It was quite the moment. For months now, Boris Johnson’s only comeback to Keir Starmer at prime minister’s question has been that he didn’t have a policy of his own. Rather forgetting it was the government’s job to come up with the ideas and for the opposition to oppose. But in his first ever televised press conference since he was elected Labour leader, Starmer chose to put clear blue water between himself and Johnson by calling for a two- to three-week “circuit break” to halt the spread of the coronavirus. This wasn’t Starmer in his natural habitat. He has still to master the art of looking relaxed in front of the TV cameras, but his 10-minute speech was delivered with the conviction of someone who knows he has the Sage scientists and most of the public on his side. It might have looked a little awkward, but it was the closest thing to true leadership the country has seen in months. Alongside Keir, Boris looks increasingly like a startled, desperate wrecking-ball. Starmer began where he had left off in his reply to Johnson’s statement in the Commons the day before with a run down of the latest coronavirus statistics. Then he took out the scalpel. The government had no plan, had lost control and was no longer even listening to the scientific advice. Not so long ago Boris used to say he followed the science. Now he has downgraded Sage to mere guidance. AKA something to be ignored at will. With the test-and-trace system only having a marginal impact and the rate of infection going up in 19 out of the 20 regions in which local lockdowns had been imposed, now was not the time for half-measures. Boris’s three-tier system were the tiers of a clown: as doomed to failure as his previous compromises to bring down the infection rate. Now was the time for the two- to three-week national lockdown that government scientists had called for back in September. Only schools – the circuit break could be timed to coincide with half-term – and essential work and travel would remain open. Everything else would be shut down – even parliament would go to remote working – and those businesses affected by the closures would get financial compensation. Keir ended with a personal message to Boris. The Labour leader might not trust the prime minister, but it’s never a bad look to appear to be the last person in the country who believes Johnson has a conscience worth appealing to. That sound you just heard was Boris throwing up in a corner. He has always had problems swallowing his pride. Come on, he said. You know the scientific evidence is on my side. You know you can’t carry on trying to keep all the Tory MPs with competing interests onside with a series of half-arsed measures that please no one and achieve nothing. Even if you added a tier 4, where only people in urgent need of eyesight tests were allowed out provided they were in possession of a burger and chips, it would still be a disaster. We all know the circuit breaker is coming down the line at some point, so you might as well do it now before the death toll rises much higher. Starmer quickly moved on to take a few questions from the broadcast media. Yes, he did want mayors and council leaders to be involved – especially in running a more targeted, localised test-and-trace system – but the circuit breaker had to be the priority. It was the only way to save lives, protect the NHS from being overloaded and would give the country a chance to rest itself. Chris Whitty had even said as much when he was standing next to the prime minister at the Downing Street press conference the night before. Just how much more evidence did anyone need? And yes, it would cost money but not nearly as much as the government’s attritional rate of failure that would be bound to end in a circuit breaker anyway. Starmer didn’t have any exact figures in mind, but then, to be fair, neither has the government a clue how much its own measures would cost. And yes, he wouldn’t be voting against the government’s three-tier system because doing something had to be better than doing nothing. But not by much. Boris was merely hell bent on killing us with acts of futile kindness. It hadn’t been a pitch perfect appearance. Starmer had at times looked nervous about putting his head above the parapet for the first time and he looked relieved to scuttle off unscathed. But it had been more than good enough. Not least because he had got in first with a policy the government is certain to have to adopt at some point soon, because not even half his own MPs believe in Boris these days. Then neither does Boris, so they are in good company. Nor could Keir be certain that one circuit breaker would be sufficient. But that was a problem that could wait for another day. If things got that bad then we’d all be screwed. There again, we probably were anyway. But at least we had been given a glimpse of a man who sounded as if he had the authority of a prime minister. And that was as good a place as any to start.