Ellie Chowns blasts ‘ridiculous’ Starmer at PMQs

North Herefordshire Green MP Ellie Chowns has accused Sir Keir Starmer of “utterly ridiculous behaviour” after he took a swipe at her party’s defence policy during Prime Minister’s Questions.

Dr Chowns raised with the Prime Minister the issue of agricultural pollution in waterways and the scant attention given to it in the Government’s current Water White Paper.

“When will he start working with farmers to support river-friendly farming practices and treat agricultural pollution as seriously as sewage pollution?” she asked.

Sir Keir replied: “We inherited a real mess on water, and we are taking the most effective and far-reaching measures to deal with it.”

But he went on: “I wonder what the honourable Lady, as someone who stood to lead her party, makes of how her leader is responding to this global uncertainty.

“He is saying that this is the time to withdraw from NATO, that this is the time to kick the US out of our military bases, that this is the time to negotiate with Putin to give up our nuclear deterrent.”

To calls of “What?”, he continued: “It is as reckless and irresponsible as their plan to legalise heroin and crack cocaine. That is the Green Party now – high on drugs, soft on Putin.”

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle rebuked him by saying: “We do not ask the Opposition questions.

“These are questions for the Prime Minister, not the other way around.”

Afterwards, Dr Chowns posted on X: “If you’re wondering how seriously Starmer takes the responsibility of PMQs, today he chose to completely dodge my question about water pollution and support for farmers, and instead rant about America, nuclear weapons, and cocaine.

“Utterly ridiculous behaviour.”

The Greens’ leader Zack Polanski had earlier told the Guardian’s Politics Weekly podcast that he supported the UK leaving NATO, though that is not the party’s official policy, saying: “Donald Trump has so much domination within NATO that I don’t believe it’s possible to reform NATO from within.”

Opinion polls show the Greens closing on Labour since Mr Polanski’s election as party leader in September, when he heavily defeated a joint ticket of Dr Chowns, who is the party’s defence and foreign affairs spokesperson, and fellow MP Adrian Ramsay.

The latest YouGov poll puts Labour on 19 per cent and the Greens on 17 per cent.