Starmer accuses Johnson of burying head in sand over cost of living crisis
Boris Johnson has been branded the “Comical Ali of the cost of living crisis” by Keir Starmer, who accused the government of burying its head in the sand and standing by while inflation spirals and taxes rise for many.
The comparison to the former Iraqi minister who gained cult status for his outrageous lies came during a fractious prime minister’s questions, with Starmer saying Johnson was complacent about people’s “blindingly obvious” economic problems.
The Labour leader said a mooted plan to let motorists get MOTs lasting two years instead of one made the ill-fated 1990s “cones hotline” look “visionary and inspirational”. He said Johnson was “only just waking up to the cost of living crisis” and had acted like an ostrich.
Johnson accused Starmer of “droning on” and dismissed his call for a windfall tax on oil and gas companies to help bring down people’s energy bills, saying: “This guy is doomed to be a permanent spectator.”
In their final public pitches before next week’s local elections, the two leaders traded blows during a session that was focused mainly on the economy.
Johnson was tackled over an anonymous Tory MP’s briefing to the Mail on Sunday accusing Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, of crossing and uncrossing her legs in the House of Commons chamber to distract the prime minister.
Starmer said the UK was on course to have the slowest growth and highest inflation in the G7, and he said Johnson was failing to properly manage the economy.
In a series of targeted questions designed to pin responsibility for the cost of living crisis on the government, Starmer said ministers were making life worse for working people with last month’s “tax-hiking budget” and by failing to help those whose fuel bills have spiralled.
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