The week of Liz Truss’ book release has gifted us many treats already. A clip of the former Prime Minister lambasting Labour for talking about ferrets has gone viral on X this morning.
During an interview yesterday, she struggled to present her no-doubt soon to be bestselling tome to the camera the right way round, and then the wrong way up.
And she even came in for criticism for filming a promotional video in what appeared to be a House of Commons corridor.
But despite a surfeit of salad-related attempts at humour during Prime Minister’s Questions this lunchtime, the first weekly sparring session in a month sadly failed to generate a smile.
Other than for Sunak, that is, who beamed from ear to ear as he hit back at Starmer’s opening jibe – referencing “the only unsigned copy” of Ten Years To Save The West – with his own pre-rehearsed riposte.
“All I would say is he ought to spend a bit less time reading that book, and a bit more time reading the deputy leader’s tax advice.” Fifteen Days Until The Local Elections, it sure is.
But despite the blue corner boasting inflation statistics, the police probe into Angela Rayner’s tax affairs, and even the Cass gender services review, up against the red corner’s obvious chance for mockery in the Tory rebellion over the smoking ban, PMQs failed to properly catch alight.
Ever the prosecutor – “I was a lawyer long enough to know when someone’s avoiding the question” – Starmer repeatedly gave the PM the chance to disavow Truss’ economic binfire.
And, well, take it he repeatedly did, insisting he “did have the stomach to argue out loud” against her ideas. It all got a bit ‘hell yes, I’m tough enough’ (Ed Miliband, circa 2015) as the King of the Nerds faced up to the Lettuce.
But Sunak pressed on: “I was right. I was right then. But I’m also right now.”
Thanks to the Sunday Times’ Tim Shipman, we already know the Prime Minister thinks he’s right, and just how much it bothers him that so many don’t seem to recognise it.
But he’ll be – rightly – pleased to know we think he takes the win this week…
