SIR Keir Starmer was branded Captain Hindsight after claiming the Government had failed to act quickly enough on the new Covid strain.
The Labour leader sparked fury by stating the variant was “spotted in September” and PM Boris Johnson had chosen to “ignore alarm bells”.
NHS England said they were aware of the strain only in mid-October with its significant transmission hike confirmed last week.
Tory chair Amanda Milling said: “It’s irresponsible of Sir Keir to make claims when he doesn’t possess the facts — a global pandemic is no time to be peddling falsehoods.
“If Captain Hindsight is so sure, let the country know where he got his facts from for this sheer attempt at political opportunism?
“When confronted with the facts that the new strain of the virus was transmitting faster we took the tough but necessary action to control the virus, protect the NHS and save lives.”
Sir Keir used a press conference on Sunday morning to demand the PM apologise for cancelling Christmas – despite last week calling for tougher measures himself.
The Labour leader hit out: “This is not just one mistake when he has otherwise got things right. It is the same mistake over and over again.
“At the heart of the problem here is a Prime Minister who simply doesn’t want to be unpopular and therefore won’t take the tough decisions that are necessary, until he is forced into them at the 11th hour.
But it was his claim that Mr Johnson ignored warnings about the mutant strain of Covid since September that enraged ministers.
Matt Hancock hit back: “As it happens this is one of the fastest decisions I’ve seen in government to go from the evidence of this 70% increased transmission to putting in this action.”
The Health Secretary said it was a “very difficult decision taken extraordinarily quickly.”
