Starmer replies by highlighting what he describes as a £22bn economic black hole left by the previous government.

"Of course when it comes to mitigations and impacts we put them in place," he says of the winter fuel payment cuts.

He says tough decisions being made means an increase in pensions will "outstrip any loss of payment."

He asks Sunak to apologise for the "black hole".

Chris Mason
Political editor

Straight away, we are back into the big domestic argument of the week — the Winter Fuel Payment.

Last week Rishi Sunak ran with it as a topic. And he’s doing it again.

Tory leader Rishi Sunak begins by echoing the prime minister's best wishes for the Princess of Wales after an update on her recovery from cancer.

That done, he then kicks off PMQs by attacking Starmer on the winter fuel payment cut, and asks whether the PM will publish an impact assessment of that policy.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is on his feet and this week's Prime Minister's Questions is under way.

We're expecting to hear questions on the prisoners' early release scheme and the withdrawal of the winter fuel payment.

Stay with us and we'll keep you updated. You can follow the session live by pressing Watch live at the top of the page.

Image source, EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

It was a busy day yesterday. As well as the winter fuel payment vote, hundreds of inmates left prisons in England and Wales as part of the government's early release scheme aimed at freeing up capacity.

How many prisoners were released?

Around 1,700.

What kind of offenders?

Offenders in jails in England and Wales serving sentences of fewer than five years were released on licence into the community after having served 40% of their sentences, instead of 50%.

The government said offenders jailed for violent offences with sentences of at least four years, sex offenders and domestic abusers were not eligible for early release.

Keir Starmer may well come under pressure for the policy when PMQs starts in two minutes' time.

As we mentioned earlier, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has defended her government's position on cutting the winter fuel payment, and warns of more "difficult decisions" to come.

Watch the video above to hear what she told our economics editor Faisal Islam this morning.

As we mentioned earlier, Jon Trickett is the only Labour MP who voted against the government yesterday.

The MP for Normanton and Hemsworth served as a shadow cabinet member during Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, and has been a Member of Parliament since 1996 (he was elected in a by-election).

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he says removing the winter fuel payment will push many more into poverty. He also accuses energy companies of continuing "obscene profiteering".

"We know that the consequences of pensioner poverty are devastating. It can even be a matter of life and death."

The government, he says, should try to raise revenues from the wealthiest - rather than "working class pensioners".

"I will sleep well tonight knowing that I voted to defend my constituents," he concludes.

Will pensions increase make up for loss of winter fuel payments?published at 11:04 British Summer Time 11 September

11:04 BST 11 September

Image source, Jeff Overs/ BBC

By Gerry Georgieva and Anthony Reuben

BBC Verify has been looking at some of the claims made about the cut to winter fuel payments.

Sir Keir Starmer said this on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.

On Tuesday, the Office for National Statistics published the latest average earnings figures, external, which showed annual growth of 4%.

That is the figure that will be used to set the increase in the state pension, which means the full state pension will go up by £460 a year.

As the winter fuel payment is either £200 or £300, the prime minister is right that the increase in the state pension will generally be more than that.

But there are a couple of problems with his claim - the first of which is that the state pension will not rise until April and the £460 will be spread over the following year.

Winter fuel payments, on the other hand, are usually made in November or December.

The other problem is that the increase in the state pension is meant to help pensioners with the rising cost of living as a whole - not just coping with the loss of winter fuel payments.

A Labour rebellion - or 'nothing to see here'?published at 10:32 British Summer Time 11 September

10:32 BST 11 September

Chris Mason
Political editor

Westminster is a perpetually noisy place and so it should be - a crucible of argument and disagreement.

But it is my job to interpret those decibels - not all noise is equal - so what should we read into the fact that around 50 Labour MPs found better things to do with their time than turn up in the voting lobbies and back their party on the winter fuel payment vote?

Labour folk afterwards were very quick to point out that 50-ish absentees on their side was broadly typical in votes since the election. In other words, went the claim, nothing to see here.

They let it be known that just 12 of the 50-something had had what was described as an "unauthorised absence".

As we just reported, there can be many reasons why people don't vote - being on government or parliamentary business elsewhere, attending a hospital appointment or whatever.

The vast majority of those who didn’t vote, Labour claimed, had, as they saw it, a legitimate reason not to, rather than defying the government.

But my colleague Harry Farley has been doing some cross-checking.

He has found around 20 Labour MPs who had previously publicly opposed the policy and who did not vote for it.

Rather more than 12.

Yesterday, MPs approved the plan to cut winter fuel payments by 348 to 228 votes. You can see how your MP voted here.

In total, 52 MPs had no vote recorded, including some ministers. While some will have abstained as a political gesture, some may have been absent for other reasons.

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, for example, said she missed the vote for family reasons, although she added: "If I were able to attend in person, I would vote against these cuts."

Only one Labour MP voted against the government - Jon Trickett. We'll have more on him later. And it's worth adding that five independent MPs who were recently suspended from the Labour Party also voted against the government - John McDonnell, Apsana Begum, Richard Burgon, Ian Byrne and Zarah Sultana.

Before today's session in the Commons, Chancellor Rachel Reeves spoke to our economics editor Faisal Islam.

She accepts next month's Budget will require "difficult decisions on tax, on spending, and on welfare". But the rewards, she says, will be "economic growth, good jobs paying decent wages in all parts of our country".

When pressed about the cuts in winter fuel payments, Reeves says it wasn't a decision the government wanted to make "but in the circumstances that we faced, they were the right decisions to get our public finances back on a firmer footing".

She also pointed to the annual increase in the state pension - we'll have more on that, and if it makes up for the winter fuel payment cuts, later.

Ali Abbas Ahmadi
Live reporter

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Prime Minister's Questions, which starts at 12:00 BST.

It comes after the government won a vote in Parliament yesterday to scrap the winter fuel payment for millions of pensioners (more on that to come).

This is only Starmer's third PMQs since he became prime minister in July - although he has faced his opposite number, Rishi Sunak, several times when their roles were reversed.

Stay with us for all the breaking news, analysis, and clips - and remember you can watch PMQs live from 12:00 at the top of the page.