Sir Keir Starmer jumped to the defence of senior Cabinet ministers Ed Miliband and Rachel Reeves despite brutal attacks by the Tory leader Kemi Badenoch. 

In one of his last Prime Minister’s Questions, Starmer defiantly stood by the Chancellor, who sat on the front bench alongside him, and praised her for “breaking from austerity” and implementing policies to boost the UK economy. 

He also backed Miliband and education secretary Bridget Phillipson, claiming “we’ve turned it around”. He said Phillipson “knows exactly what it means to grow up in poverty” and “knows that for poor children education is absolutely vital”. 

But his remarks came as Badenoch stuck the knife in, picking out ministers and Labour backbenchers for having called on Starmer to resign and rebelling against many policies that eventually led to several U-turns. 

Badenoch asked the Prime Minister whether he felt “let down” by Reeves after she appeared to snub appearing alongside other Starmer allies during his resignation speech on Monday despite appearing for selfies with Andy Burnham in parliament later in the day. 

Starmer’s grace

The opposition leader sniped: “If it’s all going so fine, then why is he resigning? The fact is she did let him down, she’s the one who snatched the winter fuel payment, she’s the one who announced a disastrous budget that killed economic growth, and because of her once again a Labour Prime Minister is leaving office with unemployment higher than when he came in.”

Badenoch also singled out Miliband for backing Burnham despite serving in the Cabinet. 

“He was a failed Labour leader, rejected by the electorate, brought back from the wilderness by this man, and when the going got tough, he jumped into bed with the mayor of Manchester.”

She also compared his “betrayal” to when he stood against his brother David Miliband in the Labour leadership election in 2010, saying: “It’s not the first time he’s betrayed someone close to him, is it? 

“Does the Prime Minister think that his treachery should be rewarded by being appointed Chancellor?”

Badenoch spars with Phillipson

Badenoch’s attacks were also levelled against Phillipson, whom she called a “spiteful class warrior”. 

The hot-tempered parliamentary session prompted the Speaker of the House, Lindsay Hoyle, to demand that Badenoch showed “little bit more decorum and respect”. 

He intervened to say: “Please, can I just say, think about the language used, because when we leave this chamber, don’t be surprised when constituents feel they can use the same language against each other.”

Referring to Badenoch’s behaviour, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “We are all human. It is something that everyone should remember.”

The exchange of jibes continued after PMQs had ended as MPs left the chamber. City AM understands that Phillipson attacked Badenoch for her comments while the Tory leader responded: “I will fight you all the way. You are destroying children’s lives.”