Starmer confirms willingness to make concessions on welfare bill, saying reforms must comply with ‘Labour values of fairness’
Keir Starmer starts his statement by talking about welfare reform – which is not the subject of the statement, but he says the main statement covers “security”, and he says he wants to start talking about social security.
He goes on:
On social security, I recognise there is a consensus across the house on the urgent need for reform of our welfare system, because the British people deserve protection and dignity when they are unable to work, and support into work when they can.
At the moment, they are failed every single day by the broken system created by the Conservatives, which achieves neither.
I know colleagues across the house are eager to start fixing that, and so am I, and that all colleagues want to get this right, and so do I.
We want to see reform implemented with Labour values of fairness.
That conversation will continue in the coming days, so we can begin making change together on Tuesday.
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Starmer says Badenoch will ‘never’ become PM
I have beefed up the post at 11.48am with more quotes from Kemi Badenoch’s diatribe against Keir Starmer at the start of this session.
The statement is still going on, and Starmer has now repeatedly criticised her for what she said, particularly the suggestion that he was using the G7 and Nato summits to duck PMQs.
(Badenoch was not seriously suggesting that Starmer should have missed both summits, but in using the language she did – “evaded PMQs for two weeks” – she was disaparaging the meetings, and implying they did not matter much.)
In response to a question from Bradley Thomas (Con), Starmer said that Badenoch was “sliding into irrelevance”. When Labour’s Frank McNally said it was clear Badenoch should never represent the country abroad, Starmer replied:
You shouldn’t worry too much about the leader of the opposition representing our country. She never will. If she did, the chair at the Nato summit would have a little sticky note on it, ‘I’m busy at PMQs’.
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Tory MP Mark Pritchard criticises Badenoch for tone of her response to Starmer’s G7/Nato statement
The Conservative MP Mark Pritchard started his question to Keir Starmer by criticsing his party leader, Kemi Badenoch, for the tone of her response to his statement. (See 11.48am.)
Pritchard said:
As far as possible in this place, it would be better to keep partisan politics out of national security issues. And who knows, I may get the whip withdrawn for saying that. But so be it. There are things that go beyond party politics. So can I thank the prime minister for all his hard work in the national security interests of this country.
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Starmer defends US decision to bomb Iran, saying it was ‘about time’ someone acted to stop Iran getting nuclear weapons
The independent MP Ayoub Khan said that the victory of Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary to be mayor of New York showed that people will no longer support hypocritical and disingenuous politicians.
He said that although all MPs agreed Iran should not have nuclear weapons, the attack on Iran by Israel and the US did not engage the Caroline principle, the test under international law allowing a pre-emptive military attack. He asked if Starmer agreed, and if he would say he supported the attack.
Starmer replied:
If we all agree that Iran shouldn’t have nuclear weapons, it’s about time we did something about it. And what happened on Saturday night was a big step towards alleviating that threat, and that is really important.
I think we now need to complete on that, and the way to compete on that is with the talks that are needed to get Iran back to the table to make sure it’s irreversible and that it can be verified.
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Updated at 12.35 BST
Back in the Commons Julian Lewis (Con) asked if Starmer thought that President Trump’s “love affair with Vladimir Putin is beginning to cool”.
Starmer did not directly reply, but he said it was important that Nato was united last night.
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Green co-leader Carla Denyer says welfare bill ‘fatally flawed’, and it should be replaced with new bill in autumn
The Green party says the UC and Pip bill is “fatally flawed”. It says the government should cancel next week’s debate and bring back a new bill in the autumn.
In a statement Carla Denyer, the party’s co-leader, said:
Labour’s welfare reform Bill is fatally flawed. No amount of backroom deal-making over the weekend will change that. Keir Starmer should pull it, consult with disabled people over the summer and come back with something workable and supportable in the autumn
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Starmer does not rule out Labour MP’s call for wealth tax, but restates commitment not to raise taxes for ‘working people’
The Labour MP Clive Efford asked Starmer if it was reasonable to expect the government to improve public services “within the current tax envelope”. He went on:
Has it the time come for us to review how we tax wealth, as opposed to work, to make sure that those people who can bear the heaviest load?
In response, Starmer said the government had explained how it would fund the plan to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP. He added:
[Efford] will know that we made a commitment in our manifesto in relation to not raising tax on working people, and we will keep to that commitment.
Technically, that is not a no to a wealth tax, although Starmer did not sound as if he were embracing the idea.
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Starmer rejects Tory claim Mauritius would get advance notice of attack launched from Diego Garcia under Chagos deal
In her response to Starmer, Badenoch suggested that, if the US were to use its based on Diego Garcia to launch an attack on a country like Iran, the UK would have to notify Mauritius first under the terms of the government’s Chagos Islands deal.
In response, Starmer said this was not true. He said:
In relation to Diego Garcia, let me disabuse her. We do not have to give Mauritius advance notice under the treaty.
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Updated at 12.17 BST
Liberal Democrats call for vote on welfare bill to be postponed to allow time for rethink
Unlike Badenoch, Davey also responds to Keir Starmer’s opening comment about welfare. (See 11.38am.) He says:
I’m glad the prime minister signalled retreat on his welfare plans and hope that he will now listen to everyone, and not just his back benches.
Earlier this morning the Liberal Democrats issued a statement calling for the vote on the welfare bill to be postponed. It included this statement from Davey saying:
The government needs to pull this bill and go back to the drawing board. Even the prime minister’s own backbenchers can see the damage these cuts will do by leaving some of the most vulnerable without support and putting thousands of unpaid carers in impossible situations.
The Conservatives made a complete mess of our welfare system, but the way to bring the benefits bill down is not through cutting support for disabled people and those who care for them. It is by tackling the crisis in our NHS and social care, to get millions of people off waiting lists and back to work.
Family carers do tremendous work in often the most challenging of circumstances, taking huge pressures off our health services and helping loved ones. Taking support away from our nation’s carers is the worst kind of false economy.
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Ed Davey says it is ‘astonishing’ Tories now seem to be saying PM should not attend G7 or Nato summits
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, starts his response by saying he finds it is “astonishing” that it now seems to be Conservative policy for the PM to not attend G7 and Nato summits.
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Starmer says Badenoch’s response to his statement shows how ‘irrelevant’ and ‘unserious’ Tories are
Starmer is responding to Badenoch.
He says the UK is living in a more volatile time than before, with conflicts evolving in a dangerous way. He goes on:
There’s never been a more important time to work with our ally and to be absolutely serious in our response. That response was unserious.
To suggest, at a time like this, that the prime minister attending the G7 Summit and the Nato Summit is avoiding PMQs is unserious.
He says what happened at the Nato summit was historic. He says he is proud of being able to play a part in that outcome. It has made the world safer, he says.
For the leader of the opposition to belittle it just shows how irrelevant she and the party opposite [have become]. They used to once be serious about these issues. They used to be capable of cross-party consensus, and all of that is slipping away.
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Badenoch accuses Starmer of ‘weak’ leadership, and claims ‘no one cares what he thinks’
Kemi Badenoch is responding to Starmer’s statement. She opened with a damning dismissal of him.
[Starmer] has evaded prime minister’s questions for two weeks, only to come back here to tell us what we already heard on the news. This is a weak statement from a weak prime minister, which can be characterised in two words – noises off.
In his statement, the prime minister said, we urged Iran and Israel to honour the ceasefire. He said,we are using every diplomatic lever to support this effort. What diplomatic levers are they? The same levers he’s using with his backbench rebels? Is he just asking them to please play nice?
Let’s be honest, nobody cares what this prime minister thinks, and why should they when he doesn’t even know what he thinks, and clearly, no one cares what he thinks, because he was not involved. We used to be a strategic player on the global stage, advancing Britain’s interests with confidence, and now we are on the sidelines.
UPDATE: And Badenoch ended by saying:
The prime minister may have finally returned to this house after a fortnight away, but in truth he is all at sea. Irrelevant on the world stage, impotent in the face of rising illegal immigration, and now with 126 of his own MPs all openly undermining his authority, his government is incapable of making even the smallest changes to bring down the cost of our ever-expanding welfare bill.
There is no way we are going to be able to pay for our defence. This is a government that is paralysed by its own legal advice, paralysed by its rebellious backbenchers, and paralysed by the fear of being found out for having no real vision for this country.
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Updated at 12.45 BST
Starmer is now talking about the G7 and Nato summits (which did not cover welfare reform).
At the start of the statement Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, said that because Starmer was talking about two summits, he would allow more leeway than usual to MPs asking questions.
Normally, in a statement like this on foreign policy, MPs would not be allowed to ask about welfare.
But Starmer’s decision to make a statement about welfare at the opening may open the door to MPs who do want to ask him about the UC and Pip bill.
This is what Starmer said at the opening of his statement explaining why he was shoehorning Pip into his statement. He said:
This Labour government is focused on delivering security for the British people, national security, economic security and social security.
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Starmer confirms willingness to make concessions on welfare bill, saying reforms must comply with ‘Labour values of fairness’
Keir Starmer starts his statement by talking about welfare reform – which is not the subject of the statement, but he says the main statement covers “security”, and he says he wants to start talking about social security.
He goes on:
On social security, I recognise there is a consensus across the house on the urgent need for reform of our welfare system, because the British people deserve protection and dignity when they are unable to work, and support into work when they can.
At the moment, they are failed every single day by the broken system created by the Conservatives, which achieves neither.
I know colleagues across the house are eager to start fixing that, and so am I, and that all colleagues want to get this right, and so do I.
We want to see reform implemented with Labour values of fairness.
That conversation will continue in the coming days, so we can begin making change together on Tuesday.
Share
Powell tells MPs government wants welfare bill to clear all its Commons stages within next two weeks
This is what Lucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, told MPs when she confirmed that the second reading of the UC and Pip bill will go ahead on Tuesday. (See 10.41am.)
As well as confirming that the government is open to concessions on the bill (bills are “often amended at committee”), she said that the government wants the bill to clear the Commons by mid July (‘“remaining stages … the following week”).
That is unusually quick for a major bill. But the government has said the bill needs to become law by November for the benefit changes to be implemented in time for the 2026-27 financial year.
Powell said:
The universal credit and personal independent payment bill second reading will take place next Tuesday, and the committee and remaining stages of that bill will be on the floor of the house the following week.
I want to reassure colleagues that we take parliamentary scrutiny and process of bills extremely seriously, and that’s what our parliamentary democracy is all about. Bills are introduced, principles are considered at second reading, the details receive robust debate and discussion, and are often amended at committee stage before we consider third reading.
As the house would expect, the government actively engages with parliamentary opinion throughout a bill’s passage, as we are doing intensively with the universal credit and personal independent payment bill.
I am sure the whole house, though, can agree that our welfare system needs reform, too many people are consigned to benefits for life without support to work and to get on.
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Alexander brushes off criticism of Morgan McSweeney over welfare bill, saying he helped deliver ‘historic’ election victory
Morgan McSweeney, the PM’s chief of staff, is being blamed by many Labour MPs for No 10 now being in the situation where, with less than a week to go before the vote on the welfare bill, the government does not yet have the votes to get it through.
In a long read on McSweeney’s role in the crisis, written by Jim Pickard, George Parker and Anna Gross, the Financial Times quotes a “Labour veteran” saying:
Everyone is selling shares in Morgan. People are starting to put their heads above the parapet and say maybe he’s not the Messiah after all.
The article says McSweeney is accused of ignoring the views of the parliamentary party and being too obsessed with fighting Labour’s left. It says:
Another MP said McSweeney’s role in the government seemed to be to “shield” Starmer from uncomfortable truths, including on his welfare reforms.
“Other people in Number 10 were saying he didn’t have the numbers for this and he wouldn’t get it through parliament. The chief whip has been warning them about this for months. But they had their fingers in their ears,” they said. “It’s extraordinarily arrogant and complacent.”
Others see in Number 10’s determinedness to press ahead with next week’s House of Commons vote on the welfare bill a sign of McSweeney’s desire to still confront Labour’s denuded leftwing. One MP from the 2024 election intake said it seemed as though McSweeney was “spoiling for a fight” with the left of the party over the welfare reforms, which was a “very stupid thing to do”.
The Times’ splash story also quotes unnamed MPs criticising McSweeney. It says:
Other MPs in last year’s intake conceded many of the rebels were united by their dislike of senior advisers in No 10. “What links everyone on that list is that they reject Morgan’s way of doing politics,” one said.
Ministers blamed McSweeney and [Rachel] Reeves for “shambolic” political management. “Rachel’s responsible for imposing an arbitrary cuts agenda on Liz’s welfare reform agenda,” one said. “Morgan is responsible for shambolic political management. He was warned that this would happen and ignored it. He has completely failed to do his job.”
Asked about the criticism of McSweeney from unnamed Labour figures quoted in the press, Douglas Alexander, the trade minister, told broadcasters this morning that he was not interested in SW1 “gossip”. He said it was for the prime minister to choose his team in No 10. But he also said that McSweeney was part of a team that delivered Labour “an historic victory only last July, against expectations”.
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Updated at 10.48 BST
Commons leader Lucy Powell tells MPs government still planning for welfare bill vote to happen on Tuesday
Lucy Powell, the leader of the Commons, has told MPs that the government is still planning for the vote on the second reading of the UC and Pip bill go to ahead on Tuesday night next week.
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Government won’t be using threats to win round rebels on welfare bill, Alexander says
Douglas Alexander, the trade minister, told Times Radio this morning that the government would not be using threats to get rebel MPs to support it on the welfare bills.
There have been reports saying some backbenchers were being told that, if they did not vote for the bill, they would never be considered for promotion to minister. Last year seven backbenchers faced an ever more severe punishment, suspension from the parliamentary party, for defying the whip in a parliamentary vote, although the size of the likely rebellion on the welfare bill has not made this a plausible strategy this time for No 10.
Alexander said:
I expect that there’ll be conversations with colleagues in the course of the coming day as to exactly how to make sure that this legislation progresses. …
I don’t think anyone has ever in human history been insulted into agreement. The fact is that our conversations that need to happen. I’m not coming on to your programme to threaten people or cajole people.
Douglas Alexander on Sky News this morning. Photograph: Sky NewsShare
UK’s largest bioethanol plant says it may have to close due to US-UK trade deal removing tariffs on imports
The UK’s largest bioethanol plant says it will stop production by mid-September unless the government acts, following the recent trade deal with the United States, PA Media reports. PA says:
Hull-based Vivergo Fuels said that, given “the strategic importance of a domestic ethanol supply”, the government has committed to formal negotiations to reach a “sustainable solution”.
But the firm, which is owned by Associated British Foods (ABF), said today that it is simultaneously beginning consultation with staff to wind down the plant, which employs more than 160 people, due to the uncertain situation.
The government described the company’s announcement as “disappointing”, coming as it had entered into negotiations with Vivergo about financial support on Wednesday …
Last month, Vivergo wrote to the wheat farmers who supply it, telling them it will have to close unless there is quick government intervention.
It said the removal of a 19% tariff on US ethanol imports, which formed part of the recent UK-US trade deal, was the “final blow”.
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Updated at 10.24 BST