Keir Starmer has stumbled and let Boris Johnson off the coronavirus hook

The prime minister has appeared incompetent in handling the pandemic, and yet the opposition has failed to drive home its advantage, says John Rentoul

Labour leader Keir Starmer failed to take advantage of Boris Johnson’s bungling of school closures

Keir Starmer could have gone all out for lockdown, and he would have had public opinion behind him, but he held back until the last moment yesterday. He ended up calling for schools to close after the prime minister had already signalled that tougher measures were imminent, and only a few hours before school closures were actually announced.  

There were good reasons for this: it has been common ground since the summer that schools should be the last thing to close down. But there is also a certain amount of crude politics involved. Long ago, in the first lockdown in March, Starmer was embarrassed by Rebecca Long-Bailey, his Corbynite shadow education secretary, who seemed too keen that schools should close and stay closed. The Conservatives played politics with the subject, accusing her of putting the interests of teacher unions above those of pupils.  

When Long-Bailey removed herself from the shadow cabinet, Starmer took the chance to install Kate Green in her place and to insist that Labour wanted children in school if at all possible.