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Sunak confirms MPs will vote on his proposed NI protocol deal
Starmer tells Tory MPs they are cheering Sunak pulling the wool over their eyes. Will Sunak confirm that MPs will get a vote on the final deal.
Sunak says of course the Commons will express its view.
That appears to a confirmation that there will be a vote of some kind.
Key events
Jereme Mayhew (Con) asks about a hospital in his Broadland constituency.
Sunak says the hospital has already had money to address its immediate problems.
Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, says wholesale gas prices have fallen by 75% from their peak. So why are gas bills going up?
Sunak says the government is spending tens of billions providing MPs with help with their energy bills. He quotes an SNP figure saying, if the SNP were a pizza company, their products would be “slow, wrong and costly”.
Flynn says the fall in wholesale energy prices has given the government a windfall of £15bn. He says bills should be reduced, not increased.
Sunak says households are saving £900 from the energy price guarantee.
Starmer says Labour will support the government in any vote.
Sunak says Starmer is due to announce five missions tomorrow. The fifth one will be Starmer confirming he has the right to change his mind, he says.
Sunak confirms MPs will vote on his proposed NI protocol deal
Starmer tells Tory MPs they are cheering Sunak pulling the wool over their eyes. Will Sunak confirm that MPs will get a vote on the final deal.
Sunak says of course the Commons will express its view.
That appears to a confirmation that there will be a vote of some kind.
Starmer asks Sunak to confirm that, if he gets a deal with the EU, he will pull the Northern Ireland protocol bill.
Sunak refuses to answer, and attacks Starmer’s record on Brexit.
Sunak accuses Starmer of backing ‘surrender’ to EU
Starmer accuses Sunak of not being open about what is planned.
Sunak says the deal is still not finalised. He says Starmer is following his usual strategy of giving the EU what it wants. That is “surrender”, he says.
Sunak refuses to say Northern Ireland would still have to follow some EU law under his proposed deal
Starmer says Boris Johnson told businesses there would be no checks or barriers of any kind. That was “nonsense” and damaged trust. Will the deal Sunak is seeking involve Northern Ireland having to follow some EU law?
Sunak says Starmer is jumping ahead. They are still in discussion, he says. His deal must respect sovereignty for Northern Ireland.
Keir Starmer backs what Sunak said about Ukraine, and says he saw the courage of the Ukrainains for himself on his visit last week.
Labour is proud to be the part of the Good Friday agreement. Does the PM agree the protocol has been badly implemented, and unnecessary checks on goods must be removed.
Sunak says he is a Conservative, a Brexiter and a unionist. Any deal must tick all three boxes.
Andrew Selous (Con) says his constituents were upset when bookings for weddings and other family events were cancelled because the hotel was booked for asylum seekers.
Sunak says the government is trying to find alternative sites for asylum seekers.
Andrew Western (Lab) asks Sunak to commit to ensuring every domestic complaint to the police receives a response.
Sunak says just this week a package of measures on domestic abuse was announced.
Rishi Sunak starts by saying he is delighted a delegation from Kyiv is in the gallery to watch.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, says live subtitles are now available for PMQs on the parliament channel.
From the i’s Paul Waugh
Two notable backbench arrivals ahead of #PMQs.
1.Nadhim Zahawi is here, first PMQs since his resignation re tax affairs.
2. Theresa May resplendent in blue and yellow outfit, in support of Ukraine 🇺🇦 1 yr on from invasion.— Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) February 22, 2023
PMQs is starting soon.
Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.
Humza Yousaf, favourite in SNP leadership contest, confirms his personal support for equal marriage
Humza Yousaf, the Scottish health secretary and favourite in the contest to be next SNP leader, was grilled on his views on equal marriage and gay sex in an interview on the Today programme this morning.
Amol Rajan, the presenter, said Yousaf has said he will not use his Islamic faith as a basis of for legislation. But he said that people were also entitled to know what Yousaf’s personal views were. Did he think gay marriage was wrong? Yousaf replied:
No, I don’t. As first minister, I think it’s so important that people are upfront and honest about their positions, and I know my opponent [Kate Forbes] has had a difficult time. But in fairness she has been open about her position. I’ll be open about mine too.
That’s why I supported equal marriage at the time. What scripture says or faith says, is not something that one individual is going to be able to change, or one politician is going to be able to change. What we can demonstrate through that actions is what we believe …
As leader of a country, you’ve got to espouse a vision that says everybody should be included, that diversity should be celebrated, that we are going on a progressive journey together. That’s what the first minister, Nicola Sturgoen, has been doing, and that’s the legacy I’d hope to be able to continue.
Rajan then asked if Yousaf approved of gay sex. (Questions about gay sex in particular, not gay marriage, caused a problem for Tim Farron, an evangelical Christian, when he was Lib Dem leader in the 2015 election campaign.) Asked if he thought gay sex was sinful, Yousaf said: “No.”
John Swinney, Scotland’s deputy first minister, has said he “profoundly” disagrees with the views of Kate Forbes, the SNP leadership contender who is personally opposed to equal marriage and having children outside marriage on the basis of her faith.
Swinney told the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme this morning:
I think the thing for me that I would want to say at this stage is all of the debate that has been aired about Kate Forbes’s position for me has got absolutely nothing to do with Kate’s faith.
I am a man of deep Christian faith, but I don’t hold the same views that Kate has set out in the course of the last couple of days.
I think it has been unhelpful that the debate has been focused on the question of faith, because in my view it has got nothing to do with faith.
The Church of Scotland undertakes same-sex marriage, and I warmly congratulate and compliment the Church of Scotland on getting carefully to that position over some years.
Swinney said that Forbes was “perfectly entitled to express her views” but that SNP members were also “equally entitled to decide if someone who holds those views will be an appropriate individual to be SNP leader and first minister”.
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