PMQs: Starmer underlines the electoral risk of not reversing the mini-Budget

In the month since Liz Truss’ debut at Prime Minister’s Questions, the economic picture in the UK has worsened dramatically, largely as a result of the actions of her government. In the aftermath of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget, we have seen the pound crash to its lowest level to date against the dollar, soaring government borrowing costs and the Bank of England forced to take repeated emergency action to calm the markets.

During today’s PMQs, Keir Starmer emphasised the human impact of the economic turmoil created by the Chancellor’s fiscal statement, telling the story of two first-time buyers in Wolverhampton whose mortgage offer was withdrawn as a result of spiralling interest rates. The Labour leader asked the Prime Minister when she would stop “ducking responsibility” and “do the right thing” by scrapping the mini-Budget. He stressed that people are “worried sick” about “sky-rocketing” mortgage costs, telling the Commons: “They won’t forgive. They won’t forget – and nor should they.”

Truss had to pause at an unfortunate moment as a result of the noise in the chamber, cutting off her response after saying: “Mr Speaker, I’m genuinely unclear…” This fit quite neatly into Starmer’s argument that the Prime Minister is “lost in denial” about the mini-Budget and unaware of the anger it has caused among voters. The Labour leader emphasised how out-of-touch the government is, noting that Truss was still going ahead with £18bn of tax cuts for the “richest businesses” and had “gift-wrapped a stamp duty cut for landlords”. The Labour leader demanded: “Why does she expect working people to pick up the bill for her unfunded tax cuts for those at the top?”

Truss’ responses to Starmer all revolved around the same themes regardless of what the Labour leader’s actual question had been. She focused particularly on the fact that Labour’s energy bills plan covers the next six months, while the Tories’ proposal lasts for the next two years – conveniently ignoring the fact that the opposition proposed to fund their scheme through an expansion of the windfall tax on the huge profits of oil and gas companies, something the government has repeatedly refused to do, instead loading the costs of their plan on to the taxpayer.

One of Truss’ responses was noteworthy, however: asked by Starmer if she intended to stick to her promise during the Tory leadership contest not to cut public spending, Truss replied: “Absolutely.” Addressing the Tory benches behind the Prime Minister, the Labour leader said: “I hope they listened very very carefully to that last answer. Because other people will have listened very very carefully to it.”

Today’s PMQs was not the most exciting affair. Many of Labour’s attack lines on the mini-Budget have already been used in their repeated calls for a government U-turn on the plans. But Starmer underlined the anger among voters at the impact of the mini-Budget. In his final question, ostensibly aimed at Truss but surely intended for her Tory backbenchers, Starmer asked: “Does she think the public will ever forgive the Conservative Party if they keep on defending this madness and go ahead with their kamikaze Budget?” Labour’s current poll lead will certainly be making Tory MPs jittery about the next election – and Starmer used that to his full advantage today.