Mandelson nightmare gives Badenoch a rare PMQs win

Keir Starmer failed the noise test at Prime Minister's Questions yesterday. In the press gallery, much of his answer to Kemi Badenoch's sixth and final question was inaudible.

- By JOHN RENTOUL, CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR

Normally, this wouldn't matter, because the microphones pick up what is said in the Commons and anyone watching on TV would have heard him perfectly clearly. But the noise matters to MPs in the chamber. Labour MPs were aware that their colleagues around them were mostly sitting in glum silence. Conservative MPs knew that their leader had skewered Starmer with each question, and were surprised and pleased that their shouts of derision were drowning out a prime minister mumbling his way through his prepared answers.

To be precise, this particular noise mattered because there are not many Tory MPs - the fewest in any parliament in the party's history. The Tories have not been used to being able to shout down their opponents since last year's election drubbing. They have been used to thinking that Badenoch missed the mark again. They have been used to thinking that they made the wrong decision when they elected her, and wondering how long they have to leave it before the party no longer looks ridiculous if it tries to change leader yet again.