Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer row over former leaders at angry PMQs
- Published
Sir Keir Starmer raises the suspension of former Conservative Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson.
There were angry clashes at Prime Minister's Questions, as the main party leaders rowed about the records of their predecessors.
Labour's Keir Starmer said Rishi Sunak should take action over comments former PM Liz Truss made at a conference.
Sir Keir accused her of "slagging off and undermining Britain" during an event in the United States.
In return, Mr Sunak called him "spineless" and "utterly shameless" for serving under Jeremy Corbyn.
He added this meant the Labour leader had failed to take action while "while antisemitism ran rife in his party" during his predecessor's tenure.
The latest bout of mud-slinging at PMQs began when Sir Keir mocked Ms Truss for comments she made at a gathering of US conservatives last week.
The former prime minister told the event that she had faced a "huge establishment backlash" during her 49-day premiership from various government agencies and the Bank of England.
The Labour leader accused her of claiming she was "sabotaged by the deep state", quipping that it showed the Conservatives had become the "political wing of the Flat Earth Society".
He also criticised Ms Truss for remaining "silent" whilst another speaker at the conference, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, described anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson as a "hero". Ms Truss did not respond to questions about the incident on Wednesday.
"Why is he allowing her to stand as a Tory MP at the next election?" Sir Keir added.
Corbyn legacy
Mr Sunak replied that he didn't believe "a single [MP]" supported Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who founded the far-right English Defence League.
And in what is becoming a familiar move at PMQs, he sought to turn the tables on Sir Keir by highlighting his stint as a shadow cabinet minister under Mr Corbyn.
The party has barred its former leader from standing as a Labour candidate at the next election after his response to a highly critical report into antisemitism within the party during his tenure.
"If he wants to talk about former leaders and predecessors, the whole country knows his record... because he sat there while antisemitism ran rife in his party," the prime minister added.
He said other Labour frontbenchers had refused to serve under Mr Corbyn, but Sir Keir had not, because he was "spineless, hopeless and utterly shameless".
As the angry exchanges continued, the Labour leader shot back that he had "changed my party for the better" while Mr Sunak was "being changed by his party".
With the decibel level increasing, some MPs gesticulated towards Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle to urge him to step in and calm the debate down.
But Sir Lindsay, who is facing down calls to quit as Speaker over his handling of a chaotic debate on Gaza last week, did not intervene in the way he normally does to quieten the chamber.
'Foil-hat brigade'
Mr Sunak then took this as his cue to bring up Thursday's by-election in Rochdale, where Labour has withdrawn support from its candidate after he allegedly told a party meeting Israel had "allowed" Hamas to attack it as a pretext to invade Gaza.
He criticised the Labour leader for his initial decision to stand by Azhar Ali, adding he had backed him "for days" before then pulling support when more of his comments came to light.
Mr Ali, who subsequently apologised for the comments, is still standing in the contest. You can find here a full list of the by-election candidates.
The Labour leader also accused the Conservatives of dancing to a "tune" set by former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, whose Reform UK party has been challenging the Tories from the right on issues including immigration.
"The prime minister has lost control of his party to the hordes of malcontents, the tin-foil-hat brigade over there," he added.
Mr Sunak did not respond directly, instead celebrating the the Conservatives' record of diversity among its leaders.
Mr Farage, who co-founded Reform and is its honorary president, replied on X, formerly Twitter, that "millions of Labour voters" agreed with him, rather than Sir Keir, on "stopping mass migration and our increasingly unrecognisable cities".