Broken Tory party should keep Sunak as their leader

For those of us in the press gallery, it was a disorienting experience, as if our heads were still spinning from the sleep deprivation of last week.

- JOHN RENTOUL

For one thing, the colours were all wrong. It took a few seconds to realise why: Labour MPs, all reds and bright tones, were on the Wrong Side of the Commons chamber.

Where the Labour Party used to be was a dull, navy-grey block of suits: the much-reduced Conservative Party occupying the opposition benches nearer the speaker. There were more colours further down the opposition side: yellows signifying Liberal Democrats instead of Scottish Nationalists, bright greens and a patch of brown where Nigel Farage was sitting, in the middle at the back.

Then, after the pantomime of dragging a patently unreluctant Lindsay Hoyle to the speaker’s chair, he called on “the prime minister, Keir Starmer”, to speak. For a moment, it felt as if he had got his names mixed up – but as the Labour leader stood, we were reminded that he was indeed now running the country.