PMQs: Starmer plans for the future as he turns the spotlight on Sunak and Zahawi

Prime Minister’s Questions took place this afternoon overshadowed by the spectre of the ongoing Tory leadership election. This is likely to be Boris Johnson’s penultimate session – who knows who Keir Starmer will be standing opposite next? The Labour leader’s money appears to be on either Rishi Sunak or Nadhim Zahawi, as he singled both out for criticism – shining the spotlight on their tax dealings.

Starmer asked Johnson if he agreed that it is time to scrap the “absurd” non-dom status – the tax-saving arrangement (controversially used by Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty) that allows people to escape paying UK income tax. A source close to Zahawi has said he and his wife have never claimed the status, but the new Chancellor is facing separate criticism over his tax affairs. He has been urged to explain the financial arrangements of his family trust, an offshore firm – Balshore Investments in Gibraltar. Starmer emphasised the risk posed by offshore schemes as a means for people to avoid paying tax, describing Zahawi as the “member for Stratford and Gibraltar” to hammer his point home.

Johnson praised the eight “brilliant” contenders vying to be his successor, arguing that any one of them will “wipe the floor” with Starmer – or “Captain crash-a-rooney snoozefest”, the Prime Minister’s insult of choice today. Starmer shot back that Johnson had been saying all week he wants “revenge” on those who forced him out. “If he really wants to hit them where it hurts, he should tighten the rules on tax avoidance,” he joked.

Starmer highlighted that Tory leadership candidates have promised £330bn of spending. Echoing his Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Starmer noted: “Sadly, they haven’t found time to explain how they’re paying for it, even though one of them’s the Chancellor and another one was Chancellor until a week ago.” Johnson pushed back on this criticism, telling MPs that Labour has made £94bn of public spending commitments during Starmer’s tenure, which he claimed would lead to “thousands of pounds of extra taxation for every family in the country”.

Homing in on Sunak (once considered a rising star and natural Johnson successor under the mantle ‘Dishy Rishi’) Starmer pointed out the irony of the leadership hopeful’s promise to rebuild the economy – remarking on the “Johnsonian brass-neckery”, and adding: “Can the Prime Minister think of any jobs his former Chancellor may have had that mean he bears some responsibility for an economy that he now claims is broken?” Johnson replied with a personal attack, thanking Starmer for the “style in which he’s conducted himself” during these sessions and describing him as “considerably less lethal” than many other MPs.

Johnson’s contributions are somewhat void, however, given his impending exit. The Labour leader is already looking beyond him. His performance today shows the basis on which he will critique Sunak and Zahawi if either of them emerges victorious. He made sure to implicate both men in the current administration; making sure the future Prime Minister cannot wash their grubby hands of the past two years and the catastrophe that has been Boris Johnson.