PMQs: “In the name of god, go!” PM told, as Starmer celebrates defection

Boris Johnson will already have been anticipating a difficult session, after protesting yesterday that “nobody told me” the Downing Street party he joined was breaking Covid rules. But the Prime Minister entered the chamber minutes after the explosive news emerged that Tory MP Christian Wakeford had defected to the Labour Party. It is the first such defection since 2007. Keir Starmer kicked off his contribution by welcoming Wakeford: “He and anyone else who wants to build a new Britain, built on decency, security, prosperity and respect, is welcome in my Labour Party.”

Starmer and several others took the chance today to hammer the “absurd and frankly unbelievable” defence from the Prime Minister. The Labour leader pointed to sources in Downing Street who said Johnson had been warned by staff that the social gathering he attended would breach public health restrictions – the very same restrictions he was busy telling the public to abide by. “Since the Prime Minister wrote the rules,” the Labour leader said, “why on earth does he think this new defence is going to work for him?” He again called for Johnson to resign.

But this afternoon was not all parties. Pivoting from the scandal, Starmer addressed the cost of living crisis. He drew a comparison between the government of the day and its opposition counterpart: “While Labour was setting out plans to heat home, he was buying a fridge to keep the party wine chilled. While we were setting out plans to keep bills down, he was planning parties. And while we’re setting out plans to save jobs for the steel industry, he was trying to save just one job – his own.” Labour has “a serious plan for a serious problem”, Starmer declared.

The opposition leader accused the Prime Minister and his ministers of being “distracted” from the pressing business of combatting surging household bills – not a claim that the past week has made difficult to believe. But this is not just the Prime Minister’s problem. It is a Conservative problem. The defection this morning adds credence to this argument: rather than simply call for Johnson himself to step down and take action to that end, the Red Wall MP has left the Conservatives entirely. In a statement to the Prime Minister just before the session, Wakeford argued that Johnson and his party had “shown themselves incapable of offering the leadership and government this country deserves”.

This is the point that Labour will continue to make in the coming months. As pressure on households increase in what has already been dubbed ‘the year of the squeeze’, Starmer will continue to highlight the antics of an arrogant Etonian cracking on with parties and committed only to preserving his own position. Johnson faces opposition on all sides, not least from within his own party. “I spent weeks and months defending the Prime Minister,” veteran Tory MP David Davis said today, but concluded: “You are sat there too long for all the good you have done. In the name of God, go!” Johnson’s resignation is surely a matter of when, not if.