May 8th 2024.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faced a tough time during Prime Minister's Questions, fresh from the Tory party's disappointing results in the local elections. Leader of the Opposition Keir Starmer did not hold back in his criticism of Sunak, even going as far as calling him a "dodgy salesman". The tense atmosphere was further heightened by the defection of a Tory MP, Natalie Elphicke, to the Labour party just moments before PMQs began. This was yet another blow for the Prime Minister, as the Conservative party had suffered a loss of over 500 council seats in the previous week's elections.
Elphicke stated that there were two main reasons behind her decision to switch to Labour: the government's track record on housing and their handling of border security. She is not the only MP to have left the Tory party recently, as Dr. Dan Poulter also resigned over the "chaos" in the NHS, and Sunak's party also lost multiple mayoral races, including that of Andy Street in the West Midlands. Meanwhile, Labour celebrated their wins in several councils and mayoralties, including London, York, and North Yorkshire, which happens to include Sunak's own Richmond constituency. All of these factors combined made for a difficult and brutal PMQs for Sunak on Wednesday.
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Starmer wasted no time in starting the session by questioning the point of the current government, given the recent defections and losses. He pointed out that Sunak had been on the receiving end of some of the biggest swings in by-election history. He also pressed the Prime Minister on the rumors of a leadership challenge, asking how many more times the public and even his own party would have to reject him before he got the hint.
Sunak responded by reminding Starmer of advice from his own mentor, former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair had once said that while Starmer may be confident in local elections, it is the policies that matter in a general election. However, Starmer continued to taunt Sunak about Labour's victory in North Yorkshire, to which the Prime Minister retorted that the people of North Yorkshire value hard work, secure borders, lower taxes, and straightforward common sense, none of which they would get from a "virtue-signalling lawyer from North London".
Starmer fired back, pointing out that in the many places Sunak calls home, the British public had chosen Labour over the Tories in local elections. He even mentioned Southampton, whose football team Sunak supports, as well as Westminster's Downing Street and London's Kensington. He then made a sharp comment about how Sunak finally has something in common with the British public, as all of his neighbors seem to support the Labour party. Starmer concluded that the public has seen through Sunak's boasts, gimmicks, and smug smile and have realized that he is a "dodgy salesman" trying to sell them a dud.
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