Rachel Reeves has the prime minister's "full backing", a Downing Street spokesman says, after the chancellor was seen crying in the House of Commons
Asked why Reeves was tearful, her spokesperson says: "It's a personal matter, which - as you would expect - we are not going to get into"
Allies of Reeves later say she was upset after an altercation with Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle - although no-one the BBC spoke to witnessed the interaction personally
The scenes in the Commons were noticed in the financial markets, with the cost of government borrowing subsequently rising, the BBC's Faisal Islam writes
At the same session of Prime Minister's Questions, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch says people are "frightened" of tax rises and asks Starmer to rule them out
Starmer responds: "No prime minister or chancellor ever stands at the dispatch box and writes budgets in the future
Last night, the government's welfare bill was approved by 335 votes to 260 after ministers made last-minute concessions to avoid possible defeat
Reeves appears tearful during PMQs
Joe Pike
Political & investigations correspondent
One once-rebellious Labour MP tells me the tone of Kemi Badenoch's speech on welfare reform, and her slew of attacks on Labour's record in government, may be helping the prime minister's efforts in persuading waverers.
"Kemi Badenoch is doing a job of uniting Labour benches that whips could only dream of," the MP says.
Image source, UK ParliamentLabour backbencher Neil Coyle - who says he'll be supporting the government - stands and asks Badenoch what exactly she would choose to cut from the Department for Work and Pensions' budget.
"What exactly would she do?" he asks.
Badenoch replies that "we'd cut unemployment", to cheers from the Conservative benches.
Another intervention comes from Tory MP Sir John Hayes shortly after, who suggests that the best way to change welfare is to review the options and then decide which ones to take.
"By contrast," he adds, "this government has decided on its option and is then going to review on what it's done. Surely that's not the right way to run welfare or any part of government."
Badenoch agrees: "He said it just as well as it possibly could have been said."
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch continues by saying the Conservatives agreed to support the government if they could make three commitments:
Brian Wheeler
Political reporter
Kemi Badenoch and other Tories are targeting their fire on the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.
They're repeating claims that Liz Kendall’s welfare reforms were “rushed for Rachel” to plug holes in her Budget.
Badenoch knows this will hit home with Labour MPs, unhappy about what they believe is Rachel Reeves’ overly-rigid adherence to her fiscal rules - as well as piling pressure on the chancellor and prime minister.
Badenoch calls this bill a "fudge", and says she feels sorry for Liz Kendall. "She looks like she's being tortured", she says.
The Tory leader then takes aim at Chancellor Rachel Reeves, saying this is a rushed attempt to plug her "fiscal hole": "It is driven not by principal but by panic," Badenoch says.
She gives way to Conservative MP Graham Stuart behind her, who draws attention to Reeves's absence from the Commons.
"The fact that she is not here is all we need to know about her and those on the front bench opposite," he says.
Joe Pike
Political & investigations correspondent
Kemi Badenoch has again decided this big parliamentary moment requires her - as leader of the opposition - to respond to the government.
Today's debate is a moment of political pain for Labour after Thursday's welfare policy U-turn. Opposition parties seem keen to revel in it.
Within minutes Badenoch has provoked a reaction from the Labour backbenches.
"Every time Labour leave office, they leave more people unemployed", Badenoch says. It is a message she repeats throughout her speech.
At a different point she says: "Labour would have bankrupted the country".
This angers some Labour MPs, with one shouting back and pointing: "You did! You did!"
Image source, UK ParliamentLeader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, stands up to deliver her response for the Conservatives.
"We are staring down the barrel of a crisis," she begins, adding: "The welfare system no longer works as it should... what was once a safety net has become a trap."
She accuses Kendall of thinking "she can stand there and get away with the fiction that this was caused by the last [Conservative] government".
She says Tory reforms helped ensure unemployment "more than halved" and brought to a "record low", where it's "risen every month" under the current Labour government.
Covid changed everything, she adds - a line met with laughter from MPs,
Joe Pike
Political & investigations correspondent
In the Commons, a succession of Labour MPs say they want more detail on the review into disability benefits being conducted by DWP minister Stephen Timms.
As one Labour MP tells the House he's looking forward to the results of Timm's work, a Tory shouts: "If he's in his job!"
Stephen Timms - sitting and listening on the government front bench - chuckles at the heckle.
Reaching the end of her speech Liz Kendall says that unlike the Conservatives, Labour will not "duck the difficult challenges". Tory MPs roar with laughter.
Image source, UK ParliamentConservative MP Esther McVey intervenes to ask whether the government has sought legal advice as to whether it is lawful to treat people with the same conditions, disabilities and circumstances "differently within the benefits system".
She calls this "morally unacceptable".
Kendall replies that the Conservatives had "different rules and different rates" during their time in government.
"Once again members opposite seem to be railing at the very problems they caused," she says.
Joshua Nevett
Reporting from the House of Commons
Kendall is outlining what concessions the government has made having “listened to concerns”. But what are those concessions?
The original bill included proposals to restrict eligibility for the personal independence payment (Pip) - the main disability benefit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - and freeze the health-related element of universal credit.
But in a bid to win rebels over, the government has now said the new stricter criteria will only apply to new claimants, and plans to freeze the health-related component of universal credit have been reversed.
There’s also a review of the Pip assessment process, to be “co-produced” by disabled people and organisations that represent them.
The government has "listened carefully to concerns", Kendall says, that there wouldn't be enough employment support in place by the time changes to the benefit system come in.
As a result, she says, ministers are bringing forward £300m of employment support for sick and disabled people.
She says this will increase total spending to £3.8bn over this parliament, so "anyone affected" by the changes will be offered "personalised support" - including access to a specially-trained adviser.
Image source, UK ParliamentNext there's a question from DUP MP Jim Shannon, who asks Kendall to commit to ensuring that people with fluctuating conditions - like Parkinson's and multiple sclerosis - are not locked out of qualifying for the higher rate of universal credit.
Kendall responds that it is "absolutely the case" that as someone's condition progresses, if they meet the severe conditions criteria, they will be protected.
She then suggests that one of the purposes of the government's Timms review is to ensure that benefits recognise the impact of fluctuating conditions on people's lives.
Kendall gives way to Conservative MP and Opposition Whip Paul Holmes, who asks why government modelling suggests the bill could push 150,000 people into poverty.
The work and pensions secretary responds by claiming that the Conservatives put an extra 900,000 children into poverty, and mentions the Labour government's plans to extend the availability of free school meals.
Image source, UK ParliamentLiz Kendall starts by giving the government's case for the bill.
She says the bill, and wider welfare reforms, seek to fix a broken benefit system inherited from the previous Conservative government, as well as delivering a better life for millions of people across the country.
Kendall says the number of people on disability benefits is set to double this decade, and that the number of Pip claimants is rising at twice the rate of the the prevalence of people with a disability.
This bill will help people who can work to do so, she says, and protect those who cannot.
Joshua Nevett
Reporting from the House of Commons
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle says the reasoned amendment in the name of Labour MP Rachael Maskell has been selected.
That means MPs will get a vote on whether to stop this bill in its tracks, following the debate.
Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall is the first to speak, and begins by launching a full-throated defence of the government’s welfare changes.
A reasoned amendment to the government's welfare bill, tabled by Labour MP Rachael Maskell, has been selected for debate by the Speaker of the House of Commons.
This will give MPs the chance to vote initially on alterations to the government's bill.
We're turning our attention now to the House of Commons where MPs are about to begin debating the new welfare bill.
We'll bring you the key lines and analysis right here, and you can follow along by pressing watch live at the top of the page.
Labour MP Richard Burgon says the government's planned benefits cuts are not a "Labour way" to save money.
Speaking to the BBC's Politics Live programme, he says if the government needs to save money, it should introduce a wealth tax.
"They want to adhere to a fiscal rule, cut billions of pounds, and have decided the easiest way to do it is to take money from people who need assistance to cut up their food, wash themselves, go to the toilet and get dressed," the Leeds East MP says.
He adds that some Labour MPs who were unsure of what to vote are now "much more likely" to vote against it after the statement in Parliament yesterday.
"Ultimately, none of us got into Labour politics in order to make disabled people poorer," he tells the programme.
"If people sit on their hands and abstain, or don't vote against these cuts tonight, that will hang like an albatross around their necks and they will be dealing with that in their constituency surgeries," he adds.
Tom Espiner
Business reporter
Image source, StacyStacy, from Romsey in Hampshire, gets personal independence payments (Pip) and is due to move over to universal credit in September.
She was born with leg and back problems, which means she has been on a "conveyor belt of surgery" since she was seven years old, including having one of her legs amputated below the knee.
Stacy would like to work but says she is unable to because of continuing surgery.
She went to college but has never had a job and is cared for full-time by her husband James.
Stacy says she is "a little bit more happy" about the government U-turn on benefits payments cuts, because she "might have lost out" by not qualifying for certain payments.
"I would have struggled a lot," she says. "I've always been on benefits and not by choice."
However, since the government has U-turned on Pip and winter fuel payments, they could change their minds again, Stacy says.
Chris Mason
Political editor
Image source, PA MediaThe prime minister's government faces a showdown with rebel MPs in the Commons today
There has been plenty of talk of there being 40 to 50 Labour MPs who are opposed to the changes, but things remain fluid.
Given the size of the working majority, rebels would need to amass around 80 of their colleagues to vote against the government to defeat them, everything else being equal.
But a key factor could be how many choose to abstain in the vote this evening.
Incidentally, Prof Philip Cowley from Queen Mary University of London notes that the biggest backbench rebellion Sir Keir Starmer has suffered so far is 16.
The largest rebellion in Tony Blair's first year in Downing Street was 47 and also on the welfare state - over lone parent benefit.
Labour's Chief Whip Sir Alan Campbell, in charge of winning the vote for the prime minister, has issued a plea for unity - something that only happens when there isn't a surplus of it - and told Labour MPs they should "act as a team".
Even if the government does win today, that won't be the end of the matter: more arguments and votes are expected in the next few weeks.