PMQs: Rayner reuses old attack lines as MPs await autumn statement

With Rishi Sunak away at the G20 summit in Bali, it was the turn of his deputy Dominic Raab to take on Prime Minister’s Questions. As is customary, he faced off against Labour’s own deputy leader Angela Rayner. The bullying allegations currently facing the deputy Prime Minister featured, predictably, though Rayner arguably went harder on the absent Sunak than her opposite number – declaring that Raab had to “demand an investigation into himself because the Prime Minister is too weak to get a grip”. Rayner also reiterated Labour’s usual criticism of the government’s record on economic growth, using the effective – and topical – quip: “If there was a World Cup for growth, we wouldn’t even qualify.”

So despite there being a change of personnel at the despatch box this week, the focus of discussion was essential the same: the government’s handling of the economy and Sunak’s pledge to restore integrity at all levels of government. Rayner set up some of the lines on which Labour will look to attack the Tories following the long-awaited autumn statement tomorrow. She accused the government of “dragging its feet” in cracking down on multinationals using tax havens in order to “protect” company profits, demanding of Raab: “Does he accept that every pound hidden in tax havens is a pound lost from the pockets of working families?” She also raised the issue of non-dom tax status, saying that the Tories would have voters believe the UK’s economic problems are “out of their hands” when in fact “it’s working people paying the price for their choices”.

On integrity, Rayner ran through the successive scandals that have dogged Sunak’s brief premiership so far – from Home Secretary Suella Braverman breaching the ministerial code, to Gavin Williamson’s resignation as a cabinet minister over accusations of bullying, and now the allegations emerging about Raab’s conduct. “No ethics, no integrity and no mandate. And still no ethics adviser,” she told MPs. “When will they appoint an independent ethics adviser and drain the swamp?”

Rayner’s arguments largely rehashed what Labour has been saying for weeks – and in some instances, months – about this government. With the big political drama of the week, the autumn statement, not taking place until tomorrow, today’s PMQs was unsurprisingly somewhat anti-climatic. There has been much speculation about the contents of the government’s latest fiscal plan, and there will be considerable pressure on Labour to push back strongly on what has already been dubbed “austerity 2.0”. Until the exact measures are confirmed, however, the opposition remains in something of a holding pattern, reliant on attack lines it has used many times before.