PMQs – snap verdict
Two weeks ago Kemi Badenoch was widely seen to have messed up at PMQs when she asked Keir Starmer about a policy U-turn which, if she had been listening properly, she would have heard him announce a few minutes earlier. Every leader has a bad PMQs from time to time. When you do, it is best to move on. Instead, Badenoch today chose to return to this territory. Not for the first time, her script seemed to have been drafted along the lines of ‘this is what I would have asked last time if I only I had been thinking more quickly’.
Badenoch asked Starmer to say how many pensioners would now get the winter fuel payment, if he would apologise, and how much the U-turn would cost? She did not get an apology, and she did not get answers to the two policy questions. She seemed to be strategising on the basis that she would be able to make Starmer look evasive. But this only works when a PM’s failure to answer a question looks unreasonable to members of the public, or to their own MPs. No one expects prime ministers to apologise all the time (although in some respects it would be nice if they did), and Starmer’s refusal to answer the policy questions just sounded routine in the circumstances. If Badenoch had persisted (by asking repeatedly, for example, about Mrs X from Y on average pensioner earnings, and if she would get now get the WFP), she might have made him squirm a little, but she didn’t.
Right at the end of PMQs we saw a second example of Badenoch, instead of ignoring a bad moment and moving on, returning to it in a way that only seemed to make things worse. This was the Tory response to Starmer implying she was pro-Moscow during the exchanges. Bringing the issue up allowed him to use this line which successfully skewered two opponents in one go.
If she carries on echoing Kremlin talking points like this, Reform is going to be sending her an application form for membership.
As PMQs finished, Jesse Norman, the shadow leader of the Commons, used a point of order to complain about Starmer raising Russia. (See 12.46pm.) And the Conservative party issued this statement.
It is truly astonishing that at PMQs the prime minister read out a tweet written in the Kremlin, designed to divide the western alliance on Ukraine. Is there any low to which Keir Starmer won’t sink to distract from his political problems? This was the first time a Labour leader has repeated Kremlin propaganda in parliament since Jeremy Corbyn and the Salisbury poisonings.
Accusing Starmer of repeating “Kremlin propaganda” smacks of desperation, but it is not hard to see why the Tories feel aggrieved. Badenoch is not a pro-Russian politician. But in an interview on Sky News on the Sunday before last she said that that Ukraine is fighting a proxy war “on behalf of western Europe against Russia”, and this led the Russian embassy to put out a longish message on X that started:
@KemiBadenoch has finally called a spade a spade.
Ukraine is indeed fighting a proxy-war against Russia on behalf of western interests. The illegitimate Kiev regime, created, financed and armed by the West, has been at it since 2014.
What Badenoch seemed to be saying was that, in fighting Russia, Ukraine is fighting a war that matters to the whole of Europe – which is what Starmer thinks, and which is the government’s position. It was just the use of the word “proxy” that aligned with Russian messaging. The Tories may feel that Starmer is being unfair, but they should probably have just taken the hit instead of reviving memories of a Badenoch verbal gafffe.
For the record, here is the full quote from Badenoch in that Sky interview. She was not really talking about Russia at all; instead she was talking about Israel, and arguing that the UK should be fully aligned with Israel on Gaza policy. This is an area where the policy diffference between her and Starmer is much more real than it is on Russia and Ukraine. It is also an area where the Tories are probably out of step with UK public opinion. Badenoch told Sky News:
Israel is fighting a proxy war on behalf of the UK, just like Ukraine is on behalf of western Europe against Russia. We have to get serious. We have to get serious. That was a terrorist plot in London against the Israeli embassy. We saw two Jewish members of the Israeli embassy in DC killed, whose side are we on? We need to make sure that the hostages are returned. No one wants to see a war in Gaza. Palestinians are suffering. Netanyahu is complaining that he thinks our leaders are carrying out the wrong action. He has every right to say that. What I want to see is Keir Starmer making sure that he is on the right side of British national interest? That cannot be on the side of Hamas.
Key events
Afternoon summary
Directly on your question of is there any prospect of a universal winter fuel payment, the answer is no. The principle most people, 95% of people, agree, that it’s not a good idea that we have a system paying a few hundreds of pounds to millionaires, and so we’re not going to be continuing with that. But we will be looking at making more pensioners eligible.
-
Jeremy Wright, a former Tory attorney general, has told MPs that he has changed his mind over the timeframe for the recognition of Palestine, telling MPs he believes the state should “urgently” be recognised. Speaking during a statement on Gaza in the Commons, Wright said:
The policy of successive UK governments has been that the United Kingdom will recognise the state of Palestine when it’s conducive to the peace process, and to the ultimate realisation of the two-state solution. Up to this point I have accepted the argument that the minister and his predecessors have made, that that moment has not yet come.
But hasn’t the balance shifted decisively? With the succession of moves to greater territorial change in the West Bank by increased settlement activity and by increasingly blunt and very frequent statements by members of the Israeli government that we are going to restrict Palestinians to a subset of Gaza, or restrict Palestinians from Gaza altogether.
That’s what has changed my mind, such that I now believe it’s necessary for the UK, hopefully in conjunction with others, to recognise the state of Palestine urgently. Why has it not yet changed the government’s mind?”
Wright was one of dozens of MPs, from all sides of the Commons, who used to statement to criticise the government for not doing more to oppose what Israel is doing in Gaza.
For a full list of all the stories covered here today, scroll through the key events timeline at the top of the blog.
Corbyn says UK has been complicit in war crimes in Gaza, in speech calling for public inquiry
Jeremy Corbyn said that the UK had been complicit in war crimes in Gaza in his Commons speech earlier calling for a public inquiry. (See 3.59pm.)
He said that, while the last Labour government originally resisted calls for a public inquiry into the Iraq war, eventually it had to set one up. When it reported, he apologised as Labour leader for the what Labour government had done, he said.
He said history was now “repeating itself” and that “genocide” was happening in Gaza.
Over the past 18 months, human beings have endured a level of horror and inhumanity that should haunt us all: entire families wiped out, limbs strewn across the street, mothers screaming for their children buried under the rubble, human beings torn to pieces, doctors performing amputations without anaesthetic, children picking grass and dirt from the ground thinking they might find something edible to eat. The survivors face lifelong mental health consequences which will go on for generations.
Home by home, hospital by hospital, generation by generation, we are not just witnessing, we are witnessing a genocide – this time, live streamed all over the world.
Today, the death toll in Gaza exceeds 61,000 and at least 110,000 people, or one in 20 of the entire population, have been severely injured.
Corbyn said that the UK had been complicit in all this.
Britain has played a highly influential role in Israel’s military operations. First, Britain has been supplying weapons to Israel, weapons that have been used to bomb the people of Palestine.
This, of course, started with the previous Conservative government, but has continued with the current Labour government. In fact, between October and December 2024 alone, more arms export licences were granted than were approved by the previous government for the whole of 2020, and 2023.
In September the government suspended some licences, but continue to allow supply of F-35 components to the global pool. The foreign secretary has accepted the fact that F-35 jets are being used in violation of international humanitarian law, yet at the same time admits those parts go into the global supply chain and could therefore go to Israel.
They know full well the implications. By justifying the continued licencing of these parts, our government is admitting its complicity in what are quite clearly war crimes. I find this truly astounding.
Corbyn said an inquiry was needed because of the government’s “evasion, obstruction and silence” in response to questions about the government’s support for Israel
Transparency and accountability are the cornerstones of democracy. The public deserves to know the scale of the UK complicity in these atrocities.
He said an inquiry would consider questions like: what arms have been sold to Israel; where have they been used; have the Americans or Israelis been using the RAF Akrotiri, the airbase on Cyprus; what video footage does the UK have from the war zone; what intelligence has been given to Israel; and what legal advice has the government had about genocide.
Corbyn ended saying:
Today, we teach children about history’s worst war crimes against humanity. They’re asked to reflect about how those crimes ever came about. Our future history books will report with shame those that had the opportunity to stop this carnage but failed to act to achieve it.
Greens claim planning bill ‘dangerous’, as former Starmer adviser says it will make nature protection more ‘impactful’
Yesterday the Guardian ran a story saying legal analysis of the planning and infrastructure bill suggests it could put more than 5,000 of England’s most sensitive, rare and protected natural habitats at risk because it weakens protections for nature.
Today Adrian Ramsay, the Green party co-leader, has issued a statement saying this report shows that the bill is dangerous. He says:
This new analysis, suggesting thousands of important wildlife sites are at risk from the planning and infrastructure bill, should serve as a wake-up call. Nature in the UK is already in serious decline, with one in six species at risk of extinction, and species declining by 19% since 1970.
This bill is dangerous, giving the green light for developers to pursue profit rather than meet the needs of people for homes and nature for protection.
We can and we must tackle both the housing crisis and the nature crisis but as it stands, the legislation fails on both counts. It clearly weakens nature protection while doing precisely nothing to ensure that new housing is genuinely affordable. The government has refused to specify social housing targets, and has given developers a license to bulldoze nature.
Helena Horton, Sandra Laville and Patrick Barkham say that about two dozen Labour MPs will try to amend the bill to beef up protections for the environment.
But, in an article for the Guardian, Nick Williams, who until recently was an economic policy adviser to Keir Starmer, defends the bill, saying it will make environmental protection measures more effective, not less effective. Here is an extract.
The truth is that our current framework for protecting habitats has been in place for decades but has failed to prevent nature loss. This is because we approach conservation in the least effective way possible, with tens of thousands of individual site-by-site protections. Ecological science is clear that this is outdated. Modern conservation strategies recognise the necessity of interconnectivity and scale for supporting complex ecosystems …
The government has proposed a solution. The bill will establish a nature restoration fund, which will support a number of strategic nature restoration schemes across the country at a scale that is genuinely impactful.
Natural England will produce a series of “environmental delivery plans”, underpinned by ecological science, explaining how it will deliver an “overall improvement in conservation status” for a given environmental feature. This test is set out in the legislation. Unlike now, performance will be regularly measured against what was promised and the approach in the plans must be amended if they are not delivering. This will mean results are easier to evaluate and scrutinise, as well as making enforcement simpler. Crucially these schemes will operate across council boundaries, because nature does. Instead of creating their own bespoke schemes, developers will financially contribute to much greater environmental outcomes nationally. This is what is meant by a “win-win”.
And here is the full article.
In the Commons MPs have just voted by acclamation to give Jeremy Corbyn leave to bring in his Gaza (independent public inquiry) bill. But that does not mean it will be passed, or even debated. Although Corbyn gave a date for when the bill would be put down for a second reading (4 July), it will be at the back of the queue on that day and there will be no debate. These so-called 10-minute rule bill never go any further than this.
But the procedure does allow MPs to raise issues in the Commons at a time when the chamber is full.
At least one of Corbyn’s supporters tried to engineer a division (which would have provided a list of those MPs willing to vote in favour) by shouting “no” when the deputy Speaker asked who was in favour. But, after she reminded MPs that it is against Commons rules to shout no but vote yes, she called the vote again the no voice went silent.
I will post extracts from Corbyn’s speech shortly.
The Gaza statement is over, after 90 minutes. Kirsty Blackman (SNP) rises to make a point of order. She says from what she heard MPs were speaking “with one voice” in expressing their belief that the government should be doing more to resist what Israel is doing in Gaza. She asks the deputy Speaker, Nusrat Ghani, at what point the government has to respond to the will of parliament on a matter like this.
Ghani says this is not a matter for her. But the government will have heard the point, she says.
Falconer dismisses Jeremy Corbyn’s call for UK’s supply of F-35 jet parts to Israel to be considered by public inquiry
In the Commons Jeremy Corbyn, the former Labour leader, has just asked a question about his proposal for a public inquiry into the UK’s military support for Israel.
He has got the chance to make a speech on this under the 10-minute rule bill procedure later. But ministers don’t reply to those speeches. So, with Hamish Falconer, the Middle East minister, still taking questions about his statement, Corbyn asked if the government would support an inquiry into the UK’s policy with regard to parts for F-35 jets. He said the UK sells parts into the global supply chain. But it claims not to know where those parts go. He said he did not believe that, and he thought that the government knew exactly where those parts go.
In response, Falconer said these issues have been discussed extensively in the courts. He said he could not see what a further inquiry would achieve.
A reader asks:
Why is the chancellor announcing some spending decisions today when the spending review discussions are still ongoing and the formal “fiscal event” is not until next week?
For the same reason this happens with a budget, when some budget news starts appearing about a week before the actual budget, even though sometimes the precise details are saved up until later. It is because these “fiscal events” normally contain several dozen major “stories”, and if they all get put out on the same day, they don’t get reported. The media does not have the capacity to cover so many announcements properly all at the same time.
Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer says Israel’s measures for aid delivery in Gaza ‘inhumane’
Hamish Falconer, the Middle East minister, is still responding to questions in the Commons after making his statement on Gaza. MPs from all sides of the chamber are calling for the government to more to aid gets through to Palestinians who are starving.
In his opening statement Falconer said the government was “appalled by repeated reports of mass casualty incidents in which Palestinians have been killed when trying to access aid sites in Gaza”. He went on:
Desperate civilians who have endured 20 months of war should never face the risk of death or injury to simply feed themselves and their families. We call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events for the perpetrators to be held to account.
It is deeply disturbing that these incidents happened near the new Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites, they highlight the utterly desperate need to get aid in. The Israeli government says it has opened up aid access with its new system, but the warnings raised by the United Kingdom, United Nations, aid partners and the international community about these operations have materialised and the results are out.
Israel’s newly introduced measures for aid delivery are inhumane, foster desperation and endanger civilians. Israel’s unjustified block on aid into Gaza needs to end – it is inhumane. Israel must immediately allow the United Nations and aid partners to safely deliver all types of aid at scale to save lives, reduce suffering and maintain dignity.
Rachel Keenan
Rachel Keenan is a Guardian reporter.
A Scottish butcher has barred Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, from returning to his shop after an unannounced visit during the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse byelection campaign on Monday afternoon.
Strachan Craft Butcher said in a Facebook post that the Reform UK leader’s visit to their shop in Larkhall was not planned and has “caused a backlash for our business”.
The Record reported that Farage, who had failed to turn up to a media event in nearby Hamilton which was organised by Reform, was accompanied by the BBC and bought a T-bone steak.
The shop wrote:
Posting this to stop any further accusations or loss of customers.
Today we received 2 emails from disgruntled customers about Nigel Farage visiting our Larkhall shop on Monday 2nd June.
It’s imperative that our customers know that this was NOT a planned visit and we had no control over this. Mr F swanned in with his party and the BBC to buy a T Bone steak.
The message was signed off with the words “what a palava over one wee man” followed by an emoji and “#Farageisbarred”.
Reynolds says ‘essential steps’ happening ‘at pace’ to turn UK-US tariff pact into deal
Lisa O’Carroll
Lisa O’Carroll is a senior Guardian correspondent covering trade and Brexit.
Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, has said “essential steps” are taking place “at pace” to turn Keir Starmer’s recent tariff pact with Donald Trump into an implementable deal that once entered into force will see 27.5% tariffs on cars and 25% tariffs on steel eliminated.
He was speaking at a brief press conference in Brussels, unveiling 13 new partnerships with third countries to develop critical minerals supplies, including one pact to financially support Tungsten West, a closed mine in Devon.
Reynolds welcomed Trump’s decision last night to exempt British steel and aluminium from his new 50% tariff saying it “reflects the recent breakthroughs” with the US.
But he added:
The two essential steps we are continuing to progress at pace is, first of all, the implementation of the agreement we have on sectoral tariffs. Steel and aluminum is part of that, alongside automotive, aerospace and the other critical sectors.
We’ve had the decision not to extend 50% but we need to bring that 25% down to effectively zero … that is one piece of work which we continue to progress at pace.
Reynolds, who met the US trade representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of the OECD summit in Paris yesterday, said the “deeper negotiation about reciprocal tariffs” was “ongoing”. He added:
We don’t want to see additional barriers to trade being put in place, and we continue to work constructively with all partners to secure that.
Starmer says he’s ‘confident’ UK and US will finalise trade deal, so steel tariff exemption will remain in place
During PMQs, Keir Starmer told Ed Davey that he was confident that the UK would finalise the details of its trade deal with the US by 9 July, the deadline set by President Trump. The UK is currently exempt from steel tariffs because the deal is in the pipeline, but Trump has implied the UK will be hit by the tariffs if he does not get the deal he wants in five weeks’ time.
Starmer told Davey:
We have a deal and we are implementing it and within a very short time I am confident we will get those tariffs down in accordance with the deal.
At the post-PMQs briefing, the PM’s spokesperson was asked why the PM was confident about being able to finalise the deal and he said that was because of the UK’s “constant dialogue” with the US.
But the spokesperson would not guarantee that the deal would definitely be in place by 9 July. He said:
Obviously our aim is to implement this deal as quickly as possible and you have just heard from the PM in the house that we are hoping to provide an update on that in weeks.
Starmer sidesteps question about whether he will scrap two-child benefit cap, as Badenoch says it should stay
Here is the PA Media story from PMQs.
Keir Starmer sidestepped calls to say whether he will scrap the two-child benefit cap as he was accused of presiding over “chaos, chaos, chaos”.
The prime minister said he is “absolutely determined” to “drive down” child poverty, although he declined to give further details ahead of the publication of the government’s strategy on the issue.
His remarks came as Kemi Badenoch pressed Starmer to say how many pensioners would have their winter fuel payments restored and asked about the future of the two-child benefit cap amid “U-turn after U-turn” from the PM.
The cap was introduced in 2015 by then-Conservative chancellor George Osborne and restricts child welfare payments to the first two children born to most families.
Badenoch said Starmer has “not stabilised the economy” before adding: “He has no clear answers on what he’s doing, it’s just chaos, chaos, chaos. He’s making announcements with no detail.
“So let’s move to another area of confusion. Can we get a simple answer: will the government keep the two-child benefit cap?”
Starmer replied: “I am absolutely determined that we will drive down child poverty, that’s one of the proudest things of the last Labour government, that’s why we’ve got a taskforce, that’s why we’ve got a strategy, and we’ll set out that strategy in due course.
“But we drive child poverty down. Under them, poverty always goes up.”
Badenoch countered: “I didn’t ask him about a taskforce, I asked him if he’ll keep the two-child benefit cap, and he doesn’t know. It’s just chaos and uncertainty. He has no details, he is briefing something and causing a lot of confusion to the people out there.
“But on that two-child benefit cap I’ll tell him this: I believe in family, but I also believe in fairness. On this side of the house, we believe that people on benefits should have to make the same choices on having children as everyone else. What does the prime minister believe?”
Starmer replied: “I believe profoundly in driving down poverty and child poverty, that’s why we’ll put a strategy in place.”
PMQs – snap verdict
Two weeks ago Kemi Badenoch was widely seen to have messed up at PMQs when she asked Keir Starmer about a policy U-turn which, if she had been listening properly, she would have heard him announce a few minutes earlier. Every leader has a bad PMQs from time to time. When you do, it is best to move on. Instead, Badenoch today chose to return to this territory. Not for the first time, her script seemed to have been drafted along the lines of ‘this is what I would have asked last time if I only I had been thinking more quickly’.
Badenoch asked Starmer to say how many pensioners would now get the winter fuel payment, if he would apologise, and how much the U-turn would cost? She did not get an apology, and she did not get answers to the two policy questions. She seemed to be strategising on the basis that she would be able to make Starmer look evasive. But this only works when a PM’s failure to answer a question looks unreasonable to members of the public, or to their own MPs. No one expects prime ministers to apologise all the time (although in some respects it would be nice if they did), and Starmer’s refusal to answer the policy questions just sounded routine in the circumstances. If Badenoch had persisted (by asking repeatedly, for example, about Mrs X from Y on average pensioner earnings, and if she would get now get the WFP), she might have made him squirm a little, but she didn’t.
Right at the end of PMQs we saw a second example of Badenoch, instead of ignoring a bad moment and moving on, returning to it in a way that only seemed to make things worse. This was the Tory response to Starmer implying she was pro-Moscow during the exchanges. Bringing the issue up allowed him to use this line which successfully skewered two opponents in one go.
If she carries on echoing Kremlin talking points like this, Reform is going to be sending her an application form for membership.
As PMQs finished, Jesse Norman, the shadow leader of the Commons, used a point of order to complain about Starmer raising Russia. (See 12.46pm.) And the Conservative party issued this statement.
It is truly astonishing that at PMQs the prime minister read out a tweet written in the Kremlin, designed to divide the western alliance on Ukraine. Is there any low to which Keir Starmer won’t sink to distract from his political problems? This was the first time a Labour leader has repeated Kremlin propaganda in parliament since Jeremy Corbyn and the Salisbury poisonings.
Accusing Starmer of repeating “Kremlin propaganda” smacks of desperation, but it is not hard to see why the Tories feel aggrieved. Badenoch is not a pro-Russian politician. But in an interview on Sky News on the Sunday before last she said that that Ukraine is fighting a proxy war “on behalf of western Europe against Russia”, and this led the Russian embassy to put out a longish message on X that started:
@KemiBadenoch has finally called a spade a spade.
Ukraine is indeed fighting a proxy-war against Russia on behalf of western interests. The illegitimate Kiev regime, created, financed and armed by the West, has been at it since 2014.
What Badenoch seemed to be saying was that, in fighting Russia, Ukraine is fighting a war that matters to the whole of Europe – which is what Starmer thinks, and which is the government’s position. It was just the use of the word “proxy” that aligned with Russian messaging. The Tories may feel that Starmer is being unfair, but they should probably have just taken the hit instead of reviving memories of a Badenoch verbal gafffe.
For the record, here is the full quote from Badenoch in that Sky interview. She was not really talking about Russia at all; instead she was talking about Israel, and arguing that the UK should be fully aligned with Israel on Gaza policy. This is an area where the policy diffference between her and Starmer is much more real than it is on Russia and Ukraine. It is also an area where the Tories are probably out of step with UK public opinion. Badenoch told Sky News:
Israel is fighting a proxy war on behalf of the UK, just like Ukraine is on behalf of western Europe against Russia. We have to get serious. We have to get serious. That was a terrorist plot in London against the Israeli embassy. We saw two Jewish members of the Israeli embassy in DC killed, whose side are we on? We need to make sure that the hostages are returned. No one wants to see a war in Gaza. Palestinians are suffering. Netanyahu is complaining that he thinks our leaders are carrying out the wrong action. He has every right to say that. What I want to see is Keir Starmer making sure that he is on the right side of British national interest? That cannot be on the side of Hamas.
After PMQs there was meant to be an urgent question on Gaza. But that has been converted into a government statement, from Hamish Falconer, the Middle East minister, which will start after the regional growth statement from Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, which is taking place now.
Jesse Norman, the shadow leader of the Commons, raises a point of order. He says viewers will have seen Keir Starmer refuse to answer Kemi Badenoch’s questions. Instead Starmer started talking about Russia, he says. He asks whether Starmer should have been allowed to change the subject like that.
In reply, Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, says that at PMQs “the scope has always been that we’ve always questioned the answers whoever has been at that dispatch box”.
This came out as jibberish, but the point he seemed to be making was that at PMQs it is customary for the Speaker to allow the PM to answer questions however he likes.
Starmer says government will consider letting more miscarriage of justice victims qualify for compensation
David Davis (Con) says Starmer once wrote a book on miscarriages of justice. But people only get compensation if they can prove their innocence beyond reasonable doubt. This means 93% of victims do not get compensation.
Starmer says this is an important issue. He will ensure the government considers this.
Sarah Dyke (Lib Dem) says the police in Glastonbury need more resources to tackle the problem with anti-social behaviour in the constituency.
Starmer says Dyke is right to raise this issue.
David Pinto-Duschinsky (Lab) asks Starmer to criticise other parties not backing Labour’s plans on flood defences.
Starmer says the last government left flood defences in the worst state on record.
