Ex-Labour MP praises Sunak’s PMQs performance
The former Labour heavyweight Jonathan Ashworth says ‘hats off' to Rishi.
In a rare moment of cross-party approval, the CEO of Labour Together and former front-bencher, Jonathan Ashworth, commended Sunak’s performance in the commons
He was responding to Sam Lister – Political Editor of The Express – who said: “Obviously Rishi Sunak’s got a difficult role. Now that he is in opposition, he can't really start attacking Keir Starmer when he's only been in the job a couple of weeks.”
Jonathan responded: “What the listeners and the viewers might not realise is how small the chamber is, and how you are quite on top of each other.”
“And when you are at the dispatch box, you face a wall of noise from people shouting at you, you know, sort of pulling faces...that can be incredibly intimidating.”
Jonathan was Labour MP for Leicester South from 2011 to 2024, and lost his seat to Independent candidate Shockat Adam on July 4th in one of the big surprises of the night.
His long stretch in Parliament means is well versed in the theatrics of the commons.
“Hats off to him to get up there at PMQs and do this,” he said.
Jonathan Ashworth says 'hats off' to Rishi Sunak
“I know people who watch PMQs probably get a sense of the noise, but you don't really get how noisy it is because the microphones only pick up the people who are speaking at the moment. It can be like a football terrace sometimes.”
“There's hundreds of people behind you shouting and, you know, trying to put you off, that's quite a big deal. So I mean, hats off to Rishi Sunak.”
Co-host Lizzy Buchan said: “I quite enjoyed his joke about how he sort of wished the British Olympians well and then said, oh, they probably don't want to take any advice from me about how to win, which I thought was quite sort of self-deprecating and funny.”
But, Sam questioned whether ex-Tory MPs would find the jokes amusing: “I did think he was funny. I do think it's self-deprecating. And what else can he do? But I also felt it, actually, if you're one of the 250 MPs who lost their seat, it really is not a laughing matter.
“I do think sometimes we have to remember that there are a lot of people who are out of jobs, feeling very bruised by the whole process. And so perhaps laughing about it in that way is not always the best thing to do.”
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