Sir Keir Starmer compared Boris Johnson to a slug-like Star Wars villain and a ‘game playing’ Love Island contestant during a fiery clash at PMQs.
The Labour leader came out fighting with pop-culture references following criticism for recent lacklusture performances and negative briefings that colleagues think he’s boring.
He accused the prime minister of trying to ‘perform Jedi mind tricks on the country’ with his boasts about the state of the nation’s finances, citing forecasts which show the UK is set for lower growth than every other major economy except for Russia.
He also hit back when asked to defend his ‘sphinx-like silence’ over next weekend’s rail strikes, saying the PM ‘hasn’t lifted a finger’ to try and deal with the matter and ‘he’s in government’ so is the one who should do something to stop them.
‘I don’t want the strikes to go ahead, but he does. He wants the country to grind to a halt so he can feed off the division,’ Sir Keir said.
He went onto make a series of Star Wars references, branding Mr Johnson ‘Jabba the Hutt’ – a powerful alien gangster with far-reaching influence in both politics and the criminal underworld.
Sir Keir said: ‘As for his boasting about the economy, he thinks he can perform Jedi mind tricks on the country: These aren’t the droids you’re looking for. No rules were broken. The economy is booming. The problem is the force just isn’t with him any more
‘He thinks he’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. Truth is he’s Jabba the Hutt.’
The prime minister doubled down on his defence of the economy, saying the UK came out of the pandemic faster than other nations because the right decisions were taken.
He said: ‘There he goes again, running this country down… we’ve got the highest employment… we’ve got lower unemployment than France, Germany, Italy, Canada. We’ve got the highest number of people in payroll jobs.’
Undeterred, Sir Keir compared the PM’s ‘gameplaying’ to a Love Island hopeful – and warned he could be booted out for giving the public the ‘ick’.
The Labour leader said: ‘He says the economy is booming when it’s shrinking. He’s gameplaying so much he thinks he’s on Love Island.
‘The trouble is, prime minister, that I’m reliably informed that contestants that give the public the ‘ick’, get booted out.’
Sir Keir’s performance at Prime Minister’s Questions came after reports said he had urged shadow cabinet colleagues to stop briefing that he is boring.
A story in The Times on Monday quoted several opposition frontbechers expressing concern over Sir Keir’s leadership, saying he was ‘boring voters to death’.
The Labour leader is said to have reacted angrily at a cabinet meeting the next day, telling his top team: ‘What’s boring is being in opposition.’
During his spirited performance today, he went onto quote Conservative MPs who have made negative comments against the prime minister, asking who has said what.
He said: ‘My personal favourite is this… they call him the Conservative Corbyn, prime minister, I don’t think that was intended as a compliment.
‘Week after week he stands there and spouts the same nonsense – the economy is booming, everything is going swimmingly, the people should be grateful. But whilst he’s telling Britain that we’ve never had it so good, millions of working people and businesses know the reality.’
Sir Keir faced relentless heckling as he attempted to conclude his remarks, in which he labelled Mr Johnson ‘totally deluded’.
The PM said Sir Keir ‘tried repeatedly’ to get Jeremy Corbyn elected as prime minister, adding: ‘Speaking from experience, he’s relatively dynamic by comparison with the right honourable gentleman.’
The Prime Minister concluded by saying he was taking decisions ‘on the side of the British people’, and was heckled when he said of the Opposition: ‘They’re on the side of the people traffickers who would risk people’s lives at sea, and we are on the side of people who come here safely and legally.’
Last night, the government’s first deportation flight to take asylum seekers to Rwanda was halted at the last minute by a legal ruling from a judge at the European Court of Human Rights.
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