Ex-Islington resident Boris Johnson calls Labour leader and Camden MP Keir Starmer an ‘Islington suit’

Former Islington resident and prime minister Boris Johnson has accused the Labour leader and Camden MP Keir Starmer of being a “Corbynista in an Islington suit”.

The prime minister and opposition leader came face to face again for a heated Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) yesterday (Wednesday, April 21).

Johnson has continued to accuse the Labour leader of being a lawyer from Islington, despite living there previously himself.

He told the House of Commons: “I think he’s a Corbynista in an Islington suit.”

This is despite Starmer actually being the MP for Holborn and St Pancras, one of the two parliamentary constituencies covering the borough of Camden.

The prime minister also failed to disclose that, until a few years ago, he lived in a £3.75 million townhouse in Islington with his former wife, lawyer Marina Wheeler, prior to the couple’s divorce.

Journalist Otto English discussed Mr Johnson’s Islington accusation, and said if the prime minister “isn’t the very definition of a Metropolitan elite, I’ve got a timeshare to sell you”.

The PMQs session was heated from the beginning with the opposition leader pressing the prime minister as to why several cabinet members and government staff had resigned in relation to breaking Covid-19 regulations but the party leader was still in power.

Starmer mentioned the resignations of press secretary Allegra Stratton, coronavirus advisor Neil Ferguson and former health secretary Matt Hancock, who all quit their high-profile roles following either breaches of lockdown restrictions, or the fallout from the ‘partygate’ scandal.

The opposition leader then asked: “Why does the prime minister think everyone else’s actions have consequences, except his own?”

But Johnson hit back, claiming his opponent was in “some kind of Doctor Who time warp” after the Conservative leader had apologised in the House of Commons of Tuesday for being fined for breaking lockdown restrictions.

A heated debate continued as Starmer pushed for answers as to why the prime minister thought an apology best fit his response to breaking Covid-19 laws.

Johnson said he “bitterly regretted” recieving a fine for attending a birthday party for himself on June 19, 2020, despite the country being in lockdown.

His response clearly did not appease Starmer who then told the House of Commons: “Yesterday’s apology lasted for as long as the prime minister thought necessary to be clipped for the news.

“But once the cameras were off the prime minister went to see his back benchers and was back to blaming everyone else.”

This was the second day MPs have put pressure on the prime minister over ‘partygate’ allegations after he apologised on Tuesday for his actions.

Starmer questioned: “Does the prime minister actually accept he broke the law?”

Johnson responded that he had been “absolutely clear” and that he “humbly accepts what the police have said”.

Starmer went on to ask if the prime minister wanted to apologise for his “slanderous comments” on the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The prime minister previously said Justin Welby had not been critical enough of Putin after he criticised the sending illegal immigrants to Rwanda.

However, the Archbishop had previously called Putin’s war with Ukraine “an act of great evil”.

In response to Starmer’s call for an apology, Johnson refused to comment and instead said: “I was slightly taken aback for the government to be criticised over the policy we have devised to end the deaths at sea, in the channel.”

He then turned his claims back on the Labour party, and said the idea had been first proposed by David Blunkett in 2004.

Starmer then alleged the prime minister had made slanderous accusations regarding the BBC not doing enough to criticise the acts of Putin.

He accused the Prime Minister of slandering reporters who are risking their lives in Ukraine, stating that he was slandering “decent people in a private room” before adding “without the backbone to repeat in public”.

Johnson then told the House of Commons that he had not attacked the BBC for their coverage of the Ukraine war and that the leader of the opposition must be “out of his tiny mind”.

Responses to PMQs have been appearing on twitter, with Green MP Caroline Lucas telling her followers she believes the prime minister must resign, adding: “He’s crossed line after line, including breaking the law - a law he made and we followed.”

While Labour MP Chris Elmore told his followers he believes: “The PM is harming our great country for his own personal gain. He must go.”