Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer clash over immigration centre scandal at PMQs – UK politics live

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From my colleague Aubrey Allegretti

Sunak shelves all his pledges from summer Tory leadership contest, saying he needs to see if they are still ‘deliverable’

Earlier Bloomberg’s Alex Wickham said that Rishi Sunak had already abandoned two of the promises he made during the summer Tory leadership contest. (See 10.48am.) Wickham missed a third U-turn – abandoning the plan to charge people for missing an appointment with a GP. The summer campaign was the one Sunak lost. During the recent contest, which Sunak won unopposed, Sunak did not make any promises at all.

At the post-PMQs briefing, the PM’s press secretary said all the summer campaign pledges from Sunak have now been shelved. This is from my colleague Pippa Crerar.

The press secretary said:

We are looking at all the campaign pledges and we are looking at whether it is the right time to take them forward.

We need to take some time to make sure what is deliverable and what is possible, and engaging with stakeholders and with the relevant secretaries of state as well.

Obviously, those are pledges that were made a few months ago now and the context is somewhat different, obviously, economically. We need to look again.

She was speaking in response to questions about other promises Sunak made during the summer – embarrassingly – included a pledge saying he was committed to “ending the hotel farce … ending the use of hotels to house migrants by delivering thousands of new beds”. At PMQs today Starmer at one point was telling MPs proudly that the government had procured “more hotels, with 4,500 new beds” to house asylum seekers.

PMQs – snap verdict

How do you decide who won PMQs? There is no straightforward, a vast array of subjective judgments and assessments come into play, and whatever you write, someone is bound to disagree – but (for the last year or so, at least) there is one failsafe rule that applies; if the Tory PM has to start banging on about Keir Starmer supporting Jeremy Corbyn, then they haven’t won.

That is not to say that some of the things that Starmer said about Corbyn before the 2019 general election are not of some embarrassment to him. It is just that this is such an ancient and feeble attack line that it’s emergence at PMQs is a sure sign that the Tory leader can’t have won, because they did not have anything better to say. Sunak lost because all six questions were on immigration, and he could not defend his party’s record.

But it was worse than that. By my count, Starmer won 6-0, in that, in every exchange, he had the edge. Others might have scored a couple of the exchanges as draws, but in general terms Starmer was clearly dominant. And that is partly because he varied his approach, deploying almost all the PMQs tricks that make a question successful.

He started something very short and direct.

His home secretary says the asylum system is broken. Who broke it?

Then we got what looked like a question, but something that was actually a crisp soundbite neatly summing up his case.

If the asylum system is broken, and his lot have been in power for 12 years, how can it be anyone’s fault but theirs?

Starmer also tried a relatively obscure factual question, that Sunak was unlikely to be able to answer: how many asylum claims from last year have been processed? As is customary, Starmer provided the answer himself.

Four per cent of people arriving in small boats last year had their asylum claim processed. According to the bookies, the home secretary has a better chance of becoming the next Tory leader of processing an asylum claim in a year.

And then Starmer tried an alternative version of the unanswerable question – not on involving an obscure statistic, but one that Sunak had to avoid because the answer would have been incriminating: did Suella Braverman ignore legal advice about moving people out of Manston?

Sunak had his moments. He criticised Labour for not being able to say whether it wanted more or less immigration, and he claimed Starmer did not have his own plan for dealing with the small boat Channel crossings.

Not only does the party opposite not have a plan, they have opposed every single measure we have taken to solve the problem, you can’t attack a plan if you don’t have a plan.

Labour does have a plan – or, at least, enough of a plan to make the Tory claim that it is just in favour of an open border implausible. But, even if they didn’t, Sunak is wrong, because you can attack a plan even if you don’t have your own. Today the Tory record was demolished.

Updated at 09.29 EDT

Sarah Jones (Lab) says criminal gangs have a business model to die for because the government has failed to return so many people seeking asylum.

Sunak says Labour has opposed every measure the government has proposed on this.

Updated at 09.29 EDT

Sir Robert Buckland (Con) says only two out of 10 autistic adults are in employment. Will Sunak work to close that gap?

Sunak says he looks forward to seeing Buckland’s recommendations on this.

Updated at 08.39 EDT

Barry Sheerman (Lab) says Sunak did not help ordinary working people as well as he could when he was chancellor. Will he tax the 70,000 non-doms and bring in a windfall tax on energy companies.

Sunak claims 10 million people had their jobs saved through his furlough policy.

Anthony Mangnall (Con) asks a question that links the free trade deal with Australia to Matt Hancock being on I’m a Celebrity.

Sunak ignores the Hancock angle, and talks about the importance of free trade deals.

Taiwo Owatemi (Lab) says staff at Coventry hospital are paying £600 a year to park.

Sunak says the government introduced temporary free parking in the pandemic. All NHS trusts that charge for parking have introduced policies to help staff in need, including those working overnight.

Updated at 08.39 EDT

Vicky Ford (Con) says she is glad Sunak is going to Cop27. Will the government keep the promises it made in Glasgow.

Sunak says there is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change.

Chris Bryant (Lab) is jeered as he rises by Tories who want him to apologise for saying that MPs were bullied into voting for the government during the fracking division. Bryant says he will not be silenced. He asks why the economy is broken.

Sunak says Bryant did not mention Covid and the war in Ukraine, which he says are the root causes of the challenge the UK is facing.

Updated at 08.42 EDT

Simon Hoare (Con) asks for more support for GPs and dentists working in rural areas.

Sunak says he and Hoare (who both represent rural constituencies) know their constituents feel this acutely.

Tommy Sheppard (SNP) asks if the government is still committed to prosecuting those who commit war crimes in Ukraine.

Sunak says he is still committed to this.

Julian Lewis (Con) asks if the autumn statement will help those at risk of losing their homes.

Sunak says the government wants to keep interest rates down. And other support for homeowners is available.

Deidre Brock (SNP) asks Sunak to condemn shadowy thinktanks that exert influence on gullible politicians. They almost crashed the economy. She says the Institute of Economic Affairs should lose its charitable status.

Sunak says he believes in vibrant debate. That is a good thing, even when he disagrees with it, he says.

Updated at 08.42 EDT

Jamie Stone (Lib Dem) asks about a constituent missing out on energy bills support because of the way her universal credit payments are paid.

Sunak says discretionary funding is available specifically to help in cases like this.

Scott Benton (Con) says millions of people are furious with the situation with asylum seekers. He asks when Sunak will provide firm action on this.

Sunak says this is a priority for him. The government will defend the borders, he says.

Neale Hanvey (Alba) asks if Scotland is in a union of equals, or is it a hostage in a territorial British colony.

Sunak says people want to see the UK and Scottish governments working together.

Gagan Mohindra (Con) asks about progress on gigabyte broadband.

Sunak says broadband provides levelling up opportunities. He says 71% of premises now have access.

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader at Westminster, says in May Sunak promised benefits next year would be uprated in line with inflation, and that the triple lock would apply. But now he is not committing to that. Will he keep his promise?

Sunak says we now have an excellent new chancellor. He will make his autumn statement. He says the government will always put fairness and compassion at the heart of everything.

Blackford says Sunak is still not giving a straight answer. It is a “Tory political choice” to penalise the poor. He says the government should impose a windfall tax on energy firms, and scrap non-dom status. Why won’t he commit to raising benefits in line with inflation?

Sunak says as chancellor he put a levy on North Sea oil producers.