PMQs: Starmer flaps as Boris adapts

Well that was different. Boris arrived at PMQs as if he were modelling for one of his cartoons. The strands of his famous hairdo were standing up like the quills of a cornered hedgehog. Had he just placed his thumb in a power-socket to get an energy boost?

Sir Keir was waiting for him, inscrutable, serpent-like, coiled for the kill. Right now the Labour leader has a host of juicy attack-lines to choose from. But Sir Keir loves a problem crammed with facts and figures and intricate chronologies. Today he and his super-wonks had found just the sort of issue they crave.

The test-and-trace system managed to lose 16,000 positive results which meant that 48,000 people were unreachable for eight days. Sir Keir set this out with icy precision. ‘A very basic mistake,’ he scolded. Lives had been jeopardised, he went on, his lips tightening unpleasantly.

Time for Boris to self-immolate. Instead, he smoothly explained that the snag had been swiftly resolved and that an extra 800 staff had been sent to the front-line.