‘The Dog Ate My Homework’: Starmer Mocked For Claiming He Was Too Distracted To Notice Welfare Revolt

Keir Starmer has been mocked for claiming he was too distracted by foreign affairs to realise he was facing a huge Labour rebellion over welfare cuts.

The prime minister has held his hands up to a series of mistakes in interviews marking his first year in the job.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, he said he was too “heavily focused on what was happening with Nato and the Middle East” rather than what was going on in Westminster.

“My full attention really bore down on this on Thursday,” the PM said. “At that point, we were able to move relatively quickly.”

That is a reference to the U-turn the government had to perform on its plans to cut £5 billion from the welfare budget in a bid to avoid a humiliating defeat when it reforms are voted on by MPs on Tuesday.

However, Starmer’s explanation of how he got into this mess in the first place did not go down well with his critics on social media.

Prominent among them was veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott, who has had a long-running feud with Starmer after claiming he tried to force her to stand down before the last election.

Posting on X, she said: “The PM surely does not expect anyone to believe he did not realise taking over £5billion from the disabled was wrong because he was abroad.”

Others on social media were equally scathing over the PM’s comments.

Starmer was also criticised for admitting to The Observer that he “regrets” saying in a speech on immigration that the UK risks becoming an “island of strangers”.

He said he had been distracted by a firebomb attack on his former home and had not read the speech properly before delivering it.

But that has also drawn backlash on social media.