Keir Starmer has said Boris Johnson should step down because of what he described as rampant criminality over lockdown-breaking Downing Street parties, saying the prime minister was “taking the British public for fools” with his explanations.
Using prime minister’s questions on Wednesday to attack Johnson over taxes and the cost of living, as well as the police announcement that 20 fixed-penalty notices had been issued over the breaching of Covid rules in and around No 10, Starmer said Johnson’s position was untenable.
“He [Johnson] told the house no rules were broken in Downing Street during lockdown,” the Labour leader said. “The police have now concluded there was widespread criminality. The ministerial code says that ministers who knowingly mislead the house should resign. Why is he still here?”
Johnson avoided the question, saying: “Of course, the investigators must get on with their job, but in the meantime, we are going to get on with our job.”
Starmer replied by castigating Johnson for having repeatedly insisted he knew nothing about supposed Covid rule-breaking in Downing Street given the Metropolitan police have announced the fines, with others possibly to follow.
“Look, there are only two possible explanations: either he’s trashing the ministerial code or he’s claiming he was repeatedly lied to by his own advisers and didn’t know what was going on in his own house and his own office,” Starmer said.
“Come off it. He really does think that it’s one rule for him and another rule for everyone else – that he can pass off criminality in his own office and ask others to follow the law? That he can keep raising taxes and call himself a tax cutter? That he can hike tax during a cost of living crisis and get credit for giving a bit back just before an election?
“When is he going to stop taking the British public for fools?”
Johnson responded by saying that Starmer would have “kept this country in lockdown” and wanted to take the UK back into the EU.
Earlier, Johnson’s deputy and justice minister, Dominic Raab, said that ministers would “inevitably” disclose whether they havd been fined by the Metropolitan police over lockdown breaches.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Raab said he accepted that the fines meant there were “clearly breaches of the regulations” in government and that “those who made the rules should be more transparent above what would normally be applied by the Met police”.
Rabb added that he did not expect that the prime minister’s wife, Carrie Johnson, would have to disclose any fine since she was not a member of government, although she shares a home with the prime minister.
Speaking after prime minister’s questions, Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson repeatedly declined to agree with Raab.
“The prime minister has said he respects the position of the Met, and also equally that this investigation is ongoing,” he said. “You’ll hear more from the prime minister at the conclusion of this process rather than in the middle.”
Asked several times whether the PM agreed with the justice secretary, the spokesperson said: “We will not be commenting further on the detail of what happened until the investigation is completed.” Pressed again, he added: “It simply would not be right for me to give the prime minister’s view in the midst of an ongoing police investigation.”
Labour rejected that view, with a spokesperson for the party saying Downing Street’s position was “clearly untenable, at least in the case of the 20 fixed-penalty notices that have already been issued”.
Starmer used the bulk of his questions at prime minister’s questions to tackle Johnson over the rising tax burden in the wake of last week’s spring statement, asking: “Does the prime minister still think that he and the chancellor are tax-cutting Conservatives?”
“Yes, I certainly do,” Johnson replied, citing the cut in fuel duty in the statement, and the promise to cut income tax rates by 1p in 2024, saying this would mitigate the impact of the rise in national insurance to fund the NHS and social care.
“Cut the nonsense and treat the British people with a bit of respect,” Starmer responded, adding, to laughs from Labour MPs: “I can only hope that his police questionnaire was a bit more convincing than that.”
Calling the plan to cut income tax in 2024 directly before an expected election “utterly cynical”, Starmer challenged Johnson to impose a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies.
When Johnson said this would hamper investment, Starmer said: “There we have it: they are party of excess oil and gas profits, we’re the party of working people.”
