Keir Starmer Misled Parliament Over PM Accusations, Cabinet Minister Claims
The education secretary claimed Keir Starmer misled parliament when he got “overexcited” while hitting out at the prime minister in the Commons.
Nadhim Zahawi alleged that the leader of the opposition was wrong when he accused Boris Johnson of criticising the BBC over its Ukraine coverage during Wednesday’s PMQs.
Speaking to Sky News on Thursday, Zahawi said Starmer “just wanted to play politics” when it came to handling partygate.
The cabinet minister said: “He, probably inadvertently because he got overexcited, and started accusing the prime minister.”
Sky News’ Kay Burley replied: “Are you suggesting the leader of the opposition has misled parliament?”
Knowingly misleading parliament is a breach of the ministerial code.
Zahawi pointed out that the Tory MP Sir David Evenett has already put a letter in to the speaker over the conflict, alleging Starmer “accused the prime minister of something he has no evidence of”.
“By accusing him at the dispatch box, mistakenly, he should apologise and withdraw,” Zahawi added.
Starmer, basing his comments off reports from a meeting of Conservative MPs on Tuesday evening, said to Johnson during PMQs: “The prime minister also accused the BBC of not being critical enough of Putin.”
The prime minister replied, “I said nothing of the kind”, and called for Starmer to “withdraw what he just said because it has absolutely no basis or foundation in truth”.
The leader of the opposition did not retract his statement during PMQs.
But Zahawi’s call for Starmer to apologise over this exchange only prompted Burley to say: “Pot kettle black!”
The cabinet minister’s claim is particularly controversial because Johnson himself has been accused of deliberately misleading parliament over his repeated assertions in the Commons that he had not broken any Covid lockdown rules.
Labour is leading a vote on whether to launch a parliamentary probe into Johnson’s previous statements about Westminster lockdown rule-breaking on Thursday, although the education secretary dismissed it as “shenanigans”.
The government has put forward an amendment to delay the probe until after the police investigation has concluded and the Sue Gray report has been published.