A confident Theresa May today used her first appearance at prime minister’s questions since moving into No.10 to exploit the rift in the Labour Party over Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Corbyn used one of his questions to the new MP to press her on the exploitation of workers.
May told the Labour leader, who is facing a leadership challenge amid open revolt from his MPs, she suspected “there are many members on the Opposition benches who might be familiar with an unscrupulous boss”.
“A boss who doesn’t listen to his workers, a boss who requires some of his workers to double their workload. A boss who exploits the rules to further his own career.”
Leaning over the Despatch Box in a manner than inevitably led to comparisons with Margaret Thatcher and may even have been a rehearsed impression of the former PM, May asked Corbyn: “Remind him of anybody?”
Corbyn has struggled to fill all his shadow ministerial positions after scores of MPs resigned from his frontbench. He has attempted to solve the problem by handing some shadow cabinet ministers more than one portfolio.
The next leader of the Labour Party will be a man, after Angela Eagle stood aside to allow Owen Smith a clear run at toppling Jeremy Corbyn.
A fact that was not lost on May. “In my years in this House I have long heard the Labour Party asking what the Conservative Party does for women,” she said. “Well, just keeps making us prime minister.”