PMQs: Starmer attacked – but PM undermined by his own record

Today’s Prime Minister’s Questions saw Keir Starmer try to steer the conversation towards rising child poverty and local authority funding in the Covid-19 crisis. But Boris Johnson just as avidly tried to bring the focus back to schools, challenging Starmer to state that reopening is safe. Clearly, the PM went into the chamber today intending to highlight an inconsistency in the Labour leader’s approach. As pointed out by Starmer, however, this effort was significantly undermined by the government’s own inconsistency.

Referring to the government’s own social mobility report published last week, Starmer started by painting a stark picture: 600,000 more children living in poverty than in 2012, and poverty rates set to increase to 5.2 million by 2022. Dismissing this, Johnson changed tack and asked Starmer to declare that “schools are safe to go to”. Starmer pointed out in response: “He talks to me about consistency. The government’s had three U-turns in the last month”. He listed the NHS immigration surcharge, MPs voting and free school meals.

Moving on to local authorities, Starmer asked the PM whether he felt the government had kept its “whatever is necessary” promise on funding. He read from a Tory council leader’s letter to the government: “The overall financial impact on councils nationally and locally will be far in excess of the £3.2bn provided to date.” But after only a brief reference to councils, reiterating how much the government has pledged so far, Johnson again tried to shift the focus back to schools: “A great ox has stood upon his tongue, Mr Speaker, let him now say that schools are safe to go back to.” Starmer remarked that the session had turned into “opposition questions”, and told the chamber: “If the Prime Minister wants to swap places, I’m very happy.”

Starmer reiterated the grim choice facing councils of “cutting core services or bankruptcy”. Again, Johnson returned to schools. It’s a more flashy policy area, and one that he was clearly hoping would cut through to voters in a way that local authority funding might not. But it is still a tricky one for the government, given that so many parents and teachers across the country remain worried about sending their children back. Child poverty is harder to shrug off, as the most recent U-turn has shown. And in the end, Johnson’s own flip-flopping over the past few days weakened his approach. He launched what could have been an effective attack against the Labour leader, but was crucially undermined by his own record.