Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer threw “blancmange” and “flip flops” at each other during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
Obviously, not literally as it wouldn’t be parliamentary conduct.
But given the chaos, clashes and confusion in Parliament in recent times, nothing would really surprise.
The words were the latest barbed exchanges as the two leaders sought to characterise their rival in voters’ minds as weak, wobbly, or both.
Starmer’s first attack was on the Government’s watering down of house-building targets.
“The Conservative Party promised the country it would build 300,000 houses a year. This week, without asking a single voter, the Prime Minister broke that promise by scrapping mandatory targets. What changed?” he probed.
Sunak may be being buffeted by squalls of threatened rebellion, including by his predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson over onshore wind farms, and controveries dogging senior Tories.
But he comes well prepared to PMQs and responded: “Now the honourable gentleman comes here every week and I know he’s focused on the process and the politics, but I don’t think he has actually taken the time to read the detail of what we are doing to improve our planning system.
“So, let me just explain what we are doing: we are protecting the greenbelt, we are investing millions to develop brownfield sites and we are providing support and protection for local neighbourhood plans.”
But Starmer scented weakness and doubled down with his criticism on the PM.
“Does he really expect us to believe that the member for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers) and the member for the Isle of Wight (Bob Seely) are cheering him on because he’s going to build more homes?”
“I’ll tell him what changed: his backbenchers threatened him. And, as always, the blancmange Prime Minister wobbled. He did a grubby deal with a handful of his MPs and sold out the aspirations of those who want to own their own home. Was it worth it?”
The premier, though, stood his ground.
“As ever, engaging in the petty personality politics, not focused on the substance. Again, let me explain what we’re doing. We’re delivering what I said we would do: we are protecting the character of local communities, we are cracking down on land banking and irresponsible developers. And we are giving people a greater say in their decisions,” he hit back, before throwing in a “flip flop”.
“Just this week, on Monday, the honourable gentleman said the Government should be giving people more power and control. Now he seems to be opposing that policy. It’s only Wednesday, I know he flip-flops but, even for him, it’s pretty quick.”
Starmer pressed on, questioning why Sunak would rather “cripple housebuilding” than accept Labour support to pass the housing targets.
Rejecting the offer, Sunak claimed Boris Johnson built 60,000 affordable homes as Mayor of London while Sadiq Khan had only done “half of that amount”.
Then they were off to another House, the House of Lords, where Sunak had more difficult questions to answer.
Starmer, a former Director of Public Prosecutions, turned his fire on the PPE contract controversy swirling around Baroness Mone, who denies any wrongdoing.
“How did his colleague Baroness Mone end up with nearly £30 million of taxpayers’ money in her bank account?” Starmer asked.
Sunak told the Commons: “Let me say, like everyone else I was absolutely shocked to read about the allegations.
“It is absolutely right that she is no longer attending the House of Lords and therefore no longer has the Conservative whip.”
The PM added: “The one thing we know about him is he is a lawyer, he should know there is a process in place. It is right that that process concludes. I hope that it is resolved promptly.”
Continuing, he sought to move the clash onto strikes, as Labour is refusing to condemn the unions for the walk-outs.
“I will say one thing, I’ll tell him what is weak,” he said.
Delighted Labour MPs immediately jumped on this to shout “you!”.
Brushing aside the jibe, Sunak carried on: “That is not being able to stand up to people.
“Why doesn’t he listen to a former minister in Gordon Brown’s government who just said ‘why does the Labour Party refuse to stand up for workers and businesses like pubs and restaurants who will lose business as a result of the train strikes?’
“Labour should stand up for working people..If he is strong, that is what he should do.”
But Starmer, who is increasingly seeking to present Labour as a government-in-waiting, would have seen this line coming.
“It may not seem like it but he is supposed to be the Prime Minister,” he replied.
“This morning, his Transport Secretary said that his flagship legislation on strikes is clearly not going to help with the industrial action we are facing.
“He should stop grandstanding, stop sitting on his hands, get around the table and resolve these issues.”
However, Sunak had equally done his homework on strikes and promised tougher action to stop them paralysing Britain.
“If the union leaders continue to be unreasonable, then it is my duty to take action to protect the lives and livelihoods of the British public.
“That’s why since I became Prime Minister I have been working for new tough laws to protect people from this disruption.”
He challenged Starmer to support these moves, though, given the failure to deliver long-mooted minimum service levels in the transport sector they may take longer than a strike-hit train to arrive.
The two leaders then exchanged some more measured comments on the Strep A situation.
After the turmoil of the Truss and Johnson years, expectations were that the Sunak/Starmer clashes may be far from box office, possibly even boring.
But both men are delivering increasingly strong performances, exchanging blows and hurling insults.
It is not yet clear, though, if any of it is sticking.
