The Prime Minister faces growing pressure after backbenchers defied him on his response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Sir Keir Starmer launched an attack on Boris Johnson this afternoon in PMQs after members of the Conservative Party voted against the Prime Minister's Plan-B Covid restrictions.
The Labour leader said: “The Labour Party showed the leadership yesterday that the Prime Minister lacked. If it wasn’t for Labour votes his Government wouldn’t have been able to introduce vital health measures we need.”
He added that the Prime Minister’s leadership is “weak”, and that he can understand why Tory backbenchers are “angry with him”.
Sir Keir listed a number of claims he said the Government has made, including that earlier relaxation of restrictions were irreversible, or that last week Plan B measures were not required, and that it would not raise taxes “no tax rises” among others, with Sir Keir adding “it’s overpromise after overpromise until reality catches up”.
He asked: “Does the Prime Minister understand why his own MPs no longer trust him?”
The Prime Minister responded by saying: “He comes to this House pompously claiming that he wants to rise above party politics and support the efforts of the nation in delivering the vaccine rollout, and then he talks endlessly about party politics and plays political games.
“I think what the people of this country can see, is that as a result of what this Government has done with the decisions we’ve taken, the tough decisions we’ve taken – which he ducked – to deliver the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe and now the fastest booster rollout and we now have the fastest growing economy in the G7 and more jobs today – 500,000 more jobs today – than there were when the pandemic began.”
It comes as the Prime Minister faces growing pressure after 100 backbenchers defied him on the issue which has come to define his premiership – the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ahead of the North Shropshire by-election on Thursday, which will be seen as another test of his leadership, Mr Johnson will hope for a visible show of support from Tory MPs in the final Prime Minister’s Questions session of the year.
The scale of the rebellion – the biggest suffered by Mr Johnson – came as a surprise to the Tory leadership and followed a personal appeal by the Prime Minister to his MPs at a meeting just an hour before the vote.
Nearly a third of his MPs voted against the introduction of mandatory Covid passes in nightclubs and large venues, with many saying they were unhappy about the way Mr Johnson was leading the country and his party.
The unrest on the Tory benches could also make it politically harder for the Government to introduce new restrictions in England if the Omicron wave of coronavirus proves as dangerous as Mr Johnson’s scientific advisers fear.
