This week’s Prime Minister’s questions came just after Sir Kim Darroch announced his resignation.
Sir Kim reportedly quit after watching last night’s TV debate when Boris Johnson, the man most likely to replace Theresa May, threw him under the Presidential limo.
There were so many questions which could have and should have been asked about this.
Is the country’s next Prime Minister on the side of Britain’s civil servants or the lap dog of a bullying President?
Can the impartiality of our civil servants be guaranteed if Johnson were to become Prime Minister?
Does the Theresa May agree with Sir Kim’s assessment that Trump is “inept” and thin skinned?
If nothing else this was an opportunity for Jeremy Corbyn to score some early points against the person who is most likely to be his opponent in a few weeks time.
In the Labour leader’s defence the news of Sir Kim’s resignation had only just broken but a politician who can think on his feet would have at least ditched a couple of his prepared questions to seize this gift of an opportunity.
Instead his questions focused on the Conservative and Lib Dem cuts to legal aid.
Mr Corbyn repeatedly mentioned the Lib Dems and noted that it was Jo Swinson, the favourite to be the party’s next leader, who had steered the reforms through parliament.
This was telling. His target was the party which, thanks to its clear opposition to Brexit, has been stealing votes off Labour.
Mrs May ignored his question to talk about how she had introduce a race disparity audit which was an obscure reference point even by her standards.
The Prime Minister then switched the subject to Labour’s problems with anti-semitism before attacking the opposition for being the party of “tax, tax, tax.”
The cuts to legal aid should have been winning territory for the Labour leader. He came off second best.
