PMQs sketch: SNP's Stephen Flynn squares up to Rishi Sunak and the Tories, but they've seen these moves before

It was the first Prime Minister’s Questions of the year and, like all boxing bouts, there was a stacked undercard.

First up was Sir Keir Starmer, armed with 13 years of running the NHS down and a failure to deal with strikes crippling Britain. Despite such firepower, however, his opponent Rishi Sunak dodged and weaved, roared on by a Tory crowd who couldn’t believe how easy this was.

Perhaps with polling too strong for his own good, the Labour leader forgot the most important aspect of a big fight – you need a plan. Without one, his strong blows on the NHS and strikes bounced off Mr Sunak, who asked his own questions instead of answering.

Escaping unscathed, up next was the new kid on the block, Stephen Flynn, who’d already become champion of the SNP – of course, not until there was a vacancy.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn speaks during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, London.

There is something very impressive about his PMQs demeanour, not so much standing to deliver his questions as squaring up to the Tories.

Mr Flynn does not just look at the Prime Minister, but instead the Conservative crowd behind them, almost daring them to intervene and challenge what he’s saying.

His opening salvo was about the deepest recession in the entire G7, Brexit, the energy price crisis, inflation and interest rates.

All of these are valid issues he can argue were caused by the UK Government or made worse, but his question was basically “is the Union good?”.

Now this will shock you, but Mr Sunak thinks it is very good indeed. The question allowed him to basically say 'yes’ and ‘lol’ before withdrawing from the fight on a technicality.

Mr Flynn is absolutely correct to campaign on these issues, but in not having a specific hook to frame them, he is not putting the Prime Minister on the back foot and instead giving Mr Sunak free reign on how to answer.

PMQs is a performance and with the new leader, the SNP have a charismatic brawler who is genuinely engaging to watch with his confident combative approach.

But for Mr Flynn, and the Labour leader, being right isn’t enough. They must remember forcing the opponent back slowly is far easier than landing a knockout blow.