Starmer was firing blanks at PMQs

It was another ‘worst week ever’ for Boris. The highlight being his successful bid to make mincemeat of himself by garbling his own lockdown rules at a press conference. At PMQs, he presented an open target and the Labour leader struck early with a highly specific question: Why has Luton emerged from lockdown when other communities haven’t?

‘They’ve pulled together to depress the virus,’ said Boris, sounding tentatively jubilant.

Everyone awaited the springing of the booby-trap. But it didn’t come. Luton was an irrelevance. It was a bait without a hook. Sir Keir was firing blanks. He left Boris free to complain that the Labour party was behaving like a faithless ally, sometimes marching with the government and sometimes ‘sniping from the side-lines.’

Sir Keir’s failure to nail his quarry today is the low-point of his leadership so far. Ian Blackford helped out too. Blackford’s difficulty is that he can’t see that he’s the difficulty.