Peter Kyle denies unfair dismissal policy U-turn is breach of manifesto pledge but unions and Labour MPs criticise decision

On Wednesday Kemi Badenoch had to respond to Rachel Reeves’s speech because, by convention, with budgets that’s a job for the leader of the opposition, not the shadow chancellor. And normally no one takes much interest, because what’s in the budget is more interesting.

But Badenoch’s speech has attracted a lot of attention, for two reasons. First, even by Badenoch’s standards, it was unusually personal, and brutal. The full text is here, but it’s best to watch it to get a full sense of what it was like. As an example of precision, parliamentary viciousness, it was like Norman Tebbit in the 1970s. Some people were appalled, but Tories have said it was easily her best Commons peformance to date and that view is shared by others too. Even Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart, the gods of centrist punditry, judged it to be highly effective.

When I walked in for prime minister’s questions, I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, she looks absolutely broken, this OBR leak must be very upsetting for her, I’ll pull my punches.’

And then she launched into the most extraordinary tirade against the Conservatives in her own speech. So she started it … And I thought, ‘Well, I’m not pulling any punches now.’

Well, you can’t please everybody.

But I also have to deal with a barrage of abuse every single week at prime minister’s questions. The prime minister can get very personal. Labour MPs shouting – there’s only 120 Conservatives. There’s well over 400 Labour MPs.