Kemi Badenoch yet to find her feet in final PMQs of the year

Before becoming Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch rose up within the Tory ranks with a reputation for being a tough talker, and a fierce debater. Her battles in front of committees delighted the Tory faithful, with the North West Essex MP frequently happy to go further and harder on issues than her cabinet colleagues.

It is this notoriety that makes her performances at PMQs so disappointing to many of her Tory colleagues. They expected a firebrand, and instead they have a leader struggling to pick a match.

At PMQs on Wednesday, the last of the year, everything was set up perfectly for her. The UK Government deciding against paying compensation to the Waspi women went against previous pledges by several ministers, and was a chance to rail against the Labour party going after another group of pensioners.

Ms Badenoch claimed Labour had “played politics with the Waspi women”, only to end by saying “we were right all along”. In short, Labour won’t help them, and neither will we. Mentioning it tells voters that there’s an issue the Tories won’t support them on.

She instead focused on the winter fuel allowance and increase in employers national insurance, areas the Labour party is already bruising over. Ms Badenoch did not mention China or the Chagos islands, areas ripe for attack, but instead a retread of the hits. It allows Starmer, a man who doesn’t excel in this format, to simply retort about the £22.2 billion black hole, and repeat what he said the week before.

Sir Keir Starmer wasn't made to feel uncomfortable during PMQs | House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA Wire

More interesting was the SNP’s Dave Doogan, who realised if you can’t catch the Prime Minister on detail, you can at least raise the energy levels. Mr Doogan labelled the Prime Minister a “one-trick phoney”, referenced the SNP’s polling lead, and claimed the public felt “contempt” towards the Labour leader.

This language garners headlines, it demands attention, and it’s noise when there is no light to be found. Given the SNP’s lack of a regular question after the election, it also shows strategy. You have to make your questions count. At the moment, Ms Badenoch is a long way from doing that.