So whilst Keir Starmer may be as charismatic as a lukewarm block of unseasoned tofu…
Jonathan Pie
Sir Keir Starmer has just finished his first session of PMQs at the despatch box as Prime Minister after he led Labour to a stonking huge majority in the recent general election that his immediate predecessor Rishi Sunak rather foolishly called at the worst possible time for the Tory Party (or Conservative and Unionist Party to give them their full title).
The Tories were lucky to hold onto second in the seats tally in the Commons to become the lead party of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition with the Liberal Democrats taking the final podium spot. The Scottish Nationalists were absolutely destroyed going from 48 seats to 9 so I guess we won’t be seeing Stephen Flynn much past the debate on His Majesty’s Most Gracious Speech given during the State Opening of the Parliament.
Sadly, Nigel Farage has finally made it into Westminster at the *EIGHTH TIME* of asking some poor constituency to vote him into office so they can find out how useless he’ll be as a constituency MP when he’s off swanning round the world to cozy up to dictators or those who wish to become one. Had he failed to convince a majority in Clacton that they’d be better off with him off to London rather than underfoot in the constituency, that’d have been a modern record for futility at the ballot box!
Amidst all of this turmoil, tumult, and turnover in the House of Commons, Larry the Cat (Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office) has been the constant fixture in Whitehall ever since he took in his first Prime Minister as a boarder (or inmate!) at Number 10 Downing Street. It seems half a lifetime ago when David Cameron (now in the Lords so that he could be Rishi Sunak’s final Foreign Minister as he’d resigned from the Commons long ago) went into a coalition government with the Lib Dems back in 2010.
”Dodgy” Dave Cameron is now a Lord. I’m sure Dennis Skinner was just *SO* thrilled with that news.
Sir Keir Starmer is his sixth Prime Minister who will have to deal with the fact that Larry has a noticeably higher favourability and net favourability rating than the Prime Minister or his immediate predecessor.
Larry also has the distinction of being the first Chief Mouser to serve two monarchs since Peter III (1947-1964) with the passing of Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II.
Traditionally, the first session of Questions to the Prime Minister comes either during or soon after the debate on the King’s Speech before any real business of the new Parliament can be done properly and tends to be a much more genteel affair than the usual antics roughly akin to the throwing of the Christians to the lions.
By and large, this tradition was adhered to with Rishi Sunak offering the support of the Conservatives to the newly elected Labour government when it comes to foreign affairs though Starmer certainly missed a clear opportunity to take the mickey with Sunak who rather notoriously had a habit of asking questions during PMQs rather than answering them as is generally expected.
I’m sure that regular service and bloodletting will be on in the subsequent weeks as Labour settles in and starts governing in earnest.
Sir Keir will likely have a decidely different style as PM than Sunak or Johnson owing to his time in the Crown Prosecution Service but I have no doubt that his talents at eviscerating his opposition in debate will definitely be in evidence once this session of Parliament gets moving along the legislative programme.
But through it all, Larry remains as the constant fixture prowling about Number 10 and it’s environs and given his reputation for being relatively lazy with his mousing duties, I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to watch the comings and goings at that famous black lacquered door from his customary sedentary position! 🙂