Starmer hands the torch to Burnham - does he have a plan?

**Jon Sopel** (0:02)
This is a Global Production.

**Emily Maitlis** (0:04)
Keir Starmer made her feel like she wouldn't be in her job for very long because she had come into this deeply unstable party after an absolute disaster and election.

**Jon Sopel** (0:14)
I think that Keir Starmer is an incredibly buttoned up person who is not free to vent emotional.

**Emily Maitlis** (0:21)
The very man who has essentially ousted Keir Starmer is now full of praise on his last day.

**Jon Sopel** (0:29)
He was not a member of parliament standing for election in the 2024 general election. Does he feel he owes anything to the Labour Party manifesto?

**Keir Starmer** (0:38)
Most of us, Mr Speaker, can only dream of playing the role of Jude Bellingham, scoring the winning goal, leading our team to victory. Yet the Prime Minister did it. But politics, like football, is a ruthless game. And he's now been handed a red card by the 400 dodgy referees.
What advice, Mr Speaker, does this Prime Minister have for the Right Honourable Member for Makerfield to ensure that he, unlike himself, doesn't end up with an early bath? I think that's the first and sadly probably the last time I'll be compared to Jude Bellingham.

**Emily Maitlis** (1:26)
There was a rare gentleness to Prime Minister's questions today. An elegiac quality as Keir Starmer's own MPs and indeed the leader of the opposition recognised this was his last one.

**Jon Sopel** (1:40)
And you wondered, listening as Keir Starmer listed the achievements of this Labour government, whether there was any remorse on the back benches for what they had done as they gave a fond farewell to the Prime Minister who won a landslide just two years ago. Welcome to The News Agents.
It's Jon.

**Emily Maitlis** (2:09)
It's Maitlis.

**Jon Sopel** (2:10)
And in the comments today were Keir Starmer's family watching in the public gallery.
And it must have been such a bitter, sweet day for him because there was such affection that seemed to be on show for the man who was absolutely driven out of office but a few weeks ago by Andy Burnham and this campaign that had gathered around him after he had won the Makerfield by-election that he became this irresistible force. And so that is kind of must really hurt when you've led Labour to a landslide election victory and at the same time there was a softness as you said Emily and almost elegiac quality to the way that MPs wanted to bid him a farewell that was simultaneously affectionate, it was warm and Keir Starmer took it in very good part for the most part.

**Emily Maitlis** (3:08)
Look, we should say that our editorial meeting began this morning around 9.3 with us discussing what the tone would be. We couldn't imagine a scenario in which Kemi Badenoch didn't bite his head off, but remarkably she didn't and she even laughed about her own tone. Said she'd been thinking a lot about her own tone and she started with a quip about how Keir Starmer saw off Boris Johnson when he was leaving office.
I guess that was much more brutal than Kemi Badenoch delivered today.
Yes, it is very rare that you start to see, particularly in this performative session, the real character of our politicians. You don't often get to see under the carapace of the fight. But I think this has been an odd week for lots of reasons. The murder of Ann Widdecombe, I think, stopped everyone in their tracks once again, and certainly got all sides of the house to reflect on what an extraordinary odd role it is being a public figure in politics, and fearing for your life because of your views and your public statements and the interviews that you give. So I wonder whether that sort of slowed everyone down, even before we got to, as you say, Keir Starmer's last week in politics. And then there was that sense of the frenzy of excitement of the England game tonight, which meant that I think Jude Bellion probably had more name checks than Keir Starmer by the end of the half hour. And a sense that that was bringing all sides of the house, apart from the SNP, as Kevin Badenoch said, together again. Let's just hear that bit.

**Kemi Badenoch** (4:57)
No doubt he will be disappointed that he won't be emulating his hero, Harold Wilson, in winning multiple elections. However, we all hope that he may be about to emulate him in another way, by being the Prime Minister when England win the World Cup.
That is something that every single one of us in this house should get behind, especially the SNP.