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Further delay to Rwanda bill’s passage as Lords vote through amendments – as it happened

Move follows vote in Commons where MPs voted down four amendments inserted by Lords yesterday

 Updated 
Wed 17 Apr 2024 15.17 EDTFirst published on Wed 17 Apr 2024 04.55 EDT
Key events
A protest against Rwanda deportations in March
A protest against Rwanda deportations in March Photograph: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock
A protest against Rwanda deportations in March Photograph: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock

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Key events

Dame Andrea Jenkins (Con) asks about Angela Rayner.

Sunak says Starmer should show some leadership and insist on reading the legal advice Rayner says he has had clearing her conduct over the sale of her home. He goes on:

It says a lot about his priorities, when it comes to his legal expertise, he’s more than happy to help Hizb ut-Tahrir but refuses to help his own deputy leader.

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Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, asks if Sunak agrees with Gordon Brown, who said in an FT interview this week that forces tearing the country apart were stronger than those holding it together.

Sunak says he agrees with Brown about Scottish independence being a bad idea.

Flynn asks if Sunak welcomes the support from Labour in refusing Scotland a say on its future.

Sunak says the SNP should stop trying to lock up JK Rowling and and focus on doing what the Scottish people want.

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Starmer says Sunak has missed two opportunities to rule out cutting pensions, or putting up taxes, to fund the abolition of national insurance.

Sunak says Starmer is just sniping from the sidelines. He says pensions are going up, childcare is being expanded, and inflation is down.

Starmer asks again how Labour would fund its plan to get rid of national insurance.

Sunak claims Labour has taken on a new adviser who thinks supporting pensioners is a disgrace.

Sunak is referring to Edward Troup – a former adviser to the Conservative party.

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Starmer says that, to abolish national insurance, the Tories would have to cut pensions or put up taxes. Which is it?

Sunak says Starmer told the Sun recently he would “put up taxes”.

He is quoting Starmer very selectively. Starmer was talking about putting up taxes in the limited areas already made public, like VAT on school fees.

Starmer asks how the Tories would fund their £46bn plan to get rid of national insurance.

Sunak says when he was running for leader, he said he disagreed with Liz Truss. But Starmer tried to make Jeremy Corbyn PM despite Corbyn’s lack of support for Nato, and the antisemitism in the party.

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Starmer dismisses Tory attack on Rayner as 'billionaire PM smearing working-class woman'

Starmer says the Tories have been smearing a working-class woman.

He says Truss blames everyone, including the “poor old lettuce”, who she claims was part of the deep state.

It is not clear if Starmer is quoting the book, or the Daily Star splash.

Daily Star knocking it out the park again… pic.twitter.com/DyCIufGSkc

— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) April 17, 2024

Sunak says people would pay more tax under Labour.

UPDATE: Starmer said:

You’ve got a billionaire prime minister … whose family has used schemes to avoid millions of pounds’ worth of tax, smearing a working-class woman.

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Keir Starmer also welcomes the post office operators. And he says it is 35 years since the Hillsborough disaster. There must be a Hillsborough law, he says.

He says he has a copy of Liz Truss’s book. “It’s a rare unsigned copy.” She claims her kamikaze budget was “the happiest moment” of her premiership. Has Sunak met anyone with a mortgage who agrees?

Sunak says Starmer should spend less time reading that book, and more time reading Angela Rayner’s tax advice.

Tory MPs are cheering as if Sunak were Churchill.

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Selaine Saxby (Con) asks about bus services in her North Devon constituency. She blames the Lib Dem council for not reopening a bus station.

Sunak says the government is giving Devon £17m for bus services. He has a pop at the Lib Dems too.

Rishi Sunak starts by saying there are post office operators in the gallery watching. It has been one of the country’s biggest legal scandals, he says.

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More on this story

More on this story

  • Home Office has lost contact with thousands of potential Rwanda deportees, data shows

  • Interviews, a history lesson and football: what awaits people sent to Rwanda by UK?

  • Sunak: rise in asylum seekers in Ireland proves Rwanda plan ‘having impact’

  • ‘England is hope’: some say they will try again – despite Channel deaths

  • Humanitarian groups demand safe routes to UK after five deaths in Channel

  • Stumbling blocks that could still impede Rwanda deportations

  • Sunak ‘confident’ civil service will enact Rwanda bill despite legal concerns

  • The tortuous journey of the UK government’s Rwanda plan

  • Minister urges MPs and peers to back Rwanda bill as likely final day of debate begins

  • Struggling to control his anger, Tetchy Rishi went full on aggressive-aggressive

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