Sir Keir Starmer said he would not take advice from a prime minister who “wrote two versions of every column as a journalist and who proposed Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize”.
Sir Keir and Boris Johnson had been debating whether to extend the eviction ban set to expire on February 21 when a row broke out.
“What we would do in the government and throughout the pandemic is put our arms around the British people, support them throughout the pandemic and ensure they are not evicted during the pandemic,” Johnson said in response to the question on an eviction ban.
“What I hope very much is that we hear from the right honourable gentleman opposite that he has not only now had a Damascene conversion to the importance of business, but a Damascene conversion to supporting all of the government’s policies to support citizens, rather than sniping from the sidelines.
“Why doesn’t he just get behind us, back our efforts; to back business and back the British people.”
Sir Keir countered: “Mr Speaker, I am not going to take lectures from a man who wrote two versions of every column as a journalist and who proposed Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize and gave Dominic Cummings a pay rise.”
Turning to Johnson’s “tough” border measures, he said: “Every week the prime minister says we have one of toughest regimes in the world. We know his home secretary disagrees with him. We know his health secretary disagrees with him.
“Thankfully Oxford University keeps track of how tough border restrictions are in every country. They say there are at least 33 countries around the world which currently have tougher restrictions than the United Kingdom.
“In fact, they say we’re not even in the top bracket of countries for border restrictions.”
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