Stroppy Starmer in no mood to take Dip stick from Tories at PMQs | John Crace

Politics The Guardian By John Crace 01 Jul 2026 16:30 1 min read

Keir was angry and he no longer cared that much – and Kemi, for the first time in her life, backed down from a fight The search for the perfect present to welcome Andy Burnham to No 10 has been a worry for Keir Starmer. What do you give the man who seems to have everything? The support of his own MPs. The belief that Nigel Farage is beatable. The sense of being at ease with himself. Comfortable with who he is. The charisma. The ability to hold a room. Everything Keir would have wanted. He needed

Keir was angry and he no longer cared that much – and Kemi, for the first time in her life, backed down from a fight

The search for the perfect present to welcome Andy Burnham to No 10 has been a worry for Keir Starmer. What do you give the man who seems to have everything? The support of his own MPs. The belief that Nigel Farage is beatable. The sense of being at ease with himself. Comfortable with who he is. The charisma. The ability to hold a room. Everything Keir would have wanted.

He needed a small Welcome to Downing Street gift, a token of friendship. To show there was no bad feeling about losing his job. And then he had it. A £4.7bn shortfall in the defence investment plan. What better start to his time in office could the king of the north expect? It would be their own private billet-doux. Definitely no hard feelings. The very idea.

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