PMQ: Starmer Implores that Johnson Apologize to Care Home Workers

The PMQ this week centered largely around the Conservative government’s treatment of care home workers in the UK. Leader of the Opposition, Sir Keir Starmer’s line of questioning was sparked by a comment made by the Prime Minister on Monday the 6th. Johnson, when asked why care home deaths had been so high, stated that “too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in the way that they could have.” 

The statement caused “huge offence to frontline care workers,” the very people Johnson keeps insisting he pays “tribute” to daily. Starmer asked the Prime Minister to apologize not for the intent of his words, but for the impact. Johnson became defensive, claiming that Starmer kept “saying that I blamed or tried to blame care workers when that is simply not the case.” 

Starmer brought attention to the “chilling” statistic that as many as 1 in 20 care home residents have died in this pandemic, and that no matter the intent of Johnson’s statement on Monday, the impact was one that caused offense and that “by refusing to apologize, the PM is rubbing salt into the wounds of the very people that he stood at his front door and clapped.”

The PMQ then moved into questions from SNP Leader in the House of Commons, Ian Blackford, and other MPs from around the UK.