Rishi Sunak mocked for losing to someone who was ‘beaten by lettuce’
British prime minister Rishi Sunak speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions (House of Commons/PA)
Rishi Sunak clashed with Keir Starmer for the first time in the Commons a day after being appointed Britain’s new prime minister.
Fresh from assembling a new cabinet, he was grilled over the controversial return of Suella Braverman as home secretary.
Mr Sunak and the Labour leader traded barbs about “never leaving north London” and about getting beaten by a lettuce in the lively session, cheered on by animated MPs.
Here are some of the key moments from the exchange.
Mr Starmer quipped that the new British prime minister had lost the last Tory leadership contest to Liz Truss, who was outlasted by a lettuce.
The Labour leader said: “Even his own side know he’s not on the side of working people. That’s why the only time he ran in a competitive election he got trounced by the former prime minister who herself got beaten by lettuce.
“So why doesn’t he put it to the test? Let working people have their say and call a general election.”
Mr Sunak’s predecessor resigned after only 44 days in the top job, with a lettuce recorded in a livestream by the lasting longer.
Mr Starmer offered a generous welcome to Mr Sunak, saying his appointment as “the first British-Asian prime minister is a significant moment in our national story”.
“It’s a reminder that for all the challenges we face as a country, Britain is a place where people of all races and all beliefs can fulfil their dreams,” he said.
MPs agreed with “hear, hear” as the Labour leader said “it’s part of what makes us all so proud to be British”.
But the warm introduction did not last long, with Mr Starmer going straight in with a pointed attack on Mr Sunak’s reappointment of Ms Braverman to the Home Office.
Asked whether it was right of her to resign last week for a breach of security, Mr Sunak said she “made an error of judgment but she recognised that, she raised the matter and she accepted her mistake”.
Not letting up, Mr Starmer then challenged him over whether officials raised concerns about her appointment.
But Mr Sunak dodged the question, leading Mr Starmer to accuse him of doing “a grubby deal” in order not to lose another leadership election.
“There’s a new Tory at the top but as always with them party first, country second,” he said.
Tory MPs were vociferous in their support for Mr Sunak, repeatedly shouting “more!”, in stark contrast to the glum mood during embattled Ms Truss’s final PMQs a week earlier.
They roared and bashed the benches so vigorously on his arrival that Speaker of the House Lindsay Hoyle cautioned them to “cheer him by all means” but “don’t damage the furniture”.
The noisy display signalled a party rallying around their new leader and apparently relieved to put the turbulent Truss era behind them.
Although Mr Sunak started the session wishing that his exchanges with Mr Starmer would be “serious and grown up” in a gentle swipe at Boris Johnson, he then went on to wheel out some of the jibes often uttered by his predecessor.
Mr Sunak claimed Mr Starmer “rarely leaves north London”, tried to stop Brexit and backed Jeremy Corbyn.
Aiming to contrast himself with his opponent, he said: “I told the truth for the good of the country. He told his party what it wanted to hear. Leadership is not selling fairy tales. It is confronting challenges.”
But when Mr Sunak accused Labour of being “soft on crime”, Mr Starmer took the opportunity to take another dig at Ms Braverman: “I ran the Crown Prosecution Service for five years … and I know firsthand how important it is that we have a home secretary whose integrity and professionalism are beyond question.”
Mr Starmer opted to confront Mr Sunak with a matter that dogged him as chancellor – his wife Akshata Murty’s previous “non-dom” status for tax purposes, an arrangement that reportedly saved her millions while the cost of living soared.
Calling on the government to get rid of the status, the Labour leader said: “I don’t need to explain to the prime minister how non-dom status works, he already knows all about that”.
The question appeared to take Mr Sunak, arguably the richest British prime minister with a fortune far larger than King Charles', somewhat by surprise.
Bringing up another awkward issue for Mr Sunak, Mr Starmer challenged him about a leaked video from over the summer in which the then-Tory leadership hopeful told party members in Tunbridge Wells that he had moved money from deprived areas to wealthy places like theirs instead.
Mr Sunak evaded the question about changing the funding formulas by saying there were deprived areas in “our rural communities, in our coastal communities and across the south”.
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