UK prime minister Keir Starmer needed some brighter moments during his weekly question time on Wednesday in the House of Commons, after the uncomfortable spectacle of his crying chancellor last week.
He got one at the expense of Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage.
Labour backbencher John Slinger asked Starmer about Britain’s Covid corruption commissioner, who investigates pandemic spending of public funds. Slinger asked for an update “in light of recent events”.
That was clearly aimed at former Reform MP James McMurdock, who resigned the party whip this week after it was alleged he got £70,000-worth of Covid business loans for two shell companies. He is the second MP Farage has lost recently, after Rupert Lowe.
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Starmer rose to his feet and promised to “go after the fraudsters, the grifters and the con artists, no matter where we find them”. With delicious timing, who was up next on the order paper to ask a question? An uncharacteristically chastened-looking Farage.
The Labour backbenches exploded into riotous laughter as the Reform leader stood to speak a few seconds after Starmer mentioned con artists.
“There’s a grifter if ever I saw one,” a Labour backbencher could be heard to roar above the din. From (last week’s) tears to, now, jeers poured on the head of his biggest rival, Starmer was certainly enjoying a better time of it than he had the previous Wednesday.
Farage, meanwhile, homed in on a more serious issue for the prime minister, and upon which the success or otherwise of this week’s UK-France summit will likely hinge: small boat crossings, and Starmer’s desperation for an asylum seeker returns deal with France.
France’s president Emmanuel Macron is in London for a three-day state visit this week. After Tuesday’s pomp and pageantry, both sides got down to business on Wednesday with a bilateral meeting between the two leaders in Downing Street.
In advance of the meeting, Macron’s officials briefed British media that if Starmer was to get his wish for a so-called “one in, one out” returns deal, the French president would have a few asks of his own. Britain, the French argued, must address the pull factors that make it such an attractive destination for asylum seekers, such as its leaky black market jobs situation and the perception that it has a generous welfare system.
The official British readout delivered later in the afternoon following the Downing Street lunch between the two leaders left some important clues that the French briefings of Macron’s thoughts were accurate.
“The leaders agreed tackling the threat of irregular migration and small boat crossings is a shared priority that requires shared solutions,” said Downing Street,
Then came the kicker that confirmed Macron had indeed pressed Starmer to make Britain less attractive to asylum seekers in the first place, and that might help solve the problem.
“The prime minister spoke of his government’s toughening of the system in the past year to ensure rules are respected and enforced, including a massive surge in illegal working arrests to end the false promise of jobs that are used to sell spaces on boats.”
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Downing Street said both leaders looked forward to making “concrete progress” on the issue at Thursday’s full summit, where Starmer is expected to line up opposite the French alongside some of his most senior ministers.
The number of small boat crossings has hit record levels this year, topping 21,000 so far and buoyed by splendid weather that makes the sailings easier.
Starmer badly needs a deal with the French to staunch the flow, or else Farage could end up having the last laugh when Reform targets Labour seats using concern about immigration as a weapon to bludgeon its rival.
