"No matter how many relaunches and flip-flops he does, he will always be Mr Nobody."
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak endured yet another bruising PMQs this afternoon, as he was blasted as ‘Mr nobody’ by Labour leader Keir Starmer.
The Labour leader took aim at Sunak over his failed multiple resets and U-turns, as the Tory leader tries to prevent yet more infighting in his party and tries to turn his party’s fortunes around.
Starmer told Sunak: “Last year he started the year saying he was Mr Steady, then at his conference he was Mr Change, now he’s flipped back to Mr More-Of-The-Same. No matter how many relaunches and flip-flops he does, he will always be Mr Nobody.”
The party leaders clashed over a number of issues, including over immigration and the government’s Rwanda plan as well as over education and Sunak’s handling of the economy.
Sunak took the opportunity at PMQs to announce that the government will legislate to exonerate victims of Post Office Horizon scandal.
The move was welcomed by Starmer, who said: “People lost their lives, their liberty and their livelihood, and they’ve been waiting far too long for truth, for justice, for compensation.”
The Labour leader then bought up the government’s failures on immigration policy, accusing Sunak of not believing in the Rwanda “gimmick”, highlighting reports that Mr Sunak had reservations about the policy before taking on his current role.
It was reported last week that Sunak had significant doubts about the government’s scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda when he was chancellor. The BBC said it had seen documents suggesting the now prime minister believed hotels were “cheaper” than reception centres and that he was concerned about the costs of the Rwanda scheme.
The papers are from March 2022, one month before the plan was announced by Boris Johnson.
Sir Keir said: “Back in 2022 when Boris Johnson claimed he would send asylum seekers to Rwanda, one ambitious Tory MP had reservations.
“He agreed with Labour that it wouldn’t work. It was a waste of money, it was the latest in a long line of gimmicks. Does the Prime Minister know what happened to that MP?”
Mr Sunak replied: “What he refers to is a document that he hasn’t seen, I haven’t seen, and has been reported second-hand in a bunch of media newspapers.”
Sir Keir said Sunak had been “caught red-handed opposing the very thing that he has now made his flagship policy.
The Labour leader then slammed Sunak for being out of touch with voters.
He accused him of being a PM “who simply doesn’t get Britain”, “the view on the ground is very different to that from his private jet”.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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