Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to face MPs today in the first Prime Minister’s Questions since last week’s Budget, with the session expected to focus on controversies surrounding the government’s fiscal plans.
PMQs begins while Starmer departed Downing Street moments ago for Parliament, where festive decorations now line the entrance.
Starmer is likely to defend Chancellor Rachel Reeves following sustained Conservative accusations that she misled the public about the true state of the nation’s finances.
The opposition claims Reeves painted an unnecessarily bleak picture as a smokescreen to justify tax rises in the Budget, which included scrapping the two-child benefit cap and extending the freeze on income tax thresholds.
Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has been the most vocal critic, repeatedly calling for Reeves to resign. She argues that the chancellor’s pre-Budget warnings contradicted the Office for Budget Responsibility’s assessments.
Recall, Badenoch dismissed Reeves’s explanations and criticised the emergency press conference she held ahead of the Budget, insisting the OBR had told her “the complete opposite” of what she publicly claimed.
Meanwhile, Downing Street and the OBR have rejected suggestions of wrongdoing.
Starmer may also face questions about warnings linked to an upcoming China-related spy trial.
