Keir Starmer forced Boris Johnson to waffle and sound as if he wasn’t serious

When the Labour leader asked serious questions about the prosecution and conviction of rapists, the prime minister showed his weaknesses, says John Rentoul

Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs today (PA)

The Labour leader has identified Boris Johnson’s weaknesses and remained completely focused on them at Prime Minister’s Questions today. He knows that the prime minister is not good on detail, and that he finds it hard to keep his tone serious for long.

Keir Starmer devoted all six of his questions to the government’s poor record on the prosecution and conviction of rapists. He forced Johnson to waffle. “This is a problem that has been getting worse,” the prime minister said, looking confused. It was as if he didn’t know whether to claim that his was a new government that had just come to power and discovered what a mess his predecessors had made, or that his party had been in power for ages and had been working hard for years to sort out a very difficult problem.

Low conviction rates, said Johnson, were “caused by the data recovery process and the lack of unity, the lack of joined-up thinking between parts of the criminal justice system”. It sounded like waffle, as if the prime minister were regurgitating a half-understood briefing. “That is something that this government is now addressing by more investment, by putting more police out on the streets, and also by having tougher sentences.”