Boris Johnson is attempting to perform “Jedi mind tricks” on the country by boasting about the state of the economy and claiming no rules were broken over the Partygate scandal, Sir Keir Starmer had joked.

       Injecting Star Wars references into the weekly exchange at prime minister’s questions, the Labour leader also claimed Mr Johnson “thinks he’s Obi-Wan Kenobi”, but added: “The truth is he’s Jabba the Hut”.

       Focusing his attention on the economy, Sir Keir raised predictions from the OECD that the UK will be the worst-performing economy of any nation in the developed world besides Russia, in 2023.

       In an attempt to divert the line of the questioning, the prime minister, however, referenced the imminent rail strikes facing the country, saying the Labour leader had a “sphinx-like silence about the RMT” industrial action.

       But Sir Keir hit back, saying: “He’s in government. He can do something to stop the strikes. He hasn’t lifted a finger.”

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       “I don’t want the strikes to go ahead, but he does. He wants the country to grind to a halt so he can feed off the division.”

       The Labour leader said: “As for his boasting about the economy, he thinks he can perform Jedi mind tricks on the country: ‘These aren’t the droids you’re looking for, no rules were broken, the economy is booming’.

       “The problem is, the force just isn’t with him anymore,” he added. “He thinks he’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. The truth is he’s Jabba the Hutt.

       Boris Johnson claimed the Labour leader had a “sphinx-like silence about the RMT’ strikes

       (PA)

       “Last week he stood there and boasted that we would continue to grow the economy, this week it turns out the economy shrank for the second month in a row. How does it help Britain to have an ostrich Britain with his head in the sand?”

       In response, Mr Johnson said: “There he goes again, running this country down... we’ve got the highest employment... we’ve got lower unemployment than France, Germany, Italy, Canada. We’ve got the highest number of people in payroll jobs.”

       He added: “Just in the first five months of this year this country has attracted I think ￡16 billion of investment in its tech sector... three times as much as Germany, twice as much as France, he should be talking this country up, not running it down.”