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Starmer refuses to rule out freezing tax thresholds in budget
Badenoch asks Starmer to confirm he won’t break another promise by freezing thresholds.
Starmer does not answer that, saying the budget is next week.
But Labour won’t return to austerity, he says.
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Andrew Pakes (Lab) asks what the government can do to ensure young people get better training.
Starmer says the government inherited a situation where almost one million young people were not earning or learning. The youth guarantee will address that, he says.
Caroline Voaden (Lib Dem) says she hosted a roundtable this morning with head teachers who talked about the postive effects of a complete ban on smartphones in their schools. So why won’t the government ban them in all schools?
Starmer says the vast majority of schools ban smartphones.
Some MPs shout that they don’t.
Starmer says schools ban phones in lessons.
He agrees with the sentiment of Voaden’s question, he says.
Luke Charters (Lab) says he wants to talk about his own mental health problems. A “dark cloud” hung over him when his wife almost died when their first son was born. Does the PM agree that being honest about problems is an important part of being a man?
Starmer does agree. And he says he is proud the government is publishing a men’s health strategy.
Jim Allister (TUV) says France, Germany and the US have all got compensation from Libya for the victims of Libya-linked terrorism. But the UK has not been able to do this. Why? And will the PM meet families affected?
Starmer says Allister is right to ask about this. He will organise a meeting.
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says there are more than 300 suicides every year relating to problem gambing. But gambling companies make more than £7bn a year. One of them has move abroad, to avoid UK taxes. Will the government change the law so they cannot avoid tax like this?
Starmer says it is men’s health day. MPs will want to prevent this. It is something that touches almost all MPs, he says.
He says the government will do what it can to reduce suicide.
Davey says next to the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire is a field is covered by a big pile of rubbish. This is happening in other places now. Will he tell the Environment Agency to clean it up now?
Starmer says these are appalling scences. The Enviroment Agency will use all available powers to make sure the perpetrators pay, he says.
Badenoch says she had a rountable with energy executives recently. What they said about the government was “unprintable”, she says.
She says Reeves U-turned on a U-turn with the budget. Doesn’t the country deserve something better than “government by guesswork”.
Starmer says the Tories left NHS waiting lists at a record live, child poverty going up and public services wrecked. Labour are sorting that out, she says.
Badenoch says, when she was Treasury minister, they were cleaning up the mess left by the pandemic. Starmer should clean up the mess he is making.
She refers to the ExxonMobil plant closing.
Starmer says ExxonMobil has been in trouble for some time.
And he says Badenoch has no personal credibility.
Badenoch says Reeves will be breaking Labour's manifesto if she freezes income tax thresholds
Badenoch asks how the country can trust Reeves if she breaks a promise next week.
Starmer says the Tories have no credibility on the economy. Badenoch was a Treasury minister when living standards fell. And she says Liz Truss got the mini budget 100% right.
Badenoch quotes what Rachel Reeves said in her budget speech last year, when she implied freezing thresholds would be a breach of the manifesto.
Why was that a broken promise last year, but not this year.
Starmer says the Tories just want to go back to the same failed experiment.
Starmer refuses to rule out freezing tax thresholds in budget
Badenoch asks Starmer to confirm he won’t break another promise by freezing thresholds.
Starmer does not answer that, saying the budget is next week.
But Labour won’t return to austerity, he says.
Kemi Badenoch asks why this government is the first government in history to float an income tax increase, then U-turn on it, “all after the actual budget” she says – meaning before the budget.
Starmer corrects her, saying the budget is next week.
He avoids the question.
Starmer says the budget will be “based on Labour values”.
Starmer refuses to commit to government intervening to stop Lords delays killing off assisted dying bill
Kit Malthouse (Con) says there are fears the Lords may block the assisted dying bill. Wil the government stop that? He says the government is neutral on the bill, but it should not be neutral on the Lords not being allowed to block a bill passed by the elected chamber.
Starmer says the governmnet is neutral on the passage of the bill.
And it is for parliament to decide on any issues.
Scrutiny is a matter for the Lords.
But the government must ensure legislation is workable.
Keir Starmer starts by congratulating Scotland on their victory last night, qualifying for the World Cup.
There is loud cheering.
Starmer says one of the best goals came from a former Arsenal player (his team).
He expresses his sympathy for those affected by the floods in Wales.
And he expresses his condolences to the family of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary sailor who died this week in an accident.
And he says he is glad inflation is coming down.
Starmer to take PMQs, as speculation continues about his leadership not being safe
Keir Starmer will be facing PMQs soon.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question. The Reform UK MP Lee Anderson has a question, which means Starmer might find an excuse to mention the Guardian report about his party leader. (See 10.43am.)
Yesterday Starmer told his cabinet that he wanted them to focus on delivering and move on from “distractions”. But there does not seem much chance of that happening. In the Times today Stefan Boscia says the Tribune group, which represents soft left MPs and is being revitalised under new leadership, believes it has the numbers to forces a leadership contest. He says:
Senior MPs in the Tribune Group said they had the 80 MPs required to put a candidate into a leadership contest against Starmer, although they have yet to coalesce around a single candidate …
One leading member of the group said Starmer “has shown he doesn’t have the ability” to turn his premiership around after lurching from crisis to crisis during the first 16 months of government.
Another Tribune MP said: “It’s all about the polls. We can’t be below 20 per cent at the polls for much longer. We can’t carry on like this past May if the [local] elections are as bad as the polls show.”
In a post summarising what he and his colleagues are saying on the Times’s the State of It podcast, Steven Swinford, the paper’s poltical editor, says ministers believe Starmer will eventually have to go.
Ministers believe it is inevitable Starmer will go. They say spreadsheets are underway ahead of formal challenge but problem is there is more than one of them - there is as yet no clear alternative
