Labour’s under fire leader Sir Keir Starmer compared Boris Johnson to a contestant on Love Island who was giving the public “the ick” on Wednesday as he stepped up his attacks on the Prime Minster over his handling of the economy.
Facing fresh questions over his leadership after his deputy Angela Rayner said Sir Keir had to “put some more welly” into his speeches, Sir Keir used notably more colourful language to accused the Prime Minister of playing games and trying to mislead the public over his claims on economic growth.
“He says the economy is booming when it’s shrinking,” Sir Keir said. “He’s game playing so much..he thinks he is on Love Island. The trouble is Prime Minister I am reliably informed that contestants that give the public ‘the ick’ get booted out...it’s not just low growth, he’s lost control of inflation.”
Earlier the Labour leader compared Mr Johnson to Star Wars character Jabba the Hut. He said: “As for his boasting about the economy he thinks he can perform Jedi mind tricks on the country.
“The problem is the force just isn’t with him any more. He thinks he is Obe Wan Kenobi, the truth is he’s Jabba the Hut.
“Last week he stood there and boasted we would continue to grow the economy, this week it turns out the economy shrank for the second monrh in a row..how does it help Britain to have an ostrich Prime Minister with his head in the sand.”
Mr Johnson responded by accusing Sir Keir of running the country down and argued that the UK had lower unemployment than France, Germany, Italy and Canada. In the first five months of this year this country has attracted £16bn of invesment - three times as much as Germany, twice as much as France. He should be talking this country up not talking it down.”
On economic growth, the Prime Minister added: “We will return to the top of the table...the reason other countries are temporarily moving ahead is we came out of the pandemic faster.”
As well as facing questions over his public performances, Sir Keir is also under scrutiny from Parliament’s standards watchdog Kathryn Stone for the late filing of outside interests and gifts - including football tickets to Premier League matches.
Sir Keir is also waiting to discover if he will be fined by Durham Police for having a beer and a curry with Labour party colleagues while campaigning in the north easty of England last year - when lockdown restrictions were in place.
If he is fined, Sir Keir has said he will stand down as Labour leader.
