The elephant in the room during PMQs

Telegraph

4 days ago

This session of Parliament drew to a close today not with a bang but with a whimper. It is unclear whether the relatively low-key nature of the final Prime Minister's Questions before the summer recess should be welcomed as a desperately needed sign of maturity or a further sign that MPs do not share the electorate's grievous pessimism about where the country is heading.
Despite the criticism that has been aimed at Kemi Badenoch from some in her party, she can take the credit for maintaining an adult level of discourse when so many of her predecessors have succumbed to the temptation to screech their condemnation across the opposing front benches.
She was controlled, relaxed and moderate in her tone, although she again wasted at least one of her six questions by asking Keir Starmer if he would spend his summer break considering how to reduce public borrowing – this does not reflect most people's chief political concerns at the moment.
The problem with the Prime Minister's responses – I will avoid, for reasons of accuracy, referring to them as answers – is that he is still behaving exactly as he did while he was in Ms Badenoch's place: campaigning, seeking to win votes and banging on at length about the Conservatives' record in office. As is now traditional, even Liz Truss got a name-check in Starmer's tired recitation of the opposition's sins.
Given the recent revelations about data leaks from the Ministry of Defence, and the super-injunction put in place by the Conservative Government in 2023 to hide ministers' embarrassment at having to offer political asylum to 24,000 Afghans, it is surprising that, aside from an opening reference to the scandal by the Prime Minister, the subject barely figured during the half hour. It was studiously avoided by Ms Badenoch.
Gaza and the Middle East still play a much larger role in the Commons than it does in the lives and conversations of the vast majority of those whom MPs actually represent. Today it was left to Sir Ed Davey to raise the matter, carefully and tactfully using his first question to express his disapproval of anti-Semitism.
And even as he did so, the viewer just knew that this was no more than a careful preparation for question number 2: this week's inevitable condemnation of Israel.
Let's face it: after a year in opposition, the Conservatives are still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following their shellacking at the general election and their continued third place in the polls thanks to the emergence of Reform UK as the party's nemesis.
And Labour are still trying to come to terms with just how difficult and unpopular governing actually is. On both sides of the House, the summer recess cannot come quickly enough.
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats still can't believe that after their own defenestration in the first three elections after the end of the Conservative-LibDem coalition, they have more MPs than ever. Reform still can't believe their poll lead has been sustained for almost a year. And a collection of independents and Gaza-obsessives are excitedly planning an unpredictable future under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn: Magic Grandpa 2.0, anyone?
The final PMQs before the summer recess was, if anything, an accurate snapshot of British politics in mid-2025: the main parties nervous about what comes next, the smaller parties looking forward to it. And we're only half way through the year.