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Rayner says vote on welfare bill will go ahead on Tuesday
Stride asks if Rayner can assure MPs the vote will go ahead on Tuesday.
Rayner replies: “We will go ahead on Tuesday.”
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Rayner says Kemi Badenoch said recently she was getting better week by week. She jokes that Badenoch has achieved that over the last two weeks by getting Chris Philp and Mel Stride to replace her. But she has not chosen Robert Jenrick, Rayner says.
Cameron Thomas (Lib Dem) asks about the nuclear test veterans. He asks if Rayner will attend a meeting to discuss appropriate compensation.
Rayner says the veterans minister will attend a meetting on this.
Earlier the Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey also asked about this issue, saying the veterans deserved “answers, justice and an apology”. She cited last night’s Newsnight report on this issue
James MacCleary (Lib Dem) asks what the government is doing to address the staffing problem in nurseries.
Rayner says the government is investing in the sector.
Natasha Irons (Lab) asks about youth centres, and the closure of a provision in Croydon. Youth centres should get statutory protection, she says.
Rayner says the last government was to blame. This government is making different choices, she says.
Gavin Robinson, the DUP leader, asks Rayner to condemn the recent disorder in Northern Ireland. Does Rayner agree the Windsor framework is stopping the government legislation for border controls on a UK-wide basis.
Rayner says the Windsor framework addressed longstanding issues. The government is appealing issues relating to immigration law. It wants immigration law to imply on a UK-wide basis, she says.
Robinson was referring to this case.
Debbie Abrahams (Lab) asks if the government will fix the affordable housing crisis.
Rayner says Abrahams is right to raise this issue.
Daisy Cooper, the deputy Lib Dem leader, says her party is opposed to the welfare bill. The government may have to push it through with Tory support, she claims.
She asks for an assurance that these reforms will not be implemented, if the bill passes, until the review of the carers’ allowance scandal has concluded.
Rayner defends the bill, but does not address the question.
Cooper says the government has reportedly agreed that President Trump’s state visit will take place in September. Will the government leverage that visit to get assurances for Ukraine?
Rayner says the government is really pleased Trump is coming for a second state visit.
Joe Morris (Lab) asks about a school in his Hexham community that has had to close because of crumbling concrete.
Rayner says this was one of the problems left by the last government.
Stride asks if Rayner is embarrassed to be defending policies she does not support.
Rayner says it is embarrassing that the Tories turn up every week and do not apologise for their record.
Stride says the IFS is predicting the biggest increase in council tax in history. Does the government think it is not paid by working people.
Rayner says council tax went up every year under the Tories. She says Tory members of the Local Government Association wanted the cap on council tax increases lifted.
Rayner refuses to rule out tax rises in autumn budget
Stride says economists thinks taxes will rise in the autumn budget, even though Rachel Reeves said she would not be putting up taxes again. Can Rayner repeat that?
Rayner says the Tories have no plan, and no credibility.
She does not rule out tax rises.
Stride says the Tories will support the bill under certain conditions.
Rayner says the Tories are asking for no tax rises, but they put taxes up. And they want welfare spending cut, even though it went up when they were in power.
Rayner says vote on welfare bill will go ahead on Tuesday
Stride asks if Rayner can assure MPs the vote will go ahead on Tuesday.
Rayner replies: “We will go ahead on Tuesday.”
Mel Stride says many Labour MPs would like to see Angela Rayner standing in for Keir Starmer for good.
Why does she think MPs opposed to the welfare bill are wrong?
Rayner says the government will invest £1bn in support for people to get back into work. And it will end routine assessments for people judged incapable of every going back to work.
Mike Tapp (Lab) says the Tories gave up on law and order. Now they post “wannabe superhero videos” highlighting the problems they created. Does the deputy PM agree they should “hang their heads in shame for failing to protect our streets”.
The Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, says that was not about government policy, so there is no need for Rayner to reply.
Angela Rayner starts by saying the UK is working with allies to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East. The government wants to prevent Iran getting a nuclear weapon, she says.
She says the situation in Gaza is of “gravest concern”. She says the remaining hostages must be released, and aid must be delivered at more volume.
Green party condemns government plan to expand deterrent by buying fighter jets capable of carrying US nuclear bombs
After PMQs there will be an urgent question, tabled by the Tories, on the government announcement about buying American F-35A jets capable of delivering US tactical warheads that are likely to be stored on British soil.
Commenting on the plans, the Green party MP Ellie Chowns said:
UK fighter jets carrying Donald Trump’s nuclear bombs—is this anyone’s vision of security? Nuclear weapons do not make the world safer; they heighten the risk of escalation and mistrust. As a founding signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the UK should be leading efforts to reduce and eliminate nuclear arsenals. Normalising the idea of ‘substrategic’ or battlefield nukes is incredibly dangerous, undermining decades of arms-control progress and increasing the likelihood of miscalculation.
Angela Rayner faces Mel Stride at PMQs
PMQs is starting soon. Angela Rayner, the deputy PM, is standing in for Keir Starmer, who is at the Nato summit.
Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, is deputising for Kemi Badenoch.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Treasury minister sidesteps question about impact abandoning welfare bill would have on government spending plans
Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, sidestepped a question this morning about the impact that abandoning the UC and Pip bill would have on government spending.
At the Treasury committee he was asked by Harriett Baldwin, the Tory chair, what choices the government would have if the bill gets rejected. Jones replied:
The first thing to say is of course that the government policy has not changed and we’ll be progressing with our reforms to the welfare system …
If we are in a world where there are any changes to the AME [annually managed expenditure] forecast on the demand-led spending for welfare payments – again that’s something the OBR will forecast independently for us and will be factored into any considerations the chancellor has at the budget later in the year.
The bill is expected to eventually save the government about £5b a year.
According to a report in the Times this morning, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has been telling Labour MPs that failing to pass the bill will devastate government spending plans.
