Keir Starmer has said Boris Johnson is “too weak” to lead the UK through the health crisis caused by Omicron, and the government’s reliance on Labour votes to pass new Covid measures showed the PM had lost authority with his own MPs.
In a final prime minister’s questions before Christmas, the Labour leader pointed to the rebellion by 99 Conservative MPs on Tuesday evening over Covid certificates, which meant that without opposition support the government would have been defeated in the Commons vote.
Labour “stood up and showed the leadership the prime minister can’t”, Starmer told a noisy Commons. “The prime minister is so weak that without Labour help last night, vital public health measures wouldn’t have got through.
“We can’t go on with a prime minister who’s too weak to lead. So will the prime minister take time this Christmas to look in the mirror and ask himself whether he has the trust and authority to lead this country?”
Starmer said that while he disagreed with the Tory rebels, he understood their doubts about heeding Johnson’s call for tougher Covid rules given multiple reports about lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street last winter.
“For weeks now he claimed that no rules were broken,” Starmer said. “He claims he didn’t know what was happening in his own house at Christmas. I don’t believe it. His MPs don’t believe it, and nor do the British public. He’s taking the public for fools and it’s becoming dangerous.
“The message from the government has to be: we know that following the rules won’t be easy this Christmas, but it is necessary. Can the prime minister not see that he has no hope of regaining the moral authority to deliver that difficult message if he cannot be straight with the British public about the rule-breaking in Downing Street last Christmas?”
Johnson responded by calling the allegations about illicit parties “partisan trivia” that were of no interest to the public. He said he had repeatedly answered questions on the allegations, and that the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, was carrying out an investigation.
Starmer tried several times to get Johnson to criticise the opposition to new Covid measures from so many Tory MPs, asking: “Given the seriousness of the situation, does the prime minister agree that the Conservative members who voted against plan B last night voted against steps which are necessary to protect the NHS and to protect lives?”
Johnson declined to offer any condemnation, saying only that he understood the rebels’ worries, and talking up the government’s record in areas such as Covid vaccinations.
But Starmer said Johnson was unable to lead. “The British public are looking for a prime minister with the trust and the authority to lead Britain through the crisis. Instead we’re burdened with the worst possible prime minister at the worst possible time,” he said. “His own MPs have had enough. They won’t defend him. They won’t turn up to support him.”
