Keir Starmer is today detained overseas for a landmark Nato summit, once again preventing him from performing his duties at prime minister’s questions. In stepped Angela Rayner to command her second session in as many weeks. That makes her the most senior government minister to take questions from the despatch box since rebel MPs publicly broke cover on Monday.
Kemi Badenoch, according to Tory procedure, tapped shadow chancellor Mel Stride to take on the deputy prime minister. There was little doubt the Conservatives would centre on Labour’s welfare bill schism this afternoon; the selection of Stride, work and pensions secretary from 2022-2024, confirmed such speculation.
Across the Conservative frontbench, one could hardly choose two more contrasting commons performers than Stride and Chris Philp, who Rayner faced last week. The shadow chancellor strikes stoic poses at the despatch box — a perfect juxtaposition with the feverish, fidgety Philp. That is the essence of Badenoch’s strategy to “wrong foot” the deputy prime minister. Rayner cannot settle into a routine. (Still no Robert Jenrick, for those keeping count).
Stride’s task was to set a trap for the government. The Conservative position on the welfare bill — officially the Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill — was communicated yesterday via press release. Badenoch set “conditions” that, if met, would allow her party to support the bill at second reading. But the stances are deliberately insatiable: the Tories want the welfare budget to “come down”, the bill “to get people back into work”, and “no new tax rises in the autumn”.
The strategy ensured Stride had plenty of material to work with this afternoon. He cast the Conservative Party as the government’s last hope as it reckons with widespread rebellion.
Similarly, he looked to tease out any divergence — however slight — between Rayner’s position and the line to take from Downing Street. In other words: it was Stride’s job to cause mischief. That is something Badenoch has conspicuously failed to do in her time as opposition chief. The Tory leader’s brute-force approach, often bordering on the solipsistic, has consistently overlooked the Labour Party’s internal fault lines and delicate rivalries.
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In this way, Stride began by addressing an area of alleged consensus between himself and Rayner: “We both viscerally disagree with the government’s tax policy”.
It was a reference to the policy memo, reportedly penned by Rayner, that somehow found its way into the pages of the Telegraph ahead of the spending review earlier this year.
Stride added: “It is great to see [the deputy PM] standing in temporarily for the prime minister for the second week running — although I know there are many sitting behind her who wish this was a permanent arrangement.”
It was a neat opening gambit as Stride segued into a line of inquiry designed to foreground Labour’s fissures. He continued: “Indeed, you will find many of their names amongst the 122 who signed up to oppose the government’s welfare bill…
“Can she explain why she thinks that she is right and 122 of her own colleagues are wrong?”
Rayner referred to Stride as the latest Conservative “wannabe”, before insisting the government is “pressing ahead” with its reforms.
But the substance of her response was directed at the rebels sat behind her: “That is because we’re investing £1 billion into tailored employment support, [introducing] a ‘right to try’ to help more people back into work, and ending reassessments for the most severely disabled, who will never be able to work.”
In an apparent challenge to her party’s rebel forces, she added: “We won’t stand by and abandon millions of people trapped in the failing system left behind [by the Conservatives].”
It has been reported in recent weeks that Keir Starmer and his team plan to use PMQs to address the nation at large, having concluded that the frontbench exchange with the Conservative Party is irrelevant. Today, Rayner felt compelled to use her despatch box pulpit to preach to the (supposedly) already long-converted.
Stride’s showing was strong, in short, because it was designed to create headlines. He asked pointed questions that prompted newsy answers.
Badenoch thinks PMQs is about pummelling the government into submission. But the Tory leader’s combative questioning triggers the tribal instincts of Labour MPs. Stride’s strategy, as he pitted the Labour frontbench against its rebel backbenchers, was both more measured and more potent — steering clear of ideologically self-indulgent attacks that Rayner could leverage to rally her MPs.
Labour parliamentarians did not get into politics to wave through cuts to welfare. Angela Rayner, certainly, did not get into politics to promote cuts to welfare. Stride recognised these facts, and exploited them.
For his second question, he asked: “Can she at least assure the House that the vote on Tuesday will actually go ahead?”
Rayner responded simply: “We will go ahead on Tuesday.”
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The deputy prime minister thus quashed reports that there will be a delay to allow for negotiations between the government and its rebel forces. Of course, in forcing Labour’s stance onto the record, Stride sets up a future windfall if the government decides to pull the bill at the eleventh hour.
The shadow chancellor went on to address the Conservative Party’s “conditions”. “We will help her to get the bill through if…”, Stride began. He urged Rayner to make commitments he knew she couldn’t make.
The most notable of these was on tax. He asked the deputy prime minister to repeat the chancellor’s vow to “not come back for more” after the tax-raising autumn budget last year. He asked: “Can [Rayner] repeat to the House the chancellor’s promise not to raise taxes at the budget?”
The deputy prime minister described Stride’s inquiry as “a bit rich” but refused to answer. In that silence, Stride extracted another headline for the Labour-critical press: Deputy PM refuses to rule out tax rises.
Stride succeeded today because his questioning was clear and disciplined. He talked up the Tory “conditions” set out by CCHQ yesterday. But the Labour rebellion remained in the spotlight.
How often Starmer has emerged from his battles with Badenoch unscathed — even strengthened. That was not the case for Rayner this afternoon. The deputy prime minister looked exposed — caught between Stride’s criticisms and the objections of her own MPs.
Not one year in, and the government is barreling headlong towards a rebellion of historic proportions. The date, Rayner insists, is fixed. And concessions do not appear to be forthcoming.
Meanwhile, Starmer maintains he is unmovable on his “moral” reforms. But the Labour revolt is so significant as to appear unstoppable. A momentous mutiny awaits on Tuesday.
Josh Self is editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here and X here.
Politics.co.uk is the UK’s leading digital-only political website. Subscribe to our daily newsletter for all the latest news and analysis.
