Cabinet minister Lucy Powell effortlessly schooled a Tory frontbencher over his party’s record in government today.
Her attack on her government predecessors began after shadow leader of the House of Commons, Jesse Norman, tried to hit out at Labour after a tumultous week.
He pointed out how anti-corruption Tulip Siddiq had to resign over her links to her aunt, the deposed PM of Bangladesh, who is currently being investigated for corruption.
He also criticised the “unusually unlovely sight” of Rachel Reeves “in a desperate search for growth,” referencing the chancellor’s recent trip to China.
However, Powell quickly pulled out the receipts from the last government, which Norman was actually part of.
She said: “It really has been quite incredible to watch the collective display of amnesia on the benches opposite in recent weeks – it’s like the last 14 years didn’t happen at all.
“I see the leader of the opposition [Kemi Badenoch] is out today in what has been briefed as her finally telling the truth about the Conservative record.
“That they didn’t have a plan for growth, that they weren’t honest with the British people, that they negotiated a bad Brexit deal – but it sounds like [Norman] didn’t quite get the memo.”
The Tory leader gave her first major speech of 2025 on rebuilding trust in the Conservative Party today, and promised “we are going to be telling the British people the truth, even when it’s difficult to hear.”.
Powell then claimed the shadow leader of the Commons clearly “didn’t get the memo that said they should be honest about their record on standards”.
She continued: “If he wants to compare the government’s past record on losing ministers, then I’m quite happy to do that, Mr Speaker, because Boris Johnson had 36 of his own ministers resign in 24 hours, the highest in modern record.”
Amid laughter from the Labour benches, Powell said: “Rishi Sunak, even the very nice Rishi Sunak, lost four of his senior ministers in his first few months including the party chairman and deputy prime minister for breaking the ministerial code.”
She claimed that investigations into ministers were “often ignored”, too.
On the economic turmoil in the UK recently, Powell also pointed out that Badenoch has herself said the Tories “didn’t have a plan for growth”.
The minister added: “The Conservatives had 14 years to do something about the fundamental weaknesses in our economy, and they did nothing. In fact they made them worse.”