Week by week Rishi Sunak smiles his calm, good-natured smile and grows more dependably dull. At this rate he will have us all asleep by 12.30 each Wednesday afternoon.
“I don’t think he’s taken the time to read the detail,” he said as he batted away a question from Sir Keir Starmer about scrapping mandatory housing targets.
Ah yes, the detail. Important, no doubt, but something most of us would rather leave in the safe hands of Sunak.
Sir Keir tried a fancy phrase: “His backbenchers threatened him and as ever the blancmange Prime Minister wobbled.”
Not bad, if Sir Keir could, as it were, make the label stick. But Sunak batted his opponent away by reproaching him for “engaging in the petty personality politics not the substance”.
Ah yes, the substance. Important, no doubt, but something most of us would rather leave in the safe hands of Sunak.
Sir Keir took a swipe at Baroness Mone for allegedly ending up with nearly £30 million of taxpayers’ money.
Sunak said he was “shocked to read about the allegations” – an echo, for a moment, of the famous line in Casablanca when Claude Rains says: “I’m shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.”
But Sunak reverted to type by telling Sir Keir: “He’s a lawyer, he should know there’s a process in place.”
Stephen Flynn (pictured above) had his first outing as SNP leader. He paid tribute to the man he ousted, Ian Blackford, who was sitting just behind him, and went on to indicate that he possesses more brio than Blackford.
It seems more than possible that Flynn will outshine Sir Keir, but Sunak was not to be thrown off his stride, and said he “looks forward to a constructive debate”.