TROUBLED Sir Keir Starmer came under fire from several fronts in the Commons as critics queued to attack his floundering government.

The Prime Minister was on the defensive on issues ranging from the forced resignation of city minister Tulip Siddiq to the moribund economy to the failure to save the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch led the charge at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) with almost an embarrassment of riches to choose from in targeting government failure.

She contrived in a single question to refer to the departed Ms Siddiq, the Chagos Islands and economic gloom, which she insisted should not be blamed either on the government’s inheritance or international factors.

And, indeed, Sir Keir was forced to repeat overused lines about the “22 billion black hole” left by the Tories and global economic “volatility.”

In the course of the questions, Sir Keir declared two government commitments “ironclad” — to the Treasury’s borrowing rules and to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.

Sir Keir was also able to make merry at the expense of the ludicrous Liz Truss, who had engaged lawyers to write to Downing Street demanding it cease claiming that she had “crashed the economy” during her calamitous premiership.

“I got a letter this week from a Tory voter in a Labour seat — it was Liz Truss. It wasn’t written in green ink but it might as well have been.

“She was complaining that saying she had crashed the economy was damaging her reputation.

“It was actually crashing the economy that damaged her reputation,” Starmer said to Labour laughter.

He found it harder to wriggle out of a challenge from Labour’s Brian Leishman, MP for Alloa and Grangemouth.

Mr Leishman pointed out that during the election the “Labour leadership promised that if we won, we would step in and save the Grangemouth refinery, retain those jobs and invest in its future. This hasn’t happened yet.

“If the refinery closes, then thousands of jobs will be lost. The government should intervene and save the refinery jobs, protect Scotland and deliver on the promise to build Grangemouth for the future. Will the Prime Minister do that?”

The Prime Minister offered warm words about doing “everything we can to make sure that viable long-term future is there for the workers, for their communities,”  but failed to convince.