Rishi Sunak has been accused of having “no empathy” after he answered a question about homeless children with a bitter attack on Keir Starmer.
The prime minister lost his temper after being quizzed by the Labour leader in the Commons today.
Starmer accused Sunak of being “tone deaf” to the plight of 140,000 homeless children in the UK at Christmas.
He told MPs about Liam Walker, an 11-year-old boy homeless boy who wrote a letter to Santa Claus saying “please can I have a forever home - I don’t want any new toys, I just want all my old toys out of storage. I just want us to be happy again”.
Starmer added: “Is there anything that could shame this government into putting the country first, then it’s surely this little boy.”
The PM ignored the question and instead accused Labour of opposing the government’s plans to boost housebuilding.
He said: “If he really cared about building homes, when there was an opportunity in this house to reform defective EU laws, to unlock 100,000 new homes, what did he do? He went in front of the camera and said one thing and then came in here and blcoked it. Typical shameless opportunism.”
A screengrab of a snarling Sunak during the exchange has gone viral on X (formerly Twitter).
It was also used by the Labour Press account with the message: “When you ask the prime minister about homeless children at Christmas.”
Shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry posted: “Keir speaks of a boy whose Christmas letter didn’t ask for more toys ... PM’s reaction? The usual. A list of spun irrelevant achievements and a pop at Labour.
“No empathy. Out of touch. Should be out of office.”
The prime minister’s response was attacked by other X users.