LONDON (Labour Buzz) - Boris Johnson was actually there in person for PMQs and for the first time in a long time, he could point to some good news. The UK has somewhat jumped the gun on the Pfizer vaccine approving it for use before clinical trials have completely finished (what could possibly go wrong?).
Starmer, meanwhile, had painted a bit of a target on his face by ordering his MPs to abstain from the vote about lockdown restrictions. Johnson actually had much to thank Starmer for because had he decided to do what leaders of the opposition normally do, and vote against the government, the Prime Minister would have faced an embarrassing defeat.
General Indecision
If Starmer was hoping for gratitude, he didn’t get it. Having flogged the Captain hindsight tag to death Johnson tried to grab another, labelling Starmer General indecision. If the number of U-turns Johnson has managed over the course of the year he might as well accused him of having silly hair.
Starmer shot back by reminding Johnson of the time he took a £20,000 taxpayer-funded trip to Kabul to avoid voting against the third runway for Heathrow. “When I abstain I come to the House to explain; when he abstains he runs away to Afghanistan.”
He pushed the Prime Minister on the ‘serious questions that needed to be answered’ about government support for the affected sectors.
Nevertheless, the decision to abstain from the vote caused trouble for Starmer. One of the downsides of not voting against a decision is that it becomes rather difficult to ask really damaging questions.
Instead, he was reduced to asking rather less exciting questions about the detail. Fortunately for him, Johnson regards detail in the same way that Superman regards small green glowing pieces of rock.
Anti-vaxxers
Welcoming the arrival of the first approved vaccine for COVID 19 he pledged to do his bit to help get it rolled out as quickly as possible. However, there is, of course, one big barrier standing in the way, anti-vax misinformation. This is becoming a thriving industry online with countless posts spreading misinformation about vaccines.
Public confidence in the vaccine, he said, was a real concern and would be crucial to its success. However, It’s important that we do everything we can to counter dangerous, frankly life-threatening, disinformation about vaccines. We on this side have called on legislation to clamp down on this with financial penalties for those companies which fail to act.”
Such a law would be bad news for social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter who have provided a useful platform for anti-vax misinformation throughout the year. He asked the Prime Minister to support the legislation.
Johnson floundered and said pretty much nothing aside from to vaguely agree that anti-vaxxers are very bad, and promise to publish a paper at some point.
(Written by Tom Cropper, Edited by Klaudia Fior)