Rishi Sunak branded ‘inaction man’ by Starmer over RAAC crisis and prison escape
Sir Keir Starmer branded the Prime Minister ‘inaction man’ over his failure to respond to problems in the UK’s schools and prisons.
Rishi Sunak has faced heavy criticism in recent weeks over his government’s failure to deal with the presence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in schools, which is prone to collapse.
The chaos was then compounded by the escape of prisoner and terror suspect Daniel Khalife from Wandsworth prison, which prompted a nationwide four-day manhunt.
And to make matters worse, a parliamentary researcher with close links to Tory MPs was arrested earlier this week on suspicion of spying for China– a charge he has strenuously denied.
Speaking in the Commons, the Labour leader said: ‘Probation, prison, schools, China, yet again inaction man fails to heed the warning and then blames everyone else for the consequences.
‘On Sunday, the Home Secretary celebrated her first anniversary in post. That is if you overlook the six days she missed when she was deemed a national security risk.
‘In that year, 40,000 people have crossed the Channel on a small boat, and the taxpayer is now spending £6 million a day on hotel bills.
‘He is failing to stop terrorists strolling out of prison, failing to guard Britain against hostile actors, he is completely failing to stop the boats. How can anyone trust him to protect the country?’
Rishi Sunak responded by laying out the Government’s planned reforms to the Levelling Up Bill, telling MPs: ‘He talks about trust, he tried in this House to talk the talk on house building, but at the first sign of a cheap political hit, what did he do? He has caved in.
‘Rather than make the right long-term decisions for the country he has taken the easy way out. It is typical of the principles-free, conviction-free type of leadership that he offers.
‘Flip-flopping from being a builder to a blocker. The British people can’t trust a word he says.’
Responding to the PM, Starmer went on to call for a General Election and said: ‘No one voted for this shambles. No one voted for him. So how much more damage do the British public have to put up with before he finally finds the stomach to give them a say?’
But Sunak hit back by saying: ‘We are getting on for the British public, just in the last week announcing a new landmark deal for British scientists, attracting £600m for new investment for our world-leading auto industry, and wages now rising at the fastest rate on record.
‘Where has he been this week? Locked away with Labour’s union paymasters, promising to give them more power and scrap the laws that protect British families and their access to public services. It is clear it is only the Conservatives that are on the side of the hardworking British public.’
Asked to respond to Starmer’s comment, the PM’s press secretary later told journalists: ‘The PM’s a man of action. If you look at his record on stuff – the Windsor framework, the Aukus deal, Atlantic declaration, Horizon deal, long-term energy security package, toughest legislation ever on immigration.
‘[The Starmer comment] comes from someone today … who is literally doing something to play politics in Westminster with 100,000 new homes when he claims to be the leader of a party that wants to back the builders. So, he might want to get a mirror.’
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