The Guardian

Starmer faces Sunak at PMQs for first time as prime minister after suspending Labour MPs over rebellion – UK politics live

By Amy Sedghi (now) and Tom Bryant (earlier),

9 hours ago

12.28pm BST

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.”

12.26pm BST

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.”

12.25pm BST

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.”

12.23pm BST

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.”

12.19pm BST

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.”

Updated at 12.23pm BST

12.14pm BST

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”.

12.10pm BST

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?”

Updated at 12.16pm BST

12.06pm BST

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”.

Updated at 12.07pm BST

11.49am BST

Keir Starmer has left 10 Downing Street to make the short journey over to the Commons for his first PMQs as prime minister.

Updated at 11.51am BST

11.45am BST

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.

Updated at 11.49am BST

11.17am BST

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.”

11.13am BST

Cabinet secretary, Simon Case , is reportedly being advised to step down permanently from his role for health reasons at the end of this year, writes Politico .

The outlet reports:

According to people familiar with the matter, Case is likely to need to step down in the new year on the advice of doctors, who are continuing to treat him for a neurological condition diagnosed more than a year ago.
Case is currently working at full capacity, but the condition is affecting his mobility and he now walks with the aid of a stick.”

Additionally, the Telegraph reported today that it '“understands he is undergoing ongoing treatment for his health condition and that doctors have given advice about his workload”.

Case gave evidence in the Covid inquiry at the end of May. It had been delayed for months because of illness. He had been due to appear before the inquiry in the autumn, when a series of other top officials appeared, but Case, the most senior civil servant in the UK, had to go on medical leave and his testimony was put back.

Updated at 11.25am BST

10.51am BST

Posting on X this morning, Zarah Sultana , one of seven from the Labour party left stripped of the whip on Tuesday night for backing an SNP motion to scrap the two-child benefit cap, wrote: “This is why I voted to scrap the two-child benefit cap and immediately lift 300,000 children out of poverty.”

In the social media post, Sultana attached a clip of her speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain. In the clip, she said:

In my constituency of Coventry South 10,000 children live in poverty. That’s one in three children. When I’m talking to parents and I’m talking to teachers, when I’m volunteering at the food bank, I am hearing these stories of kids who are going to sleep hungry at night, they are going to school learning on an empty stomach, they are returning to cold homes, they are missing out on experiences that every child should enjoy.
And there are all of these impacts on children, beyond the immediate impacts, this is on their health, this is on their wellbeing, and even their life expectancy. So, those are all the stories and all the things that I need to know when I’m voting in this particular way, because I got elected and I’m in the Labour party.
I joined, actually, when I was 17 years old because I care about equality and social justice. So for me, acting as a backbench MP in the interestes of my constituents is what I do every single day.”

Asked whether she thought that the Labour party’s child poverty strategy was good enough, Sultana replied:

I welcomed it in my king’s speech. I said that this was a good move, but it doesn’t go far enough because the evidence is already there. So, we are choosing to wait to act on this when we know what the facts say and every single day is a day too long when 330,000 kids are still in poverty, when they don’t need to be.”

Updated at 10.56am BST

10.27am BST

Rachel Reeves must overhaul the allowance that has resulted in thousands of unpaid carers being saddled with life-changing debt, and in some cases threatened with criminal prosecution, the consumer finance expert Martin Lewis has said.

Lewis has written to the chancellor, identifying four measures that he says are possible to enact without great cost to the taxpayer that would remedy financial injustices, including changes to the child benefit charge and removing withdrawal penalties from lifetime Isas .

In his letter, the founder of MoneySavingExpert also said the low take-up of a 25% government top-up to help with childcare costs was down to its poor branding as “tax-free childcare”.

Lewis said the proposed changes would “improve people’s situations without huge expenditure” and were “sensible non-partisan issues of financial injustice”, many of which had been raised with the previous chancellor, Jeremy Hunt .

The penalisation of unpaid carers who claim benefits for looking after disabled, ill and elderly relatives is an issue highlighted by a long-running Guardian investigation .

The government imposes a strict earnings cap on people who take a job outside their caring responsibilities. Lewis said it was “perverse” that those earning a penny a week more than the £151 threshold lost their entire entitlement to the carer’s allowance, rather than having a taper, as is the case with universal credit.

You can read the rest of this report here:

10.14am BST

Tackling misogyny in UK schools could take up to 20 years, says Jess Phillips

Plans to tackle misogyny in schools could take up to 20 years to have an impact on society, the safeguarding minister, Jess Phillips , has said as she outlined measures to protect women and girls.

Phillips spoke the day after the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) estimated that 2 million women were victims of violence perpetrated by men each year in an epidemic so serious it amounts to a “national emergency”.

One of Labour’s five missions is to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, by targeting perpetrators and addressing the root causes of abuse and violence.

The minister for violence against women and girls said “Raneem’s law” was already in the works, and would ensure police forces provide protection to victims of domestic abuse. But evidence that some of the government’s policies are working – such as addressing misogyny among schoolchildren – could take years to emerge.

She said:

This is a societal problem. The data in the NPCC report speaks for itself. We have been declaring this a national emergency for as long as I can remember, really. This is going to take a long time.
[Look at] prevention education and evidence-based models that cut this type of crime from being learnt – I probably won’t be elected at the point when we can say that metric has worked. Because this about making something that will see benefits in 10 or 20 years’ time.”

Raneem’s law will require police to respond faster to reports of domestic violence and to consider immediate use of orders to protect women. Named after Raneem Oudeh who was killed along with her mother, Khaola Saleem , by Oudeh’s ex-partner in 2018, the legislation would also require every police force to appoint specialist officers in 999 call centres.

You can read the full piece here:

9.49am BST

Zarah Sultana says she ‘slept well’ after taking stand over two-child benefit cap

Zarah Sultana has said she “slept well” after being suspended by the Labour party over a Commons rebellion on the two-child benefit cap – and suggested she was the victim of a “macho virility test”.

Sultana, one of seven from the party’s left stripped of the whip on Tuesday night for backing an SNP motion to scrap the cap, said on Wednesday: “I slept well knowing that I took a stand against child poverty that is affecting 4.3 million people in this country and it is the right thing to do and I am glad I did it.”

The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and the former business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey , along with Apsana Begum , Richard Burgon , Ian Byrne , Imran Hussain and Sultana, have been suspended.

Keir Starmer faces prime minister’s questions on Wednesday for the first time since entering No 10 amid a backlash over the move.

Sultana said she saw an email on the way home from the vote last night telling her she had had the whip removed. Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she said:

I look forward to many bills that will be coming forward in this government including nationalising rail, the new deal for working people, but I was also very honest that we should go further, we can make a real difference to people’s lives.
And when you’ve got anti-poverty campaigners, thinktanks, trade unions saying the key driver for child poverty in this country – which is the sixth-largest economy in the world – is the Tories’ two-child benefit cap, then it is a moral imperative on the Labour party to scrap that and do everything that they can to make sure that not a single child has to live in unnecessary hardship and poverty.”

You can read the full piece here:

Updated at 9.56am BST

9.43am BST

The Conservatives do not do mergers, party leadership hopeful James Cleverly said when asked what his party should do about Reform .

He was asked about a YouGov survey that showed roughly half of Conservative members were in support of merging with Nigel Farage ’s party.

“The Conservative party doesn’t do mergers,” the shadow home secretary told BBC 4’s Today programme. He said:

The simple truth is that we have got a series of principles. We believe in civil liberty, we believe in free enterprise, we believe in the efficient but modest size of the state, lower taxes.”

He added that the Conservative party needs to “expand our base of support”.

9.37am BST

James Cleverly has said he thinks the Conservative party is the most successful political movement in human history but that it has recently given the impression of being more focused on internal rows than serving the public.

The shadow home secretary, who was the first to declare he is running for the Tory leadership, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

The party that I have been a member of for many decades has been the most successful political movement, I think, in human history.”

He listed stabilising the economy and supporting Ukraine among the party’s recent achievements.

But we’ve also got to recognise that at this general election those things we have achieved were overshadowed by a number of negatives, so we didn’t get the cut-through for our successes and the criticisms really, really landed.
I think one of the reasons why the criticisms landed, and the good work didn’t get cut-through, is we’d spent too much time rowing amongst ourselves, which gave the impression – the wrong impression – but gave the impression that we were more focused on ourselves than serving the British people. So we have to get out of that habit.”

Cleverly also said he is aware that the US election on 5 November could draw attention away from the Conservative party’s announcement of its new leader on 2 November.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

Of course the American elections will be of interest, but we can’t put our job of being a good and credible opposition and charting the path towards future electoral victories … you can’t put that on hold because of the electoral processes in another country.”

He declined to say whether he would vote for Donald Trump if he was American, after party colleague Suella Braverman said she would.

He called it a “nonsense question” and said:

I’m not an American citizen, so it’s a moot point. It’s not a test of candidates in a British political system to ask them what they would do in a parallel universe where they weren’t British, but were actually American.”

9.27am BST

Here are a few of the key events on the politics schedule for this Wednesday:

Keir Starmer will take part in his first prime minister’s questions (PMQs) in his new role at noon amid backbench unease over a vote on the two-child benefit cap that saw him suspend seven Labour MPs.
Welsh Labour leader nominations close at 12pm. Welsh health secretary, Eluned Morgan, looks set to become the next leader of Welsh Labour, and the country’s first female first minister, after no one else entered the race (so far).
The Conservative’s leadership nominations open this evening at 7pm. James Cleverly has become the first Tory leadership hopeful to declare his candidacy in the race to replace Rishi Sunak.

Updated at 11.50am BST

9.21am BST

Jonathan Ashworth accuses Labour rebels of 'gesture' politics

Jonathan Ashworth accused the seven Labour MPs suspended for rebelling over the two-child benefit cap of “gesture” politics.

The former Labour MP, who played a prominent role in his party’s election media campaign but was unseated in the general election, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

They knew that this amendment was never going to pass because of the commanding majority Keir Starmer has … They knew there was no chance of this amendment passing.
It was a gesture. That’s not how you change policy. You don’t change policy by gestures, you change policy by engaging with the policymaking structures.”

He continued: “I don’t think any of us should be surprised that Labour MPs who were … not defending the first [Labour] king’s speech for 14 years would lead to this disciplining.”

Updated at 9.22am BST

8.58am BST

Labour rebel suggests she is victim of a ‘macho virility test’ after suspension over two-child benefit cap

At midday, Keir Starmer faces the Commons at PMQs for the first time as prime minister. He does so after responding to the first challenge to his authority while in Downing Street by suspending seven MPs.

As reactions go, it was tough, unprecedented and a shock to many as he sent a signal to the left wing of his party, to new MPs and to the opposition about his feelings about rebels.

As Jessica Elgot reports , “the move to suspend MPs from the party’s left, including the former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, sent shockwaves through the party and drew criticism from some MPs who voted with the government.”

Starmer’s response was to a rebellion supporting an amendment to scrap the two-child benefit limit amendment. That amendment failed by 363 votes to 103, a majority of 260 for Labour.

The former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Zarah Sultana all voted for the amendment and were suspended from Labour for six months. Forty-two Labour MPs abstained, including Diane Abbott, who said she couldn’t vote for personal reasons but was “ horrified ” that her allies were suspended.

Sultana is on the morning media round and told the Today programme she had not been warned she would be kicked out of the party if she rebelled but said it wouldn’t have changed how she voted anyhow. “I wasn’t spoken to or informed that would happen,” she said. “But I was always going to vote that way.”

Sultana suggested she was the victim of a “macho virility test”. Asked for her view of the PM, the Coventry South MP said: “I’m not interested in playing up to this macho virility test that seems to be what people are talking about. It’s about the material conditions of 330,000 children living in poverty. This isn’t a game. This is about people’s lives.”

She added: “It’s really important to use every opportunity in parliament to make the case that the two-child cap has to be scrapped. There are 4.3 million children living in the UK in poverty and in my constituency one in three are.”

Asked if Starmer had made an “immoral” decision in choosing not to scrap the two-child benefit cap, Sultana said: “If scrapping the cap is not an urgent priority for a Labour government, then you have to ask what is. Every day it is in place hundreds of thousands of children are enduring unacceptable poverty.”

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she said: “When you’ve got anti-poverty campaigners, thinktanks, trade unions saying that the key driver for child poverty in this country – which is the sixth largest economy in the world – is the Tories’ two-child benefit cap, then it is a moral imperative on the Labour party to scrap that and do everything that they can to make sure that not a single child has to live in unnecessary hardship and poverty.”

Removing the cap is backed by the SNP, the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and Reform. Suella Braverman, who also abstained from voting, told the House on Monday that it had not worked as a measure to stop people having more children. “I believe that the cap is aggravating child poverty, and it is time for it to go,” she said.

Starmer is sure to face further questions over the cap and the rebellion at midday.

Elsewhere overnight, James Cleverly became the first Tory leadership hopeful to declare his candidacy in the race to replace Rishi Sunak and warned his party against “infighting, navel-gazing and the internecine manoeuvrings”.

David Lammy will push to reset the UK-India partnership on his first trip to the country as foreign secretary