Keir Starmer faces stress to ‘appropriate the file’ and apologise to MPs after wrongly suggesting Boris Johnson had a legal conviction

Keir Starmer was under pressure to apologise to MPs last night after wrongly suggesting that Boris Johnson had a criminal conviction.

The Prime Minister was urged to ‘correct the record’ after aiming the slur at Mr Johnson while trying to defend his own judgment in appointing Louise Haigh to the Cabinet despite knowing that she had a conviction for fraud.

During angry exchanges in the Commons, Kemi Badenoch said the public deserved ‘an explanation’ for why he ‘knowingly appointed a convicted fraudster to be his transport secretary. What was he thinking?’

The Conservative leader added: ‘The country needs conviction politicians, not politicians with convictions.’

In a calculated jibe at Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, Sir Keir hit back: ‘I gently remind her that two of her predecessors had convictions for breaking the Covid rules.’

Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak were controversially handed £50 fixed penalties for attending a so-called birthday party in Downing Street during lockdown. But fixed penalty notices are not regarded in law as convictions.

Mr Johnson last night said the PM had ‘misled the Commons’ – a resigning offence – and urged him to withdraw his remarks.

‘The Prime Minister has clearly misled the House and should correct the record today,’ he said.

The Prime Minister was urged to ‘correct the record’ after aiming the slur at Mr Johnson while trying to defend his own judgment in appointing Louise Haigh to the Cabinet despite knowing that she had a conviction for fraud

Mr Johnson last night said the PM had ‘misled the Commons’ – a resigning offence – and urged him to withdraw his remarks

Former solicitor general Sir Michael Ellis echoed the call and said that as a former director of public prosecutions, Sir Keir should have been well aware of the difference between a fixed penalty notice and a criminal conviction.

Sir Michael told the Mail: ‘A former DPP really ought to know that fixed penalty notices are not criminal convictions.

‘By that token he has just suggested that millions of people handed parking tickets now have criminal convictions, which is plainly nonsense.

‘It is factually wrong and he should correct the record.’

After the Commons clashes, a spokesman for Mrs Badenoch said it was ‘important to point out that fixed penalty notices are not criminal convictions’.

But a Labour source indicated that the PM will not back down, saying: ‘If the Conservatives want to have a row about the extent of their criminality while in Downing Street that’s fine by us.

During angry exchanges in the Commons, Kemi Badenoch said the public deserved ‘an explanation’ for why he ‘knowingly appointed a convicted fraudster to be his transport secretary

An image issued by the Cabinet Office showing the then prime minister Boris Johnson (right) at a gathering in the Cabinet Room in 10 Downing Street on his birthday, which was released with the publication of Sue’s Gray report into Downing Street parties in Whitehall during the coronavirus lockdown

‘The fact is two of the leader of the opposition’s predecessors were found guilty of breaking the law with partying in Downing Street while telling everyone else to follow the rules.’

Ms Haigh resigned last week after details of a spent conviction for fraud came to light. Downing Street has not disputed her claim that she told Sir Keir about the offence, which involved falsely reporting the loss of a work phone, four years earlier.

Sir Keir refused to say why he had appointed her to the Cabinet, but said she ‘was right to resign when further information came forward’.

He declined to say what further information had emerged or what he had known about her conviction – and accused Mrs Badenoch of ‘obsessing with Westminster issues’.

The Conservative leader responded: ‘The truth is that he appointed a person convicted of fraud to the Cabinet, and the first thing she did was bung hundreds of millions of pounds in pay rises to her trade union friends. Was this not a fraud on the British people?’