Key events
Badenoch says the chancellor has said she will not extend the tas threshold freeze. Will Starmer repeat that promise?
Starmer says Badenoch calls herself a Conservative realist.
I’m realistic about the Conservatives. The reality is they left open borders and she was the cheerleader.
Badenoch says the hospice announcement Starmer mentioned was money for buildings, not to compensate for the NICs increase.
Starmer says he has set out the position on hospices.
Badenoch again asks if hospice will be exempt from the jobs tax.
Starmer says the government is supporting the hospice sector. He says Badenoch should apologise for the black hole the Tories left in the finances.
Badenoch says MPs will vote on the employer national insurance rise later. Will the government exempt hospices, pharmacies and care providers.
Starmer says Badenoch did not commit to reversing the employer national insurance rise.
Badenoch asks if the government regrets raising business taxes.
Starmer says Badenoch is supposed to be straight talking. Will the Tories reverse it? If not, what else would they cut?
Kemi Badenoch says last year’s budget was supposed to be a one-off. So why are we having an emergency budget next week.
Starmer defends the government’s economic record.
But he does not challenge the claim that the spring statement is an emergency budget.
Andrew Pakes (Lab) says the national minimum wage is going up next month. He urges the government to go “further and faster” in making work pay.
Starmer says Pakes is doing a superb job for his constituents (he is certainly doing a superb job for the Labour whips) and he criticises the Tories for opposing the rise in the minimum wage.
Alberto Costa (Con) asks about children with brain cancer. He recalls a constituent whose son died from a tumour, aged six. Will the PM arrange a meeting for his mum with a minister to discuss research?
Starmer says the loss of a child is “unbearable”. Most of us, including Starmer himself, would not know how to react, he says. He will arrange the meeting.
Keir Starmer starts by saying he spoke to President Zelenskyy last night. He reaffirmed the UK’s support for Ukraine.
He says he is “deeply concerned” by the resumption of military action in Gaza. Picture of children affected, and the numbers killed, are “shocking”.
And he pays tribute to the last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, John Hemmingway, who has died.
Starmer faces Badenoch at PMQs
PMQs is imminent.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Liberal Democrats condemn Trump for his ‘fawning call with Putin’
With Keir Starmer reluctant to criticise President Trump because he has to negotiate with him, Kemi Badenoch reluctant to criticise him because many Tories admire him, and Nigel Farage reluctant to criticise him because he does not want to jeopardise their personal friendship, the political space for Trump-bashing in UK politics is a lot more empty than it probably should be.
The Liberal Democrats are exploiting this more than anyone else, and this morning the party has issued this statement, from the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller, about the Trump/Putin call yesterday. Miller says:
Donald Trump’s fawning call with Putin couldn’t be more different to his and JD Vance’s shameful bullying of Zelensky in the Oval Office.
It’s clear Trump is being played by Putin – stringing him along and currying favour even as his savage war machine continues to push deeper into Ukraine.
Now is the time for the UK and our allies in Europe and the Commonwealth to redouble our efforts to support Ukraine’s defence and achieve a lasting peace.
