Badenoch praises Starmer five times at his final PMQs

Full text

LONDON — Who knew Kemi Badenoch had a soft spot for Keir Starmer?

At the prime minister’s final outing for PMQs — the infamous weekly grilling by MPs — the Tory leader showered Starmer with praise just days before he leaves office.

It was a far cry from the usual combative back and forth between the two. POLITICO recaps five compliments the Tory leader offered her sparring partner in a departing gesture of goodwill.

Standing behind Zelenskyy

One of the few areas of unity between the Tories and Labour is the need to show solidarity with Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. Badenoch told Starmer she admired his embrace of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after he was ambushed by Donald Trump and JD Vance in the White House in February 2025.

“That was the right thing to do,” Badenoch said. “Ukraine is on the front line in the battle for freedom.”

Starmer said he arranged the meeting to show “we will stand with him and Ukraine.”

“I didn’t let him leave alone. I walked him out to his car because we don’t let people in Britain walk out of our buildings alone. We escort them out,” Starmer added.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain, watched the exchange from the House of Commons gallery.

England winning the World Cup

England’s sole victory in a World Cup happened under a Labour government in 1966. Badenoch hopes that feat will be repeated Sunday in the last hours of Starmer’s premiership.

“No doubt he will be disappointed that he won’t be emulating his hero Harold Wilson in winning multiple elections,” the Tory leader in a slight dig. “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.”

The Scottish independence lawmakers shook their heads ahead of England’s game against Argentina Wednesday night.

Starmer shows up

Badenoch’s weekly grilling of the prime minister may not have always generated answers, but the Tory leader praised him for at least being present.

“He might not have answered many of the questions I asked him, but at least he turned up,” she said.

Badenoch instead took aim at Starmer’s successor, Andy Burnham, who will not face questions from MPs until September, with the Commons breaking up for recess Thursday.

She accused the Makerfield MP of “scurrying away for the summer.”

Changing PMs is no solution

Given Starmer’s dire polling, Badenoch may be secretly sad the PM is stepping down.

But she warned Labour MPs Burnham’s arrival in No. 10 Downing Street will not guarantee electoral success — something Starmer’s allies repeatedly warned before he was ousted.

“We have been where you are. Changing prime minister is not a silver bullet,” Badenoch argued. “It may be that the Labour Party’s troubles are only just beginning. Solving the fundamental problems in this country will require difficult decisions, and you also need to know how to get things done.”

Starmer’s a family man

Politics is a rough old game, and Badenoch praised Starmer’s wife, Victoria, and his two children for enduring it.

“Our families make a huge sacrifice for our choice to enter public life, so I hope he will allow me to draw our time together to a close by thanking them for the love and support they have given him throughout his time in office,” Badenoch said.

Starmer thanked Badenoch for showing “kindness to me privately at very difficult times,” including when there was an attempted arson attack on his family home, and when his brother died in 2024.

“She knows this is robust, and it has to be robust, and that’s the way politics is done. But the kindnesses that sit behind it privately are often just as powerful, if not more powerful.”