Rishi Sunak today accused Sir Keir Starmer of “typical political posturing” in a fiery PMQs session. The Labour leader grilled the Prime Minister on housebuilding, claiming it has fallen to its lowest level in 75 years.
But Mr Sunak hit back at Sir Keir over Labour’s “absurd” energy policy.
The PM said: “He talks about investing for the long-term of our country and that’s important when it comes to energy security.
“But Labour’s policy is to oppose any new oil and gas licences in the North Sea.
“It is an absurd policy that would see us paying billions to countries abroad for our energy while shipping it here with twice the carbon emissions.
“It’s typical political posturing, it’s bad for the economy, it’s bad for our security, just like the Labour party.”
However, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle ticked Mr Sunak off for changing the topic prompting laughter from MPs.
He said: “Because of the noise I don’t think the Prime Minister was hearing the question because I do think it was on housebuilding.”
Mr Sunak also said Sir Keir should stop making “inflationary, unfunded spending commitments”.
The Labour leader asked: “After 13 years of Tory failure, the average family in Britain will be poorer than the average family in Poland by 2030. That’s a shocking state of affairs.
“If the Tories limp on in Government we are going to see a generation of young people learning to say Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in Polish, aren’t we?”
The Prime Minister replied: “It’s clear to everyone that the biggest impact on households living standards is the energy prices that we’re suffering at the moment as a result of an illegal war in Ukraine.
“And I just remind the honourable gentleman what we are doing to ease people through that.
“Because of our energy price guarantee, right now, the Government is paying over half of a typical household energy bill, saving households right now £1,000. It is one of the most generous support schemes globally.”
The Prime Minister added: “But if he’s concerned about the cost of living, what he should do is stop making inflationary, unfunded spending commitments and back our plan to halve inflation.”
