Jeremy Corbyn would have been better PM than Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer reveals under grilling from voters in crunch Question Time debate – as Rishi promises to send election date betting Tories packing

Jeremy Corbyn would have made a better prime minister than Boris Johnson, Sir Keir Starmer claimed last night.

The Labour leader was left squirming on live TV as he was grilled over his support for his predecessor, who he twice tried to make PM.

Sir Keir became flustered as he was pressed to say whether he had genuinely believed his claim at the 2019 election that Mr Corbyn would make a ‘great prime minister’. 

By that point, he had served in Mr Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet for four years and urged the public to make him prime minister at two consecutive elections.

But in recent times he has worked hard to distance himself from Mr Corbyn, who campaigned for years to ditch Britain’s nuclear deterrent and leave Nato.

On a live BBC Question Time special last night, audience member Emma Mitchell asked him why he was criticising Mr Corbyn now, having campaigned for him for years previously.

Sir Keir defended his decision to support Mr Corbyn, saying he had never believed Labour would win – and had simply aimed to ensure as many Labour MPs as possible survived. 

But he refused five times to say whether he had told the truth when he claimed his predecessor would make a ‘great prime minister’.

Initially he suggested he said he ‘didn’t think we would win’ before suggesting Mr Corbyn would have made a ‘better’ PM than Mr Johnson. 

Pressed by host Fiona Bruce on the fact he had not answered the question, Sir Keir said: ‘It wasn’t a question that arose because I didn’t think we would win. I was campaigning for the Labour Party and I’m glad I did.’

In an interview with the London Evening Standard yesterday, Mr Corbyn rubbished Sir Keir’s attempts to distance himself from the 2019 campaign and his claim that he never thought Labour could win.

The former Labour leader said: ‘He never hinted at that, or intimated that at any stage to me. We did press conferences and events together in the 2019 election. 

‘He was part of the Shadow Cabinet that agreed the manifesto. Own it. I was there, he was there… and there were witnesses.’

The clashes came as:

• Rishi Sunak said he was ‘incredibly angry’ over revelations that a flood of bets were placed on a July election the day before he had announced the date, vowing to kick any wrong-doers out of the party;
• Mr Sunak will today channel Sir John Major by urging voters to carefully weigh up the long-term consequences of a Labour government; 
• Sir Keir was forced to deny he wanted to ‘flatten the green belt’ after a Labour official claimed the party would do so to build more houses; 
• Labour pledged to curb the ‘scandalous’ Right to Buy scheme – which deputy leader Angela Rayner used when she bought her former council house. 
• Michael Gove warned a landslide Labour victory could allow Sir Keir to ‘rig the system’ and create a ‘forever government’. 
• Labour education spokesman Bridget Phillipson said Labour will forge a generation of boys who grow up respecting women by tackling the ‘rising tide’ of sexism in schools; 
• Lib-Dem leader Sir Ed Davey apologised for the ‘big mistakes’ he made as Post Office minister and admitted he was ‘not proud’ of some of his actions in the coalition government. 

Sir Keir faced questions last night about the number of U-turns he had performed in office – something for which the Tories have branded him ‘Sir flip flop’.

He tried to defend his about-face on university tuition fees, saying the ‘damage’ caused to the economy meant he now had to prioritise resources for the NHS.

The Labour leader also tried to defend his decisions on energy and his U-turn on a previous pledge to nationalise the utility firms. He was also challenged about what action he would take to help renters get onto the housing ladder.

He said he wanted to take action to stop landlords launching ‘bidding wars’ among prospective tenants. ‘We’ve got to stop the landlords ripping off tenants who are doing this bidding war… ‘who will pay more’ until they are paying through the roof.’

But he was unable to say exactly how the policy would work.

The Labour leader was then challenged over his planned tax raid on private schools by a member of the audience who said it could add further stress on the already strained state system.

Mr Sunak was challenged over why NHS waiting lists had increased by 300,000 since he became PM.

He insisted progress ‘does not happen in a straight line’ – and held up inflation falling to the target of 2 per cent yesterday as clear proof of this. ‘When I became prime minister, inflation was 11 per cent,’ he told the audience.

‘That is something that I said I would do and we’ve done it now.

‘These things don’t happen overnight. They don’t happen in a straight line. And if you have a plan and you stick to it, you can get the results. 

‘What you have seen over this year is waiting lists are now starting to come down. We will stick to it and I will get it done.’