Image source, HoC

Veteran Conservative MP Dame Cheryl Gillan says she has a long record of opposing the HS2 train link, including on environmental grounds.

She says the actions of Extinction Rebellion, including its recent blockade of newspaper print presses, had "tarnished" the cause of environmentalism and peaceful protest over climate change.

The PM agrees, saying he draws a powerful distinction between law-abiding protests, such as over HS2, and those who wilfully seek to break the law and cause as much disruption as possible.

Image source, HoC

The SNP's David Linden raises the heartbreaking case of Mercy Baguma, who was found dead beside her starving child in Glasgow last month.

He says he met her child and partner Eric in his constituency this week, and that the little boy had "been through more than any one-year-old should".

However, he said the father was still "in limbo" over his asylum application and asked the PM to take the case up personally.

Johnson said he knew "the whole House will send their condolences" and that he takes "very seriously" the well-being of those in the asylum system.

He promises Linden that the relevant minister will take up the case.

Image source, HoC

Next up is Labour's Siobhain McDonagh who says China's treatment of the Muslim minority Uighur population amounts to a genocide.

She asks the PM to commit to set up an international tribunal to look into human rights abuses, saying the UK cannot afford to look away and do nothing in the face of the actions of the "world's next superpower"

The PM says she is right to address the issue and the UK will raise its concerns at every available opportunity, including through the United Nations and the G20.

Image source, HoC

Today is Back British Farming day and to show their support MPs are wearing some very eye-catching wheat pin badges.

The day is promoted by the National Farmers' Union who are calling for the Trade Bill to be amended "so that Parliament will be given the final say on whether to ratify new trade agreements".

The NFU also wants "Parliament to be provided with independent advice about the impact every trade deal will have on our food and farming standards before it decides whether to accept or reject those trade deals."

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

The SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford does not show the same reluctance to talk about international law - and his reference to a "parcel of rogues" is a quote from Scottish bard Rabbie Burns, describing those who - he argued - had been bribed into supporting the 1707 Act of Union with England.

Image source, HoC

The SNP's leader in Westminster, Ian Blackford, brings up that controversial new bill we spoke about earlier.

He says it is "nothing short of an attack on Scotland's parliament and an affront to people of Scotland".

Blackford accuses Johnson of "creating a rogue state", and asks: "Why does the prime minister think he and his friends are above the law?"

The PM says the new UK Internal Markets Bill will be "protecting jobs, protecting growth, ensuring the fluidity and safety of our UK internal market and prosperity throughout the United Kingdom."

The answer doesn't wash with Blackford, who says Johnson broke the law last year with the unlawful prorogation of Parliament and his chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, did the same during lockdown.

He accuses the PM of lying, but is pulled up by the Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, as that language it is very much frowned upon in the Commons.

Although Blackford argues the toss, the comment is eventually withdrawn.

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

It is not everyday that a government says it's willing to break the law, as it did yesterday.

So if you think it is odd for a former director of public prosecutions not to raise this at PMQs it is probably because Keir Starmer does not want to play on Boris Johnson's Brexit pitch (which divides Labour voters) and instead wanted to articulate voters' concerns on Covid testing where the government is on the back foot.

Image source, HoC

Sir Keir concludes by claiming the government is "lurching from crisis to crisis" and lacks "basic competence" - although he slightly scrambles his words and instead says "lacks basic incomeptence".

The PM picks this slip up and runs with it, attacking the Labour's leader's "silence" over the return of schools, Brexit and other issues. While he makes the "tough calls", all the Labour leader does is "sits on the sidelines and carp".

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Boris Johnson suffers from some anti-covid measures in the Commons chamber.

With social distancing, too few people on his own side are there to cheer on the efforts of track and trace that he alludes to.

Image source, HoC

Sir Keir says he has "listened carefully" to the PM, but says: "What is undermining confidence is people being told to go hundreds of miles for a test."

He adds: "I just want it fixed, I don't want to have an argument, I want to know what's the problem".

The Labour leader asks Johnson whether it is a capacity problem and if too many people "trying to do the right thing" are coming forward for test.

"The government side of the bargain is to deliver an effective test and trace system, but there is a glaring hole," he says. "Can the PM tell us when he first knew of the problem?"

Johnson says it is "obviously a function of growing demand and growing public confidence that we have to supply more and more tests".

He again praises the "heroic efforts" of the NHS test and trace staff who have increased the number of tests from 2,000 a day in March to 320,000 a day in September, and calls on Sir Keir to praise them too.

"It is a hard job," adds Johnson. "It is a big job."

Image source, HoC

The Labour leader says something is wrong when people are having to travel hundreds of miles to get a test.

But the PM suggests his opponent is trying to undermine confidence in the system.

He suggests the public are ignoring Labour's warnings and that test and trace is working well, with more than 322,000 having self-isolated having been contacted by the authorities.

Image source, HoC

The Labour leader says hundreds of families are trying to get tests but can't get one.

"This is basic stuff," he adds. "They are very anxious about themselves and about their children.

"Prime minister, what is happening?"

Johnson condemns Sir Keir for not reversing his criticism of the testing system.

He says the government has a "vision" of everyone being able to take a test each morning - like a pregnancy test, that gives results in 15 minutes.

"But in the meantime NHS test and trace is doing an heroic job", he adds, saying most people can get a test result in 24 hours and travel less than 10 miles to get one.

Image source, HoC

The Labour leader says he supports the restrictions on social gatherings announced earlier, saying they are the "right thing to do".

On the issue of testing, he says he is not attacking ministers for the sake of it and hundreds of thousands of families are anxious.

He says the system is not working properly and asks who is right, the director of test and tracing - who apologised to the public for lack of capacity - or the health secretary Matt Hancock who said some people were getting tests who were not eligible.

The PM says the test and trace team are doing a "heroic" job at a time of unprecedented demand.

And he says the Labour's leader claim yesterday that the system was on the verge of collapse was "ill-judged" and urges him to reflect and withdraw them.

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

Keir Starmer has gone on test and trace and the lack of available testing.

The reason for doing so is to further dent the government's reputation for competence.

But by implication he is also distancing himself from the perception that Labour under its previous leader was less competent than the government

Image source, HoC

Sir Keir Starmer begins his line of questioning on the issues around testing.

The Labour leader says he spoke to a mum in London whose four-year-old child had symptoms, but was told she would have to go as far as Swansea or Inverness to get a test.

"This is frankly ridiculous," he says. "Who does the prime miniser think is responsible for this?"

Boris Johnson responds by saying he takes "responsibility for entire handling of coronavirus".

But he condemns those who attack the NHS test and trace system and those who "depricate the efforts" of its staff.

Johnson praises the rise in test capacity to 320,000 a day.

And he says the government is taking "decisive steps to intensify our social distancing... in order to keep economy going, schools open and the virus under control" - asking for Sir Keir's support.

Image source, HoC

The first question is from Lib Dem Munira Wilson.

She asks how people can be expected to obey Covid-19 laws when the government is threatening to break international law over Brexit - a reference to a recent row over the EU Withdrawal Agreement.

The PM says "we expect everyone in this country to obey the law".

The second question is from Tory Sir Bob Neill on Gibraltar's sovereignty, which the PM confirms is "inviolable".

Helen Catt
Political correspondent

Plenty to watch out for in Prime Minister's Question's today.

Labour have been talking a lot about the test and trace system for months so I'd expect Keir Starmer to be bringing up some of those problems people have had getting a test in recent days.

Maybe some of those more eye-catching distances which people have been asked to travel.

I'd also expect him to ask for more detail on those new restrictions.

And do keep an eye on the Conservative backbenches: will any unhappy MPs use this as a chance to ask the prime minister about his willingness to breach international law?

House of Commons
Parliament

Boris Johnson has taken to the dispatch box to start this week's Prime Minister's Questions.

We will bring you all the updates so stay on this page for the action.

Image source, Reuters

Boris Johnson left No 10 Downing Street a few minutes ago.

And so we're poised for the start of this week's start of PMQs.