Sir Keir Starmer is continuing to use his Prime Minister’s Questions to build a narrative about the government’s lack of competence, particularly when it comes to awarding contracts. This has had varying impact in each session, but by returning to the matter on a weekly basis, the Labour leader is developing a theme. Today he attacked the government’s procurement process for personal protective equipment, pointing to an admission from ministers that they have purchased around 184 million items of PPE which are unusable.
Johnson’s retort to this question was very similar to the way he has dealt with all the others: he suggested that Starmer was displaying a ‘deep underlying hatred of the private sector’, and argued that – as the government statement which Starmer was basing his figures on made clear – 99.5 per cent of the PPE procured conformed to clinical needs.
Johnson also pointed out that Labour was criticising ministers for moving too slowly on PPE orders a few months ago, only to switch to claiming they were moving too fast now.
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