Keir Starmer faces PMQs before Rachel Reeves delivers spring statement – UK politics live
Key events
Kim Leadbeater (Lab) thanks everyone who has worked on the assisted dying bill, that she tabled. She asks if Starmer agrees that it should be implemented as soon as possible if it passes.
That is a reference to the government pushing for implementation to be delayed.
Starmer says the bill should be “effective and workable”. If it is approved by parlimaent, “the government will implement it in a way that is safe and practicable”, he says.
Julian Lewis (Con) asks why the government is permanently sealing the country’s only two shale gas wells. In a crisis, they might be needed, he says.
Starmer says there are real, negative consequences from fracking.
Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, says he lived with a disability for much of his life. He asks Starmer to defend plans that will push more disabled people into poverty.
Starmer says 15% of young Scots are not in employment, education or training. The benefits system is not working, and needs to be reformed, he says.
Starmer suggests Lib Dem leader Ed Davey not being serious, after he calls for review of intelligence sharing with US
Davey asks about the Signal leak in the US. Will the PM order an urgent review into the security of intelligence that we share with the US?
Starmer says the UK works with the US on a daily basis. Davey would like to think of himself as reasonable and serious, he says. He goes on:
Unpicking up our relations with the US on defence and security is neither responsible nor serious.
Starmer refuses to rule out digital services tax being watered down under pressure from Trump administration
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asks Starmer to guarantee that the digital services tax will not be watered down to appease President Trump and Elon Musk.
Starmer says social media laws will be made in the UK. But he ignores the question about the digital services tax.
Badenoch says Starmer cannot guarantee that teachers’ jobs are safe. And she criticises the government for underming academies in the schools bill.
Starmer says most schools are academies already.
Badenoch asks about the impact of the national insurance increase on schools. She says schools were meant to be compensated, but this has not happened.
Starmer says schools were failed by the last government.
Badenoch asks why Labour banned a school behaviour programme launched under the last government.
Starmer criticses the record of the last government on school behaviour.
Badenoch says, if this is true, why is the government reviewing policy in this area.
Starmer says the vast majority of schools have effective enforcement policies.
UPDATE: Badenoch said:
If the ban is ‘unnecessary’, then why is it that they started a review? Just last week his education secretary called a ban a ‘gimmick’, yet teachers and headteachers already say the evidence already shows that schools that ban phones get better results.
So, will he U-turn on this?
And Starmer replied:
We need to ensure that all schools do this – but the vast majority do.
It is really important that we focus on the battle we have to have with mobile phones, which is the content that children are able to access.
We need to ensure that that is controlled wherever they are, so it’s a question of having the right battle on the right issue, not wasting time on something where almost all schools are already banning mobile phones.
Starmer says legal ban on mobile phones in schools ‘completely unnecessary’
Kemi Badenoch says the chancellor will deliver an “emergency budget”. Even Ed Balls is calling it that, she says.
But she will turn to another minister making a mess of her brief – the education secretary. Why did she reject the Tory call for a ban on mobile phones in schools?
Starmer says “because it is completely unnecesary”. Schools are doing this already.
He says what matters is the content on the internet.
UPDATE: Starmer said:
Because it’s completely unnecessary. I’ve got teenage children. Almost every school bans phones in school.
They do it already. We need to concentrate on what’s really important here, which is getting to the content that children shouldn’t be accessing. That’s where I would genuinely like to work across the House because I think there’s a huge amount of work to do.
But the battle is not with schools that are already banning phones in school. The battle – and this is an important emerging battle – is to work together to ensure that we can ensure that the content that children are accessing wherever they are is suitable for their age.
