The Labour Party is insulting

In politics as in football, play is paused to allow the injured to leave the field. During Starmer’s final PMQs on Wednesday, Kemi Badenoch desisted from attacking, delivering a warm and twinkly-eyed tribute to the leader on his way to the back benches instead. Starmer said some nice things in return, and everyone chuckled fondly. It was as if she had never called him two-tier Kier, or ever said that Labour was the party of paedo defenders. Minutes from an early exit, Starmer was magnanimous about his opponent’s hard tackles, saying “it has to be robust — that is the way politics is done”. Some colleagues apparently differ with him on this, implying that the Leader of the Opposition’s swingeing takedowns expose Labour MPs to extra public risk. When she recently spoke of “400 knives stuck i