Keir Starmer tests positive for Covid and will miss Budget
Sir Keir Starmer has tested positive for coronavirus and will not be responding to the Budget this afternoon.
It is the fifth time the Labour leader has been forced into isolation amid the pandemic.
His party hasn’t commented on his symptoms but it’s reported that he is feeling fine.
He was taking daily lateral flow tests and today’s came back positive, according to The Mirror.
Ed Miliband, Shadow Secretary of State for Business, is taking PMQs for Labour today.
The former Labour leader was greeted with ironic cheers from Tories as he stepped up in the House of Commons.
He quipped ‘just like the old days’, as Speaker Lindsay Hoyle scolded Conservatives for delaying the Budget.
Mr Miliband told MPs: ‘I can reassure the House – it’s for one time only.’
Deputy leader Angela Rayner, who would usually take Starmer’s place, remains on bereavement leave.
Starmer will also miss the beginning of the COP26 climate change summit as he self-isolates for 10 days. It had not been officially confirmed that he was attending though.
He was pictured with shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves and Bridget Phillipson, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury on Wednesday morning.
Both have tested negative with a lateral flow test – although Covid rules advise vaccinated people who have been in close contact with a positive case to take a PCR test.
Rishi Sunak is expected to announce a boost in NHS funding and a minimum wage rise in the Budget today.
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