Starmer refuses to rule out further tax rises when challenged at PMQs to repeat what Reeves told CBI – UK politics live | Politics

Badenoch says the figures out tomorrow will show net migration falling, as a result of the decisions taken by the last government.

But, under Labour, immigration will remain “far too high”, she says.

The home secretary wants a returns agreement with the EU, but that’s the exact kind of agreement that saw us take more asylum seekers than were returned to the continent. So Labour won’t change anything. The prime minister himself once said that there is a racist undercurrent which permeates all immigration law, and of course, he and his cabinet fought against the end of free movement. They scrapped the Rwanda deterrent before it had even started, and we are already seeing the inevitable result as more and more people cross the Channel, with significantly more arriving than last year.

Kemi Badenoch is speaking now.

There is a live feed here.

She says immigration figures are coming out tomorrow. They will show net migration falling, as a result of decisions taken by the last government.

She says, as an immigrant herself, she feels about to talk about this.

Immigration is too high to sustain public services, and to integrate people from different cultures, she says. She goes on:

It is time to tell the truth. For decades, the entire political class in this country has presided over mass migration. Since 1994 every year has seen more people arrive in this country than leave.

She says the last Conservative government promised to cut immigration, but failed.

The Conservatives have said that the new respect orders unveiled by the Home Office as a means of tackling antisocial behaviour are unnecessary.

The Home Office announced the plans last week, saying “hooligans who wreak havoc on local communities will face tough restrictions” under the new orders.

As PA Media reports, councils, police and social housing providers will be able to apply for respect orders, issued by the courts. Perpetrators could face town centre bans, or be compelled to address the root causes of their behaviour, for example, through mandated drug treatment, and breaches could result in up-to-two-year prison sentences, unlimited fines, or a community order.

In a Commons statement on the initiative this afternoon, Diana Johnson, the policing minister, said:

At its core, this is about respect – respect between citizens, respect for our society and the expectations underpinning it, and respect for the rule of law.

Johnson said respect was “woven into the fabric of our democracy but after years of neglect, that fabric has become worn and we saw a disgraceful illustration of that in the summer, when serious disorder erupted in some towns and cities”.

She went on:

To turn things around and effectively combat the problem, it is really clear that fresh impetus is needed.

But Matt Vickers, the shadow Home Office minister said the government was rejust reviving the “failed” asbos (anti-social behaviour orders) introduced during Tony Blair when he was PM. Vickers went on:

I know that those in the sector have described the proposed respect orders as wholly unnecessary and near-identical to existing powers already held by the police.

Vickers asked Johnson to explain how the new orders were different from asbos, or criminal behaviour orders (CBOs).

Johnson replied:

Respect orders are different to criminal behaviour orders – I don’t think [Vickers] has quite understood that. CBOs are attached to where there’s been a conviction and the CPS then apply in court for that CBO to be applied. Respect orders will not require a conviction.

During PMQs Keir Starmer accused Kemi Badenoch of having made unfunded spending commitments worth £6.7bn during her time as Tory leader.

Here is the table from Labour justifying the figure (which the party did brief to the Mirror at the weekend). Labour has identified commitments worth a total of £6bn a year, and added another £700m for the cost of restarting the Rwanda scheme.

Commenting on PMQs, Ellie Reeves, the Labour party chair, said:

Kemi Badenoch has again been unable to explain whether she would reverse changes to employer NICs that pay for Labour’s investment in the NHS and education. Would she cut the funding for hospitals and schools which she claims to back?

The opposition are all over the place. Nothing constructive, no new ideas. Just complaints and nothing to say about what they would do – all while running up an unfunded promises wish list of nearly £7bn in just three weeks. Completely unserious.

Here is the news story PA Media has filed about the Starmer/Badenoch exchanges at PMQs.

Keir Starmer has sidestepped calls to repeat chancellor Rachel Reeves’ pledge of no more borrowing or tax rises following the budget.

The prime minister said he was “not going to write the next five years of budgets” at the despatch box in the House of Commons when challenged by Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch.

In a series of tetchy exchanges between the pair, Badenoch also pressed Starmer on whether he would continue with a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030.

Her question came after Vauxhall-owner Stellantis said it would close its van-making plant in Luton, putting 1,100 jobs at risk, amid what it called the “stringent” UK zero-emission vehicle mandate.

Starmer also dismissed a petition calling for a general election after Badenoch raised it and suggested he should resign.

Speaking at PMQs, the Tory leader said: “At the CBI conference on Monday, the chancellor said – and I quote – ‘I’m clear, I’m not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes’. I know that telling the truth to this house is important to the prime minister, so will he repeat his chancellor’s pledge now?”

Starmer replied: “We set out our position at the budget, which was just set out. We’re fixing the foundations. We’re dealing with the £22bn black hole that they left. I’m not going to write the next five years of budgets here at this despatch box but we said we wouldn’t hit the payslips of working people. We’ve passed the budget. We’ve invested in the future, and we’ve kept that promise.”

Badenoch claimed that Sir Keir was “not fixing any foundations, he’s making everything worse”, before adding: “The whole house would have heard him refuse to repeat the chancellor’s pledge, a pledge as worthless as the manifesto promises that he’s talking about.”

Speaking ahead of PMQs, Reeves said she had “wiped the slate clean on the economic and fiscal mismanagement of the previous government”. She told broadcasters: “We have put our public finances on a firm footing and we have properly funded our public services, and our public services now need to live within the means that we have set them for this parliament.”

Elsewhere at PMQs, Starmer defended the government’s approach to business and claimed the Tories “really haven’t got a clue what they’re doing” when it comes to policies.

Badenoch countered: “To know what Conservatives would do, he should resign and find out. Until then, I’m the one asking the questions. There’s a petition out there, two million people asking him to go.”

The Tory leader claimed deputy prime minister Angela Rayner’s employment rights legislation will “stop businesses hiring”.

Starmer, in his reply, said: “She talks about a petition, we had a massive petition on July 4 in this country. We spent years taking our party from a party of protest to a party of government, they are hurtling in the opposite direction.”

Badenoch described the response as “nonsense” and appeared to use the concerns of a biscuit company to aim a jibe at Rayner. She said: “Following his budget, the head of McVitie’s has said that it has been harder to understand what the case for investment in the UK is. So while the prime minister has been hobnobbing in Brazil, businesses have been struggling to digest his budget. Isn’t it the case that the employment rights bill shows that it is not only the ginger nut that is causing him problems?”

John Swinney has warned opposition parties to put the public first as his minority government struggles to put together sufficient support ahead of next Wednesday’s Scottish budget.

In a keynote speech in Edinburgh this morning, the first minister said:

In a parliament of minorities, no political party is a bystander in the budget process – if there is no collaboration then there is no budget bill.

The SNP leader, who is now governing as a minority after his predecessor Humza Yousaf ripped up the partnership with the Scottish Greens in April, added: “We can choose to be mired in party politics or we can choose to put first and foremost our duty to the people we represent.”

With Labour unlikely to take up Swinney’s call for collaboration, the Scottish Greens and Liberal Democrats could get the budget bill over the line. The Greens want an end to the controversial council tax freeze, which is hitting struggling councils, while the Lib Dems want a commitment to stop spending on independence – unlikely to fly with the pro-independence Greens.

Swinney told reporters afterwards that he was ready for an early election if necessary, but warned opposition leaders that blocking the budget would cause “disruption” to public services.