Badenoch attacks Labour MPs as Starmer resignation triggers leadership race

Kemi Badenoch used Prime Minister’s Questions to turn Labour’s leadership crisis into a direct attack on the party’s front bench, calling Labour MPs “traitors and deserters” and branding Bridget Phillipson a “spiteful class warrior” as the Commons erupted over Sir Keir Starmer’s departure.

The confrontation came at the first PMQs since Starmer said on 22 June that he would resign as Labour leader and prime minister, setting off a compressed leadership timetable running from 9 July to 16 July, with any contest completed by 1 September. By the time MPs gathered in Westminster on Wednesday 24 June 2026, Andy Burnham had confirmed that morning that he would enter the race.

During the session, Badenoch accused Labour MPs of cheering on Starmer despite what she described as “400 knives stuck in his back.” Hansard records her also telling the House: “To be fair, the Cabinet are not all traitors and deserters; some of them have been loyal - loyal and incompetent.” The remarks drew immediate pushback across the chamber and put the Conservative leader at the center of a row that was as much about political positioning as parliamentary etiquette.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle stepped in to urge MPs to show “more decorum and respect,” warning that the language used in the chamber could be repeated by constituents outside Parliament. His intervention underscored how quickly the exchange had moved beyond routine adversarial questioning and into a broader debate over the tone of political argument in Westminster.

Badenoch continued clashing with Bridget Phillipson and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall on the margins of the chamber. Badenoch told Phillipson, “I’ll fight you all the way, you’re destroying children’s lives.” Phillipson responded on social media that Badenoch had “lost her head at PMQs - and afterwards too.”