In an alternative universe, the Tories monopolise chat about the NHS and Labour are defined by their financial credibility. Today’s PMQs gave us a glimpse of what that would look like. (Confusing, still boring).
The topic of the day? Superficially, the NHS. Actually, fiscal prudence.
Corbyn kicked off proceedings with the much beloved Brexit Dividend. He claimed that Theresa May acknowledged that ÂŁ20.5bn a year to boost the NHS would come from this dividend, economic growth and taxes.
“There can be no Brexit dividend before 2022, economic growth is the slowest since 2009 – so which taxes are going up?”
This essentially characterises the entire exchange. Theresa makes claims about the NHS funding, Corbyn asks about taxes, Theresa mocks Labour’s financial competence, Corbyn asks about taxes again. You could easily stop reading here, that’s everything that happened.
The pair played PMQs tennis over the figures. Corbyn claimed May had got the figures from the Brexit dividend so badly wrong that “they belong on the side of a bus.” (Cue raucous laughter from the opposition benchers).
What is it about MPs that make them so unfunny?
And then we move onto the tedious and oh-so-predictable mud slinging over who cares more about the NHS: the Tories are planning to pump more money into the NHS than Labour had promised in their manifesto. Corbyn says that’s not true, Phillip Hammond can be seen jeering in the background, May brings up the underfunded NHS in Wales, the tides go in, the tides go out, nothing changes, everything is predictable.
However, in what was a genuinely solid performance from Corbyn, he dug his heels in and pushed May about her funding claims. Where is this money going to come from, he asked repeatedly. It was fended off by May with a prevaricating statement about the Chancellor sorting it out, and followed by a series of jibes about Labour’s economic competence (what else?).
While his questions weren’t slick they were reasonable and pertinent and May didn’t have all the answers (It was however, slightly surreal to watch Jeremy Corbyn seemingly berate a Tory for raising taxes).
Today was hardly a classic of the genre but contained everything you expect from a PMQs; jibes, bad jokes about politics and a deafening lack of charisma from Corbyn. But this time, he came out on top.
