Keir Starmer will today face MPs at Prime Minister’s Questions for the first time since both parties suffered at the local elections last week.
Some 45 Labour MPs from Red Wall constituencies urged the Prime Minister to “act now” to win back voters in the North and Midlands in the wake of Reform’s surge in the local elections. Cuts to disability benefits and the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners have been blamed by spooked Labour MPs for voter unrest.
The PM will also face Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who will likely not want to focus too hard on Labour’s performance at local elections after her party suffered an even worse night, losing hundreds of seats to Reform UK. She could attack the PM on the details of the UK-India trade deal, which was announced yesterday.
The former Business Secretary and her party have claimed the deal will undercut British workers and said she refused a similar deal when she was in power. Labour has fiercely rejected the “absolutely false” criticism and said the Tories were “confused”.
Other options of Tory attack lines could include criticising the government on immigration, with small boats crossings continuing to rise. In a sign of their plans to ramp up a focus on immigration, the Conservatives are set to publish a proposed law calling for the automatic deportation of people who enter Britain via unauthorised routes.
Following his head-to-head with Ms Badenoch, Mr Starmer faces MPs from across political parties. It’s likely he could face some tough questions from his own MPs after a miserable set of local election results
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