Gabriela Pomeroy
Live reporter

It was an energetic exchange, with one of the key issues being the closure of the Stellantis-owned van-making factory in Luton.

The back and forth reflected the growing debate on concerns over the government's electric vehicles targets.

This week's PMQs was clash of character and politics as Kemi Badenoch challenged Starmer on whether the government would raise taxes again, accusing the government of pursuing policies that would stop companies hiring.

She also reiterated her view that Rachel Reeves's Budget was an attack on the young, the old and thousands of businesses.

In return, Starmer accused the opposition of having "nothing to offer except complaints", adding that they have not said they'll reverse his plans for an increase in national insurance for employers.

We'll now be ending our coverage of this week's Prime Minister's Questions session. Thank you for sticking with us - we'll see you next week.

Image source, UK Parliament

This week's Prime Minister's Questions has concluded, and was followed by a statement on Stellantis's decision to close their Vauxhall plant in Luton.

Here's a quick summary of what we heard in the Commons today:

• Kemi Badenoch and Keir Starmer clashed multiple times over the recent Budget. Starmer said the government has "invested in the future" but the leader of the opposition suggested to the chamber that business confidence has fallen
• Quizzed on the news yesterday that Vauxhall will close their plant in Luton, Starmer acknowledged the area was in a "serious" position
• Leader of the Lib Dems Ed Davey asked for commitments surrounding end of life care - regardless of the outcome of Friday's vote on the assisted dying bill. Starmer agreed the government must "invest properly" in care across the health service
• Pressed on U-turning on the winter fuel allowance, Starmer told Davey he "knows very well" the stance, adding that the "long term way" to deal with this will be clean power by 2030
• Starmer underlined his commitment to continue the current position with regards to "sale of capability" to Israel in order that it can defend itself
• Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds says the government is "bitterly disappointed" by Stellantis's decision but notes the company will continue to invest in the UK

Did Labour secure a record amount of overseas investment?published at 13:43 Greenwich Mean Time

13:43 GMT

By Gerry Georgieva

Earlier in Prime Minister’s Questions, Keir Starmer claimed "we had record investment from overseas" and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch responded saying that this investment was negotiated by the previous government.

They were talking about the £63bn of secured investments, external announced at Labour’s International Investment Summit in October.

The total announced was larger than the figure for the previous year’s summit but it is hard to put an exact figure on the amount of investment Labour can take credit for.

That is because some investments may have happened regardless of who was in power and some of the projects listed were being planned when the Conservatives were still in power, such as Blackstone’s £10bn investment and Holtec’s planned factory.

There was a lot of mention of the Vauxhall van-making factory in Luton that yesterday announced it was shutting down.

The firm said it made the choice partly because of rules imposed by the government to speed up the transition to electric vehicles (EV) in the UK.

It's part of a growing row between the government and the industry over the targets which firms say are too high for current EV demand.

Today, Ford UK called on the government to introduce incentives to encourage drivers to buy EVs, as a mandate without demand "just doesn't work".

The company is also cutting jobs partly due to EV targets.

The government has said it will launch a consultation on the targets but remains "absolutely committed" to a deadline to phase-out sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030.

The current targets were introduced by the previous Conservative government.

The business secretary continues his statement on Stallantis, saying that the decision "categorically" doesn't mean the company is going to end its work in the UK.

The company is planning to spend £50m to consolidate manufacturing at the Ellesmere Port plant, he says - which is the UK's first all-electric vehicle plant.

He says the government will work with the company on next steps - including offering affected workers in Luton a relocation package to take up jobs in Ellesmere Port.

He says there are real opportunities for UK manufacturing as part of the move to electric vehicles - and the government is determined to help car companies as they revamp and move to making electric vehicles.

Jonathan Reynolds says the government has been in "intense negotiations" with Vauxhall-owner Stallantis to try and stop the Luton plant closing. But the firm has decided to merge operations into its other UK plant in Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.

Reynolds acknowledges that Vauxhall has been considered "synonymous" with Luton, and they're "bitterly disappointed" the relationship looks set to end.

He says the people of Luton are the "number one priority" adding that news like this "rips through the heart of communities".

The government has asked the company to "urgently share their full plans with us" and to work with them to ensure "every single worker" that is impacted with receive the support they "deserve".

"We've done everything we possibly can to stop this happening," Reynolds says.

Image source, UK Parliament

While most MPs have cleared out of the Commons after PMQs, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has stuck around to make a statement on Stallantis' announcemnet about its van-making factory in Luton.

The company - which owns Vauxhall - yesterday announced plans to close the factory, putting about 1,100 jobs at risk. Rules imposed to speed up the transition to electric vehicles (EV) in the UK partly drove the decision, the firm said.

Reynolds says yesterday was a "dark day for Luton", and describes the plant as "iconic", and powered by a talented workforce.

Could taxes go up again?published at 12:56 Greenwich Mean Time

12:56 GMT

By Anthony Reuben

Kemi Badenoch asked Keir Starmer if he would repeat his chancellor’s comment about not raising taxes.

The prime minister replied that he was "not going to write the next five years of Budgets here at this dispatch box”.

On Monday, Rachel Reeves told a conference of business leaders she is "not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes".

Reeves announced a near-£70bn increase in public spending in her first Budget last month, of which more than half will come from higher taxes.

Independent economic think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that public spending planned, external for the future looked "implausibly low" because it would still require real-terms cuts to spending by some departments after 2025-26.

The IFS said that if , externalthe chancellor was lucky, that would come from better-than-expected growth.

But "if she is unlucky, expect her to come back with more tax increases," its director Paul Johnson said.

Starmer v Badenoch: A clash of character and politicspublished at 12:52 Greenwich Mean Time

12:52 GMT

Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent

Well that confrontation certainly had energy behind it.

Sitting in the press gallery looking down on the Commons benches as the PM and the Conservative leader both launched into their exchanges, there was a definite sense that there are real divisions between the two, a clash of character and politics.

Kemi Badenoch tried to marshal her attacks around the issues of taxes and the impact of the government’s policies on businesses, farmers, pensioners, the young. There’s certainly fertile ground for the Conservatives there.

The difficulty for the opposition leader is she has yet to commit to policies of her own yet as they are still being formulated. Something Sir Keir happily pointed out.

And then there’s the Conservatives own record in office. When she attacked on the subject of job losses at Vauxhall, the PM responded she was the business secretary until just a short time ago.

When Badenoch said the UK seemed "broken" Starmer replied "I think she has just read out the charge sheet against the last government".

When she suggested the PM should resign, Starmer was able to say there had just been a test of opinion in July.

The observation from the seats up here is it’s a tough job being the new leader of the opposition, and even more so soon after your party has suffered such a major electoral loss.

One of the final questions came from Charlie Maynard from the Lib Dems, who asked about the UK's relationship with the EU - and whether the UK will keep alignment with EU standards when needed and diverge when it's in the UK's best interests.

Starmer said the deal under the last government "is not the best that we can get" and that's why "we are determined to reset the relationship".

He reiterated, however, there will be no return to freedom of movement and the customs union, or the single market.

Alex Brewer, Lib Dem MP for North East Hampshire, said GPs in her constituency are facing increased national insurance employers' contributions, and this is leading to reduced hours and more cuts coming.

Which services should they cut to pay the bills, Brewer asked. The government has faced criticism over GP surgeries being eligible to pay the increase in NI contributions for employers.

Starmer replied and focused on the wider issue of NHS funding, saying the health service was "broken by the last government".

He added that in the Budget, the government is providing another £22bn in funding for the NHS, and they will work with GPs and consult on the services they provide and the money they're entitled to.

Back to some of the questions towards the end - and Derby North Labour MP Catherine Atkinson asked about the decline of local shops across the country.

She blamed it on 14 years of Conservative government - prompting jeers from the Tory benches.

"They can chunter all they like, she's describing their legacy," Starmer said.

"We're supporting small businesses... we're rebuilding our country as they go backwards", he added.

And that marks the end of today's PMQs, lively as usual, as the MPs begin filing out of the House of Commons.

We'll continue wrapping up some of the key questions towards the end.

Starmer is now asked by SNP MP Brendan O'Hara about the UK supplying Israel with weapons.

O'Hara says supplying weapons is now "completely untenable" in light of the International Criminal Court issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.

Starmer responds that he has set out his position under the current law "in relation to the sale of capability to Israel to defend itself against attacks such as those from Iran".

"I'm very clear that we'll continue to do so," he says.

Manuela Perteghella, from the Liberal Democrats representing Statford-on-Avon, is now asking about knife crime.

She notes next month marks two years since the killing of Cody Fisher, a footballer who was stabbed in a Birmingham nightclub.

Perteghella is asking where the government is at on introducing legislation requiring venues to have metal detectors and bleed kits, to protect young people from knife crime.

Starmer says the government is taking measures to address the issue, including banning the sale of online knives, taking young people out of offending and introducing "real penalties".

The SNP's Stephen Flynn says we are in the middle of anti-scam awareness week - and cites the advice that if you see a scam you should report it.

"So with that in mind," he asks to some laughs in the chamber, can the PM advise if he's "aware of anyone who's promised to reduce energy bills, only for them to increase?"

Or perhaps anyone who promised to "back businesses only to tax business," or anyone who promised to "protect pensioners only to pick their pockets for the winter fuel allowance?"

The Speaker then interjects to tell the people in the gallery not to clap or interrupt.

Starmer replies that he can point to a government in Scotland that promised to go forward but takes people backwards. "I can identify the first one [scam] - it's right there," Starmer says, pointing to Flynn.

Ed Davey is up again. He now brings up the cost-of-living crisis and says people are worried about their bills.

He asks with energy bills going up again, will Starmer reconsider and restore winter fuel payments? The government has recently changed the rules, meaning more than 10 million pensioners are no longer eligible.

Starmer replies: "The long term way to deal with this is clean power by 2030," which will drive energy bills down.

On the winter fuel allowance, he says Davey "knows very well" what the government position is.

PMQs has just touched on the assisted dying bill. On Friday, MPs have the first opportunity to debate and vote on a proposed law which would give terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to choose to end their life.

The government is impartial on the issue and MPs have been given a free vote, meaning they can follow their conscience rather than party orders.

For more on the bill and how the vote will work we have this explainer, while the BBC's medical editor Fergus Walsh has taken a look at how assisted dying works in other countries.

Image source, UK Parliament

Now time for Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey, who asks about end-of-life care, citing the case of a woman called Christine whose father was told he needed end of life care but which was removed due to funding cuts.

He was told that he wouldn't get end-of-life care and died in "excruciating pain", Davey says.

Davey asks Starmer for a number of commitments including improving access to "high quality" end-of-life care and protecting hospices from the national insurance rise.

Starmer responds that whatever way the vote goes on Friday they must "invest properly" in care across the health service.