LONDON

British opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer of the Labour Party went into self-isolation for the sixth time on Wednesday, missing the first Prime Minister’s Questions of 2022, after testing positive for COVID-19.

Last October, he missed Budget Day after testing positive.

The other four times he had to self-isolate were because he came in close contact with someone else who had tested positive.

Deputy Labour Party leader Angela Rayner on Wednesday took his place opposite Prime Minister Boris Johnson in parliament.

She pressed Johnson on rising inflation and the gathering cost of living crisis in the UK, saying that “working people across the country are starting the New Year facing rising bills and ballooning prices."

The issue is a sensitive one for the prime minister as tax hikes announced last year will take place this year, and gas prices are rising rapidly as temperatures drop. His own backbench MPs have pressed the government to act more decisively on this issue.

In the event, Johnson defended his government’s measures and pointed to the global nature of some of the driving forces behind the issues facing the country.