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Starmer suggests Badenoch has missed chance to have private, national security briefing on Chagos Islands issue
Kemi Badenoch says:
When Labour negotiates, our country loses.
Yesterday it was reported the Chagos deal would cost £18bn. She says this is money that belongs to us and our children. It is so north London lawyers can boast at dinner parties.
Why did the energy secretary stop fighting the Rosebank case.
Starmer says Diego Garcia is “vital for our national security”.
But the legal certainty was thrown into doubt some years ago.
He goes on:
Let me be clear, and I’ll pick my words carefully. Without legal certainty, the base cannot operate in practical terms as it should.
That is bad for national security, and is a gift to our adversaries.
Some within the party opposite know exactly what I am talking about.
That is why the last government started negotiations.
Starmer says, if Badenoch is “properly briefed” on the national security aspects, she will know what is is talking about.
If Badenoch is not properly briefed, she is not fit to be PM.
(Starmer seemed to be alluding to a recent report saying Badenoch missed a recent national security briefing – although that was about the Southport killings.)
Key events
Michael Wheeler (Lab) asks Starmer if he agrees the government should listen to the experience of job centre staff when reforming welfare.
Starmer does agree. He says the government is planning the biggest reform to employment support for a generation.
Danny Chambers (Lib Dems) asks about maternity services, and what is being done to make them safer.
Starmer says the government is committed to recruiting thousands more midwives.
Sorcha Eastwood (Alliance) refers to Hilary Benn’s speech yesterday. She says she agrees with Benn about the need to reform public services. Will this governent reform the institutions in Northern Ireland so it can operate properly.
Starmer says devolution has been very valuable in Northern Ireland. He says the restoration of the executive was an important milestone, and he says the goverment will continue to work with the parties there.
Dave Doogan (SNP) asks if Starmer agrees with Prof Sir John Curtice, who has said Starmer is the worst thing to happen to Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader. He says Starmer has been catastrophic for Scottish Labour’s polling.
Starmer says he can remember when the SNP had so many MPs they said on the front benches (where the Lib Dems are now).
Joanna Baxter (Lab) asks about council funding in Scotland. She criticises the Scottish government for the way it is withdrawing money from council workers’ pay to cover pension costs.
Starmer says the Scottish government has got the money it needs.
Claire Hughes (Lab) asks what the government is doing about shoplifting.
Starmer says for far too long this has not been taken seriously. Under the Tories, offences involving the theft of goods worth less than £200 were not investigated. He says the government has changed that.
Starmer defends meeting with voice coach during lockdown, says he was working while Tories were partying
Gagan Mohindra (Con) asks about the claim that Starmer broke lockdown rules when he got a voice coach to visit him before Christmas in 2020. He says he believes Starmer is an honourable man and he asks him to repeat his assurance that the rules were followed, not just by him, but by his team.
Starmer replies:
In December 202o I was in my office working on the expected Brexit deal with my team. We had to analyse the deal as it came in at speed, prepare and deliver a live statement at speed of one of the most important issues for our country in recent years. That’s what I was doing.
What were they [the Conservatives] doing? Suitcases of booze into Downing Street, partying and fighting, vomiting up the walls, leaving the cleaner to remove red wine. States. That’s the difference. I was working. They were partying.
Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, says the UK shoudl stop funding Unwra, because some of the Hamas hostages were held in Unwra facilities. He goes on:
The British people do not want our aid being stolen by Hamas. So will the prime minister agree with me that we should stop funding Hamas, follow the example of other nations and divert our aid to other, more trustworthy agencies.
Starmer recalls a conversation with one of the hostages after she was released. He spoke to her about the conditions in which he was held.
Then he angrily goes on:
To be absolutely clear, and [Tice] knows this, we are not funding Hamas, never will, we condemn Hamas, and everybody in this house should condemn Hamas.
Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, says his party believes in a health service free at the point of delivery. (Earlier a Labour MP criticised him for being in favour of an insurance system).
But his question is about the Chagos Islands. He asks how he could justify spending £18bn on this to the people of Clacton.
Starmer says under Reform policy, people would have to pay to use the NHS. If Farage can find the people of Clacton, he should tell them to vote Labour, he says.
Starmer says Palestinians must be allowed to return to Gaza – but ducks opportunity to criticise Trump
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asks about the carer’s allowance scandal. He mentions a carer caught up in it, even though the sanctions policy is being reviewed. Will the government look at this?
Starmer says he will arrange for the DWP to look at this.
Davey says he has raised it with the DWP already, but did not get a good reply.
He asks about Gaza, and asks if Starmer will raise with President Trump the concerns MPs have about his “dangerous statements”.
Starmer says Palestinians must be allowed to return home, and the UK shoud be supporting them in that, he says.
But he does not refer to Trump, or agree to Davey’s suggestion to pass on the concerns of British MPs.
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