Labour leader Starmer roasts PM Johnson for giving ‘dodgy answers’ as pair clash over child poverty stats during PMQs
Boris Johnson's been "found out" for giving "dodgy answers," Labour leader Keir Starmer has claimed, as the pair argued during prime minister’s questions over child poverty stats and the UK’s delayed Covid-19 contact-tracing app.
Addressing Johnson in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Starmer highlighted claims Johnson made last week, that absolute and relative child poverty has declined since 2012, have been proven “false” by the Children's Commissioner for England.
The opposition leader also took a swipe at the PM for stating in parliament that “there are 4,000 fewer families now living in poverty than there were in 2010,” adding that there was a “theme to these exchanges” at PMQs.
On Monday, the office of the Children’s Commissioner ruled that was simply false. He either dodges the question or he gives dodgy answers.
"He either dodges the question or he gives dodgy answers."Keir Stamer pushes Boris Johnson to "correct the record", after the Labour leader says the office of the children's commission ruled the PM's comments on child poverty were "false".#PMQs: https://t.co/W1BEjh1okkpic.twitter.com/0fwg5LU6LZ
— SkyNews (@SkyNews) June 24, 2020
Johnson – refusing to acknowledge that his remarks may have misled the House, appeared to double down, insisting that there are “100,000 fewer children in absolute poverty” in the UK.
The PM also hit back at Starmer’s criticism over the delay of the UK’s contact-tracing app, with the centralized version now scrapped – after being trialed on the Isle of Wight – in favor of a decentralized model using Apple and Google’s technology.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock had promised that the NHS custom-made app would be ready in tandem with their manual track-and-trace program by mid-May.
Also on rt.com Virus app U-turn: Britain to switch to Google & Apple tech for Covid-19 contact-tracing despite rejecting it earlierJohnson challenged Starmer to name one country that had developed a properly functioning app. The Labour MP bluntly shot back: “Germany. 12 million downloads,” adding “I checked that overnight.”
Countries such as France, Australia, Singapore and Latvia are among those that have launched a coronavirus contact tracing app, although user uptake has been reasonably low in some of those nations.
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