New Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has demanded an apology from Sir Keir Starmer for David Lammy’s past attacks on Donald Trump in a “punchy” debut at Prime Minister’s Questions.
The new Tory leader opened her first clash with Sir Keir at the despatch box by urging him to say sorry to Trump on behalf of his Foreign Secretary, who once called the President-Elect a “neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath”.
Mr Lammy has so far refused to apologise for the remarks he made as a back-bench MP in 2018, insisting Trump has the “thickest of skins”.
Mr Lammy, has previously compared Trump to Hitler and called for his state visit to be canceled during his last presidency.
In her first PMQs as Tory leader on Wednesday (6 November), Ms Badenoch asked Mr Lammy: “The prime minister and the foreign secretary met him in September. Did the foreign secretary take that opportunity to apologise for making derogatory and scatological references, including, and I quote, ‘Trump is not only a woman-hating Neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath, he is also a profound threat to the international order’?”
In a string of questions challenging Sir Keir on his party’s relationship with the President-Elect, Mrs Badenoch asked the Prime Minister to say sorry for the “scatological” comments on Mr Lammy’s behalf.
She also urged him to invite Trump to address Parliament on his next visit to the UK to prove the Labour Government is above “student politics”.
Sir Keir dodged both questions, pointing to the fact he met Trump “just a few weeks ago for dinner”, which he found “very constructive”.
Mrs Badenoch later seized on the Prime Minister’s failure to provide definitive answers to her questions, accusing him of sticking to “scripted lines”.
“He does not answer the questions, just reads the lines the officials have prepared for him,” she said.
She also challenged Sir Keir on the “cruel family farms tax” in the Budget, pledging that her party would reverse the inheritance tax raid announced last week.
She added: “What can he say now to reassure the farming community who provide security for the whole nation?”
The clash was initially well received by Tory MPs, who claimed their new leader had Sir Keir “cornered on multiple fronts” during the “punchy” exchange.
Greg Smith, the MP for Mid Buckinghamshire, told The Telegraph: “Kemi’s debut as Leader of the Opposition had the PM cornered on multiple fronts.
“If Starmer thought he was in for an easy ride, he needs to think again – and is probably going to need more folders of notes.”
Another Tory MP said it was a “good first outing”, claiming that Sir Keir “clearly didn’t like some of the questions and had to resort to trotting out standard lines”, while a third described it as a “pretty punchy opening”.
Both Sir Keir and Mrs Badenoch opened their remarks by congratulating Trump on his election.
