Ben Hatton
Live reporter

Image source, UK Parliament

Kemi Badenoch took centre stage in her first PMQs as leader of the opposition, leading with criticism of past Labour rhetoric on Trump.

Her first outing was somewhat overshadowed by the results of the US presidential election coming through in the hours before – both main party leaders congratulated Trump on his victory.

Having taken over as leader of the Conservative Party at the weekend, Badenoch vowed "constructive opposition".

After highlighting past criticism of Trump from senior Labour figures, she challenged her opposition to be "more than student politicians" and invite Trump to address Parliament.

Starmer said it was Badenoch who was engaging in student politics, and added it was crucial to have a strong relationship with the US, saying he looked forward to working with Trump – he didn't answer on the invite, though.

That's it from us for another week. You can find a recap of the main points below in our previous post, and if you want to see the full leaders' exchanges, we've clipped them up for you here.

Image source, UK Parliament

It's day four of Kemi Badenoch's new role and her first PMQs as leader of the opposition, here's what happened:

• Starmer was pressed on the decision to cut winter fuel payments for almost all pensioners. He said the government had to make "tough decisions" and pensioners will be better off because of the commitment to the triple-lock. As our Verify colleagues point out though, it's not quite right to say
• Badenoch asked Starmer to apologise for comments made by Foreign Secretary David Lammy in 2017, when he called Trump a "neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath"
• The Tory leader asked Starmer if he'll commit to a 2.5% defence spending target. Starmer said yes. Badenoch claimed defence wasn't even mentioned in the Budget - something which isn't correct, as Verify explain
• Starmer was pressed on what Badenoch calls a "cruel family-farms tax" - aka the £1m inheritance tax relief cap. He said most farmers won't be affected by the change
• Trump came up again, withLib Dems leader Ed Davey asking Starmer if he'll try and change Donald Trump's mind on Ukraine and Nato. Starmer said MPs were "united" with Ukraine and he's looking forward to working with Trump

How many farms will be affected by Budget tax rises?published at 13:49 Greenwich Mean Time 6 November

13:49 GMT 6 November

By Tamara Kovacevic

Earlier on Kemi Badenoch said the Tories would “reverse the cruel farmers tax”.

She was talking about the changes to inheritance tax for farms announced in the Budget. From April 2026, those worth more than £1m, which were previously exempt, will have to pay inheritance tax at 20% - half the usual rate.

Starmer replied that the “vast majority” of farms will not be affected.

Over the past week, we've seen a range of claims about how many farms will be affected.

The largest estimate - 70,000 - relates to the total number that could ever be affected.

But the number of farms which will be impacted each year is likely to be much lower, based on the latest data from the HM Revenue and Customs, external (HMRC).

In 2021-22, a total of 462 inherited farms were valued above £1m. For more on this, the BBC's Verify team have this full story.

Badenoch's assured performance goes down well with Tory MPspublished at 13:27 Greenwich Mean Time 6 November

13:27 GMT 6 November

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the Commons

Keir Starmer may not have answered the new leader of the opposition’s questions but he seemed untroubled by Kemi Badenoch’s attacks.

Labour MPs roared with forced laughter when Badenoch criticised the PM for giving scripted answers - when she began to read out her next question.

There were also plenty of planted questions from Labour MPs - on maternity pay and the minimum wage among other things - to give the PM a free hit at Badenoch.

But it was an assured debut for the new Tory leader, which went down well with her own MPs.

Will pensioners be better off?published at 13:15 Greenwich Mean Time 6 November

13:15 GMT 6 November

By Anthony Reuben

Asked a question about new restrictions to the winter fuel payment, Keir Starmer said that this was part of his government’s measures to stabilise the economy.

He said that would mean "we can commit to the triple lock" and that would mean pensioners would be "better off… than they would have been under the party opposite".

The triple lock is the policy that the state pension goes up each year in line with rising prices, average earnings or 2.5%, whichever is higher.

The triple lock was the policy of both Labour and the Conservatives at the last election, so it is not right to say that pensioners will be better off than they would have been under the Conservatives purely on the basis of this measure.

Jennifer McKiernan
Political reporter

Image source, PA Media

Reform UK MP Lee Anderson was in the chamber for PMQs earlier, less than an hour after being told he must apologise in the House of Commons after breaching bullying rules.

The MP for Ashfield was was found to have sworn twice at a security officer when his pass didn’t work as he tried to get into the parliamentary estate in November last year.

Now the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and the Independent Expert Panel has told him to apologise, following an appeal. They released their findings this morning.

Anderson initially won his seat for the Conservatives in 2019 but defected to Reform UK earlier this year and kept the seat in July’s general election.

The Budget did mention defence spendingpublished at 13:01 Greenwich Mean Time 6 November

13:01 GMT 6 November

By Anthony Reuben

We just mentioned how new Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch made a misstep in her defence question. She told MPs that the “chancellor's Budget did not even mention defence”.

That is not correct – last week’s Budget speech had a section on defence., external

It repeated the manifesto pledge to have a Strategic Defence Review, which would “set a path to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence” (the Conservatives pledged to spend this much by 2030).

It also announced a £2.9bn increase in the Ministry of Defence’s budget for next year and talked about the UK’s continuing financial support for Ukraine.

Clarification 18 November: This post was amended to make clear that although both the Conservatives and Labour committed to defence spending being 2.5% of GDP, Rishi Sunak said this would happen by 2030 whereas Labour have not specified an exact date.

Jennifer McKiernan
Political reporter

Badenoch's biting debate style is a substantial change from her predecessor Rishi Sunak's more polite approach and has forced Starmer to respond with greater energy and emotion - to the delight of backbenchers.

Her more demanding questioning around picking up negotiations on a US-UK free trade agreement leads to a now-familiar lawyerly listing of Labour's Budget highlights before Starmer acknowledges Badenoch as "a straight talker" and challenges her to reverse Labour's investment.

Badenoch deftly ducked the potential trap, almost yawning: "Discuss, discuss, discuss, chat, chat, chat - he has no plans whatsoever for building on the special relationship".

Then she goes for the jugular, claiming the Budget was a "copy and paste of Bidenomics" and asking whether Starmer also intends to be a "one-term leader".

But she came unstuck with a misstep on defence during her questioning, provoking scorn from the cooler-headed Starmer and raucous cheering from the Labour benches.

If you missed it, here's the full exchange between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Conservatives' new leader Kemi Badenoch, in her first Prime Minister's Questions.

In his question, James Cleverly cited various election pledges made by Labour, including on national insurance and tuition fees, and claimed that Labour has gone back on these.

He asked the prime minister to address "the party's growing reputation for dishonesty" before specifically asking about a commitment to close an asylum accommodation centre in his constituency.

Starmer insisted they were keeping the promises made and does not respond directly to the constituency question.

Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty asked Starmer about a recent controversy related to one of his Labour backbenchers, Dawn Butler.

At the weekend Labour MP Butler appeared to share a tweet which described Badenoch as a “member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class”. Butler swiftly deleted her retweet.

Obese-Jecty asked whether the prime minister really thinks "it is acceptable for a backbench MP to suggest that the Leader of the Opposition represents 'white supremacy in blackface'" - and added: "And if he doesn't, why hasn't he removed the whip?"

Starmer replied with a brief three-word answer: "No I don't." It prompted mutterings from the Tory benches.

The prime minister was also asked if he could give an exact timeframe for those who have been waiting more than a deacde for compensation from the Post Office Horizon scandal.

As a reminder, more than 900 sub-postmasters were prosecuted for stealing because of incorrect information from the Horizon computer system.

Starmer says a commitment was made to properly compensate under the previous Conservative government, adding that the Tories didn't allocate any money to it.

He adds that the Labour government set out the compensation in its Budget. "We'll make the payments just as soon as we can," he says.

£1.8bn was set aside for wrongly prosecuted Post Office sub-postmasters in the Budget.

Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South, asked the PM about universities, after Labour’s decided this week to raise tuition fees from £285 to £9,535 a year from 2025/26, while maintenance loans for students will be uplifted by 3.1%.

Lewis says universities are "in financial meltdown" and asks Starmer for plans to fix the "foundations" of higher education.

Starmer says they have inherited the sector as it faces "severe financial challenges".

He talks of the "tough decisions" to put it on a "secure footing" and says to help with this they are also increasing maintenance loans to ease living pressures for students.

The National Union of Students previously branded the fee announcements as a “sticking plaster” and they want to hear more from the government on longer-term funding.

Image source, PA Media

Let's bring you some more backbencher questions put to the PM during today's session in the Commons.

Labour MP Mary Glindon is talks about Kemi Badenoch previously describing outrage at Partygate as "overblown".

She asks if the prime minister will ensure we learn lessons from it and that the Conservatives learn lessons from their behaviour.

Starmer says people across the UK made "enormous sacrifices", including missing weddings, births, and deaths.

"In doing so, they saved the lives of people they'll probably never meet," he says.

The PM adds that the Tories didn't follow the rules that they set when in government during the Covid-19 pandemic. He says this Badenoch was "wrong" to describe the public anger as "overblown".

Hannah Miller
Political correspondent

There is fresh energy in the House of Commons for Kemi Badenoch’s first PMQs appearance as leader of the opposition.

Keir Starmer can’t say "fix the foundations" without facing jeers from Conservative MPs - matched by cheers from his own benches.

Badenoch’s questioning is characteristically direct - Starmer’s responses are punchy.

While Badenoch spent her time pushing for a closer relationship with President-elect Trump, the Lib Dem leader challenged from the opposite direction, highlighting worries that some have about the impact of his presidency.

The different positions of the three biggest parties feel starker than they have been for several years.

That's a wrap on Badenoch's first PMQs as Tory leader. We've still got more backbencher questions to bring you, plus analysis and videos from the Commons, so stay with us.

More on the Budget, and Plaid Cymru's Llinos Medi says a nursing home in her constituency says the Budget changes mean a 10% increase in costs.

She asks if the PM will reconsider the rise in employers' national insurance contributions.

Starmer says the Budget ensured that no one would face tax rises in their payslip and that they had to deal with a "£22bn black hole", adding that when they did so they protected the smallest businesses and charities.

Back to farming and the £1m inheritance tax relief cap - which has proved one of the more controversial measures in last week's Budget.

Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh asks Starmer if he'll listen to evidence from the National Farmers Union that small farms will be "severely impacted" by the changes to inheritance tax relief affecting farmers.

Leigh's constituency is Gainsborough, which is predominantly flat agricultural land and he's previously spoken up for farmers in the past.

Starmer says the government is listening, having met with the NFU this week. He says the government has taken a "fair and balanced approach" which means most farms won't be affected.

Labour MP Neil Coyle now asks about the minimum wage increase introduced in the Budget.

The minimum wage for over 21s, known officially as the National Living Wage, will rise by 6.7%, from £11.44 to £12.21 from April 2025 - and the amount for 18-20-year-olds and apprentices will rise too.

Referencing that Badenoch has said she wanted to scrap the measure, Coyle asks Starmer to protect the new wage and to increase it within this Parliament "if finances allow".

Starmer says he is "proud" of the move and that he "expects" the Tory Party to welcome it.

Alliance MP Sorcha Eastwood says Northern Ireland is considered one of the most dangerous places in Europe to be a woman, and that one of the most dangerous places for women and girls is online – she asks what the government is doing to keep them safe on the internet.

Starmer says misogyny and abuse online and offline causes "horrendous harm" to women and girls across the UK, saying "we must create a safer world online for women and girls through the the Online Safety Act".