Furious Keir Starmer confronted Boris Johnson and ‘ranted’ at him after they clashed over his Brexit record at PMQs, it was claimed today.
Witnesses said the Labour leader ‘lost it’ after Mr Johnson accused him of wanting to stay in the European Medicines Agency – which has been slated for dragging its heels over vaccine approvals.
Tories said Sir Keir, not wearing a mask, started berating the premier by the doors to the Commons chamber after the session.
They insisted Mr Johnson ‘kept his cool’ and tried to ‘close down’ the argument by saying Sir Keir’s position was on the record, before a Labour whip ‘dragged’ the party leader away.
However, Labour insisted the leaders had a perfectly friendly chat’ and the idea Sir Keir was enraged was ‘absolute b*****s’.
The bitter spat was sparked when Mr Johnson claimed Britain’s Covid-19 vaccine programme would still be at the ‘starting blocks’ under Labour.
While the UK’s rollout has surged ahead with the milestone of 10million people given vaccine doses reached today, the EU’s programme has descended into a shambles with the central regulator far slower to sign off jabs and the bloc moving too late to secure supplies.
The fallout on the continent triggered threats from Ursula von der Leyen to bar exports to the UK an impose a hard border with Northern Ireland, which was later humiliatingly dropped. And Emmanuel Macron was among the leaders who launched baseless attacks on the effectiveness of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca jab – even though the EU has been desperately trying to obtain stocks.
Ministers have claimed that Britain was able to act far more nimbly because of Brexit and using its own MHRA watchdog.
Witnesses said Keir Starmer (right) ‘lost it’ after Boris Johnson (left) accused him of wanting to stay in the European Medicines Agency
The confrontation happened moments after this shot of PMQs ending, but was not caught on camera as the sitting had been suspended
He said Sir Keir had repeatedly called for the UK to stay in the European Medicines Agency, and suggested such a move would have hampered the UK’s response to the pandemic.
But a clearly infuriated Sir Keir branded the remarks ‘complete nonsense’ and suggested the ‘truth escapes’ the Prime Minister.
Mr Johnson pulled faces and puffed his cheeks in response to Sir Keir’s answer.
Comments from Sir Keir contained in Hansard, the official record of Parliament, in January 2017 show him questioning why the UK would want to leave the body and that it should be something retained as part of the Brexit process.
Conservative former minister Mark Francois later raised a point of order in a bid to correct the record and highlight Sir Keir’s previous remarks.
Labour tried to dismiss the allegations of a confrontation afterwards, with a party source saying: ‘They had a perfectly reasonable conversation as they often do after PMQs.’
Labour whip Chris Matheson, who was said to have pulled Sir Keir away from the spat, said: ‘It’s absolute b*****s. There was a brief chat and then Keir and I left together. Nothing more to it than that.’
Kicking off the row at PMQs, Mr Johnson said: ‘If we had listened to (Sir Keir), we would still be at the starting blocks because he wanted to stay in the European Medicines Agency and said so four times from that despatch box.’
Sir Keir responded: ‘Complete nonsense. Don’t let the truth get in the way of a pre-prepared gag.
‘The Prime Minister knows I’ve never said that, from this despatch box or anywhere else, the truth escapes him.’
However, Hansard records and other sources show that in fact Sir Keir did back the UK staying aligned to the EMA through much of 2017, when he was shadow Brexit secretary.
On January 31 of that year he told the House of Commons: ‘Why would we want to be outside the European Medicines Agency, which ensures that all medicines in the EU market are safe and effective?’
In the Financial Times the following July he was still endorsing staying in the body.
‘Labour knows that leaving the EMA could cause enormous disruption to our pharmaceutical industry (which employs 200,000 people across the UK), lead to additional and unnecessary regulation and cause delays and rising costs for new drugs reaching our National Health Service,’ Sir Keir wrote.
His stance was backed by most of the Parliamentary party at the time, amid pressure for the EU referendum to be re-run or overturned.
Meanwhile, a leaked Labour ‘rebranding’ plan has suggested Sir Keir should pose with the union flag and military personnel to reconnect Labour with traditional voters.
The strategy, presented to officials by the party’s head of research last month, stresses the need for a more patriotic image in the wake of the disastrous Jeremy Corbyn era.
It suggested Sir Keir makes ‘use of the flag, veterans’ to convince disaffected former voters that Labour reflects their values.
There was also a reference to ‘dressing smartly at the war memorial’ – an apparent swipe at Mr Corbyn notoriously wearing a scruffy-looking anorak to the Cenotaph wreath-laying in 2018.
In a warning sign for Sir Keir, although he is seen as a positive asset for the party focus groups showed voters have noticed his habit of ‘sitting on the fence’.
The Labour leadership seem to have taken the advice to heart already, with Sir Keir seen against the backdrop of the union flag for speeches and party political broadcasts over recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir looks to be trying to shake off his reputation for facing both ways on issues like Brexit, including by demanding blanket Covid ‘quarantine hotel’ rules for UK arrivals, and making a bold call for teachers to be prioritised for vaccinations over half-term.
The extraordinary row was sparked after Mr Johnson claimed Britain’s Covid-19 vaccine programme would still be at the ‘starting blocks’ under Labour
The row over the EMA was not the only flashpoint between the leaders at PMQs.
The Labour leader demanded to know why ministers had not followed the views of scientists two weeks ago that a ‘pre-emptive closure of borders or the mandatory quarantine of all visitors upon arrival’ was the only way to stem the flow of variants.
But Mr Johnson said the UK had one of the ‘toughest regimes in the world’ and stressed that ‘quarantine hotels’ are being brought in for high-risk countries – although he did not indicate when.
‘It is not practical completely to close off this country as he seems to be suggesting. What is practical to do is have one of the toughest regimes in the world and to get on with vaccinating the people of this country,’ the premier said.
The exchanges came after Matt Hancock said UK border rules will get tougher to protect against emerging strains.
‘We are also looking to strengthen measures in particular for those countries that have the highest risk,’ he said in a round of interviews.
But amid fresh signs of tensions in Cabinet, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps struck a different tone as he gave evidence to MPs.
He insisted the UK could not do a full Australia-style lockdown with blanket ‘hotel quarantine’ rules because it was an ‘island’ and needed food imports.
On suggestions the ‘red list’ of travel ban countries will be expanded, Mr Shapps told the transport committee: ‘It might go to more in the future… we simply don’t know until the virus decides what it wants to do.’
The government moved to bolster the border regime last week, announcing that the ban on travellers from 33 ‘hotspot’ countries will be tightened so returning Britons and the few other permitted individuals will have to go into ‘quarantine hotels’ at their own expense for 10 days.
But the plan was the subject of an extraordinary Cabinet tussle, with Priti Patel and Mr Hancock among those pushing for even tougher action.
Ministers will meet tomorrow to consider expanding the ‘red list’ – which includes South Africa, South America and Portugal as well as the UAE.
Officials have also been looking at tightening exemptions to the travel rules, amid concerns that some are being exploited by people seeking to get around the holiday ban.
Boris Johnson says Britain CAN’T shut its borders entirely to prevent mutant Covid strains as he denies ignoring SAGE advice – but fails to give a date when ‘quarantine hotels’ will be up and running amid Cabinet tensions
Boris Johnson today warned that Britain cannot shut its borders completely to prevent mutant coronavirus strains getting in as he denied ignoring SAGE advice.
The PM insisted closing off the country altogether was ‘not practical’ as he clashed bitterly with Keir Starmer in the Commons this afternoon.
The Labour leader demanded to know why ministers had not followed the views of scientists two weeks ago that a ‘pre-emptive closure of borders or the mandatory quarantine of all visitors upon arrival’ was the only way to stem the flow of variants.
But Mr Johnson said the UK had one of the ‘toughest regimes in the world’ and stressed that ‘quarantine hotels’ are being brought in for high-risk countries – although he did not indicate when.
‘It is not practical completely to close off this country as he seems to be suggesting. What is practical to do is have one of the toughest regimes in the world and to get on with vaccinating the people of this country,’ the premier said.
The exchanges came after Matt Hancock said UK border rules will get tougher to protect against emerging strains.
The border crackdown comes amid fears the South African variant is already loose in the UK, and other more potent mutant strains could lessen the effectiveness of the vaccine drive. PIctured, Heathrow Airport
Health Secretary Matt Hancock (left) defended the current ‘stringent’ measures – but made clear that even harsher arrangements are in the pipeline. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps (right) struck a different tone as he gave evidence to MPs
‘We are also looking to strengthen measures in particular for those countries that have the highest risk,’ he said in a round of interviews.
But amid fresh signs of tensions in Cabinet, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps struck a different tone as he gave evidence to MPs.
He insisted the UK could not do a full Australia-style lockdown with blanket ‘hotel quarantine’ rules because it was an ‘island’ and needed food imports.
On suggestions the ‘red list’ of travel ban countries will be expanded, Mr Shapps told the transport committee: ‘It might go to more in the future… we simply don’t know until the virus decides what it wants to do.’
The government moved to bolster the border regime last week, announcing that the ban on travellers from 33 ‘hotspot’ countries will be tightened so returning Britons and the few other permitted individuals will have to go into ‘quarantine hotels’ at their own expense for 10 days.
But the plan was the subject of an extraordinary Cabinet tussle, with Priti Patel and Mr Hancock among those pushing for even tougher action.
Ministers will meet tomorrow to consider expanding the ‘red list’ – which includes South Africa, South America and Portugal as well as the UAE.
Officials have also been looking at tightening exemptions to the travel rules, amid concerns that some are being exploited by people seeking to get around the holiday ban.