Fittingly, John Bercow’s last PMQs as Speaker was the longest in history. The divisive Speaker received a somewhat barbed tribute from Boris Johnson. Johnson thanked him for “ruthlessly adjudicating” the Commons, and added that though they disagreed in the past, Bercow “has been a great servant of Parliament.”
Boris thanked Bercow for his interferences in Brexit, “pounding every part of the chamber with your own forceful opinions like some tennis ball machine.”
But where Bercow frustrated Boris Johnson’s attempts to get Brexit over the line at every turn, he handed many a political gift to Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour leader’s tribute to Bercow reflected just that: “I want to thank you Mr Speaker for the way that you’ve used your speakership in the decade-long tenure you’ve had.”
“You’ve done so much to reform this House of Commons and our democracy is the stronger for the way that you’ve done it,” said Corbyn.
Bercow was not the only one enjoying a final PMQs. In the lead up to December’s election MPs have ben taking the opportunity to announce their intention to stand down – Father of the House Ken Clarke, most notably – and since the announcement of the election, they’ve been dropping like flies. Tory rebel Amber Rudd announced she was stepping down this morning, as did Theresa May’s former deputy David Lidington.
Johnson and Corbyn’s exchange had a feel of final showdown too.
Corbyn chose the NHS as his focus – an area where Labour traditionally easily out poll the Conservatives. He accused Johnson of selling out to Donald Trump with a deal that puts the NHS at risk. The NHS is underfunded, he said. It’s underperforming, it’s not safe in Tory hands, he claimed.
Corbyn’s approach is clear: Labour will not come out of an election fought solely on Brexit well – they lack the clarity of message that the Conservatives have alighted upon (“Get Brexit Done”) and could lose on both sides of the debate: Remainers think Corbyn’s a Brexiteer, and Brexiteers think Corbyn is a Remainer.
Corbyn will instead cast his net wider – talking about the NHS, schools, policing, local government and the environment. All of this is a ploy to deny Johnson a victory handed to him by a split Remain vote and clear, consistent messaging on Brexit.
Johnson thinks he can outfox Corbyn on those grounds too – despite the Conservatives aping the rhetoric of the Brexit Party to win the Leave vote, Johnson in the chamber today tried to hone in on the traditional Tory political calling card: that is, the Conservative Party is the party of the economy, jobs, growth, and fiscal responsibility. To that tune Johnson rebutted Corbyn’s claims that he was endangering the NHS, saying: “This is the party that supports wealth creation… For the last nine years this economy has been growing.” Meanwhile, Corbyn “would ruin this economy and ruin the ability to fund the NHS.” His government is putting in billions of pounds of funding into the NHS too, Johnson added.
And, where Corbyn accused Johnson of being in the pocket of Donald Trump, thanks to a so-called dodgy Brexit deal, Johnson retaliated by implying Corbyn was simply a Putin stooge, referencing Corbyn’s response to the Salisbury poisonings of last year. The pair fought it out almost as a proxy war between Russia and the United States.
As PMQs wound down, MPs finally filtered out of the chamber. Johnson and Corbyn had shown them a glimpse of what lies in store between now and December 12th.