Keir Starmer failed to make the case for Nadhim Zahawi’s resignation

The Labour leader tried too hard, allowing the prime minister to hold the high moral ground of due process, writes John Rentoul

Starmer waded into the swamp of personal abuse (Parliament Live)

Not for the first time, Westminster was agog. Speculation about when a minister would resign dominated journalists’ conversations before Prime Minister’s Questions. Would Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative Party chair, be sacked after the Today programme? Mid-morning? Five minutes before PMQs? Or by Rishi Sunak in his first answer?

Not for the first time, the clash between prime minister and leader of the opposition was an anti-climax. Keir Starmer realised that people outside the Commons were less interested in the processology of a minister whose career is hanging by a thread, and so he devoted his first three questions to the failure of the probation service in releasing the violent criminal who murdered Zara Aleena.

The prime minister couldn’t say much except how sorry he was, and that the government was doing what it could to improve training, hire more senior probation officers and spend more money on the service.