During a fiery Prine Minister’s Questions (PMQs) Sir Keir Starmer hit out at Kemi Badenoch saying the Tories are heading into “brain dead oblivion.”
The Prime Minister said during PMQs that the Conservatives are a “dead walking party” as Starmer hit back at Badenoch after she dismissed trade deals with the US and India as “tiny tariff” agreements.
Badenoch said the UK is in a worse position now than it was a few months ago.
Badenoch told MPs in the House of Commons, “I’m very happy to welcome his tiny tariff deal, but the fact is it has put us in a worse position than we were in March. He should not overegg the pudding.”
Starmer replied, “I think she just said a tiny tariff deal. Can I suggest she gets the train to Solihull, two hours, go to speak to the workforce at JLR (Jaguar Land Rover), their families, their communities, to tell them she would rip up the deal that protects their jobs.
“And when she’s done that she might travel across to Scunthorpe and tell the steelworkers there she’s going to rip up the deal that saves their jobs, and then if she’s got time she can go up to Scotland and talk to the whisky distilleries, tell them she’d rip up the deal that’s creating 1,200 jobs for them, boosting their exports, and then come back here next week and tell us what reaction she got.”
He added, “What does she say she’ll do with the India deal? She wants to rip it up. The US deal that saves thousands upon thousands of jobs, what does she want to do? She wants to rip it up.
“The EU deal, good for our economy. She’s not even going to wait to see what it says.”
The Tory leader then said that unemployment is down by 10%, but then Labour MP Jake Richards said that number is incorrect.
Starmer said, “(Mrs Badenoch) comes here every week to talk the country down. We’ve got 200,000 new jobs, record investment, four interest rates cuts. Contrast that to the disastrous Liz Truss mini-budget, inflation through the roof and a £22 billion black hole.”
Mrs Badenoch responded: “I’m not sure the Prime Minister even knew that unemployment was up, but there’s no point in him blaming everyone else.
“The fact is, Conservatives reduced the deficit every year until the pandemic, more than doubled the personal allowance, we left four million extra jobs, tackled the post-pandemic inflation spike and left the fastest-growing economy in the G7.
“Let’s talk about what is happening today. Let’s look at Beales, 180-year-old department store in Dorset. They survived two world wars and the winter of discontent, but they couldn’t survive this Labour Government. Beales is having, and I quote, ‘a Rachel Reeves closing down sale’.
“What does the Prime Minister have to say to all the people who have lost their jobs?”
Sir Keir said, “She must be the only person left in the country who thinks the economy was booming after the last government.
“We’ve created new jobs, record investment, trade deals that they tried, the India deal, I think they tried for eight years and failed. We did that deal. They talked about a US deal. We did that deal.”
He added, “A once great political party is sliding into brain-dead oblivion.”
The Conservative leader batted back, “Labour always forgets that it is not government that creates growth, it is business that creates growth, and businesses are closing, and they are blaming him and his Chancellor.
“There are 100,000 fewer jobs – hospices, charities, nurseries, they are facing bills from the jobs tax that they cannot afford. Even the unions say workers are being thrown on the scrapheap and all of this before his unemployment Bill makes hiring more expensive.
“When will he admit that Labour isn’t working?”
Sir Keir replied saying Mrs Badenoch was “so unserious”.
He said, “She was even reduced last week to calling the Indian government and accusing them of fake news, no wonder she did so badly as a trade secretary.
“Mr Speaker, the project for them is over, they’re sliding into oblivion, they’re a dead party walking.”
