Keir Starmer has accused the government of burying its head in the sand and standing aside as inflation stops and taxes rise for many.
The comparison to the former Iraqi minister, who gained cult status because of his outrageous lies, came amid capricious questions from the prime minister, with Starmer saying Johnson was pleased with the “blindingly obvious” economic problems.
The Labor leader said the discussed plan to allow motorists to receive two-year maintenance instead of one made the ill-fated ’90s cone hotline look’ visionary and inspiring ‘. He said Johnson was “just waking up to the cost of living crisis” and was behaving like an ostrich.
Johnson accused Starmer of “bunny” and rejected his call for an unforeseen tax on oil and gas companies to help reduce people’s energy bills, saying: “This man is doomed to be a regular viewer.”
In their last public speeches before local elections next week, the two leaders exchanged blows during a session that focused mainly on the economy.
Johnson was touched during an anonymous briefing by a Tory MP in the Mail on Sunday, accusing Angela Raynor, a deputy Labor leader, of crossing her legs in the House of Commons to distract the prime minister.
Starmer said the UK was on track to have the slowest growth and highest inflation in the G7, and said Johnson was failing to run the economy properly.
In a series of targeted questions aimed at blaming the government for the cost of living crisis, Starmer said ministers were making life worse for workers with last month’s “tax increase budget” and failing to help those whose accounts for fuel have increased.
“They are the party of super-profits, we are the party of working people,” Starmer said.
He accused ministers of allowing prices to “get out of hand”, denying it was happening and doing nothing about it. “The Labor vote next week is a vote for a very different set of elections,” Starmer said.
He said his party would ask oil and gas companies to pay their share of tariffs, insulate homes to reduce bills and close tax evasion schemes by removing the status of homeless.
But Johnson has repeatedly called Starmer “Captain Retrospective,” saying the cost of living crisis is affecting people around the world and insisting, “This government is dealing with this.”
He said the recently published energy security strategy would “undo the mistakes of the previous Labor government”, urging that a new nuclear power plant be built every year instead of every decade.
Johnson dismissed the unforeseen tax on offshore energy companies, saying it would “hit the very businesses we need to invest in energy to reduce prices for people in this country.”
The prime minister said a record number of jobs were being created and the Conservatives’ plans were better than Labor’s “one mile” plans.
He added: “Never forget Labor-ruled Britain in 2010 – it went bankrupt because of what the Labor government did. They said they had no money. “
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