{"id":638190,"date":"2025-12-17T13:23:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/638190\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T13:23:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T13:23:14","slug":"starmer-bats-away-badenochs-festive-barbs-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/638190\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer bats away Badenoch\u2019s festive barbs \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Jobbing off: <\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThe Prime Minister promised economic growth, but the only thing that\u2019s grown is his list of broken promises,\u201d Badenoch hit back. This list analogy was really gaining momentum. She lambasted rising unemployment under Labour, yet the PM was able to point to lower inactivity under his watch and, of course, mentioned the boost of falling inflation this morning.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Backhanded compliment: <\/strong>Starmer, no doubt desperate for a rest, used the imminent break to \u201ccongratulate\u201d Badenoch for breaking a record on the number of Tories defecting to Reform UK. \u201cThe question is who\u2019s next,\u201d he mused, enjoying the chance to focus on the Conservatives\u2019 threat to their right, rather than Labour\u2019s troubles to its left.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Clucking their tongues: <\/strong>Outraged at her Shadow Cabinet getting called non-entities, Badenoch kept the seasonal attacks going by labeling the Cabinet a \u201cbunch of turkeys.\u201d She said Starmer was no longer a caretaker PM but the \u201cundertaker prime minister.\u201d Bruising stuff. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Last orders: <\/strong>Amid all the metaphorical tinsel and bells of holly, Starmer adopted a lawyerly tone on Labour\u2019s support for pubs (even though many greasy spoons have banned Labour MPs) and condemned ongoing industrial action by resident doctors. But the Tory leader went out on (possibly) a new low by arguing Starmer \u201cdoesn\u2019t have the baubles\u201d to ban medical staff from striking and said all Labour MPs want \u201cis a new leader.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Grab the mince pies:<\/strong> The prime minister\u2019s speechwriters clearly did their homework with Starmer, not a natural on the humor front, comparing the Tories to \u201cThe Muppets Christmas Carol\u201d and joking that all the defections meant Badenoch would be \u201cleft Home Alone.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><strong>Penalty shootout: <\/strong>Hold the homepage \u2014 PMQs actually delivered a news line. The PM confirmed the government issued a licence to transfer to Ukraine \u00a32.5 billion of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich\u2019s cash from his sale of Chelsea football club. Starmer told Abramovich to \u201cpay up now,\u201d or he\u2019d be taken to court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jobbing off: \u00a0\u201cThe Prime Minister promised economic growth, but the only thing that\u2019s grown is his list of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,1193,30,5205,393,4884,1195,476,807,1198,79663,152227,384,1144,48,712,1201,16,657,5664,15,49,1764,1202,9917],"class_list":{"0":"post-638190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-british-politics","11":"tag-courts","12":"tag-doctors","13":"tag-england","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-growth","16":"tag-inflation","17":"tag-keir-starmer","18":"tag-kemi-badenoch","19":"tag-labeling","20":"tag-nathan-gill","21":"tag-nigel-farage","22":"tag-northern-ireland","23":"tag-rights","24":"tag-scotland","25":"tag-trade","26":"tag-uk","27":"tag-ukraine","28":"tag-unemployment","29":"tag-united-kingdom","30":"tag-united-states","31":"tag-wales","32":"tag-westminster-bubble","33":"tag-wine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115735128276146711","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}