Keir Starmer told Kemi Badenoch she was being ‘tedious’ after he accused her of being unable to ditch her script and listen to his answers at Prime Minister’s Questions
PMQs: Keir Starmer berates Kemi saying ‘this is getting tedious’
Keir Starmer told Kemi Badenoch she was being “tedious” after accusing her of being unable to ditch her script and listen to his answers at PMQs.
The tense exchange started after the Tory leader criticised that a family who fled war-torn Gaza had been granted the right to live in Britain through the the Ukraine refugee scheme. She said the decision by a judge was “completely wrong” and asked the PM is the government was planning to appeal.
It triggered a long back and forth between the pair in which Mr Starmer accused Ms Badenoch of not knowing the facts and not listening to his answers. “I know the script doesn’t allow any adaptation but this is getting tedious,” he told her, in a moment that drew supportive jeers from Labour MPs.
The grim row saw Ms Badenoch speak flippantly about the plight refugees, saying millions of people are in terrible situations all around the world and “we can’t help them all and we certainly can’t bring them all here”. She called on the PM to stop the “conveyor belt” of people arriving in the UK, getting a passport and bringing family members with them.
Asked if there was going to be an appeal, Mr Starmer said: “I do not agree with the decision. She’s right it’s the wrong decision. But she hasn’t quite done her homework because the decision in question was taken under the last government… let me be clear it should be Parliament that makes the rules on immigration. It should be the government that makes the policy. That is the principle and the Home Secretary is already looking at the legal loophole that we need to close in this case.”
Ms Badenoch told him the courts made the decision and accused him of not properly answering her question. “If the Prime Minister was on top of his brief, perhaps he’d be able to answer some questions,” she said. The row went on with the pair both repeatedly accusing the other of not knowing the details of the refugee case.
A furious Mr Starmer, after repeatedly saying ministers were reviewing the case, said: “She asked me if I was going to change the law and close the loophole in question, I said yes. She asked again me in question two, I said yes. She asked again me in question three, it’s still yes.”
Ms Badenoch replied: “He didn’t listen to question one. I asked if he would appeal the decision. He did not answer that. He’s not listening. He’s too busy defending the international human rights law framework. ” He asked him if the Government will make getting a passport “a privilege not a right”. But Mr Starmer hit back at the Tories’ record: “They presided over record high levels of immigration… it was a one nation experiment in open borders and she was the cheerleader.”
In the Palestinian family’s case, a judge highlighted that the family’s youngest children, now aged seven and nine, are “at a high risk of death or serious injury on a daily basis” and that it is “overwhelmingly” in their best interests to be in a safe or safer environment with their family. The Home Office contested the claims but a judge said evidence shows the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains “exceptionally dangerous” and “dire”.
A Home Office spokesman said: “The Home Office contested this claim rigorously at both the first and upper tier tribunal. The latter court ruled against us on the narrow facts of this specific case. Nevertheless, we are clear that there is no resettlement route from Gaza and we will continue to contest any future claims that do not meet our rules.”
