Mike Tyson famously once said that, 'everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’ — Dominic Raab and his team may well be mulling over that quote after a bruising six rounds with Angela Rayner.
With Boris Johnson in the Middle East, Rayner relished the chance to go toe to toe with the deputy prime minister — who is not a natural despatch box performer. The Ashton-under-Lyne MP came out the red corner swinging, with questions over Tory links to Russian oligarch donors and the handling of the energy crisis.
Raab, flanked by men in grey suits, gave a wooden defence of the government's position, telling the Commons that all rules had been followed when it came to peerages dished out to Russian donors.
The former lawyer attempted to land a few blows of his own, reflecting on Rayner's previous support for Jeremy Corbyn - who is an advocate of nuclear disarmament. Referee Lindsey Hoyle ruled against the move from the Speaker's chair, however, telling the deputy PM that he didn't want to hear a history lesson.
From the backbenches, Raab also faced tough questions. Labour MP Matt Western did his best Mrs Merton, asking 'what first attracted the prime minister to the billionaire Russian oligarchs?'.
Raab unwisely opened his defence by saying the prime minister was a 'very social individual', to deafening laughter from the opposition benches. With Ukrainian politicians watching on from the public gallery, today's Punch and Judy PMQs perhaps wasn't the best advertisement for the 'mother of parliaments'.
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