You know it’s a PMQs disaster for Theresa May when Laura Kuenssberg praises Jeremy Corbyn

Theresa May, Laura Kuenssberg and Jeremy Corbyn
Emily Apple


On 13 February, Jeremy Corbyn used his time at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) to grill Theresa May over her government’s disastrous Brexit ferry plan. Yes, the one where it awarded a multi-million-pound contract to Seaborne, a ferry company that didn’t have any ferries. The one that copied and pasted the terms and conditions on its website from a takeaway food company. And the one that ended up not even having a port to run said ferries before the government finally cancelled the contract.

It seems like Corbyn’s tactic worked. Because he even won over the BBC‘s political editor, Laura Kuenssberg.

Kuenssberg, not normally known as Corbyn’s greatest fan, tweeted:

‘Keeping a straight face’

Corbyn slammed May and transport secretary Chris Grayling over the fiasco:

And when May replied that “due diligence” had taken place when awarding the ferry contract, Corbyn expressed surprise that she could “keep a straight face”:

Because as journalist Alberto Nardelli pointed out, there was not “a formal assessment of Seaborne financial stability”:

High praise indeed

Social media users were surprised that Kuenssberg praised Corbyn:

Although a few tweets later, Kuenssberg was back on form:

It should be satire

Perhaps it’s not surprising that Kuenssberg praised Corbyn. After all, even for the government’s most ardent supporters, it’s got to be pretty hard to defend the Seaborne scandal.

If nothing else, the fact that we have a government so incompetent that it’s happy to award a contract to a ferry company with no ferries and no ports should make two things abundantly clear. This is not a government that can be trusted to negotiate Brexit. And it’s certainly not a government that we can trust to run the country.

Featured image via screengrab and screengrab

We need your help ...

The coronavirus pandemic is changing our world, fast. And we will do all we can to keep bringing you news and analysis throughout. But we are worried about maintaining enough income to pay our staff and minimal overheads.

Now, more than ever, we need a vibrant, independent media that holds the government to account and calls it out when it puts vested economic interests above human lives. We need a media that shows solidarity with the people most affected by the crisis – and one that can help to build a world based on collaboration and compassion.

We have been fighting against an establishment that is trying to shut us down. And like most independent media, we don’t have the deep pockets of investors to call on to bail us out.

Can you help by chipping in a few pounds each month?

The Canary Support us
  • Show Comments

    1. What’s interesting I find about Ms. Kuenssberg is not that she suddenly appears to be sincere in praise of Jeremy Corbyn over the ferry fiasco, but she is sensing the wind shift politically where things are going with an rejection of the No Deal Brexit.
      She is paid to be fashionable, and follow where the wind has shifted to. No depth of perception here by any means, but telling as a windsock.

      Report comment

    Leave a Reply

    Join the conversation

    Please read our comment moderation policy here.

Related articles