Rishi Sunak humiliates Starmer’s two-faced strategy at his first PMQs

Rishi Sunak took aim at Sir Keir Starmer’s personal record at PMQs (Image: PARLIAMENT.TV)Triumphant Rishi Sunak had Tory MPs cheering at PMQs as he warned Sir Keir Starmer cannot be trusted to lead the country.The new Prime Minister vowed to tell truth to hard-working Britons and sought to draw a line under the months of chaos that have characterised the Conservative party in recent months.Hitting out Sir Keir, he warned his opposite number had flip-flopped on Brexit and on the policies he put forward when he was seeking to become Labour leader in 2020.Mr Sunak said to the roars of Tory MPs in the Commons: “I told the truth for the good of the country, he told his party what it wanted to hear.”Leadership is not selling fairy tales, it is confronting challenges, and that is the leadership the British people will get from this Government.”Accusing Sir Keir of putting “party first and country second” the Prime Minister demanded the Labour leader “explain to us why it was a few years ago he was supporting” Jeremy Corbyn.Mr Sunak reiterated that “mistakes were made” by Liz Truss when she was in No10 but promised to make the “difficult decisions” necessary in order to restore “economic confidence and stability”.Warning of tough times ahead, he added: “My record is clear, when times are difficult in this country I will always protect the most vulnerable, that is the values of our compassionate party. We did it in Covid and we will do that again.”Shortly before PMQs Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had t announced that his Halloween budget setting out the measures to get the UK’s deficit under control was being delayed to November 17 to take account of the very latest economic forecasts.More to follow…