Kemi Badenoch delivered a brutal put down of Angela Rayner at PMQs this lunchtime, demanding to know why she wasn’t present as business slam Labour’s job-stifling plans.
Taking to the dispatch box, Ms Badenoch cited a recent intervention by the head of biscuit firm McVities, who said it has become harder to understand what the case for investment in the UK is.
She joked: “So while the PM has been hobnobbing in Brazil, businesses have been struggling to digest his budget.
“Isn’t it the case that the employment rights bill shows that it is not only the ginger nut that is causing him problems!”
Keir Starmer claimed the government has secured “record investment from overseas” since coming to power, hitting out at Ms Badenoch for “carping from the sidelines”.
“We’re the ones growing the economy,” he added.
Ms Badenoch secured a major humiliation for Keir Starmer at the beginning of PMQs, when he notably refused to repeat Rachel Reeves’ promise from earlier in the week that there won’t be any further tax rises for businesses during this parliament.
Ms Badenoch asked Sir Keir to repeat the promise in parliament, where misleading the house is a grave offence.
He refused to do so, replying: “We set out our position at the Budget, we’re fixing the foundations and dealing with the £22 billion black hole that they left, I’m not going to write the next five years of Budgets here at this dispatch box.”
The Tory leader hit back: “He’s not fixing any foundations, he’s making everything worse!”
“The whole house will have heard him refuse to repeat the Chancellor’s pledge – a pledge as worthless as the manifesto promises that he’s talking about!”
She also suggested Keir Starmer should resign amid growing fury at the government, after a petition demanding a fresh general election saw 2.7 million voters back it.
During the astonishing PMQs battle, the Tory leader blasted that Labour are “making everything worse” with their tax and spend plans.
After Keir Starmer began asking whether the Tories would reverse his National Insurance hike Ms Badenoch shot back: “If he wants to know what Conservatives would do he should resign and find out!”
Referencing the viral petition, she added: “There’s a petition out there, 2 million people asking for him to go – he’s the one who doesn’t know how things work!
“It’s not governments who create growth, Mr Speaker, it’s business.”
Keir Starmer retorted that the Tories “haven’t got a clue what they’re doing”.
