It’s clean slates all round as collective amnesia grips PMQs

There’s something weird going on in Westminster.

- John Crace

A mutant pathogen in the water maybe. Whatever it is, Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch appear to have been struck down by it.

Both have had parts of their memory wiped. At times they now sound like the living dead. Keir can’t remember a thing about Peter Mandelson. And Kemi is a total blank when it comes to the Iran war. It’s hard to know which is worse. Keir at least has only forgotten what happened a year ago, so he can more or less have a half-life in the real world. Meanwhile, Kemi has no idea what happened last week. Or even yesterday. She is condemned to live in a permanent present.

All of which made prime minister’s questions a near pointless exercise, with Starmer and Badenoch talking past one another. Questions got asked but not answered. Two competing forms of amnesia battling to find a voice. They might as well have been speaking in tongues.