Keir Starmer dodges questions on two-child benefit cap in first PMQs as prime minister – UK politics live | Politics
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- July 24, 2024
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Starmer dodges questions on two-child benefit cap
SNP Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn, began his PMQs contribution: “may I again warmly congratulate the prime minister on ending Tory rule”, to which a shout came from the Tory benches – “and yours”.
The SNP MP for Aberdeen South said the Conservatives were now “too close for comfort” on the neighbouring opposition benches.
Flynn continued:
In his campaign to do so [Keir Starmer] was of course joined by Gordon Brown and just five days before the general election in Scotland on the front page of The Daily Record Gordon Brown instructed voters to vote Labour to end child poverty.
Yet last night Labour MPs from Scotland were instructed to retain the two child cap which forces children into poverty. So prime minister, what changed?
Keir Starmer replied:
I’m glad he mentioned Gordon Brown because the last Labour government lifted millions of children out of poverty, something we’re very very proud of and this Government will approach the question with the same vigour with our new taskforce. Already we’ve taken steps, breakfast clubs, abolishing no fault evictions, decent homes.”
Flynn was reprimanded by Speaker Lindsay Hoyle for holding a print out of the Daily Record headline he referred to, with Hoyle saying: “Props are not allowed to be used. Never mind put it down. We don’t need any more.”
Key events
A headteacher broke down when she described how difficult it was to balance special educational needs provision with funding challenges, an MP has told the Commons, reports the PA news agency.
Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, Helen Hayes, said:
In a context of the decimation of local authority funding since 2010 and with increasing presentation of additional needs across the country, local councils and schools are simply buckling under the pressure of resources they do not have and needs they cannot meet, while families are suffering the consequences.
At a recent visit to an ‘outstanding’ school in my constituency, the headteacher broke down as she described the conflict of seeking to be an inclusive school with the reality of simply not having the funding that she needed to deliver for children with additional needs, while increasingly local authorities are being driven to the edge of financial viability by the costs of Send (special educational needs and disabilities) support and Send transport.”
Turning to children’s social care, Hayes told MPs:
Care-experienced people are so overrepresented in both the criminal justice system and the homeless population because they are being so badly failed, that if the government is serious about tackling these challenges, it must turn its attention to delivering better support and better outcomes for care-experienced people.”
Hayes called for a “care experience covenant” in law to compel authorities to take corporate parenting responsibilities seriously.
Jennifer Rankin
The EU and UK are expected to hold their first summit next spring, as contacts warm under the new Labour government.
A summit between the leaders of the EU’s main institutions and Keir Starmer is “somewhere pencilled in mentally in the agenda” for next spring, a senior European official told the Guardian.
The prime minister, it is expected, would be invited to meet the heads of the European Commission and the European Council, rather than attend a regular EU summit with 27 national leaders.
While the EU has regular summits with Canada, China and Japan, there have been no equivalent high-level gatherings with the UK.
The head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen – elected last week for a second five-year term – is due to meet the prime minister in late August or early September, a meeting that is likely to pave the way to talks on improving the EU-UK relationship.
A spring summit would be a bigger event likely to be focused on achieving an outcome, which is yet to be defined.
The UK has said it wants a security pact with the EU, but also hopes to improve the economic relationship by signing a veterinary agreement to reduce border checks, secure mutual recognition of professional qualifications and make it easier for touring musicians to work in Europe.
The EU institutions are in a state of transition. Von der Leyen, who is busy choosing her new team of commissioners, will not begin her second mandate until 1 November or 1 December, depending on a European parliament vote. An EU-UK summit would also include the incoming European Council president, António Costa, not due to take office until the end of the year.
Prime minister Keir Starmer has welcomed Eluned Morgan as Welsh Labour leader.
He said:
Eluned’s election as Welsh Labour leader and candidacy for first minister is fantastic news for Wales and for the Labour party.
Eluned brings with her a wealth of experience and a track record of delivery, and as the first woman to lead Welsh Labour, she is already making history.
Just three weeks ago, people across Wales voted overwhelmingly for a changed Labour party to lead a government in Westminster.
We have a been given a strong mandate to deliver change for working people, and I look forward to working hand-in-hand with Eluned to deliver on our promises to Wales and Britain.”
Eluned Morgan confirmed as new Welsh Labour leader
Steven Morris
Eluned Morgan has been confirmed as the new leader of Welsh Labour and is to become the first female first minister of Wales.
Lady Morgan, 57, the health secretary in the Labour-led Welsh government, was the only candidate to put herself forward to replace Vaughan Gething.
The Senedd, the Welsh parliament, is expected to be recalled from recess for Morgan to be appointed as first minister. If appointed she will be Labour’s first female head of state in the UK.
Morgan has promised to unify the party after a torrid four months during which Gething was fatally wounded bycaught up in a scandal over donations he received for his leadership campaign.
Morgan has said she will make Huw Irranca-Davies, who supported Gething’s only rival for the job of Welsh leader, Jeremy Miles, as her deputy first minister.
Plaid Cymru has called for a snap Senedd election with i. Its leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, claiminged Morgan’s leadership iwas aimed at stabilising Labour in Wales rather than being in the best interests of the country.
He said:
Eluned Morgan will today become the third Labour leader in Wales in three months. She knows that for Welsh government to have legitimacy in such circumstances, a fresh election is needed. Labour fixers have been more concerned with party management than offering a change of direction for Wales.”
Morgan was granted a peerage in 2011 and has sat in the House of Lords and the European parliament as well as the Senedd. The Welsh Conservative leader, Andrew RT Davies, described her appointment as a “baroness picking up a crown”.
Sally Weale
The government is to pause imminent funding cuts to BTecs and other applied general qualifications while it reviews planned reforms to post-16 qualifications, the education secretary has announced.
Funding for scores of courses was due to be withdrawn as early as next week as part of the last government’s plans to simplify the system of vocational qualifications and expand its T-level programme of technical qualifications.
Following widespread expressions of concern from the sector, Bridget Phillipson told MPs in the Commons on Wednesday:
I want to make an announcement here and now because our mission is urgent.
Today, I am pleased to announce that the department will undertake a short pause and review of post-16 qualification reform at level three and below, concluding before the end of the year. This means that the defunding scheduled for next week will be paused.
The coming year will also see further developments in the rollout of new T-levels, which will ensure that young people continue to benefit from high quality technical qualifications that help them to thrive.”
There had been speculation about Labour’s plans once in power for T-levels, which were launched in 2020 and are two-year courses taken after GCSEs, equivalent to three A-levels. While there have been problems with the design and implementation of some of the T-level qualifications, college leaders welcomed confirmation that they will remain and be expanded.
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said:
This was an important decision needing urgent attention in the best interests of students and the colleges wanting to meet their needs.
Our position was always that T-levels are here to stay and will increasingly become vital qualifications alongside others, but the implementation plans had gone awry. So it is great to hear the clear and unambiguous support for the future of T-levels as well.
Pausing defunding and undertaking a rapid review of the implementation is exactly what we asked for and this announcement will come as a great relief to college staff up and down the country.”
The consumer finance expert Martin Lewis has replied to a tweet by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Carla Lockhart, where she referred to voting to “lift the two-child cap on Child Benefit”.
Lewis, posting on his X account, wrote on Wednesday morning:
I find it somewhat concerning that an MP who voted on the issue refers to it as a “two child cap on Child Benefit” even capitalising Child Benefit as a proper name.
There is NO two child cap on Child Benefit. The vote was on the two child limit for Universal Credit & Tax Credits. I hope this is just a poorly drafted tweet and not a misunderstanding of what was voted on.
This is an important debate and a crucial policy matter impacting many children. We need to ensure people (via the media) and MPs understand it.”
I find it somewhat concerning that an MP who voted on the issue refers to it as a “two child cap on Child Benefit” even capitalising Child Benefit as a proper name.
There is NO two child cap on Child Benefit. The vote was on the two child limit for Universal Credit & Tax… https://t.co/uYvZKbQKqu
— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) July 24, 2024
In her post, Lockhart had written:
Tonight, I voted to lift the two-child cap on Child Benefit, this has plunged countless children into poverty and disadvantages families. Disappointing Labour did not support this crucial change. In Govt they need to deal with real issues.”
Tonight, I voted to lift the two-child cap on Child Benefit, this has plunged countless children into poverty and disadvantages families.
Disappointing Labour did not support this crucial change. In Govt they need to deal with real issues. #SupportFamilies #EndTwoChildCap
— Carla Lockhart MP (@carlalockhart) July 23, 2024
At the time of this live blog post, Lockhart had not responded to Lewis’s public message.
Keir Starmer says he will not apologise for private schools VAT plans, after being challenged at PMQs
Keir Starmer said he will not apologise for his plans to impose VAT on private schools, after he was challenged on the proposal during his first prime minister’s questions (PMQs).
As he defended the policy, the prime minister argued that every parent has aspirations for their children no matter which school they go to.
It came in response to Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine, who claimed state schools in her constituency of Edinburgh West would be put under pressure by the proposal.
Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, Jardine said:
I’m sure he will want to reassure the many parents and teachers in Edinburgh West who have expressed concerns about the implication for our state education system in Scotland of the VAT increase in independent fees, which he proposes.
Edinburgh city council, led by the Labour party, have produced five-year projections which show we do not have capacity in the city to accommodate pupils who may leave the independent sector.
Moreover, how will he ensure that the VAT raised in Scotland from those fees can be reinvested in already hard-pressed Scottish education?”
Starmer replied:
I do obviously understand the aspiration that parents who work hard and save hard have for their children that they send to private school. But every parent has that aspiration, whichever school they go to.
And I am determined that we will have the right teachers in place in our state secondary schools to ensure that every child, wherever they come from, whatever their background, has the same opportunity, and I do not apologise for that.”
It came after Conservative MP Ben Spencer (Runnymede and Weybridge) also claimed during the king’s speech debate on Tuesday that the “awful policy” would put pressure on state education.
Spencer, who has chosen to send his children to private school, said:
Most parents who send their kids to independent schools aren’t these sort of mega-rich magnates which are characterised by the government, they’re people – as with all parents – who make difficult budgeting decisions in terms of how they want to spend their money.
The policy to tax education, which we have never done before and never should, is only going to put more pressure on the state sector.”
Here are some images from Keir Starmer’s first PMQs as prime minister:
At PMQs, Sir Roger Gale (Conservative MP for Herne Bay and Sandwich) asked about planning reforms “which will smother fields in East Kent currently yielding bread and making wheat with houses”.
Starmer said:
We have to get economic growth in this country. We’ve had failure over the last 14 years, and the failure of economic growth has been central to it. There’s been failure to build the infrastructure we need, the houses we need, the prisons we need, and I think the whole House can see the consequence of that.
At PMQs, Warrington North MP Charlotte Nichols described violence against women and girls as a “scourge in our society”.
Starmer replied:
It is such a serious issue and we have made a commitment, a mission, to halve violence against women and girls.
I know from my own experience dealing with these cases as a prosecutor and subsequently just how hard that will be to achieve. It does mean that we’ll have to deliver in a different way. We’ll have to roll up our sleeves and do difficult things which haven’t been done in the past.
Sir Keir Starmer is “focused on delivering the change” the public voted for, Downing Street said.
Asked what the prime minister’s mood was following the rebellion over the two-child benefit cap, his political spokeswoman said:
He’s been focused, like the whole party, on delivering the change that the country voted for.
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