PM stands up to Starmer (as Hancock stands in for heckling horde)

Here’s what makes Sir Keir Starmer’s approach to PMQS so unusual – and, in a way, more effective. He never mocks the Prime Minister. Never insults him. Never makes a joke at his expense. On the contrary. Instead of jeering and gloating, Sir Keir simply looks concerned. He frowns, purses his lips and gently shakes his head. It makes it look as if, far from trying to trip Boris Johnson up, he’s earnestly willing him to give a competent answer – and is genuinely disappointed that, once again, Mr Johnson has failed.

Yesterday’s PMQS was their third. In the first two, Mr Johnson had struggled badly. This time, it was obvious from the start that the Prime Minister had changed his approach.

After two weeks of floundering blather, of helpless mumbling and stumbling, he was determined to be more combative. Stand up to Sir Keir. Strike back.

It didn’t entirely come off. Lines that were presumably meant to sound patient but pitying – in other words, a taste of Sir Keir’s own medicine – instead sounded petulant. A single judicious barb might have worked well, but Mr Johnson attempted to belittle the Labour leader at every opportunity, and the sheer volume of put-downs made it seem as if Sir Keir had got under his skin. “He’s simply in ignorance of the facts … What he doesn’t seem to have remembered … It’s been explained to him … His feigned ignorance … Negative tone … Seems to be in the unhappy position of having rehearsed his question without having listened to my previous answer …”

The manner of Mr Johnson’s delivery had changed, too. He spoke with more energy, more spirit, a new air of defiance. Perhaps his hope was that, when brief clips of the encounter were shown on the evening news, viewers would see him briskly pouring scorn on Sir Keir’s questions, and think, “Well, he seems to be giving as good as he gets.” As a spin doctor might put it: never mind about actually winning the argument. Just make it sound as if you are.

Traditionally at PMQS, a prime minister can rely on a helpful horde of backbenchers to unsettle his opponent with endless rowdy heckling. In the near-empty “virtual” Commons, the horde is sadly absent – so yesterday Matt Hancock, the long-suffering Health Secretary, was assigned to the job all by himself. Of course, the trouble with heckling in a near-empty chamber is that it’s not exactly difficult for the Speaker to work out who’s doing it. Inevitably, Mr Hancock was soon pulled up, scolded like a schoolboy, and threatened with ejection if he persisted. The Health Secretary sheepishly complied.

On the whole, though, Mr Johnson will surely be much happier with this PMQS. In football terms, the previous two matches had seen the winger put the ball again and again through the full-back’s legs. This time, though, the full-back gritted his teeth, dug in and just about held him off.