Who won today's PMQs? Keir Starmer tells Liz Truss she's 'lost in denial'

Liz Truss has been prime minister for over a month now but she's got away with only doing one PMQs.

What with the death of Queen Elizabeth II and recess, parliament has barely been sitting, so the PM has not had the chance to hone her oratory skills and put her policies up to the sassy scrutiny of Labour leader Keir Starmer.

In the meantime, Truss's policies have seen the pound plunge, mortgages go mad and everyone is speculating that her tenure may be very short indeed.

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So as she finally got the chance to defend herself again, how did she get on?

Well...

Truss: "We are making sure that we protect our economy at this very difficult time internationally" 0/10

After Starmer basically said "wtf" in more verbose terms, Truss defended her economic record. She said her policies will lead to higher growth and lower inflation, contrary to what looks to be happening, and MPs jeered in shock.

Given the statement made her sound like she's living in an alternate reality, perhaps the one conjured in Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged, we can't see a reason to even give her a pity point for it.

Starmer: She is "lost in denial" 8/10

So it is no wonder Starmer said she was "lost in denial", before telling the story of Zach and Rebecca from Wolverhampton, two people he had met who were in the process of buying their first home before Truss's policies made interest rates soar and their mortgage offer revoked.

He said they were "furious". Who can blame them?

Truss: "The party opposite are shouting but he is opposing the very [energy] package we brought in" 1/10

A frantic Truss looked in her predecessor Boris Johnson's bag of tricks and pulled out one of his favourites: deflecting scrutiny onto the opposition (who are by definition Not In Power).

She spouted utter crap, given Labour called for a windfall tax that the Tories then adopted, and people wondered if she had misunderstood her brief.

Starmer: "This is not the time to descend into absolute nonsense attacks", 8/10

So Starmer put her right and deflected her odd attempt to change the format of proceedings. He then accused the Tories of having gone on "a borrowing spree spending mortgages through the roof" and asked her why she "expects" working people "to pick up the bill for her unfunded tax cuts".

Why indeed.

Truss: "I'm genuinely unclear" on Labour's energy plan, 10/10

But this wasn't enough to get Truss on the right track. Her choice in words was "genuinely" unfortunate as Labour jeered and people on social media quickly joked that it is more than Labour's energy plans that the PM is "unclear" on.

Full points for making it easy for us to mock her. Sorry to her media team who probably winced as soon as the words came out of her mouth and will spend the rest of the afternoon trying to teach her how to put a sock in it.

Starmer: "I gently remind her that the idea of freezing energy bills was a Labour plan" 7/10

The leader of the opposition was clearly left baffled by Truss's tirade of crap so did the political equivalent of when a teacher kneels by a toddler to explain to them that eating dirt on the ground is probably not the best idea, and dished out a hefty portion of facts.

"Who voted for this? he enquired, before listing stakeholder groups including mortgage owners and "even most of the MPs behind her" who had no say in her "mini-budget" or "fiscal event" or whatever you want to call it.

And just like that, Truss's second PMQs finished as badly as it started.

Verdict

Truss clearly isn't the best at thinking on her feet.

The PM spoke like she was reading from an autocue and rather than selling parliament and the patient public a positive vision for Tory Britain, she sniped at Starmer for not supporting her plans and repeatedly patted herself on the back for her policies (at least someone is).

Even her own MPs sounded unconvinced by her offering so Starmer takes the win once again.

Here's what some other people made of her performance:

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