Starmer Nails Raab Flannel

With the FT’s Chris Giles revealing over a series of Tweets (thread HERE) that the number of deaths due to infection with Coronavirus is likely to be around 41,000 - and not the 17,337 announced yesterday, which just covers deaths in hospitals - knowledge of those statistics is becoming widespread. The public at large is realising just how many have lost their lives. And some of those who have died are NHS and social care workers.

So it should have surprised no-one that Labour’s new leader Keir Starmer would mention this at his first Prime Minister’s Questions today. And Dominic Raab, deputising for the now convalescing Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, our highly esteemed alleged Prime Minister, should have seen the question coming and been ready with the numbers.

He was not. “How many NHS workers have now died from Coronavirus? And how many social care workers have now died from Coronavirus?” asked Starmer. It was a straight question. All that was required of Raab were two numbers. Had he felt suitably emboldened, he could have done the addition and given a third, total, number.

It should have been in the Easy, Peasy, Lemon Squeezy category. Not for Dom. After a significant amount of flannel, during which he managed to deploy the phrase “ramp up” twice, Raab responded “On the latest figures, my understanding is that 69 people have died within the NHS of the Coronavirus, and I don’t have the precise figure for care homes … more difficult to establish in relation to care home workers”.

Did he not, now? He needed only to look at Byline Times, where they and Nursing Notes have collaborated to record the names of all those who have died with Covid-19, from Nurses, to Midwives, to Healthcare and Theatre Assistants, GPs, Consultants, Registrars, Surgeons, Paramedics, Porters, and many other workers.

Their records show that the total of those deaths stood at 103 by last Monday. Starmer let Raab know “I’m disappointed we don’t have a number for social care workers and I put the First Secretary on notice that I’ll ask the same question again next week, and hopefully we can have a better answer”. And it will be Raab again next week.

Alex Andreou was one of many who approved of Starmer’s approach. “Asking for meaningful stuff. Not only vital information, but information which is highly damaging to have the government say out loud. When he is dismissed with flannel, he puts a marker down. He will ask again next week. This ‘can't get away with evasion’ stance is crucial”.

Far too many on the left have been laying into Starmer since his election to the Labour Top Job, rushing to denounce him as “Blair lite” and claiming he is not holding the Government to account, without giving him a chance to set out his stall. He did the first setting-out today. He was purposeful, precise and forensic. Raab is indeed on notice.

Starmer is not Corbyn. Nor would any other leader be. Let’s respect that difference.

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