PMQs: Sir Keir Starmer keeps it in the corner versus Boris Johnson when the goal is wide open

Facing the Commons after a brutal no-confidence vote appeared a daunting task for the Prime Minister.

He no longer had the support of his backbenchers, with 148 of his own MPs deciding they wanted to oust him.

Winning by less than a leader he ousted in Theresa May, Boris Johnson had tried to spin the victory as resounding when, in fact, it could spell the end.

His allies tell cameras the party has now drawn a line under Partygate, and the UK Government is now getting on with the job.

Privately they admit he will be lucky to last another year, especially with two expected by-elections to come.

Yet despite this drama, somehow, some way, Sir Keir Starmer seems not to have realised.

He must have known about it. He made a few jokes at Prime Minister’s Questions that might be read as referencing the vote, but instead decided to talk about the NHS.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer struggled to land a blow during PMQs.

Now the NHS is vitally important and it’s good Labour campaign on it, especially with their ‘powerful’ arguments serving them so well at every election since 2010.

But now? With this Prime Minister? In this week?

Labour MPs had entered the Commons grinning, ready to see a 5-0 battering and beginning of a title charge.

Instead their star man didn’t appear to turn up, choosing to keep it in the corner rather than smash it in with the goal gaping.

It was extraordinary, and allowed Mr Johnson to wriggle out of the fact a third of his party think he’s unsuitable to instead focus on Brexit and vaccines again.

This should have felt seismic in a week so disastrous for the Government, but instead it felt like you were watching a repeat, and not a good one.

It has already sparked debate this is a tactic, Labour prolonging Mr Johnson’s stay, allowing him to do more damage.

It is less “never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake”, and more “take the shovel away from your enemy and offer them a rope”.

PMQs was a drab dull affair in a week that should be anything but, and the best we can say for Sir Keir’s performance is that it’s over.