Boris Johnson has been accused of sounding like the “Comical Ali of the cost-of-living crisis” by denying the facts of the rising prices faced by working families.
Keir Starmer said the Tory leader was an “ostrich” with his head in the sand over inflation and energy price rises as the pair faced off in the last Prime Minister’s Questions before the local council elections.
The Labour leader compared Johnson to Saddam Hussain’s former information minister, who maintained Iraq was winning the 2003 Gulf War as US forces advanced on Baghdad.
Starmer said: “He sounds like the Comical Ali of the cost of living crisis. He pretends the economy is booming… but in the real world our growth is set to be slower than every G20 country except one – Russia.
“And our inflation is going to be double the rest of the G7. Does he think that denying the facts staring him in the face makes things better or worse for working people?”
But the Prime Minister hit back hard, cheered on by roaring Tory MPs, as he attempted to shake off partygate doubts about his leadership.
Johnson said: “The facts are, as the IMF has said, that the UK came out of Covid faster than anybody else, that’s why we had the fastest growth in the G7 last year. That would not have happened if we’d listened to captain hindsight.
“And if he studies their forecasts we will return to being the fastest by 2024 and the fastest in 2025. That’s what the IMF’s forecasts say… This is the Government, this is the party that supports working people.”
Johnson rallied his benches by lashing the Labour leader with a list of Tory achievements, all designed to show his own MPs he should not be written off as a campaigning politician.
He said: “I’ll tell you what’s going up – the living wage is going up by record amounts employment is going up by record amounts.
"500,000 more people in paid employment now than there were before the pandemic began, and youth unemployment at or near record lows… under Labour youth unemployment rose by 44 per cent."
When the SNP’s Ian Blackford joked that the Prime Minister would not 'be around for much longer"
When the SNP’s Ian Blackford mocked the Prime Minister by presenting a “parting gift” of SNP Scottish Government measures to alleviate poverty, the Tory leader was ready for him.
Johnson said the increase Scottish Child Payment, worth over £1000 a year to low income families, was “another example of the vital strength of our economic Union.”
A confident Johnson added: “As for our respective political longevity, well, I wouldn’t like to bet on him outlasting me.”
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