The looming departure of Theresa May means it is almost pointless for Jeremy Corbyn to ask her questions on domestic matters.
All Government business is on hold until the new Prime Minister comes along at the end of July.
So the Labour leader is justifiably using his few remaining exchanges with Mrs May to ask about issues which he personally cares about.
Last week it was Grenfell, this week it was arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
Several of Corbyn’s best PMQs have been when he speaks from the heart.
Today was not one of them.
This was an opportunity to shame the Prime Minister as an apologist for the Saudi regime.
It was, he could have reminded the House, one of the first countries she visited after taking power.
She also rolled out the red carpet for Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.
The Labour leader’s questions were detailed and earnest but somehow lacked an emotional punch.
He raised the recent high court judgement that criticised the Government for its lack of diligence in ascertaining if UK-made weapons were being used by the Saudis in the Yemen.
His best question was to ask the Prime Minister if she believed there were “serious ongoing violations of humanitarian law by Saudi Arabia” in Yemen.
Mrs May’s refusal to give a straight answer was predictable.
The Labour leader should have exploited this unwillingness to accept even this basic truth.
Instead he went into a detail explanation of the situation in the Yemen that was closer to a lecturer than a question.
This is not to diminish the horrors taking place but a series of shorter, sharper lines would have worked better such as: “Why is the Prime Minister still apologising for a regime that murders journalists and tortures political opponents?”
Mrs May’s first five responses were so bland they could have been read from an instruction manual for a timid civil servant.
In her final answer she decided to take the gloves off and mock Corbyn for backing Russia, the IRA and Iran but never “backing Britain.”
This was an easy hit for someone who knew her opponent had used his allocated questions and therefore had no chance to come back.
Later the Labour leader received the unlikely support of former Tory chief whip Andrew Mitchell who told the PM the UK should move to a greater position of neutrality on Saudi Arabia.
This validated his decision to press Mrs May on the issue.
