Starmer refuses to rule out further tax rises when challenged at PMQs to repeat what Reeves told CBI – UK politics live

PMQs Key Takeaways

• Keir Starmer refuses to rule out further tax rises when challenged by Kemi Badenoch.

• Kemi Badenoch says Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the CBI conference she would not reverse the national insurance rise, but one of her shadow ministers said the opposite.

• Starmer agrees with Chris Curtis that the government will legislate on leasehold reform.

• Daisy Cooper urges the government to let her local hospital trust build a new hospital, citing improvements in 65-week wait times despite poor staff conditions.

• Badenoch criticizes the government for making life worse and asks why business confidence is falling.

Quotes from Key Figures

• Kemi Badenoch: “If Starmer wants to see what a Conservative government would do, he should resign.”

• “The farmers were not protesting outside when the Tories last had a budget.”

• Keir Starmer: “Badenoch said herself on Monday she would not reverse the national insurance rise, while one of her shadow ministers was saying the opposite.”

• “We are not going to write the next five years of budgets. We will legislate on leasehold reform.”

Leasehold Reform and Tax Rises

• The government will legislate to reform leasehold.

Hospital Funding

• Daisy Cooper praises her local hospital trust for eliminating 65-week waits despite poor staff conditions.

• Keir Starmer says the new hospital programme inherited by Labour was a failure of the previous government.