Dark shadow cast over PMQs

There was a sombre mood at today’s PMQs, where both Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer used their opening statements to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, paying tribute to the 6 million Jews who were murdered. Hanging over proceedings was the grim milestone reached the day before – 100,000 coronavirus-related deaths recorded in the UK.

Dialling in from home to tell the Commons that this “tragic milestone” was “not just a statistic,” Starmer was quick to ask the PM the “question on everyone’s lips”: why is the UK’s death toll the highest in Europe?

Johnson said that he mourned “every death,” before repeating the statement he made at yesterday’s press conference – “I and the government take full responsibility for all the actions we have taken to fight this pandemic.” But in the next breath the PM made it clear that this taking of responsibility was not a task for today. “There will indeed be a time when we must learn the lessons of what has happened, reflect on them and prepare,” he said. “I don’t think that moment is now.”

Keen to reverse the narrative of pandemic failure, he added that the country wants politicians to come together, keep the virus under control and “continue to roll out the fastest vaccination programme in Europe.”

Not content with the PM’s answer, Starmer asked him to comment on the recent remarks of the chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, that hard and fast action was needed to tackle the pandemic. Again, the PM was evasive. “There are no easy answers – perpetual lockdown is no answer,” he said, before launching into a roll call of vaccination success figures.

Starmer retorted that the PM had consistently been too slow, before steering him towards two of the key policy questions of the day – “the continued delay in securing our borders” and school closures.

In response to the issue of borders, Johnson accused Starmer of U-turning throughout the pandemic, pointing out that the shadow Transport Secretary had recently called for quarantine measures to be relaxed. Starmer hit back with the suggestion that the greatest criticism of the PM’s border policy was coming from the Home Secretary, who was “busy telling anyone who will listen that the Prime Minister didn’t do enough in relation to the borders last year.”

On the issue of schools, there was a back and forth between the two; Starmer urged the PM to make a statement on vaccinating teachers, who was urged in turn to declare schools safe. The PM was notably careful to pay tribute to the “parents” struggling to educate their kids after Rishi Sunak came under fire earlier in the week for thanking “mums everywhere” for “juggling childcare and work.”

The standoff came to a head during the PM’s final statement. “The leader of the opposition has never failed in his efforts to try to score political points,” he said, before scoring his own. “He even attacked the vaccine taskforce for spending £675,000 on an effort to discover whether hard-to-reach groups would take a vaccine,” he said. “The Right Honourable Gentleman may think of apologising over what he did.”

And a points decision is what it came down to, with neither Johnson nor his opposite number managing to deliver a knockout blow.