Heading his first Prime Minister's Questions since the cabinet reshuffle, the PM made some pretty desperate comebacks to questions.
In his opening statement of what was a slightly less fiery PMQs compared to recent standoffs between Johnson and Starmer, the PM revealed that the remaining Covid-19 restrictions will be lifted a month early, including the legal requirement to self-isolate.
It has been suggested that the PM might scrap Covid restrictions to distract from the parties’ scandal. However, the tactic that didn’t rub off in this week’s PMQs, and if Johnson thought he was home and dry by making the announcement, he had another thing coming.
‘Completely in error’
One of the fiercest moments of the session was when Fabian Hamilton, Labour MP for Leeds North East, raised the issue of a new photo that had emerged of the prime minister surrounded by food, alcohol and tinsel. The image – published by the Daily Mirror – is believed to have been taken at a ‘virtual’ quiz event with No 10 staff in Downing Street on December 15, 2020.
‘It looks a lot like one of the Christmas parties he told us never happened. Will the Prime Minister be referring this party to the police as it is not one of the ones currently being investigated?” Johnson was asked.
To which he replied: ‘In what he has just said, I’m afraid he is completely in error.’
Downing Street had previously insisted the event was held virtually but admitted some attendees may have been at their desks.
It was reported in 2021, that dozens of staff had spent the evening in groups around their computers and had consumed alcohol and stayed at No 10 socialising for some time after the quiz had finished
‘We’re tackling the scammers’
Starmer used his questions to draw attention to splits at the top of government.
Accusing Johnson of being an ‘unwitting sidekick’ to a ‘loan-shark chancellor,’ the Labour leader stressed the government’s record on Covid fraud and handling of the cost-of-living crisis.
He asked the PM whether the “business secretary was right to say that fraud is not something people experience in their day to day lives?”
Johnson replied by saying the government has “strengthened our anti-fraud task force” and that “we’re tackling the scammers”
In the wake of the Treasury writing off £4.3bn of £5.8bn that was stolen from the public purse from fraudsters during the pandemic from emergency Covid schemes, the PM’s response was quickly quizzed on social media.
As Adam Bienkov, political editor and correspondent at BylineTimes, tweeted:
“We’re tackling the scammers,” says Boris Johnson, just weeks after his government wrote-off £4.3bn in Covid payments claimed by fraudsters.”
It wasn’t just the opposition on the attack.
In a thorny assault from his own side, Tory MP for Forest of Dean Mark Harper raised the issue of the Sue Gray report, asking the PM to commit to publishing the full report when the Met has finished its investigation. Johnson pledged to publish in full “whatever Sue Gray gives me.”
Thugs and yobs were culpable
The PM gave another dubious response when Ruth Jones, Labour MP for Newport West, criticised Johnson for the “careless” and “disgraceful” words used by the prime minister in his Saville slur.
In reference to this week’s incident, whereby Starmer was surrounded and verbally abused by an angry mob, Jones told the House of Commons how the PM is understood to have been heard singing “I Will Survive”, adding he should have been singing “Careless Whisper” and that the PM should “reconsider his words, repent and resign.”
Refusing to apologise yet again, the PM’s response was that “thugs and yobs” are the ones who are culpable.
“I don’t think she should either let the thugs and yobs who bullied and harassed the rt. Hon gentleman off the hook, because they are culpable, any more than she should let the Iranian government off the hook, because they are culpable,” Johnson replied in a desperate comeback.
Given that MPs from all sides have condemned Johnson for whipping up political poison after the Labour leader was set upon by protestors, the lack of apology for the slur has not been warmly received by MPs across the political spectrum.
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward
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