Sunak, a lame joke to the last

Speaker Lindsay Hoyle began the proceedings (after a lengthy legal preamble, see below) with a tribute to Sunak and saying everyone “looked forward to his continued contributions from the backbenches”. He then had to stop himself giggling, because everyone knows that, for some reason, technology firms across California are desperate to throw millions of dollars at one of Britain’s least successful prime ministers.

Sunak played along. “I’m happy to confirm reports that I will now be spending more time in the greatest place on Earth, where the scenery is indeed worthy of a movie set and everyone is a character. That’s right, Mr Speaker, if anyone needs me I will be in… Yorkshire!”

In comedy, this device is known as a paraprosdokian, in which the latter part of a sentence is unexpected in a way that causes the listener to reinterpret the first part, except that the punchline could only have been signalled more clearly had Sunak been standing under a neon sign saying ‘This is a joke – he’s talking about Yorkshire’.

Still, it was indicative of what was an inevitably good-natured session, with Starmer thanking Sunak “for his hard work, for his commitment and for his decency” and managing not to add “in contrast to the pair of charlatans who preceded him”. Sunak, for his part, used his final questions to the prime minister to ask about things he is actually interested in: a coastal trail in Yorkshire, cricket, technology (urging Starmer “to find his inner tech bro”), Northern Ireland and supporting Ukraine.

Finally, it was time to say goodbye. “I’m proud to have been the first British Asian prime minister, but I was even prouder that it was not that big a deal,” said Sunak. Starmer then echoed the statement – about Sunak being the first British Asian prime minister, not Starmer, that would have been weird – before cracking his funny. 

“I’m sure he won’t mind me disclosing the contents of a letter that he wrote to me this week. My answer to it is clear: yes. I will arrange for him to meet the relevant minister about the A66 that runs through his constituency in Richmond.”

A better joke came later from Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey. “Despite our political differences, I’ve always felt a certain sense of kinship since the general election when he was the only other party leader to get as wet as I did.” Cue hilarity (it’s a low bar in Parliament.)

Finally, that legal preamble. Hoyle began proceedings with a close to five-minute monologue reminding MPs that legal proceedings were active in the case of the Southport attack that left three young girls dead and that therefore they should avoid speaking about in proceedings. It was a clear warning to Richard Tice, the Reform Party deputy leader who was listed to have a question, the subject of which everyone could have guessed. Did Tice heed it and ask about something else? Did he hell.

Asked by Tice whether the government should have put out more information sooner, Starmer noted he was limited in what he could say before saying: “All of us in this House have a choice to make, including those running to be Conservative leader. They can either support the police in their difficult task or they can undermine the police in their difficult task, and I know what side I am on.”

Both Jenrick and Badenoch have publicly ruminated on the case in the past 24 hours as they seek the votes of Conservative members. So we should relish this week’s good-natured session of PMQs. It’s likely to be the last for quite some time.