Angela Rayner has accused the Conservatives of starting to “prepare for opposition” and obsess over niche culture war issues in a prime minister’s questions in which she faced up to Oliver Dowden for the first time. With Rishi Sunak on the way to Japan for the G7 summit, Dowden, who took over from Dominic Raab as deputy PM last month, took his place, with Rayner, as is the usual practice, filling in for Keir Starmer. “It’s a pleasure to welcome yet another deputy prime minister to the dispatch box, the third deputy I’ve faced in three years,” Rayner began, to laughter. “And you know what they say? The third time’s a charm.” The deputy Labour leader referenced the ongoing National Conservatism conference in Westminster, addressed by two cabinet ministers and a series of other Tory MPs, mocking its focus on culture war subjects. “It’s absolutely amazing that while the Labour party is preparing to govern with a majority, they have started to prepare for opposition,” Rayner said, noting that the Tory backbencher Miriam Cates had “criticised woke teaching for destroying children’s souls and causing self-harm and suicide”. Jacob Rees-Mogg had “really let the cat out the bag”, she added, by using his speech to describe a new law mandating photo IDs for all voters as a misplaced attempt to gerrymander elections. “While his party is preparing for opposition with their Trump tribute act conference over the road, Labour have focused on fixing the real problems facing British people,” Rayner said. “The reality is, after 13 years of Tory rule, they’re still lurching from crisis to crisis, and wallowing in their own mess. They can’t solve the crisis because they are the crisis.” Rayner pointed to the Conservatives’ big losses in this month’s local elections, recalling that Dowden had resigned as Boris Johnson’s party chair after the previous set of council voting. “I seem to remember that after the loss of 300 Conservative seats at last year’s local elections, the right honourable gentleman resigned, saying someone must take responsibility,” she said. “After thousands more Conservative councillors have been given the boot by voters, who does he think is responsible now?” Dowden responded with mockery of his own, referring to the supposedly fractious relationship between Rayner and Starmer with a topical daytime TV reference: “It’s all lovey-dovey on the surface, they turn it on for the cameras, but as soon as they’re off it’s a different story. They’re at each other’s throats. They’re the Phil and Holly of British politics.” He also joked about the idea that Starmer would seek a coalition with Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats if Labour failed to get a majority at the next election: “I was, though, expecting to face the Labour leader’s choice for the next deputy prime minister if they win the election. So I’m surprised that the Lib Dem leader isn’t taking questions.” What substantive issues were raised focused on NHS waiting lists and on child poverty, with Rayner castigating the government for its record on patients waiting months for procedures. “He appears to be claiming that 11,000 patients waiting more than 18 months is an achievement,” Rayner said. “The last Labour government reduced waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks. He can come back to me when he’s achieved that.”
When Tory MPs barracked her as she asked another question on waiting lists, Rayner interjected: “They don’t want to hear the question because they know the answer – they know the answer is that they failed the British people.” Dowden, for his part, reacted to one question on child poverty by noting his own modest upbringing: “This comprehensive school boy is not going to take any lectures from the party opposite about the lives of working people.”