Deputy Speaker rebukes PM for claiming Labour ‘on side of traffickers’

Boris Johnson was rebuked in the House of Commons after claiming Labour were “on the side of the people traffickers”.

The Prime Minister was heckled by Opposition MPs as he concluded his exchanges with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer by insisting he was taking decisions “on the side of the British people”.

Mr Johnson added: “They’re on the side of the people traffickers who would risk people’s lives at sea and we are on the side of people who come here safely and legally.”

But Deputy Speaker Dame Rosie Winterton, after PMQs, said Mr Johnson’s comments appeared to “fall well short of the good temper and moderation” needed in parliamentary debates.

The heated exchanges came as the Government’s first deportation flight to take asylum seekers to Rwanda was halted at the last minute by a legal ruling from a judge at the European Court of Human Rights.

Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi (Bolton South East), raising a point of order after PMQs, said: “In the Prime Minister’s Questions, the Prime Minister said that the Leader of the Opposition was a supporter of people traffickers.

“I think that should be taken out of record.”

Dame Rosie replied: “Frankly, the level of noise during PMQs meant it was not possible for the chair to hear everything, but I understand that the Prime Minister, as she says, did say that the Opposition was on the side of people traffickers.

“That seems to me, and I have to say to the Speaker (Sir Lindsay Hoyle), to fall well short of the good temper and moderation which should characterise our debates.

“And I say to the Prime Minister, and to all members here, we need to refer to each other in this place in more respectful terms.”