PMQs: Dom looms large

Dominic Cummings’ explosive appearance in front of the Covid inquiry this morning set the tone for this week’s PMQs. Boris Johnson’s estranged former aide made the Labour leader’s job rather easy; Starmer was left with no shortage of ammunition. 

Sir Keir cut to the chase. This morning, he said, Cummings launched a blistering attack on the government’s handling of the pandemic, arguing that it “failed the public” when they needed it most. “Does the PM agree?” he asked. 

Johnson agreed to no such thing, but kept his answer vague: none of the decisions have been easy, he stressed, and it has been “appallingly difficult” for the government to deal with a pandemic on this scale. 

Starmer decided to press the PM further on Cummings’ claim that “senior ministers fell disastrously short” when it came to pandemic preparedness. 

“The inquiry will look at this,” said Johnson, who quickly tried to bring things back to the present, mocking the Labour leader for being “fixated as ever on the rear-view mirror while we are getting on with our job.” He seized the opportunity to throw in a reference to the vaccine rollout, noting that everyone over 30 can now come forward for their jab. 

Starmer retorted that it’s no good attacking him for his apparent obsession with the past. As he gleefully pointed out, it’s not him but the PM’s former advisor who has been “telling the world how useless the PM has been.”

Once again, Johnson tried to deflect attention from the early stages of the pandemic, and highlighted the UK’s much-improved situation: “We have turned the corner, and it’s no thanks to the opposition.”

But Starmer refused to move on from Dom’s evidence, instead homing in on one of his fieriest accusations: that Matt Hancock, the health secretary, should have been fired after he lied at least “15 to 20” times about government pandemic preparedness.

“Did the cabinet secretary advise you that he had lost faith in the health minister’s honesty?” he asked.

“The answer to that is no,” Johnson replied. 

After the firm response, Starmer decided to launch a fresh line of attack, accusing the PM of delaying the circuit breaker lockdown in the autumn, with the callous reasoning that “Covid was only killing 80 year-olds”. 

“Did the PM use those words, or words to that effect?” Starmer asked. 

Johnson did not deny that he made such a remark, but hastened to point out that “there was a circuit breaker in Wales and it did not work”. The government, he insisted, took the best decisions in the interests of the country.

The Labour leader begged to differ: “What we are seeing today is the latest chapter of a story, of confusion, chaos and deadly misjudgements from this government, from a Prime Minister governing by press release, not a plan.”

Johnson dismissed the accusation, simply telling Starmer that all this will be a matter for the official inquiry – a reference to the public inquiry into the government’s handling of the pandemic, not set to start until 2022. 

The Labour leader jumped on the mention of the inquiry to urge the PM to bring forward its start date. “It should start this summer” he insisted. But Johnson refused to budge, and used the same, convenient excuse: “I’m not going to concentrate valuable official time on that now while we are still battling a pandemic”. 

Before PMQs ended, Johnson managed to squeeze in his favourite line: that if Starmer was in charge, we’d still be using the EU’s vaccines and be miles behind with the roll-out. When it comes to the two parties, he jibed: “They vacillate, we vaccinate. They deliberate, we deliver”.

Given the level of juicy material provided by Dom, the Labour leader’s performance was disappointing: he failed to get the PM truly flustered.