PMQs: Corbyn embraces capitalism
Another confusing day in Westminster, as the farthest left opposition we’ve ever seen suddenly turned champion of Big Business.
It was unsurprisingly AirBus and BMW that were the subject of this week’s PMQ’s tedium, with both companies threatening to end production in the UK in the case of a no deal scenario.
Airbus supports 110,000 jobs in the UK, and a no deal would make the company reconsider its investments, Corbyn said. So, will May take the “phoney threat” out of the picture? What happened to the Tories being the party that supported business?
May said her government has always backed business. The Tories, after all, have always been the backbone of economic prosperity, she said. And, in the only instance that either of the pair demonstrated even a modicum of rhetorical flair, she told Corbyn that he must decide whether to back business or overthrow capitalism – he can’t do both.
May’s emphatic if empty statement that her government has always backed business amounts to a complete rejection of Boris’ most recent soundbite: ‘f*** business.’ Somehow, I doubt he cares.
In a remarkably surreal moment Theresa May used a line from a recent Unite statement to attack Corbyn. It was equally as surreal to see card carrying anti-capitalist Jeremy Corbyn criticising the Tories for failing to support business.
I know they always say that your views get more right wing as you get older, but I’m sure the revolutionary 68-year-old Corbyn would be so let down to see 69-year-old Corbyn capitulating to capitalism’s warm embrace.
And as for Theresa using a line from a Unite statement? Well, now that she’s in an insecure job, she’s probably just started to realise the value of unions.
But, as always, nothing really happened. There was some Tory jeering, there were the classic shouts of “where’s Boris” from the opposition benches. But this was a resounding draw. May changed the subject too much, Jez was too weak to commit to one line of questioning. He did have one good line at the end, twisting May’s favourite dictum and telling the chamber that no deal is a bad deal. But May was not phased. She’s not flashy but she plods along with an admirable stoicism.
It was boring, it always is.