Starmer dodges questions on two-child benefit cap
SNP Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, began his PMQs contribution: “may I again warmly congratulate the prime minister on ending Tory rule”, to which a shout came from the Tory benches – “and yours”.
The SNP MP for Aberdeen South said the Conservatives were now “too close for comfort” on the neighbouring opposition benches.
Flynn continued:
In his campaign to do so [Keir Starmer] was of course joined by Gordon Brown and just five days before the general election in Scotland on the front page of The Daily Record Gordon Brown instructed voters to vote Labour to end child poverty.
Yet last night Labour MPs from Scotland were instructed to retain the two child cap which forces children into poverty. So prime minister, what changed?
Keir Starmer replied:
I’m glad he mentioned Gordon Brown because the last Labour government lifted millions of children out of poverty, something we’re very very proud of and this Government will approach the question with the same vigour with our new taskforce. Already we’ve taken steps, breakfast clubs, abolishing no fault evictions, decent homes.”
Flynn was reprimanded by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle for holding a print out of the Daily Record headline he referred to, with Hoyle saying: “Props are not allowed to be used. Never mind put it down. We don’t need any more.”
Key events
Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe argued that legal and illegal immigration have had “brutal consequences” on the UK.
Tthe former chairman of Southampton FC asked the prime minister:
My constituents in Great Yarmouth have little doubt that out-of-control legal and illegal immigration since 1997 has damaged and disrupted their community, and undermined their public services.Does the prime minister agree that importing millions of people, with no thought whatsoever to the brutal consequences, has failed our country? I know the good people of Great Yarmouth would much appreciate a yes or no answer to this straightforward question.
The prime minister replied:
I’m not sure I agree with his numbers. But look, I do think that it’s serious that the previous government lost control of our borders.
It’s a serious issue that requires a serious answer and that is why we will set up our Border Security Command to take down the gangs that are running this vile trade. What we won’t do is waste further time on a gimmick that cost a fortune and removed just four volunteers.
Green Party co-leader Adrian Ramsay, the MP for Waveney Valley, asked how Starmer would show his leadership on the “existential issue” of nature recovery.
He said:
The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth, so I welcome the government’s signal that it’s committed to nature recovery. This is critical to humanity’s future as it affects everything from food security to public health and wellbeing.
Please could the prime minister tell us how he will show leadership personally on this existential issue and in particular, will he attend the 16th biodiversity Cop (Conference of the Parties) later this year, and will the UK Government be launching a bid to host a future UN nature summit?”
The prime minister replied:
We are committed to nature recovery. It’s a really important issue that this Government will tackle.
And he talks about leadership, and I’d ask him to show some because it’s extraordinary that elected to this house as a Green politician, he’s opposing vital clean energy infrastructure in his own constituency, so I ask him – we will put the plans before this house, I ask him to back those plans.”
Ramsay has previously called on authorities to consider “other options” instead of a string of pylons across his Norfolk and Suffolk constituency.
Labour MP for Bedford, Mohammad Yasin asks the prime minister what more pressure can be applied to bring about a ceasefire in Gaza.
Yasin said: Too many innocent people are still dying everyday. There’s nowhere safe in Gaza .”
Starmer replied:
Both the foreign secretary and I have set out the urgent need for a ceasefire to [Israel]prime minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu.
We want a pathway to a two state solution, a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable sovereign Palestinian state. And I used my first overseas trip as prime minister particularly at Nato to raise it with world leaders.
Under a Labour government, this subject will be discussed, negotiated and fought for at the highest levels on the world stage. The alternative is standing on street corners protesting. Ultimately only one of those will deliver change.
Starmer dodges questions on two-child benefit cap
SNP Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, began his PMQs contribution: “may I again warmly congratulate the prime minister on ending Tory rule”, to which a shout came from the Tory benches – “and yours”.
The SNP MP for Aberdeen South said the Conservatives were now “too close for comfort” on the neighbouring opposition benches.
Flynn continued:
In his campaign to do so [Keir Starmer] was of course joined by Gordon Brown and just five days before the general election in Scotland on the front page of The Daily Record Gordon Brown instructed voters to vote Labour to end child poverty.
Yet last night Labour MPs from Scotland were instructed to retain the two child cap which forces children into poverty. So prime minister, what changed?
Keir Starmer replied:
I’m glad he mentioned Gordon Brown because the last Labour government lifted millions of children out of poverty, something we’re very very proud of and this Government will approach the question with the same vigour with our new taskforce. Already we’ve taken steps, breakfast clubs, abolishing no fault evictions, decent homes.”
Flynn was reprimanded by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle for holding a print out of the Daily Record headline he referred to, with Hoyle saying: “Props are not allowed to be used. Never mind put it down. We don’t need any more.”
Keir Starmer’s “honeymoon” period is over before it has begun, an SNP MP said, after seven Labour rebels were stripped of the whip for backing an SNP motion to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Speaking during PMQs, Pete Wishart, the SNP MP for Perth and Kinross-shire said:
The prime minister has achieved something that we didn’t think would be possible in such a short period of time.
In less than three weeks, he has had a significant rebellion and he has suspended seven of his Members of parliament, all for standing up for child poverty, this from a Labour Government.
The headlines are awful for the prime minister this morning, poverty campaigners are furious with the prime minister, is his honeymoon over before it’s even begun?”
Starmer replied that he would not be taking “lectures” from the SNP on what the people of Scotland want after the party returned from the general election with a “handful” of members
He added:
Perhaps the SNP needs to account for the 30,000 extra children in poverty in Scotland.”
Starmer says new government has found ‘crisis and failure absolutely everywhere’
Davey went on to say there was a “once-in-a-century chance to fix social care”.
He asked the prime minister:
There’s another care crisis that’s probably even bigger and that’s the crisis in social care. I’m sure like me he’s met millions of people around the country, have heard about millions of people for whom this is their biggest issue and has been for decades.
After a once in a century election does he not think there’s an opportunity for a once in a century chance to fix social care and thus help our NHS. So can I ask him to set up a cross-party commission on Social Care so we can address this urgent matter?”
Keir Starmer replied:
He’s right, it is a crisis. I’m sorry to have to report to the House it’s not the only crisis that we’ve inherited. There’s a crisis and a failure absolutely everywhere after 14 years of failure that this government of service will begin the hard yards of fixing, including on social care.”
Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, used his first question to prime minister Keir Starmer to ask about the carer allowance repayments.
Starmer replied:
[Davey] has of course been a tireless advocate for carers and I don’t think any of us could be other than moved when we saw a video of him and his son that was put out during the election campaign. He talks about Team GB, I’m glad he’s in a suit today because we’re more used to seeing him in a wetsuit.
But in relation to this issue we have a more severe crisis than we thought as we go through the books of the last 14 years. [The Conservatives] don’t like it, there was a reason the electorate rejected them so profoundly.
So we’ll review the challenges that we face. We do want to work with the sector and where we can across the House to create a national care service covering all these aspects and we’ll start with carers and those that work in the care sector with a fair pay agreement.”
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said that the prime minister “has many messes that he has inherited”. One of these, said Davey, was the “scandal over the carer’s allowance repayments”. He asks if Keir Starmer will meet with him and other family carers to “try and resolve this matter?”
Rishi Sunak said at the despatch box:
Thanks to the complex legal and diplomatic work that the UK has led over the past several months, together with our allies Canada and America, the prime minister will I hope now find that there is a sound and established legal basis to go further on sanctions and seize Russian assets, and use them to fund Ukrainian reconstruction.
That work has taken time but I hope he is able to take a look at it, and can he confirm for the House that this work is something that he will take forward, because if he does, I can assure him that the opposition will support him in doing so?”
Prime minister Keir Starmer replied:
I’m grateful for this opportunity to say how united we were on the question of sanctions across this House.
The use now made of what has been seized and frozen is an important issue on which I think we can move forward, and I know the Chancellor is already beginning to have some discussions about how we can take more effective measures.
Again, I will seek to reach out across the House as we do this important work together.”
Sunak has said he “very much welcomes” words committing the UK government to “Ukraine’s irreversible path to Nato membership”.
The former prime minister urged Starmer to confirm “fatuous Russian claims on Ukrainian territory must not act as a block to Ukraine joining the Nato defensive alliance”.
Starmer replied:
It is for Nato allies to decide who is a member of Nato.
Formed 75 years ago, a proud and probably most successful alliance that’s ever been formed, and that’s why it was really important at the summit that we were able to say there is now this irreversible path to membership. That’s a step forward from a year ago, and president Zelenskiy was very pleased we’ve been able to make that successful transition.”
Sunak made a self-depreciating joke during PMQs as he wished Team GB’s atheletes going to the Paris Olympics good luck.
The Conservative leader said:
I also join with the prime minister in his warm words about our Olympic athletes. I’ve no doubt that after years of training, focus and dedication they’ll bring back many gold medals.
Although to be honest, I’m probably not the first person they want to hear advice from on how to win.”
Sunak asked whether Starmer had raised the possibility with German leaders of providing long-range missiles to Ukraine.
During PMQs, the prime minister replied:
I had the opportunity in Washington at the Nato council to talk to our German counterparts, there was a strong theme there on Ukraine, discussed with all of our allies, and part of my message was to urge all of our allies to provide further support where they can to the Ukrainian people and that was well received.”
Starmer vows to continue support for Ukraine
Rishi Sunak pressed Starmer on the UK’s support for Ukraine.
Conservative leader, Sunak said:
I’m glad in our exchanges so far we have maintained a cross-party consensus on important matters of foreign policy and in that spirit today, I wanted to focus our exchange on Ukraine and national security.
The UK has consistently been the first country to provide new capabilities to Ukraine, such as the long range weapons that have been used so effectively in the Black Sea. Now those decisions aren’t easy, and I was grateful to the prime minister for his support as I made those decisions in government and in opposition, I offer that same support to him.
So, can I ask that he continues to be responsive to Ukraine’s new requests so that they don’t just stand still, but can decisively win out against Russian aggression?”
The prime minister replied:
I can assure him that we are of course talking to Ukraine about how they deal with the Russian aggression that they are facing, have been facing for many, many months, and I will continue to try to do that in the way that he did, which is to reach out across the house to share such information as we can to maintain the unity that is so important.”
Starmer says that “customers should not pay the price for the mismanagement by water companies”. He says he has already announced “immediate steps to put water companies under [a] tougher regime”. He adds that the minister of water will meet the bosses of “failing companies to hold them to account for their perfomance”.
Calum Miller, the Lib Dem MP for Bicester and Woodstock, says that although he welcomed the water bill in the king’s speech, does Starmer agree that the “system is broken and will he now commit to scrapping Ofwat and replacing it with a tougher regulator that will put people and planet before water company profits?”
Keir Starmer starts first PMQs as prime minister
Prime minister’s questions (PMQs) has started. Keir Starmer began by wishing a swift recovery to the British army officer that was stabbed in Kent. He also wished Team GB “good luck as they travel to Paris for the Olympic Games”.
Keir Starmer has left 10 Downing Street to make the short journey over to the Commons for his first PMQs as prime minister.
Keir Starmer to face first PMQs as prime minister
Keir Starmer will take part in his first prime minister’s questions (PMQs) at noon in his new role amid backbench unease over a vote on the two-child benefit cap that saw him suspend seven Labour MPs.
We will bring you live updates as Starmer faces his first PMQs since entering No 10. It’s also the first time that Rishi Sunak will be asking questions as head of the opposition. Plus, Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, will be entitled to ask two questions at PMQs from now on after his party displaced the Scottish National party (SNP) as the third largest party in the Commons.
For context, the last PMQs took place on 22 May, shortly after which, Sunak called a general election.
Libby Brooks
One of Scottish Labour’s new MPs has insisted that the policy of Scottish and UK Labour on the two-child cap is “identical”, despite Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar previously called for an end to the measure.
In the aftermath of the Labour rebellion on the SNP amendment to scrap the cap yesterday, Blair McDougall told BBC Radio Scotland this morning:
I think what ministers have said to me this week on the two-child cap is identical to what people in the Scottish Labour party are saying. The position is absolutely identical.”
The newly elected East Renfrewshire MP said that he expected Starmer’s government to abolish the cap “as quickly as possible”, but added that the public finances had been left in an “absolute mess” by the former Conservative administration.
Despite the Scottish party leader’s position, none of Scottish Labour’s 37 MPs voted for the SNP amendment yesterday.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said that Labour had “failed its first major test in government” by maintaining the cap.
Labour MPs had the opportunity to deliver meaningful change from years of Tory misrule by immediately lifting thousands of children out of poverty – they have made a political choice not to do so.”
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