LATIKA M BOURKE: Outgoing UK PM Keir Starmer farewelled by House of Commons, valedictory elevates Opposition

Political departures are hard to mess up. Opponents exchange the savagery for sentimentality to pay tribute as the slain bleat about looking forward to spending more time with the family.

Gracious words are said, tears are sometimes shed. And so it came to pass on Wednesday when the House of Commons farewelled its seventh prime minister since Brexit.

But Keir Starmer’s valedictory Prime Minister’s Questions had the unusual effect of elevating both himself, but more significantly his opponent, Kemi Badenoch.

The Opposition leader excelled as she delivered jagged political barbs, elegantly cloaked with enough wit, that even the outgoing Labour leader and his frontbench companions were shaking with laughter.

The Conservative Party leader began by paying tribute to the issue that binds all mainstream parties in Britain in unison — Ukraine.

“When President Zelensky was attacked in the White House, the Prime Minister showed leadership and invited him to Downing Street,” Ms Badenoch said.

“That was the right thing to do. Ukraine is on the frontline in the battle for freedom, so does the Prime Minister agree that cross-party support for their cause must endure?”

It was a clever dig at the upstart party that threatens Britain’s two major parties — Reform.

Led by Nigel Farage, the party has had a long and complicated relationship with Russia. During the last election campaign, Mr Farage said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was provoked into invading Ukraine by Nato, a well-worn Kremlin line used to justify Russia’s illegal behaviour.

Since then, Mr Farage has opposed British involvement in any Coalition of the Willing for Ukraine and councils led by Reform have taken down the Ukrainian flag that has flown since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Sir Keir’s response gave a rare insight into the emotion that took place at the leader-level after US President Donald Trump and his Vice-President JD Vance tore strips off President Zelensky, and in the prime minister’s words, was “evicted” from the White House.

“That was a really emotional moment, because it was effectively the first human contact that President Zelensky had had outside his immediate team since he left the Oval Office,” Sir Keir recalled.

“He left alone. He got on a plane. We got him to come to London, and I asked him to come to Downing Street straightaway. I walked out to meet him. I gave him a hug, and then I showed him what was in the street.

“Many people had come, thinking that he was visiting Downing Street, and the moment he got out of the car and hugged me, they cheered at the top of their voices—the British people told President Zelensky exactly what they thought of him and the way he had been treated.”

The seriousness gave way to laughter as the Tory leader deftly launched into attack on Sir Keir’s usurper and successor, Andy Burnham, the former Mayor of Manchester who will become Prime Minister next week, and Nigel Farage, drawing the link between Labour’s failure to set out its agenda pre-election and Nigel Farage’s dummy spit, in calling a byelection in which the highest-profile candidate he will face off against is the comedian who poses as Count Binface.

“Does the Prime Minister not agree that what the country deserves is a televised debate between Nigel Farage and Count Binface ... does the Prime Minister agree that his successor should come to this place and answer questions rather than scurrying away for the summer?” she inquired.

The first black leader of the Conservative Party was not so long ago destined for the same dustbin as Sir Keir. But after her main internal rival Robert Jenrick quit and defected to Reform, she has steadily grown in the job.

And she did not let Sir Keir forget it.

“I remember when I started this job, the Prime Minister was very helpful to me, saying that I would not last the year. Life comes at you fast. He spent a long time laughing at how I had lost control of my party; I think he should have been paying attention to his backbenchers instead of mine,” she said.

The Hansard recorded laughter, but the images showed even Sir Keir and his frontbench, all of whom are facing performance reviews under the Burnham era, also laughing along.

It was the performance of a woman in total control, at ease at the dispatch box and in command and had the air of a stateswoman and an inversion of the political reality. The Tories hold just 117 seats compared to Labour’s 403 and Reform’s 7.

Sir Keir, perhaps still wondering how on earth he ended up turfed out of Downing Street despite delivering Labour such a sizeable win, ended his final Prime Minister’s Questions with little flourish.

He thanked his wife and children, paid tribute to many constituents and causes he had helped along the way. His last word “goodbye,” was as thoroughly unimaginative as his political tenure.

When he was invited to criticise his disloyal colleagues, he erred and vowed to support the Labour government’s next iteration.

A casual observer of Australian politics knows that this promise, made by nearly all prime ministers who have been deposed by their own can be difficult for some to honour.

Just look at former Liberal Leader Malcolm Turnbull, who became something of the dreaded miserable ghost, or Kevin Rudd, who relentlessly pursued Julia Gillard until he reclaimed his throne.

But Sir Keir falls into the column of those likely to leave without a fuss. His post-political career is unclear. History will record him as an ultimately inadequate thread in the UK’s political tapestry, yet remain puzzled by the sheer animosity shown towards him.

He leaves office with a net favourability rating of minus 42, according to polling conducted by More in Common, the apolitical NGO that tries to combat societal polarisation.

The leader next down the ladder is Nigel Farage, whose standing has taken a huge hit, following revelations that he accepted £5 million ($AUD9m) from an offshore crypto billionaire.

Mr Farage’s response has been to claim a media witch hunt and call a byelection nobody was asking for. His approval rating is minus 24.

By contrast, Kemi Badenoch has nudged into positive territory at plus three points, the same rating given to her next opponent, Mr Burnham.

The lead that Reform has over the major parties is beginning to narrow, now at 26 per cent, four points over the Conservatives and Labour, both on 22 per cent.

Sir Keir now begins packing up his things in preparation to leave Downing Street, just two years after walking in on the back of a mammoth and historic landslide.

At his last Cabinet meeting, the same colleagues who stabbed in him the back stood in ovation and applauded. Their gift to him was a 1920’s-era silver clock made by the same British clockmaker that built Big Ben.

Bittersweet or ironic? Ultimately, time is the one gift that the Labour party did not give their prime minister who withered, rather than flourished over his two years in the job.

Now, time is the luxury Kemi Badenoch can afford, as she awaits her new Labour adversary and heads into the long, hot English summer break with a Reform leader showing signs of wilting under the political heat.