Sometimes prime minister’s questions are as notable for the topics that the leader of the opposition doesn’t ask about as for the ones she does. So you have to assume that Kemi Badenoch now realises she was on the wrong side of public opinion on the weekend’s protests and the government’s decision to impose sanctions on Israeli illegal settlements. I guess it’s hard to be too vocal when you fundamentally agree with the rioters.
And maybe she has noticed that many of her own party are a little queasy about Palestinian land being seized and people being killed. And no reaction from the US about the sanctions. Instead, Kemi chose to rehash last week’s questions on defence.
It didn’t end well then, and it didn’t end well now. Rather, it exposed Kemi’s fundamental limitations. She appears blindsided by Andy Burnham’s self-invention as Mr Reasonable.
The man who listens to the questions and attempts to give an honest answer. The man who repeatedly asks her to step back from point-scoring and invites her to work with him. This is a problem for the Conservative leader.
Not only does she have an inability to work with anyone, her whole shtick is point scoring. Against Keir Starmer this didn’t seem to matter so much, but Burnham’s more open affability exposes her as an opportunist. She has no real investment in the questions she asks.
They are only a means to an end. A chance to expose some weakness in the government. Kemi isn’t really bothered if people go homeless or we don’t spend 3% of GDP on defence as she is going to be OK either way.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
