How Keir Starmer exposed Boris Johnson ‘bluster’ at PMQs – The Yorkshire Post says

They are, however, very much mistaken. The Covid crisis makes PMQs even more relevant. And the lack of distractions, as a result of social distancing, actually enhances the exchanges.

This was self-evident when Boris Johnson, back at the despatch box, responded to Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s new leader, for the first time.

It was PMQs – and politics – at its best. Six incisive questions, in a sorrowful week when Britain’s death rate became the highest in Europe, that left Mr Johnson with no room for his trademark bluster.

Sir Keir also gained several concessions. The PM did concede that the statistics on death rates are “appalling”; that there is a “crisis” in care homes and shortages of PPE protective equipment were “enraging”.

Supportive of Government efforts to develop a contact testing app that might assist with the lifting of the lockdown, Sir Keir’s more forensic approach will test Ministers. It is also in the national interest. The calibre of politicians back in the Shadow Cabinet, such as Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband, has already made a difference. Questions, and the whole tone, have been constructive. Dialogue between Ministers and their opponents has been resumed. Confidences have been respected and there is a new-found civility.

But Sir Keir, and his team, have already shown that they will be no pushovers. And, regardless of any allegiances, such an approach can only improve decision-making because Boris Johnson – and Health Secretary Matt Hancock who clearly believes that he is above criticism – will be found out if they delay, digress and dither for any longer than necessary, the default position that they were able to adopt when Jeremy Corbyn led the Opposition. They can’t now.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor