'Why did she wobble so much?' | PMQs analysed

What else did you make of that? Well, James, I thought that it was quite an interesting performance for Kemi Badenoch, frankly, not one of her best. She started out very strong. She, as I thought she might, accused Burnham of disinformation, of undermining democracy, with his slight gaffe on saying that Russia interfered with... I'm going to push back again on this, because I appreciate that the right-wing newspapers have described it as a gaffe, but he literally said interference, and everyone has confirmed interference. He never said influence and everyone is saying because there wasn't any influence, he made a mistake by saying interference. He should have possibly added the word attempted in there or unsuccessful. No, because there was interference. But if it didn't change the result... Then there wasn't influence. Indeed, it wasn't successful. Look, the Prime Minister was misconstrued generally and Number 10 did have to say that there was no successful interference. This was something that took Number 10 a while. It took up a lot of time at the lobby briefing on Monday and Kemi Badenoch went in on that. She also, as I thought she might, spoke about defence. But then she sort of got tripped up by Andy Burnham when he said that she is not currently the world leading authority on defence, partly because of an interview with our colleague Nick Ferrari. There's quite a few people picking up on the fact, Nick's my jokes for his conference speech, but name checks Nick Ferrari during PMQs. This is not how to win friends and influence people. But it was an extremely good interview and extremely embarrassing for Kemi Badenoch. Why did she wobble so much? Because I thought she was doing particularly well up until then. And it was almost a game of two halves. As soon as he said the world-leading authority on defence, perhaps knowing what was coming, she moved back to petulant mode. I think one thing we need to remember for Kemi Badenoch's current performance at Prime Minister's Questions is she's always gone up against Keir Starmer and he does not have the sort of confidence at the dispatch box, the, you know, sorry if this sounds very mean, but the wittiness that Andy Burnham does, the sort of ability to say these slightly cutting remarks. She's used to holding those cards. She's used to being the person that can be a little bit mean, sharp, and Keir Starmer sort of sat there and took it a little bit and then answered it in a very procedural way. I think she's still getting used to this dance with Andy Burnham where she's almost getting a taste of her own medicine and, frankly, I don't think she liked it. We also got from Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, who yesterday faced off a very unsuccessful coup attempt by one of his MPs. He is still the leader of the Liberal Democrats. Doesn't look like that's changing any time soon. Well, he spoke about social care. He was answering almost Andy Burnham's Labour conference speech where he announced this national care service, Ed Davey welcoming that and asking when there will be the next round of cross-party talks. And oddly, from a prime minister, we actually got an answer. Andy Burnham said they would be the end of the year, but by the end of the year, excuse me, and hopefully this month. He said, which I thought was interesting, that they would be open to all parties. The last cross-party talks were open to the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives, the Green Party and Reform were a little bit upset about that. but Ed Davey sort of smiling through louder cheers than normal and louder groans than normal and asking a question that he has known very well for being almost an authority of in the House of Commons. Yeah, it's strange he doesn't get more sort of mileage out of being the most persistent critic of Donald Trump because, of course, critics of Donald Trump are currently in the process of being proved right about almost anything. In conclusion, Bethany, he kind of had his cake and at it there, Burnham, it occurs to me, because he did, I thought, a rather powerful piece towards the end, praising Kemi Badenoch for pointing out the bigotry and general hideousness of Reform, particularly. I forget which one of them it was that was laying down the law on who can and who can't be English. Suella Braverman. Was it? And of course it was. And then, but also he did the point scoring thing that he said he wasn't going to do because, you know, taking the mickey out of her for being a supposed world authority on defence reminding her that she hadn't read the Russia report. James has been in touch about that. He said, Kemi Badenoch did not read the Russia report. Say what you like about Dominic Raab, but at least he claimed to have skimmed through some of the Good Friday agreement. He kind of pulled that off, actually. He was point scoring, and then he sort of showed us a little bit of the kind of politics he professes to prefer as well, which is in the spirit of Joe Cox as we prepare to mark the anniversary of David Amess's death yesterday. It's the things that we have in common rather than the things that set us apart. Do you think he is completely authentic in this desire for a slightly less punch-and-judy politics? I think it's fair to say that he enjoyed the fattier parts of this Prime Minister's question. This is only his third session at Prime Minister's Question. And one thing that I think is really interesting that we don't see from a lot of politicians is Andy Burnham is quite flexible. So, as you say, he can do this punch and Judy shtick. He can be quite cutting, saying things like, you know, apologies, Miss Badenoch, if you're not the world leading authority on defence. And then he can make a very moving remark, as you say, about one of the things that was really lauded in Kemi Badenoch's Conservative Party speech, which was saying that she kind of rallies against this concept that if you don't have long English heritage, you're not English. She said quite movingly about her mixed race children. She doesn't want them ever to consider themselves not English. And he can kind of switch. I don't think Kemi Badenoch can. She absolutely can do that more friendly, nicer element of politics. We saw that in Keir Starmer's final prime minister's questions, where she gave thanks to Keir Starmer's family for the support that they gave him as prime minister. She can do different modes of politics, but almost in chapters. each week has to be different not in different minutes is Andy Burnham uh genuine about the type of politics i think he definitely wants it but that doesn't mean that that's the only thing he enjoys indeed i think that's really clever actually that she's sort of strong in a compartment but weak at moving from compartment to compartment 12 33 is the time congratulations that you've peaked now you realize that you're never going to hit those marks again with successful predictions of what comes up in PMQs but i want you to take that as a challenge Bethany not an admonishment Thank you.