IT was the first PMQs since you know what and it didn’t take long before the a-word took centre stage.
Thezza and Jezza understandably began slowly on the sensitive issue of the tragedy of Grenfell Tower.
When the chief comrade asked if the cladding was legal or not, the head girl had to be careful, given the investigation by PC Plod, saying only that it was her understanding “this cladding was not compliant with the building regulations”. Cue large intake of breath.
After the Labour leader probed more deeply, Mother Theresa insisted the question was why, given the 100 per cent test failure rate, local authority after local authority had been using materials that appeared not to comply with building regulations.
“That is what we need to get to the bottom of. Why is it that fire inspections and local authority inspections appear to have missed that essential issue?”
Jezza then stepped on the political gas and got to the point, saying he thought he could help her out on this one.
To nodding comradely heads, he said: “When you cut local authority budgets by 40 per cent, we all pay a price in public safety.” Fewer inspectors and firefighters might have had something to do with the problem, declared the chief comrade.
“What the tragedy of Grenfell Tower has exposed are the disastrous effects of austerity, a disregard for working-class communities, and the terrible consequences of deregulation and cutting corners.”
The PM sought to defend herself, saying, actually the problem began under Tony Blair.
“In 2005, it was a Labour Government who introduced the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order, which transferred the requirement to inspect a building on fire safety grounds from the local fire authority, which was usually the fire brigade, to a ‘responsible person’.” Whatever that meant.
As Mother Theresa came under fire not just on Grenfell and austerity as well as the DUP deal, she was helped out by a new boy, Tory MP Leo Docherty, who referred to Jezza’s private comments at the left-wing fest that is Glastonbury.
It was suggested the hairy Leftie had told festival organiser Michael Eavis that he would be PM in six months’ time, when he would scrap Trident.
Young Docherty expressed “deep alarm,” saying abandoning HM nuclear deterrent would “utterly undermine” the country’s security.
Mocking Labour's election slogan - for the many, not the few - Mrs May said she joined her colleague’s shock-horror that the chief comrade was backing Labour’s policy to retain Trident in public but in private he wanted to scrap it.
To the roars of the Conservative berserkers, she quipped: “It appears he says one thing to the many and one thing to the few."
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