It may not have been the press conference he wanted to give, but he conducted it with integrity
For Boris Johnson, the safe place was a fridge. A space to chill out and hide away from unfriendly members of the media. Reporters who couldn’t be relied on to treat his every dishonesty with grotesque indulgence. Keir Starmer was rather bolder than that. He chose to give a mini press conference to the three main broadcasters, none of whom held back from asking the difficult questions.
There again, the Labour leader probably had no choice. To have said nothing was to have played into No 10’s hands, making Starmer look defensive and shifty. Hell, it had even reached the point where some of Downing Street’s more servile hacks were writing stories about parties Keir had considered having and then reconsidered when the regulations changed. We’re now on to thought crimes. Hold the front page. Next we’ll be hearing about how Starmer once thought about going through an amber light before thinking better of it. Far better for him to go down fighting.
