Keir Starmer’s big weakness is his kindness

PMQs began with a tribute from Speaker Hoyle who seemed thrilled to see Boris back at work and in Bunterish good health. ‘The whole country is delighted at his recovery,’ he added. A quick trawl thorough Twitter would disprove that optimistic claim.

Sir Keir Starmer, in his debut against Boris, asked how the government could claim ‘success’ against Covid-19 when Britain is filling more coffins than any country in Europe. Boris wriggled a bit and said international comparisons were unreliable. Sir Keir held up a coloured graph showing a range of mortality-rates across the continent. ‘The government has been using slides like this,’ he said. Then he asked about the numbers dying in care-homes.

Boris: ‘He’s not right about the state of the epidemic in care-homes. In the last few days there has been a palpable improvement.’

Sir Keir: ‘I was using a slide the government used last night.