Sunak and Starmer clash over Truss book claims in Commons

RISHI Sunak has insisted Sir Keir Starmer should spend less time reading Liz Truss’s new book and instead focus on Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner’s tax advice.

Mr Sunak’s jibe led Labour leader Sir Keir to accuse the “billionaire” Prime Minister of “smearing a working-class woman” as the pair clashed in the Commons.

Ms Rayner has faced scrutiny about whether she paid the right amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her Stockport council house because of confusion over whether it was her principal residence.

The Labour MP has said she will “do the right thing and step down” if she is found to have committed a crime in relation to her living situation a decade ago but remains confident she has followed the law at all times.

Mr Sunak also took aim at his predecessor Ms Truss as he told MPs he had the “conviction” to say her economic policies were “wrong”, adding that Sir Keir failed to do similar during Jeremy Corbyn’s tenure as Labour leader.

Sir Keir also used Prime Minister’s Questions to repeatedly press Mr Sunak about his ambition to scrap National Insurance contributions altogether, which Labour

argues would amount to £46bn.

Mr Sunak sidestepped calls to say whether such a policy would hit the NHS, the state pension or result in income tax rises.

Opening PMQs, Sir Keir said he is the “proud owner” of a copy of Ms Truss’s new book, Ten Years To Save The West.

He joked: “It is a rare unsigned copy. It is the only unsigned copy.

“It is quite the read. She claims the Tory party’s disastrous kamikaze Budget that triggered chaos for millions was – her words – ‘the happiest moment of her premiership’.

“Has the Prime Minister met anyone with a mortgage who agrees?”

Mr Sunak, to loud cheers from his own side, replied: “All I would say is he ought to spend a bit less time reading that book and a bit more time reading the deputy leader’s (Angela Rayner) tax advice.”

Sir Keir rushed to defend Ms Rayner before continuing his criticism of Ms Truss, as he listed the people the former PM had blamed for the “economic misery” her policies caused.

He said: “We even learn that the poor old lettuce was part of the deep state.

“Does the Prime Minister agree with me that it is actually much simpler than that – it was the Tories’ unfunded tax cuts, tens of billions of pounds of unfunded tax cuts, that crashed the economy and left millions paying more on their mortgages, wasn’t it?”

The Prime Minister replied: “Everyone knows that, two years ago, I wasn’t afraid to repeatedly warn about what her economic policies would lead to, even if it wasn’t what people wanted to hear at the time.

“I was right then but I am also right now when I say that his economic policies would be a disaster for Britain.”

Sir Keir said the Conservatives’ “obsession with wild, unfunded tax cuts” crashed the economy as he pressed for answers on the future of National Insurance.