Braverman ‘made an error of judgment’, says SunakStarmer asks Sunak if Suella Braverman was right to resign last week for breach of security. Sunak replies:
The home secretary made an error of judgment but she recognised that she raised the matter and she accepted her mistake.
Braverman will be focused on “cracking down on criminals, on defending our borders”, he adds.
Key events
The Green Party MP Caroline Lucas asks if Sunak will reverse the green light Liz Truss gave to fracking.
The PM says he is proud that his government passed the landmark environmental act for the natural environment and that he is committed to delivering on all those ambitions.
Sunak says:
We will deliver on what we said at Cop because we care deeply about passing our children and environment in a better state than we found it ourselves.
Blackford says Sunak only appointed Suella Braverman to the Home Office because of a “sleazy backroom deal” to shore up his own position. He describes the move as “a return to the sleazy and scandal and ghosts of Cabinets”.
He asks the PM if he will admit his mistakes and sack Braverman for her data breach.
In response, Sunak says he was pleased to have spoken with Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon last night and that he wishes to work constructively with the Scottish government.
Sunak refuses to commit to raising benefits in line with inflationThe SNP leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, congratulates Sunak on becoming the first British Asian prime minister. The symbolism of this achievement is to be “warmly welcomed” by everyone, he says.
He asks Sunak if he will reassure people and guarantee that benefits will rise in line with inflation in his upcoming budget.
Sunak does not answer the question directly, but says he has “always acted in a way to protect the most vulnerable”.
He adds that he will “continue to act like that in the weeks ahead”, but does not commit to a rise.
Sunak says:
I always acted in a way to protect the most vulnerable that’s because it is the right thing to do and those are the values of our compassionate party.
I can absolutely reassure him and give him that commitment that we will continue to act like that in the weeks ahead.
Sunak says he is the first to admit that mistakes were made. He says the difference between him and the Labour leader is that he was honest over the summer about the difficulties the country faced, but Starmer was not.
He says:
He promised his party he would borrow billions and billions of pounds, he told his party what it wanted to hear. Leadership is not selling fairy tales, it is confronting challenges and that is what the public will get from this government.
Starmer uses his final question to call for a general election. He points out that Sunak was beaten in the summer leadership contest by Liz Truss – who herself was “beaten by a lettuce”.
He says:
He claims he wants to level up the north but then he posts about trying to funnel vital investment away from deprived areas.
Starmer adds:
He’s not on the side of working people. That’s why the only time he ran in a competitive election he got trounced by the former prime minister who herself got beaten by a lettuce.
Starmer says Sunak “pretends he’s on the side of working people”. In private, he says something “very different”, the Labour leader says.
He goes on to talk about the video which emerged in the summer of Sunak in Tunbridge Wells saying he diverted public money from “deprived urban areas”.
Starmer asks:
Rather than apologise or pretend he meant something else, why doesn’t he do the right thing and undo the changes he made to those funding formulas?
Sunak responds by saying that Starmer “rarely leaves north London”. He adds:
If he does, he will know that there are deprived areas in our rural communities, in our coastal communities, and across the south.
Starmer goes on to attack Sunak on non-dom statuses, saying the government “allows very rich people to live here but register abroad for tax purposes”. He says:
I don’t need to explain to the prime minister how non-dom status works – he already knows all about that.
He calls for the PM to get rid of such statuses, adding:
Why doesn’t he put his money where his mouth is?
In response, Sunak says he will “have to take difficult decisions to restore economic stability” – and says more will be revealed in the autumn statement.
He says the goverment will always protect the most vulnerable, as it did in Covid.
Starmer says Sunak has “done a grubby deal” trading national security because he was scared to lose another leadership election.
There may be a new Tory at the top but with Tories, it’s always “party first, country second”, Starmer says.
Sunak responds to Starmer’s assertion and suggests perhaps the Labour leader should explain why a few years ago he was supporting the member of Islington North, a reference to Jeremy Corbyn.
Sunak replies he has already addressed the issue of the home secretary’s reappointment.
Sunak says he hopes Starmer will welcome the news today that there are “over 15,000 new police officers” on our streets and that the home secretary will support them to tackle burglaries.
Meanwhile, he says, Labour “will be backing the lunatic protesting fringe that are stopping working people carrying on with their lives”.
Starmer points out that Sunak pledged integrity, professionalism and accountability in his statement outside Downing Street yesterday. He says:
But then, with his first act, he appointed a home secretary who was sacked by his predecessor a week ago for deliberately pinging around sensitive Home Office documents from her personal account.
Starmer goes on to say that his experience running the Crown Prosecution Service means he knows firsthand how important it is to have a home secretary “whose integrity and professionalism are beyond question”.
He asks if officials have raised concerns about his decision to appoint Braverman.
Braverman ‘made an error of judgment’, says SunakStarmer asks Sunak if Suella Braverman was right to resign last week for breach of security. Sunak replies:
The home secretary made an error of judgment but she recognised that she raised the matter and she accepted her mistake.
Braverman will be focused on “cracking down on criminals, on defending our borders”, he adds.