Appearing on LBC this morning, Sir Keir was challenged by David in Hampstead who sounded as if he was reading a question directly from Guido’s blog: given its complete failure in Wales, does Starmer regret calling for a circuit breaker lockdown? Sir Keir showed no contrition, refusing to address Labour’s failure in Wales, merely saying “there are problems” there. Covid understatement of the day…

Instead, Starmer pivoted the question to claim the UK government did listen to him, in the end following suit and implementing a lockdown. The key difference, though it shouldn’t need pointing out, was the length of time the second shutdowns were instituted for; England locked down for 4 weeks with strong r-rate results, Wales for just 2 weeks, now set to re-enter lockdown with a growth rate three times higher than that of England’s. At the time Sir Keir went in hard on Boris, claiming if he’d been listened to, England’s lockdown could have been shorter like Wales’. It’s plain to see if Starmer were in charge of the UK, it’d be like Drakeford on steroids…