Keir Starmer could have used PMQs to ask about something that matters to people

The Labour leader devoted all six questions this week to trying to split the Conservatives over a deal that hasn’t been done yet, writes John Rentoul

All Starmer did was to give Sunak the chance to say how focused the government was on what the people of Northern Ireland want (Reuters)

Keir Starmer’s questions about the Northern Ireland protocol negotiations were awkward for some Conservative MPs. The Labour leader accused them of cheering Rishi Sunak as the prime minister was pulling the wool over their eyes. That is exactly what some of them fear.

But Starmer’s tactics are too clever by half: he could have asked about something that most people care about, such as NHS waiting lists or gas and electricity bills. Obviously many people in Northern Ireland care about the protocol – although many of them think it is working fine, giving them the best of both worlds: access to UK and EU markets simultaneously.

Lots of other people in Northern Ireland are upset about the protocol because they care about being made to feel less part of the UK. But if Sunak’s negotiations succeed, no one is going to say it was all thanks to Starmer offering Labour’s support to overcome the “wreckers” on the Tory side. And if Sunak fails, no one is going to praise Starmer for having put his finger on the problem today.

Because he didn’t. Starmer pointed out that, whatever Sunak agreed, some issues in Northern Ireland will still be subject to EU law. That is undoubtedly the case: it is, after all, how a hard border on the island of Ireland has been avoided. But Sunak was able to reply that the Labour leader was criticising “a deal that he hasn’t even seen”.

Starmer was merely offering legal commentary. It was up to Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), to offer opposition. Sir Jeffrey set out the DUP’s price for agreeing to any deal, which was that it must involve rewriting the text of the treaty.

That seems most unlikely. No 10 has been explicit that the talks are about how the protocol of the withdrawal agreement – the treaty that governed Britain’s departure from the EU – will be implemented, not the text of the protocol itself.

In which case, it is hard to see what the negotiations have been about: the DUP must have given some indication that something less than a new treaty might be acceptable. But today Sir Jeffrey asked Sunak, reading carefully from notes: “Will he assure me that he will address these fundamental constitutional issues, and do so not just by tweaking the protocol but by rewriting the legally binding treaty text?”

The prime minister answered equally carefully, but assured him of something else, namely that “addressing the democratic deficit is an essential part in the negotiations that remain ongoing with the EU”.

We shall see what that could possibly mean soon enough, but it will have nothing to do with Starmer and the Labour opposition. All Starmer did was to give Sunak the chance to say how focused the government was on what the people of Northern Ireland want – and then to engage in some low politics about how Starmer could be relied on to put the EU first. “His usual position is to agree to anything the EU wants,” said Sunak. “That’s not a strategy; it’s surrender.”

Starmer put down a marker about securing a Commons vote on whatever deal was agreed. Sunak tried to obfuscate, saying that “of course, parliament will express its view”, and Starmer pretended this was a commitment to a vote, which it wasn’t. But the idea that there wouldn’t be a vote on something as important as a new protocol deal is absurd.

So Starmer’s contribution today amounted to precisely nothing, which was slightly less than Sunak’s prepared party-political punchline: “Tomorrow he’s going to announce five missions,” the prime minister said of the leader of the opposition. “But we already know what they are. It’s uncontrolled immigration, it’s reckless spending, it’s higher debt, it’s softer sentences, and the fifth pledge, we all know, is that he reserves the right to change his mind on the other four.”

At least Sunak has the decency to look slightly embarrassed when he delivers cheap shots such as this, but none of his exchanges with Starmer today will matter very much if Sir Jeffrey meant what he said when he stood and said, politely but unmistakably: “Ulster says no.”