Kate Devlin, Whitehall editor – ‘Andy Burnham seized the moment in a way Keir Starmer never did’
It was a sticky start for Andy Burnham in his first PMQs as prime minister. He seemed to stumble as he tried to answer Kemi Badenoch’s opening question – about what requests for spending he has turned down since entering No 10. But he found his feet with her second question. This allowed him to wax lyrically about cutting taxes (VAT on electricity bills and business rates for pubs, in case you had missed them). It seemed she had fallen into a classic trap, allowing her opponent to get out the message he wanted rather than keeping him on the ropes. And he grabbed the opportunity with gusto – in a way Keir Starmer never did. The Tory leader will have to watch out for that in their future encounters. At the start of PMQs she accused Mr Burnham of being a “people pleaser”. But he certainly failed to please her today.
David Maddox, political editor – ‘Kemi Badenoch appeared to struggle to work Andy Burnham out’
The winners of PMQs today were the MPs who all managed to get their meetings promised by the new prime minister as he tried to find his feet in the new job. Whether it was summits on wildfires or problems with building homes in Cornwall, Andy Burnham appeared to be up for a fireside chat. But in a flat first PMQs of the Burnham era, it was the new prime minister who came out on top in the key exchanges. His empathetic style is a stark contrast to the robotic rigidity of his predecessor Keir Starmer and it means he does not provide such an easy target. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch appeared to struggle to work out how to approach questioning Burnham or deal with someone who is actually willing to address her questions head on. That said, it did not take long for Mr Burnham to abandon the “no points scoring” approach – with a reminder of the Liz Truss government. Some things do not change.
John Rentoul, chief political commentator – ‘Fumbling Andy Burnham did just enough’
Kemi Badenoch would have won PMQs easily if she hadn’t made the mistake on Bank Holiday Monday of appointing a shadow chancellor who had been a Treasury minister at the time of Liz Truss’s mini-Budget. The Tory leader asked sharp questions about Labour’s instinct to spend, borrow and tax. Andy Burnham fumbled his replies, saying that he had saved money by ditching digital ID, that his government was “grounded in fiscal responsibility”, and that he had started his premiership by cutting taxes on electricity bills and pubs. But his main counter-attack was to point out that Badenoch had replaced Mel Stride, who criticised Truss’s mini-Budget, as shadow chancellor with Andrew Griffith, who helped write it. This was, as Badenoch pointed out, point scoring rather than problem solving – but it was a predictable response that will have some hold on public opinion. She has spiked her own guns.
Millie Cooke, political correspondent – ‘The real winner? Sir Ed Davey’
Today’s PMQs made one thing clear: Andy Burnham is going to put up more of a fight every week than Sir Keir Starmer did. The prime minister’s first PMQs was a strong one. Although we saw Burnham continue to kick the can down the road on questions of taxation and spending, he did a good job of batting off Kemi Badenoch’s attacks with charm and ease – a skillset that will doubtless see him regularly crowned winner of the weekly sparring match. Perhaps though, the real winner of PMQs was Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, who forced Burnham to face up to his decision to stick to Sir Keir’s red lines on Brexit – one of the only questions we saw Burnham quite obviously dodge.
Read MoreAndy Burnham has more in common with Liz Truss than he cares to admit
