PMQs latest: Starmer refuses to say if Rachel Reeves will keep job as chancellor in rumoured reshuffle

The prime minister is facing a local election wipeout in just over a week, with some experts predicting the party could see its worst-ever result.

Both Reform and the Greens are forecast to be the big winners at the event, as opinion polling shows discontent with both Labour and the Conservatives growing.

The Independent’s Albert Toth looks at what pollsters are predicting, based on nationwide voting intention.

The incident in Golders Green was raised in the Commons by Hornsey and Friern Barnet MP Catherine West.

She said: “The whole House will be very concerned to hear about the dreadful stabbings this morning in the borough of Barnet.”

The Labour MP said she was “very worried about this repeated violence against the Jewish community”.

She added: “We condemn these alleged attacks and we wish the police, the council and all the community services the very best in solving this and bringing to justice those perpetrators of these violent crimes.”

Sir Keir Starmer said he had been told about the incident before attending Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons.

He told MPs: “It is deeply concerning to everyone in this House.

“There is now a police investigation and I think we all need to do everything we can to support that investigation and be absolutely clear in our determination to deal with any of these offences, the like of which we have seen too much recently.”

Today at PMQs, Sir Keir Starmer refused to guarantee Rachel Reeves would remain in her job – with the Tories claiming the obfuscation showed that the chancellor is “about to become the next person Starmer throws under a bus – another member of his government sacrificed for the prime minister’s terrible decisions”.

The last time Ms Reeves faced significant speculation over her future as chancellor was in July last year, when she was seen crying at PMQs behind the prime minister.

The shocking scenes unfolded as the prime minister refused to guarantee her future.

But shortly afterwards, the value of the pound fell and borrowing costs surged in one of the biggest single-day moves since October 2022 when markets were in turmoil after former Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget.

It came as no surprise therefore that the PM then came out to guarantee her survival, and Ms Reeves clarified the tears were as a result of “personal reasons”.

The strong market reaction seems to have guaranteed her safety for another nine months.

But now as rumours swell again, the prime minister will be hoping the markets have a friendlier response than they did last time if he finally decides to wield the axe.

Labour former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, the chair of the all party group for the National Union of Journalists, has just raised a point of order about the activities of Labour Together.

The thinktank, once run by Sir Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, is credited in putting the prime minister in as leader of the Labour Party.

Mr McDonnell raised concerns about it hiring a PR firm to “smear journalists” and “spy on MPs”.

The Speaker responded by saying he supports an investigation into Labour Together’s activities and suggested Mr McDonnell puts forward a motion to the table office.

Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch faced off over the Government’s record since it came to power in the final Prime Minister’s Questions of the parliamentary session.

Ahead of Parliament’s prorogation, Mrs Badenoch attacked Sir Keir for rising numbers of people claiming Universal Credit, and poor economic growth.

She also called for him to sack Rachel Reeves as chancellor and the prime minister failed to guarantee her future in his response.

Sir Keir and Ms Badenoch clased on welfare spending, as the leader of the opposition claimed the country is spending more on welfare than it is earning in taxes because of the prime minister’s “terrible policies”.

Ms Badenoch said: “Let me tell him why we’re spending more on welfare than we’re earning in tax. It’s because of him and his terrible policies.

“We are spending so much on welfare that we cannot afford to defend the country.”

Sir Keir responded: “This is the Labour government that increased defence spending to the highest since the Cold War.

“What did they do? When they came into power, defence spending was 2.5 per cent and when they left power, it was 2.3 per cent, and even their own secretary of state admitted they hollowed out our armed forces.

“So we’ll take no lecture from them on defence.”

Kemi Badenoch described Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership as “like a bad episode of Game Of Thrones”, as the prime minister said a motion to launch an inquiry into claims he misled Parliament over the Peter Mandelson affair was rejected “decisively.”

At Prime Minister’s Questions, the Conservative leader said: “This Government is like a bad episode of Game of Thrones.

“His own people have turned against him and all the while, the prime minister is holed up in his castle, wetting himself about a visit from the King in the North.

“Yesterday, one Labour MP actually said that his days are numbered. That’s one of them. I wonder who it was because they’re all looking guilty as hell.

“Isn’t the real reason the prime minister can’t cut welfare that he squandered all his political capital saving his own skin?”

Referring to Tuesday’s motion on referring the prime minister to the Commons Privileges Committee, Sir Keir replied: “She talks about political games. That’s what she was doing yesterday.”

He said MPs “rejected it decisively because everyone saw it for what it was – a desperate, baseless political stunt ahead of the May elections”.

Sir Ed Davey has asked Sir Keir Starmer if he will sack US ambassador Christian Turner “for telling the truth” after he claimed the PM was “on the ropes” and suggested Labour could “remove” him after next month’s local elections.

Addressing the prime minister at PMQs, Sir Ed said: “Yesterday we heard Christian Turner, Peter Mandelson’s replacement as US ambassador, say the only country Trump has a special relationship with is Israel, that the prime minister’s job is in danger after next week’s elections and that, in the US, Jeffrey Epstein’s associates have evaded responsibility for their actions.

“The prime minister has had to fire one US ambassador for lying. Does he fear he will now have to fire a second one for telling the truth?”

Responding, Sir Keir said: “Given what I’ve had thrown at me in the last two weeks by all the opposition parties, that’s the least of my problems”

He added: “I know he likes stunts but I was surprised he joined in the one yesterday… I expect frivolous accusations from the leader of the opposition, clearly I was wrong to expect anything better from the man in the wetsuit.”

“I’ve got my dry suit on today”, Sir Ed bizarrely hit back.

Emily Thornberry has asked the prime minister if he will compensate security officials who lost their jobs due to their sexuality.

The Labour MP told Sir Keir Starmer about a constituent who had wrongly lost their job in MI6 due to their sexuality.

Pointing out that security officials also “put their lives on the line”, she asked if the prime minister would consider giving compensation to these people, as has been done for veterans.

“I am very proud if the work we’ve done to support LGBT veterans,” Sir Keir replied.

“People in our security service are some of the most bravest and talented professionals who served our country. Because some of them lost their jobs because of their sexuality is a historic wrong.”