Keir Starmer has accused Conservative MPs and ministers of complicity in propping up a prime minister with a history of indefensible behaviour, as he condemned and mocked what he called the “dying spectacle” of Boris Johnson’s political career.
Focusing in particular on Johnson’s decision earlier this year to promote Chris Pincher to be deputy chief whip, despite a known history of sexually predatory behaviour, Starmer said any Tory MPs still backing Johnson did not have “a shred of integrity”.
In an often brutal prime minister’s questions performance, the Labour leader ridiculed ministers still serving in the government, such as Nadhim Zahawi, the newly promoted chancellor, who sat next to Johnson on the Tory frontbench.
“What a pathetic spectacle,” Starmer said after Johnson accused him of poor policy decisions. “The dying act of his political career is to parrot that nonsense. As for those who are left – only in office because no one else is prepared to debase themselves any longer. The charge of the lightweight brigade. Have some self-respect. For a week he’s had them defending his decision to promote a sexual predator. Every day the lines he has forced them to take have been untrue.”
Johnson, facing what was always likely to be a hugely difficult PMQs given widespread expectation he could be ousted imminently after a string of ministerial resignations, insisted he would continue in office.
Johnson did, however, again apologise for making Pincher deputy chief whip in February, after Pincher had apologised for alleged groping in an earlier ministerial role in 2019.
Starmer began the session by reading out the words of one man who said he “froze” while being groped by Pincher. “I accept that’s not easy listening. But it’s a reminder to all those propping up this prime minister just how serious the situation is,” Starmer said. “He knew the accused minister had previously committed predatory behaviour, but he promoted him to a position of power anyway – why?”
Johnson said he regretted the promotion, adding: “As soon as I was made aware of the allegations he just read out, the complaint that was made, he lost his status as a Conservative MP.”
The prime minister did, however, decline to deny he had referred to his former colleague as “Pincher by name, pincher by nature”, when asked by Starmer.
The Labour leader sought repeatedly to stress the role of Tory MPs in supporting Johnson despite a series of earlier scandals, including lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street.
“He is only in power because he has been propped up for months by a corrupted party defending the indefensible,” Starmer said. “Anyone with anything about them would be long gone from his frontbench. In the middle of a crisis, doesn’t the country deserve better than a Z-list cast of nodding dogs.”
