provided by the Prime Minister, and the two sitting either side of Lidington couldn’t look more like Tory caricatures. It seems Conservative chair Brandon Lewis was ignoring his own advice again. In the i today, Katy Balls reveals that Lewis recently “helped give a presentation declaring that the key to winning the next election was by appealing to female voters”. He then attacked a Labour parliamentary candidate for appearing to ‘like’ a ‘dick pic’ on Twitter. (Sally Keeble says she was hacked.) And today Lewis helped give the impression that his party has not addressed its racial and gender diversity issues.