Key points
Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn commemorated the Westminster terror attack a year ago, sent condolences to the family of the dead Red Arrows engineer and marked Kurdish new year before launching into a PMQs dominated by crisis-hit council finances.
Corbyn asked May whether the collapse of Northamptonshire council was the result of Conservative incompetence at a local level or at a national level. After May failed to answer the question, Corbyn said Northamptonshire had bragged that it was following a new model, then outsourced 96% of staff and was run like a private company, paying dividends. Now it had gone bust. Was the slash-and-burn model a good one?
May said a report on Northamptonshire council concluded that its failure was not a case of underfunding. Its core spending power was set to rise. She said the attack Corbyn was making, that it was all about underfunding, was not correct. (In fact, Corbyn specifically was not saying that.)
Corbyn said the collapse was caused by the Conservatives’ model, still used by Barnet borough council, where he said Capita held £500m worth of contracts and where more consultants were used every year while staff numbers were cut. He asked May whether it was right to prioritise tax cuts for the rich and big business over funding for social care, libraries and bin collections.
May said high earners were paying higher taxes than under Labour and said the shadow local government secretary had supported plans to prevent taxpayers from stopping council tax hikes.
Corbyn said his shadow minister colleague (who was heckling) supported councils. He quoted the Tory leader of Surrey council who said the government could not stand by while Rome burned.
May said council tax bills were lower under the Tories. She asked if Corbyn supported councils in Haringey, in Brighton and in Cornwall where the local Labour leaders were forced out because they wanted to build more homes and tackle antisemitism.
Corbyn said Labour councils built social housing while Conservative councils privatised. He moved on to rising business rates, asking why the government was tearing the heart out of local high streets.
May said the government was supporting local businesses and building homes. And yesterday two local Labour councillors joined the Tories, saying Labour had been taken over by the hard left.
Corbyn said even the government’s high street adviser Mary Portas said the government’s review was ineffective. Households and businesses paid more to get less.
May said the government was spending more on schools and the NHS than ever before, and added that Corbyn had not mentioned the unemployment figures released on Wednesday that showed the number of people in work was at a record high.
Snap verdict
Elections always add an edge to political debate. With the local elections only weeks away, Corbyn devoted all his questions to the state of local government.
He started very, very well, flooring May with a question about Tory-run Northamptonshire county council effectively going bust and whether the Tories nationally or locally were to blame, which led to May disingenuously claiming that he was blaming it all on central government underfunding. (He wasn’t, but her answer amounted to a tacit admission that it was the Tory performance locally that was to blame.)
After that, Corbyn deployed an array of quotes from Tory council leaders about council underfunding quite effectively (partly because the rift between the Conservatives in national government and in local government on the subject of council budgets is one of the under-reported stories in British politics).
But Corbyn’s PMQs second half was not as bold as his opening, and May mounted a spirited and largely successful fightback. The attack on putative Labour tax rises was a bit speculative, but her jibes about the centrist Labour council leaders being ousted by Momentum activists was effective (at least in the Commons, where self-interest means Labour MPs follow these stories especially closely) and her reference to the two defecting Labour councillors towards the end was a cheap but easy hit. So, overall, they both scored some runs, but no one prevailed overall.
Memorable lines
Corbyn on the effects of council cuts while tax goes up:
As people open their council tax bills, isn’t it clear what the Conservative message is? Pay more to get less.
May on Labour council leaders being forced out:
If you believe in good local services, want to see more homes built and want to tackle antisemitism, there is no place for you in the Labour party.
