Starmer condemned for telling MP ‘she talks rubbish’
Sir Keir Starmer should have reassured and explained his immigration policy to a senior Welsh MP rather than telling her “you’re rubbish”, Labour peer Harriet Harman said.
Speaking to Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Harriet Harman criticised the prime minister for telling Plaid Cymru Westminster leader Liz Saville Roberts during PMQs “she talks rubbish” after she called him out for using “island of strangers” in his immigration speech on Monday.
Baroness Harman said: “He should have actually explained ‘look, this is what we’re getting at. We’re it’s a communitarian message, it’s about neighbourliness, it’s about integration’.
“And he should have done that and reassured her and explained rather than just slapping her down.
“I just think to call across the chamber, ‘you’re rubbish’ – I think a prime minister has the opportunity to be a bit more magisterial in that.”
She said she has “been that woman standing there asking the prime minister a heartfelt and serious question, and had the prime minister say, ‘you’re rubbish'”.
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Starmer’s speech divides opinion
Baroness Harman added: “I kind of went ‘ouch’ at that point, because I’ve been in that situation myself.
“I think people do want an explanation and he’s got an explanation and he should have done that rather than hit at the messenger.”
After Sir Keir used the phrase “island of strangers” while announcing a crackdown on immigration, fellow Labour MPs, businesses and industry reacted angrily.
The rhetoric was likened by some critics to Enoch Powell’s rivers of blood speech.
Ahead of PMQs on Wednesday, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden tried to move the debate away from Sir Keir’s controversial remarks.
“I think we should focus on the policy,” he told Sky News.
“Immigration has contributed a huge amount to the UK, it will in the future, I think the public want a sense of rules around it, that is what the prime minister was speaking about.”
He said the row was “overblown” and he might use the “island of strangers” phrase “depending on the context”.
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Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.
Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.
MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.
Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.
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Rachel Reeves’s fiscal dilemma
In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.
“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.
“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.
“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”
Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.
The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.
It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.
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Why was the chancellor crying at PMQs?
Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.
Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”
In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.
“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”
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Reeves is ‘totally’ up for the job
Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.
“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.
“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”
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