Starmer faces Labour rebellion to scrap two-child benefit cap and freeze arm deals with Israel in Gaza – live

Former defence secretary Ben Wallace has accused Labour of “jeopardising tens of thousands of jobs” by refusing to commit to the Tempest fighter jet project. 

The new multibillion-pound fighter jet is under development for the RAF and it was unveiled at the Farnborough International Airshow.

Sir Keir Starmer said the project was “important” but did not guarantee it will materialise.

Mr Wallace, tweeted this morning: “Within weeks Labour is jeopardising tens of thousands of jobs in the UK.”

Three years ago no one thought he could win – now his critics say it won’t last, writes John Rentoul:

James Cleerly has said the Labour claim that the Rwanda scheme has cost a total of £700million of taxpayer money was “completely made up”.

It comes as Home Secretary Yvette Cooper revealed the figure during the King’s Speech debate in the House of Commons yesterday dubbing the sum the “most shocking waste of taxpayers’ money” 

Mr Cleverly told BBC Breakfast: “They are also completely made up. My advice to Yvette Cooper is if you are going to make up numbers don’t pick nice round numbers because it makes it obvious that you have plucked them out of the air.”

Asked if he believed Ms Cooper’s claims were wrong, he said: “Yes. That is exactly what I am saying. What she has got to remember is until very recently I was the home secretary so I know exactly how much this has cost.

“And when she is including the salary of civil servants who were always going to be on the payroll, she is including costs of flights which she has cancelled because she chose to scrap the scheme.

“The fact that people were being released is because the scheme is being scrapped by her government.

“So the fact is that that money that she has spoken about and the projected future cost that she has spoke about are not figures that I recognise and I had complete oversight of the costs, both the historic costs and ongoing costs, of that scheme until just a few weeks ago and those are not figures that I am familiar with.”

The Government cannot tackle the “dire inheritance” from the Tories “overnight”, Liz Kendall said when pressed on calls to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

The Work and Pensions Secretary told BBC Breakfast: “It is a political choice to prioritise driving down child poverty and driving up opportunity.

“Look, I don’t need anyone telling me about the impact that child poverty has. I’ve got a third of children in my city, in Leicester, growing up poor … but I’ve also seen people dying waiting for NHS treatment. And my council budget cut by a third, the appalling state of housing in this country, millions of people written off who need to work and who could work but have been denied support, and then blamed for the position they are in.

“We face a dire inheritance from this (Conservative) government. We can’t change it all overnight.”

Labour is “absolutely determined to make a huge difference” on tackling childhood hardship, she said.

The Labour MP for Coventry South has called the prime minister to suspend arms sales to Israel and “end Britain’s complicity in the killing” in Palestine.

Writing for The Guardian, she said: “Whenever I see the heart-wrenching aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza – a Palestinian mother cradling the lifeless body of her child; a refugee camp engulfed by fire – I ask myself the same question. Were British-made weapons used to inflict this horror?”

“Almost certainly, the answer at times is ‘yes’. Raining down hell on Gaza is Israel’s fleet of F-35 fighter jets, described by their manufacturer as the “most lethal fighter jet in the world”. Each jet is made, in part, in Britain, in a deal the Campaign Against the Arms Trade estimates to be worth £368m.

“This is just one example of Israel’s use of British-made arms in its assault on Gaza. But after almost 10 months and 38,000 Palestinians killed, to their eternal shame the Conservatives left office refusing to suspend arms sales. This responsibility now falls to Labour.”

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer has insisted an immediate ceasefire is required in Gaza, as he warned the “world will not look away” from the suffering faced by “innocent civilians” during the King’s Speech debate on Monday.

The Prime Minister made clear the UK Government’s policy includes securing the release of hostages from Gaza and a “huge” increase of humanitarian assistance, noting a ceasefire is the “only way” to achieve it.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has said the Government has to do “the sums” before considering axing the two-child benefit cap.

She told Times Radio: “We were elected on the promise that we would only make spending commitments that we know we can keep and we are facing a dire inheritance from the Tories.

“I’m not into a wink and a nudge politics. I’m not going to look constituents in the face and tell them I’m going to do something without actually having done the sums figuring out how I’m going to pay for it, figuring out how we transform opportunity for those children, not just in terms of their household income, which is essential.

“But about having sustained improvements to helping people get work and get on in work, more childcare, early years support, sorting out the dire state of people’s housing. It’s got to be part of a much bigger approach.”

Some 40% of British berry growers are at risk of going out of business by 2026 due to rising costs and squeezed supermarket prices, according to a report.

British Berry Growers (BBG), which represents more than 95% of locally-grown berries sold in the UK, found almost half of growers (47%) reported not making a profit, suggesting that 40% could go out of business by the end of 2026.

Some 37% of growers polled were considering reducing their production or moving out of berry farming entirely.

Concerns about the future of the sector came as shoppers spent a record £847.5 million on strawberries over the last 12 months.

But 89% of growers who were no longer profitable said they stopped making a profit after 2020, due largely to the rise in the cost of production, BBG said.

Costs of labour, fertilisers, packaging and transport had all increased by £836 per tonne for British strawberries in the last four years, with raspberries, blackberries and blueberries increasing by £1,911, £1,996, and £2,326 per tonne respectively.

Over half of the investment in producing a punnet of strawberries is hourly-paid labour, a cost that has increased significantly over the last four years, the study said.

But growers said they were also suffering from a lack of support from supermarkets.

Sir Keir Starmer will face pressure from MPs in the Commons, including from inside his own party, to change his position and abolish the two-child benefit cap on Tuesday.

A King’s Speech debate could end with a vote on the matter on Tuesday evening if Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle selects one of several amendments that have been tabled.

The Prime Minister has said there is “no silver bullet” to end child poverty and acknowledged the “passion” of Labour MPs considering rebelling over the continuation of the policy that affects some 1.6 million children.

The SNP has tabled an amendment, which it says is backed by Plaid Cymru, the Green Party, the SDLP, the Alliance Party, and independent MPs including Jeremy Corbyn.

SNP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn MP said: “Keir Starmer must not fail his first major test in government by refusing to scrap the cap. It is the bare minimum required to tackle child poverty – and to begin to deliver the change that people in Scotland were promised.

“Labour MPs have a choice today. They can lift children out of poverty by voting for the SNP amendment to abolish the cap – or they will push children into poverty by keeping it in place.

Kim Johnson and Rosie Duffield are among the Labour MPs who have urged Sir Keir to change tack, while Conservative Suella Braverman spoke on Monday to support scrapping the limit.

Former home secretary Ms Braverman acknowledged that her party had introduced the cap, but said it was “aggravating child poverty, and it’s time for it to go”.

She said: “Now I know about the argument ‘don’t have children if you can’t afford them’. For me that’s not compassionate. It’s not fair. It’s not the right thing to do.”