PMQs: Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle accidentally refers to Keir Starmer as 'Prime Minister'

An omen perhaps or just an assumption that Labour will win the general election coming later this year.

Either way, it was a major faux pas by Lindsay Hoyle during Prime Minister's Questions. The clue is in the name - they're questions to the PM.

However, today (10 January) when quieting rowdy MPs, the House of Commons Speaker Hoyle accidentally referred to Keir Starmer as "Prime Minister" instead of Rishi Sunak.

The Labour leader had been talking about his party's plans to stop the boats, before the Speaker had to step in and interrupt baying Tory MPs. Hoyle told members: "I couldn't hear the questions, I don't want interruptions please, it's very important, it's a very important topic and I take it seriously and I hope members also wish to start taking it seriously."

He then turned to Starmer and said: "Prime Minister." Hoyle had already introduced Starmer as "the leader of the opposition" so clearly the break through him off his stride.

Surprisingly, there was no reaction from MPs, who usually react with glee to anything like this. Especially Labour members, who hope that by the end of the year it will be Starmer answering questions and not Sunak.

Labour are currently around 18 points ahead in the polls, according to Politico's poll of polls, and have been well ahead for around 18 months. If an election was held today, the New Statesman's Britain Predicts model says that Labour would win 410 MPs, giving them a whopping 250-seat majority over the Tories on 160 MPs.

Starmer attacks Sunak for being out of touch at PMQs

Otherwise, it was another PMQs where Starmer appeared more and more confident. He joked: "Last year he started the year saying he was ‘Mr Steady’; then at his conference he was ‘Mr Change’; now he’s flipped back to ‘Mr More of the Same’, it doesn’t matter how many relaunches, flip-flops he does – he will always be ‘Mr Nobody’."

The Labour leader kept up the theme that multi-millionaire Sunak is out of touch with reality. Starmer told MPs: "He [Sunak] spends the whole time trying to convince people not to believe their own eyes, pretending that debt is falling, the economy is going gangbusters, the NHS is in great shape."

Starmer doubled down later on: "Every week he stands here and tells the country they should be thanking him not questioning him. Point out the view from the ground is very different to that of his private jet and he says you're talking the country down. He just doesn't get it, he doesn't get what a cost of living crisis feels like ... he doesn't understand what it's like to wait for a hospital appointment."

While Sunak accused Starmer of failing to offer a “single new idea” in a recent speech, saying: “We’ve had four years of him as Labour leader and it’s still all slogan, no plan.” He said that "every single time he [Keir Starmer] picks the people smugglers over the British people" and added that the Labour leader is "peddling one thing to his union friends and another thing to the British people".

PMQs verdict: Starmer wins

My PMQs verdict is that this was another win for Starmer. After a few unconvincing bouts last Autumn, he really found his groove before Christmas with some noticeably funnier gags. His attack on Sunak being out of touch is definitely working.

Sunak is in the difficult position of having to defend some small economic victories while the country still suffers under the cost of living crisis. This does leave him vulnerable to sounding disconnected with the public, especially given his wealth and penchant for private jets and helicopters. Today, Starmer didn't even look bothered by his attacks about "union paymasters".

Ralph Blackburn is NationalWorld’s politics editor based in Westminster, where he gets special access to Parliament, MPs and government briefings. If you liked this article you can follow Ralph on X (Twitter) here and sign up to his free weekly newsletter Politics Uncovered, which brings you the latest analysis and gossip from Westminster every Sunday morning.