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Sir Keir Starmer has predicted that “the road will run out” for Boris Johnson as the British public believe in “integrity, honesty and accountability”, with the Labour leader hinting at the possibility of anti-Tory alliances with other parties ahead of the next general election.
Claiming that the prime minister had been “really lucky” with the success of the vaccine rollout and furlough scheme during the pandemic, Sir Keir suggested that with most people now jabbed and the social protection scheme winding down, public attention would soon turn to other aspects of Mr Johnson’s record.
It came as Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner accused the government “cover up” for the second time in two days, after the government rejected a request for a search of Matt Hancock’s private email account, which Downing Street has admitted he used for official business.
Ms Rayner had on Thursday criticised an official review into the Greensill scandal – which despite finding that a “privileged few” have disproportionate access to Downing Street, suggested the current lobbying system “worked well” – as “a classic Boris Johnson cover-up and whitewash to protect the government”.
Meanwhile, the Police Federation of England and Wales has taken the unprecedented step of voting – “overwhelmingly” – that it no longer has confidence in the home secretary Priti Patel, branding the bitterly contentious pay freeze for officers earning more than £24,000 the final straw.
Nick Adderley, the Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police, called the pay freeze “an insult”, adding: “Over the past 18 months I have seen officers punched, stabbed, shot, persecuted and ridiculed whilst attempting to implement confusing, rushed and ambiguous legislation, in order to protect the public and, rightly, the NHS, only to be ignored when it comes to a pay settlement.”
