Keir Starmer apologises for ‘rude’ answer to Plaid MP

The prime minister has apologised to Plaid Cymru’s leader in Westminster for being “overly rude” to her during an exchange in the Commons.

In last Wednesday’s Prime Minster’s Questions, Sir Keir Starmer told Liz Saville Roberts that “she talks rubbish”.

It came in response to an accusation by Saville Roberts that Sir Keir changed his principles according to focus groups.

But on Tuesday, addressing Saville Roberts once again in the Commons, the Labour leader said: “I think last week I was overly rude and I apologise.”

The exchange on Wednesday centred around the prime minister’s speech on curbing immigration.

Saville Roberts, addressing Sir Keir, said: “This prime minister once spoke of compassion and dignity for migrants and for defending free movement. Now he talks of an ‘island of strangers’ and ‘taking back control’.

“Somebody here has to call this out. It seems the only principle he consistently defends is the last he heard in a focus group. So I ask him, is there any belief he holds which survives a week in Downing Street”

The prime minister, in response, said: “Yes, the belief that she talks rubbish.

“Mr Speaker, I want to lead a country where we pull together and walk into the future as neighbours and as communities, not as strangers.

“The loss of control of migration by the last government put all that at risk – that’s why we’re fixing the system based on principles of control, selection and fairness.”

But on Tuesday, responding to another question from Saville Roberts in the House of Commons regarding the relationship with the EU, the prime minister began his answer with an apology.

“I think last week I was overly rude and I apologise. I do respect the honourable member,” he said.

The prime minister had been criticised from within his own party for the comments, with Labour peer Harriet Harman telling the Electoral Dysfunction podcast that he “should have actually explained ‘look, this is what we’re getting at. It’s a communitarian message, it’s about neighbourliness, it’s about integration’.”

She added: “He should have done that and reassured her and explained rather than just slapping her down.

“I just think to call across the chamber, ‘you’re rubbish’ – I think a prime minister has the opportunity to be a bit more magisterial in that.”