The significance of the refugee question Keir Starmer failed to ask

The Labour leader let Scottish nationalists, Liberal Democrats and One Nation Tories ask the obvious question in the Commons, writes John Rentoul

The real significance of today’s Prime Minister’s Questions was the question not asked by Starmer (UK Parliament)

Rarely has a question not asked by the leader of the opposition been so deafening. The evidence of the home secretary’s heartlessness and incompetence seemed so overwhelming that it must have required a heroic effort of will for Keir Starmer to avoid asking a question about Britain’s policy towards Ukrainian refugees.

Yet Starmer summoned his reserves of resolution and asked about energy bills instead. This is an important question, and it was a sharp twist to ask Boris Johnson when he was going to force Rishi Sunak to make a U-turn on his “buy now, pay later” policy of lending people help with their gas bills.

Johnson waffled in reply, at one point theatrically pretending to think that Starmer was demanding that the government reverse its policy of helping people with their bills – “He must be out of his mind.” The prime minister knows perfectly well that he and Sunak are indeed likely to pump yet more money into subsidising people’s bills.