Kemi Badenoch was mocked by the Labour benches during PMQs today after she called on the prime minister to resign.
The Tory leader, who secured the top job less than a month ago, made the jibe during her third exchange at the despatch box with Keir Starmer.
It came after the PM slammed the Conservatives for not having a clear line of attack under her leadership.
Starmer said: “She talks about tax rises, but two weeks ago she stood there and said she wants all the investment, all the benefits, of the Budget, but she did not know how she was going to pay for it.
“I notice that having come here to criticise the National Insurance rises over and over again, on Monday she admitted she would not reverse the position.
Meanwhile, her [shadow] science minister said he was going energetically to do the opposite.
“They really haven’t got a clue what they’re doing.”
But Badenoch replied: “Mr Speaker, if he wants to know what Conservatives would do, he should resign and find out.”
That sparked huge waves of laughter from the Labour benches – and cries of “more” from Tory MPs who seemed pretty happy with Badenoch’s remark.
The Conservatives were, of course, in power for 14 years, and Badenoch herself played a key role in the Tory government since 2022, having served as a minister since 2019.
Meanwhile, Labour has been in Downing Street for under five months.
Still, the chamber became so noisy in that brief moment after her jibe at Starmer that the Speaker Lindsay Hoyle stood up to quieten the MPs, and joked: “I’ll decide when there’s more!”
Badenoch continued: “Mr Speaker, until then, I’m the one asking questions.
“There’s a petition out there with two million people asking him to go. He’s the one who doesn’t know how things work.”
More than 2.7 million people have signed an online petition asking for another general election even though it has no impact on when the country will actually next hit the ballot box.
Starmer replied: “She talks about a petition. We had a massive petition on July 4 in this country.”
While the Labour leader’s approval rating has plummeted since the general election, polls show he is still ahead of Badenoch when it comes to who the public would rather have as their PM.
Researchers at Ipsos found 37% of Brits would rather have Starmer in No.10, while 19% would prefer Badenoch.
