“A week’s a long time in politics”, Harold Wilson once presciently observed. Boris Johnson has had one of those weeks. Just over a week ago, that campaigning newspaper, the Mail on Sunday thought they had a scoop on Keir Starmer. He’s like so many others, they suggested, and out to profit on land speculation. They had a full splash on their ‘scoop’.
#DonkeyGate, as it is affectionately known, spectacularly backfired. The Starmer family do have a field in Surrey. For a donkey sanctuary. More from the donkeys shortly.
Then there was the U turn. “This isn’t right.” That’s all Keir Starmer’s tweet said in response to Boris Johnson’s confirmation that the government intended to keep the NHS surcharge for people working in the NHS from abroad. 24 hours later following pressure from Tory MPs and the media, including social media, the prime minister yielded. The surcharge for NHS workers would be scrapped.
