Starmer accuses Johnson of “sleaze, sleaze, sleaze” in blistering PMQs
Boris Johnson said he made “no apology whatsoever” for his private texts with the businessman Sir James Dyson at a fractious PMQs in which Sir Keir Starmer accused the PM of presiding over a government of “sleaze, sleaze, sleaze”.
The heated exchange follows the revelation that the PM texted Dyson promising to “fix” tax rules so that his employees would not have to pay extra tax if they came to the UK to make ventilators during the pandemic.
According to the BBC, the PM later messaged Dyson saying, “Rishi [Sunak] says it is fixed!! We need you here” and “James I am first lord of the treasury and you can take it that we are backing you to do what you need”.
Devoting all his PMQs questions to the issue, Starmer asked Johnson what he thought the right thing to do was if he receives a text from a billionaire supporter asking him to “fix” tax rules. Johnson responded that he made “absolutely no apology at all for shifting heaven and earth and doing everything I possibly could… to secure ventilators for the people of this country and to save lives”.
In a later question, the Labour leader praised the thousands of businesses which had stepped up their production to help pandemic efforts, but stressed that the difference in this situation was that: “They didn’t all have the chance to text the Prime Minister asking him to fix the tax situation in exchange for doing it.”
In combative exchanges, Starmer challenged Johnson over his lack of action to support Liberty Steel workers, the self-employed excluded from government support and NHS nurses who were denied a pay rise during the pandemic.
“Is it now quite literally one rule for those that have got the Prime Minister’s phone number and another for everybody else?” Starmer said, asking: “If an NHS nurse who’s been working on the frontline during the pandemic had the Prime Minister’s phone number, would they get the pay rise they so obviously deserve?”
Johnson replied with a vehement defence of the government’s ventilator procurement strategy and its support for Liberty, the self-employed and NHS workers. He said: “We take the tough decisions that are necessary to protect the people of this country and get things done.”
Taking the opportunity to link the PM’s texts to wider allegations of Conservative cronyism, Starmer reeled off the recent lobbying allegations made against chancellor Rishi Sunak, the health secretary Matt Hancock and former PM David Cameron. “Sleaze, sleaze, sleaze – and it’s all on his watch,” the Labour leader said, asking: “With this scandal now firmly centred on him, how on earth does he expect people to believe that he is the person to clean this mess up?”
The PM concluded the exchange with a blistering attack on the Labour Party, listing the “tough decisions” the government had made to procure ventilators, stick up for football fans and put forward tougher sentences for rapists and violent criminals – criticising Labour for opposing the latter on a three-line whip.
He said: “Captain Hindsight snipes continually from the side-lines. This government gets on with delivering on the people’s priorities.”