Adam Goldsmith
Live reporter

Image source, PA Media

A back and forth over a Palestinian family was the dominating topic at today's Prime Minister's Questions.

Reports earlier today suggested that a family of six from Gaza had successfully appealed to remain in the UK through a scheme intended for Ukrainian refugees - Conservative leader Badenoch told the Commons this was not what was supposed to happen.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer agreed with his opponent, though the PM stressed that work to close a legal "loophole" was already under way.

After the Commons emptied, Home Office minister Dan Jarvis delivered a statement on the Prevent Learning Review, set up after MP David Amess was killed at his constituency office in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex in 2021 - we've got a post on what this entails.

That brings to an end our Commons coverage for now, but here's some further reading to keep you busy until next Wednesday:

• For more on the row over the family from Gaza, there's this news piece on Starmer's pledge to close the loophole
• With refugees on the agenda, the UK has also pledged to deny citizenship to those crossing in small boats
• On housing, Angela Rayner had this update on delivering more affordable options

Did Badenoch ‘campaign’ for more people to come to the UK?published at 14:12 Greenwich Mean Time

14:12 GMT

By Tom Edgington

During Prime Minister's Questions earlier today, immigration dominated the exchanges between Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch.

The Labour leader claimed the last Conservative government “lost control of immigration” and that Badenoch was “campaigning for more people to come”.

Badenoch’s views on migration have changed.

In December 2018, Badenoch, then a backbencher, told Parliament: “I especially thank the home secretary [then Sajid Javid] for removing the annual limits on work visas and on international students - I lobbied for both, external.”

Under the Conservatives, net migration reached a record high in the year to June 2023 of 906,000.

However, Badenoch has taken a tougher stance recently. In November 2024 - as the new Conservative leader - Badenoch announced that a future Conservative government would have a “strict numerical cap” on migration (but hasn’t specified what this should be).

The Home Office statement on the Prevent Learning Review is still ongoing.

We're peeling away from the Commons now. If you want to know more, you can read the review in full on the government's website, external.

Don't go anywhere yet, though.

Before we go for good, we'll take another look back at what happened during Prime Minister's Questions earlier today.

Home Office minister Dan Jarvis says Chris Philp is right about Prevent's "under-engagement" with Islamist extremism, adding: "We should never forget the horrendous death toll" it's caused over the last 20 years.

"It's the foremost threat that we face and we must and will face it head on," Jarvis adds.

He says the number of Islamist referrals to Prevent last year increased by 17% but this was from "too low a base", adding that work is under way to improve ideology training and build awareness of ideologies that drive radicalisation.

But the threat is evolving fast, he says, citing the MI5, which says 75% of counterterrorism refers to Islamist extremism.

On mental health legislation, Jarvis says the purpose of the Mental Health Act is to ensure clinicians have the power to detain and treat mentally unwell people who might pose a risk to themselves and others.

The Mental Health Bill will not change that, he says, but it is designed to make it more likely that those detained will seek help and complete their treatment successfully.

Image source, UK Parliament

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp responds by saying the Prevent review identified a number of failings in how it handled the murderer of MP David Amess.

"I do think there are questions still relating to this case, and others, that do merit a more formal inquiry," he adds.

Philp says there are "systemic issues" within Prevent in identifying and stopping potential perpetrators.

He raises two areas of concern:

• Since 1999, 94 out of 101 murders committed by terrorists in the UK were committed by Islamist terrorists, and only 13% of the Prevent caseload relates to Islamist extremism, which suggests "under-engagement", he says
• The Mental Health Bill making its way through the Lords makes it harder to detain people under the Mental Health Act, and could have adverse affect on public safety, he adds

Home Office minister Dan Jarvis says work has been done to avoid failures in the Prevent programme in the future.

He says the reviewer of the programme made four recommendations for action, and all have been implemented.

These include designing a better referral process and strengthening the initial intelligence assessment process.

Last week, Jarvis set out new reforms to strengthen the programme, including the establishment of a new Prevent commissioner.

He adds that the home secretary has asked the commissioner to review the Prevent programme's interactions with the killer in the case of MP Sir David Amess. This will help the family get to the truth about any failings in the scheme, he says.

Image source, Getty Images

As we mentioned earlier, Home Office minister Dan Jarvis is giving a statement to MPs on the Prevent Learning Review, which concerns MP Sir David Amess's killer.

Some context: The Conservative MP for Southend West was fatally stabbed on 15 October 2021 during a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, by IS fanatic Ali Harbi Ali, who had been known to Prevent.

Jarvis tells the Commons a Prevent review was commissioned immediately after the attack.

Ultimately, he says, the review found that the assessment of Ali's vulnerabilities was problematic - six issues were identified:

• The support given did not tackle all the vulnerabilities identified
• The record keeping was problematic and the rationale for certain decisions was not explicit
• The responsibilities held by police and local authorities were blurred
• The tool used for identifying the individual's vulnerability to radicalisation was outdated
• The school that made the referral to Prevent should have been involved in discussions that determined risk and appropriate support
• The tasking of an intervention provider was problematic - miscommunication meant only one support session was provided instead of two

"The reviewer ultimately found that while Prevent policy and guidance at the time was mostly followed, the case [Ali's case] was exited from Prevent too quickly," Jarvis says.

The scheme to prevent terrorism - Prevent - is a key part of the UK's counter-terrorism strategy.

In practical terms, it places public bodies, including schools and the police, under a legal duty to identify people who may turn to extremism, and intervene in their lives before it is too late.

If the local panels find someone who is at risk of becoming a terrorist, the Prevent teams use specialist mentors or other support programmes to turn around their lives.

A review in February concluded that the scheme has "apparently failed" repeatedly to identify attackers.

A review also revealed that it "prematurely" closed its case on Axel Rudakubana, three years before he murdered three children in Southport.

Katie Amess, the daughter of Conservative MP Sir David Amess, who was stabbed to death as he carried out a constituency surgery in 2021, has called for "everybody else that Prevent failed" to take part in an inquiry into the death of their loved one.

Image source, Parliament TV

Home Office minister Dan Jarvis is delivering a statement to the Commons now on the publication of the Prevent Learning Review.

We'll bring you the key lines - follow along by tapping watch live at the top of the page.

What is the Ukrainian refugee scheme 'loophole'?published at 13:08 Greenwich Mean Time

13:08 GMT

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

I wrote earlier that Kemi Badenoch was under pressure from some on her own side, particularly over her performances at PMQs.

Today the Conservative leader tried to press Sir Keir Starmer on whether the government would appeal a court decision to allow a Palestinian family to stay in the UK under a scheme designed for Ukrainians.

The prime minister said the home secretary was already looking at closing a legal loophole that allowed this to happen. What this loophole is, or how much of an anomaly this case is, was not clear from Starmer's answers.

But he accused Badenoch of following a script that “doesn’t allow her to listen to the answers”. And from where I’m sat in the press gallery looking down on the House of Commons, the faces of Tory MPs were glum.

It looks like those questions about Badenoch’s PMQs are unlikely to go away.

What happened?: According to reports, a Palestinian family of six was allowed to come to the UK on appeal, after they used the scheme designed for Ukrainian refugees to enter the country

When was this?: The family's first application to join the father's brother (who is a British citizen) was refused in May last year, but an appeal on the right to family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was successful in January

The judge said: The youngest children, aged seven and nine, are "at a high risk of death or serious injury on a daily basis" and that it is "overwhelmingly" in their best interests to be in a safe or safer environment together with their parents and siblings

Kemi Badenoch said today: "This is not what the [Ukrainian] scheme was designed to do"

Keir Starmer agreed: "She's right, it's the wrong decision"

But Starmer stressed that: The decision was taken under the last government, "according to the legal framework of that government"

He added that: The home secretary is now looking at closing the legal loophole that was relied on by the Palestinian family

• There's more on this story on the Telegraph's front page

Let's return to the penultimate exchange between Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch for a moment, which took a somewhat confusing turn.

Badenoch asked Starmer whether he was allowing government lawyers to change the UK's position on Israel.

She was referencing reports that a Palestinian family was allowed to come to the UK using a scheme designed for Ukrainian refugees.

She said the judge in the case ruled that family was facing a humanitarian crisis as a result of Israel’s "indiscriminate attempts to eliminate Hamas", and that government lawyers accepted that argument.

I thought we both agreed that Israel had a right to defend itself, Badenoch said to Starmer.

Starmer replied that she had no idea what she was talking about. He said the home secretary was closing the gap in the scheme that allowed the Gazan family to claim asylum.

Image source, PA Media

• Right off the bat, Badenoch launched into reports that a Palestinian family was allowed to come to the UK using a scheme designed for Ukrainian refugees
• The PM said it was the wrong decision, but that it was taken under the previous government and that it should be Parliament that makes the rules
• The Tory leader then repeatedly asked whether the PM would amend laws to address such issues, and legislate in a way that might go against the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
• Starmer said "loopholes" were being closed where they exist in the current law
• In a slightly confusing exchange, Badenoch asked the PM whether he was allowing government lawyers to change the UK's position on Israel - because they agreed with a judge's ruling that called Israel's actions in Gaza "indiscriminate" - Starmer accused Badenoch of not knowing what she was talking about

• Badenoch then pivoted to ask about a UK border security employee wanting to work from home in Finland - Starmer says the last government appointed him and allowed him to work from home for five years

Prime Minister's Questions has now ended - we're working on summaries of the key lines now, and we've got analysis teed up from our correspondents, so stay with us.

Coming up: At 13:15 GMT, there will be a statement from a Home Office minister on the publication of the Prevent Learning Review.

Tory MP David Reed asks about the cost of handing over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, adding that members of Starmer's own cabinet think it's impossible to understand.

Starmer replies that he offered the opposition a briefing on this, but that Badenoch still hadn't taken him up on that offer.

"They are asking questions without wanting to know the facts," Starmer says.

"Someone who wants to be prime minister does not want to know the facts even when she's offered a high-level briefing."

• For context: The plan to cede sovereignty of the archipelago was announced last October. But the agreement has been mired in uncertainty after Donald Trump's re-election, and some US Republicans argue it could deliver a potential security boost to China

Davey gets a second question, which he uses to raise the issue of Ukraine losing its territory to Russia.

He asks for reassurance from the PM on the support offered to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, so that he can't be "bullied" by Trump and Putin into handing victory to Russia.

Starmer replies that the UK must put Ukraine in the "strongest possible position", and says he's asked Zelensky what more can be done to support this.

Image source, Parliament TV

Up next is Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats.

He says 80 years ago this week, British, American and Canadian soldiers were fighting shoulder to shoulder against fascism, and says that Trump seems to have forgotten this.

Davey explains that Trump's tariffs will hit jobs and the cost of living in the UK, and asks whether the PM is preparing a response to the tariffs.

Starmer replies that he will put national interests and steel workers first, before adding that a "level-headed assessment" of Trump's policies is needed.

Image source, PA Media

After an exchange over the government's approach to Israel, Badenoch says there are serious questions being asked about the attorney general, and that even Labour ministers are concerned.

She says the government is recruiting a chief inspector of borders who lives in Finland and wants to work from home. She asks why the British public should put up with this.

Starmer says the individual in question was appointed in 2019 by the last government to a senior position, who worked for five years from Finland.

He says they have changed this so they will now work from the UK.

Will Starmer make getting a UK passport a privilege rather than a right, Badenoch asks.

Starmer says the Tories presided over "record levels of immigration".

He adds that Badenoch, in particular, was a cheerleader for people to come to the country, and suggests she should reflect on her own record before lecturing Labour.

Does the PM agree that the UK should legislate in its own national interest, even if it's not compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), Badenoch asks.

Starmer says she always complains about scripted answers, but that "her script doesn't allow her to listen to the answers".

The answer is still yes, the PM says.