Comment: Labour's tax promises lie in tatters
With some justification, critics of Kemi Badenoch have said she has failed to land many blows on Sir Keir Starmer at the dispatch box.
But during PMQs yesterday, seemingly without much effort, she managed to stitch him up like a kipper.
Quoting Labour's manifesto commitments on income tax, National Insurance, and VAT, she simply asked: "Does the Prime Minister still stand by his promises?" And the stuttering, long-winded reply, without making any pretence of trying to answer the question told us all we need to know. Looking tired and dejected, Rachel Reeves sat stony faced as the opposition benches roared with laughter at their discomfort.
The problem for the Prime Minister is that he over-promised during the election campaign, telling voters he could find more money for public services, end the crippling strikes, without anybody having to pay for it.
This rewarded him with a handsome majority, but that has also become his Achilles' heel. Now faced with dozens of mutinous backbenchers, many who will face the fight of their lives to hold onto their seats come the next election, he has been hamstrung from taking any of the necessary steps to bring public finances under control, leaving him with no option but to break his promises on tax.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But we wonder if, on reflection,. the Prime Minister privately wonders where a smaller majority might have been a price worth paying for only making promises he might be able to keep.