Keir Starmer has accused the government of failing rape victims by making cuts to the criminal justice system during a decade of austerity. “On the prime minister’s watch, rape prosecutions and convictions are at a record low, court backlogs are at a record high,” the Labour leader told an often noisy House of Commons during prime minister’s questions on Wednesday. “Victims are waiting longer for justice, and criminals are getting away with it. This wasn’t inevitable. It’s the cost of a decade of Conservative cuts.” In response, Johnson blamed the failures on “the inadequacies of the criminal justice system” and, amid a series of pre-prepared lines, in his final answer to Starmer said of Labour: “They jabber, we jab.” Labour said it was “disgraceful” to call questions about rape convictions “jabber”, and called for Johnson to apologise. Last week, after the publication of a long-awaited government review of the decline in rape prosecutions in England and Wales, the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, apologised for what he called “systemic failings”. At PMQs, Starmer asked Johnson why the number of rape convictions and prosecutions had fallen to a record low, pointing out that 98.4% of reported rape cases did not result in charges. Johnson replied: “There are considerable evidential problems, particularly in recovering data from mobile phones, and that has been an obstacle to the speedy preparation of cases. There is not a good enough join-up across the criminal justice system. And that is exactly what we are addressing.” Johnson went on to condemn Labour for voting against the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, which among numerous measures would increase some sentences. Labour has opposed the bill over its powers to crack down on protests, and what the party says is a greater focus on protecting monuments than improving women’s safety. Starmer told MPs: “The prime minister knows very well why we voted against his bill – precisely because it did more to protect statues than women. Can he point to what provision in the bill, what clause, what chapter, what part of that bill will do anything to change the fact that 98.4% of reported rape cases don’t end in charges?” Johnson replied by pointing to clauses limiting the early release from prison of convicted rapists, among others. Starmer responded: “What an appalling answer. If the prime minister thinks that’s the answer, that is why we’ve got these terrible rates of conviction and of prosecution. The answer is there’s nothing in that bill. The truth is, victims of rape are being failed.” Starmer also pressed Johnson on the growing backlog of cases to be heard in courts, dismissing the prime minister’s words on a recent increase in staffing for prosecution services. He said: “The government can’t make significant cuts to the Crown Prosecution Service, 25% cuts to the Ministry of Justice, close half the courts in England and Wales, and now pretend that a small budget increase will solve the problem.” Johnson denied that cuts to the police and CPS had resulted in a steep decline in the number of rape cases making it to court. Lawyers, victims’ groups and whistleblowers in both bodies argue cuts have deprived thousands of rape victims of justice. Since 2010, the CPS has faced a 25% budget cut and a 30% reduction in staff, while police forces in England and Wales lost 21,732 officers between March 2010 and March 2018, 15% of their total number. Starmer ended by asking whether Johnson would, like Buckland, apologise to rape victims. Johnson said he was “sorry for the trauma that they have been through, the frustration that they go through because of the inadequacies of the criminal justice system”. In a series of final remarks, the prime minister sought to contrast what he called Labour’s quibbling over policy with government action, notably on Covid vaccinations, saying: “They jabber, we jab.” Jess Phillips, the shadow minister for safeguarding and domestic violence, said: “For the prime minister to describe questions about rape convictions as ‘jabber’ is disgraceful. He should apologise for his comments and his government’s appalling record.” It comes as Vera Baird, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales, told the home affairs select committee that the long-awaited rape review was “underwhelming” and argued its use of pilots rather than national schemes resulted in “a very large amount of kicking the can down the road”. She added that she was “deeply disappointed” at the review’s failure to implement a system of national independent legal advisers for rape victims, which she trialled in Northumberland as police and crime commissioner, adding that the government’s apology came “close to being undermined” as a result. Both Baird and Emily Hunt, an independent adviser to the rape review, told MPs they were concerned that the Crown Prosecution Service had not recognised the role it played in the steep decline in the number of rape charges made in the last five years. “The fundamental problem was the CPS deciding to prosecute cases, and I do have some concerns about them recognising that,” said Hunt.