Keir Starmer made mistake that’s worse than calling your teacher ‘mum’

The new PM managed to laugh off the mortifying mistake.

After more than four years addressing your main sparring partner in a particular way, it can be hard to suddenly shift.

But it’s got to be particularly mortifying to mistakenly use the wrong name if you’re the leader of the country – and the remarks are being broadcast live on TV.

Thankfully, Keir Starmer was able to laugh off the parliamentary equivalent of calling your teacher ‘mum’.

Facing Rishi Sunak across the despatch box during a debate in the House of Commons today, the Labour leader called him ‘prime minister’.

For those of you who haven’t been paying attention for the past month, Starmer has been the prime minister since the day after the July 4 General Election.

Sunak is now the leader of the opposition, a role Starmer had held since April 2020.

The PM quickly corrected himself, before joking: ‘Old habits die hard.’

Other figures in the Commons would insist it’s easier than you might think to make such a mistake.

In January, six months before the Conservatives were beaten at the election, Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle summoned then-opposition leader Starmer to the despatch box by waving his hand and saying ‘prime minister’.

And in an appearance on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg yesterday, Rachel Reeves admitted she was not quite used to being called ‘chancellor’ yet, less than three weeks into her new role.

She said: ‘Keir Starmer used the words and said, “And this afternoon the chancellor”, and I thought, “What has he done now?”

‘And then I remembered it was me.’

Starmer may be grateful that he made the slip-up today and not on Wednesday afternoon, when he tackles his first session of Prime Minister’s Questions since becoming the new leader of the government.

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