Beginning of the end of Keir Starmer | PMQs analysed

**Keir Starmer** (0:00)
Am I tough enough?

**Ava Santina** (0:01)
Strong and stable leadership.

**Andy Twelves** (0:02)
Total ruba.

**John Lamont** (0:03)
Hell yes, I'm tough enough.

**Andy Twelves** (0:04)
Shut the fridge. Not another once.

**Keir Starmer** (0:07)
It's the PoliticsJOE Podcast.

**Ava Santina** (0:15)
Andy Twelves, Ava Santina, PMQs, roll the clip.

**Kemi Badenoch** (0:22)
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And can I associate this side of the house with the Prime Minister's remarks on the horrific train crash, the attacks in Edinburgh, and of course, Armed Forces Week.
I want to start by congratulating the Prime Minister. He's the other party leader who won a by-election last week. Although I think I'm much happier with my new MP than he is with his.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Speaker, two weeks ago, the Prime Minister told the House that the Government was funding defence, and everything was under control. The very next day, the Defence Secretary resigned, saying the Prime Minister was unable, and the Treasury unwilling, to fund the defence of our country. What changed?

**Keir Starmer** (1:10)
Well, Mr. Speaker, she references the by-election. I am very pleased with our new Member of Parliament.
Can I also say to her, in Gorton and Denton, the Tories got 1.9% of the vote. Can I congratulate her, because in Makerfield, they got 2.2% of the vote. Just edging past count Binface. She says they are winning everywhere. At that rate, it will take them 500 years to get back into power. May and while, back on these benches, we have delivered the biggest sustained boost to defence spending since the 1980s. That is £270 billion over this Parliament. That is a record. The defence investment plan will take that even higher. That is about facing the future. We will finalise the plan with the defence secretary, and we will have it published before the NATO summit.

**Andy Twelves** (2:07)
So that was a throwback to John Healy. God, who remembers John Healy?

**Ava Santina** (2:10)
Well, Andy Berlian apparently really doesn't remember John Healy because he's in the running to be Chancellor.

**Andy Twelves** (2:16)
Is he?

**Ava Santina** (2:17)
Well, if they're like, do you know, at the moment, the problem that you've got is that everyone in media is looking around for a new angle into this story, so they're just sort of throwing things out, like so-and-so could be Chancellor, this person could be defence secretary, all of this sort of stuff.

**Andy Twelves** (2:31)
But John Healy could be Chancellor, maybe.

**Ava Santina** (2:33)
I did a programme the other day where I had to listen to someone who wrote a seven-minutes wax lyrical about why John Healy would make a good Chancellor. Because I had to go through seven minutes of that, I hope he is actually in the running.

**Andy Twelves** (2:43)
I don't... I've not read that anywhere.

**Ava Santina** (2:45)
Why would he be in the running? Someone said to me as well the other day, Pat McFadden. I said, why would Pat McFadden be that? He wants to stay at DWP.

**Andy Twelves** (2:52)
I suppose he was Shadow Chief Sec.

**Ava Santina** (2:57)
Who else was that? Who was Chief Sec?

**Andy Twelves** (3:00)
Andy Burnham. Andy Burnham for Chancellor.

**Ava Santina** (3:02)
Andy Burnham for Chancellor.

**Andy Twelves** (3:03)
First Lord of the Treasury.

**Ava Santina** (3:04)
He might actually be quite cunt, wouldn't it? As if he's just like, I don't want any fighting, so I've just given myself all of the officers of state.

**Andy Twelves** (3:11)
Are you allowed to do that? Is there a rule?

**Ava Santina** (3:13)
I highly doubt it.

**Andy Twelves** (3:14)
That'd be cool.

**Ava Santina** (3:16)
Anyway, John Healy, so he wanted, how much did he want? 20 billion?

**Andy Twelves** (3:19)
Yeah, a lot of money.

**Ava Santina** (3:20)
The defence spending.

**Andy Twelves** (3:21)
And Rachel Hughes has said no.

**Ava Santina** (3:23)
Rachel's always saying no though, isn't she? Rachel's like, oh, you're not allowed to heat your home and you're also not allowed to defend your home.

**Andy Twelves** (3:29)
Yeah.

**Ava Santina** (3:30)
Do you know what? Would it be cheaper for them to just send out muskets? Like if you had like a musket collection area and then you could just all be like take up arms and then we could have a debate for the next 200 years as they have done over the Atlantic about whether that meant, you know, actually you should be, you know, protecting the country from invaders rather than just like shooting school children.

**Andy Twelves** (3:51)
Yeah. Dad's army.

**Ava Santina** (3:52)
That would be a good debate, wouldn't it?

**Andy Twelves** (3:53)
That would be a good debate, I'm sure. I'm sure I would be very...