What Keir Starmer revealed in his first Commons speech as PM

Keir Starmer has just made his first Commons speech as Prime Minister. Both he and Rishi Sunak spoke at the election of the Speaker Lindsay Hoyle this afternoon in what was, by tradition, a largely jovial occasion. He paid tribute to Hoyle’s work in the previous parliament, and also cracked a joke about Sir Edward Leigh, now the Father of the House, writing a book of quotations dating back to 3000 BC – ‘which might be said to cast some light on the Tory mind – after the last six weeks, I think it might be time for a new addition’. He was also careful to praise Diane Abbott, now the Mother of the House. This bit was rather awkward, and there were some sounds of disapproval from around the chamber, given Starmer had nearly booted Abbott out of the Labour party at the start of the campaign. She later gave her own speech where she pointedly didn’t talk about him at all.

Starmer then set out one of the key themes he wants to have as Prime Minister:

As a new parliament, we have the opportunity and the responsibility to put an end to a politics that has too often seemed self-serving and self-obsessed. And to replace that politics of performance with the politics of service.

Because service is a precondition for hope and trust and the need to restore trust should weigh heavily on every member here, new and returning alike. We all have a duty to show that politics can be a force for good.

Stirring words, but much easier to say before you’ve done any governing – and even easier to say, perhaps, if you hadn’t had to pay tribute to someone you had treated very badly.

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Rishi Sunak spoke for the first time from the opposition benches, facing the dispatch box he was standing at only seven weeks ago, and with a small bunch of Tory MPs on his side. He congratulated Starmer and said the pair ‘still respect each other’ after all the arguments of the past six weeks. He then said ‘sorry’ once again to the MPs who hadn’t made it back into the Commons. ‘We have lost too many diligent, community-spirited representatives, whose wisdom and expertise will be missed in the debates and discussions ahead.’ He promised that the Conservative party would ‘take up the crucial role of His Majesty’s official opposition professionally, effectively and humbly’. Whether that actually happens isn’t really up to Sunak, though: his party is still largely in the numb stage of grieving, but soon it will get down to business. It’s not yet clear whether that business will consist of infighting or doing that loyal opposition work.