PM was supposed to be preparing his election excuses but took no damage from mediocre end-of-session clash
T
oday was never meant to have been this way. The plan had been to prorogue on Tuesday night ahead of next week’s elections and the state opening the week after. No need for Keir Starmer to face a last prime minister’s questions of the parliament. Time to catch his breath. Put his feet up. Recover from the near constant noise of the Peter Mandelson scandal and leadership challenges.
Start to prepare his excuses ahead of predicted losses. Pencil in a reshuffle. Some of his cabinet ministers were looking decidedly queasy on the government frontbench. Even the good ones. The chronicle of a death foretold. Always handy to have colleagues you can sacrifice to save your own skin. If only temporarily. When you are prime minister, every extra day in No 10 matters.
But situation normal all fucked up. For reasons no one fully clearly understands, prorogation got delayed until lunchtime on Wednesday. Even though the last bit of government legislation was completed late on Tuesday. Maybe the Tories dragged their heels just long enough to give Kemi Badenoch a bonus tilt at Keir. Maybe Labour messed up the timings without any help from the Tories. Either way, there was no way out. One more PMQs it was.
