, though one could picture Gillian Keegan savaging a buffalo. But then, understandably, Sir Keir steered well clear of saying that the country was run by Indians. Perhaps the thing that most undermined Sir Keir's assumed gravitas was the insistence of the House – off the){kind=link}
Sir Keir Starmer was on ebullient form, but his gravitas contrasted with the barrage of bad puns in the Commons
In Westminster this week, you’d have been forgiven for thinking that an election had already happened. A noticeably filled out Keir Starmer was in an ebullient mood. Perhaps Labour snuck in a landslide whilst most of us were on holiday. Or, more likely given the state of Rishi Sunak’s September in-tray, they didn’t even need to bother with the formality.
As part of his avuncular impression of a prime minister, Sir Keir gestured at a grey-looking child who was dressed as an estate agent. “He’s already made history!” hooted Sir Keir, wafting a treacly grin in the direction of new Baby of the House Keir Mather. This was at least accurate – those summer by-elections seem like a million years ago.
He was flanked by his new shadow cabinet; Sir Keir’s definitive stroke against his party’s left flank meant he was surrounded by a selection of Blairite curios warmed up: an unfinished PFI project, an ID card, a smirking fox, a dead Iraqi civilian.
Meanwhile, back on the still just-about-government benches, Mr Sunak wanted to reassure parents that his administration “was doing everything it can” to deal with unsafe concrete in schools. Even the Prime Minister sounded like he knew that this wasn’t very reassuring at all: shades of Airplane! “We hope you’re enjoying your flight and is there a doctor with a specialism in cardiac arrest of pilots on board?”