Prime Minister's Questions: As it happened

1. Boris Johnson told MPs the UK has not blocked the exports of "a single vaccine or its components".
2. An EU diplomat was summoned to a meeting at the Foreign Office for "further discussions" in a row over Covid-19 vaccine exports
3. Sir Keir Starmer challenged the PM on the proposed 1% pay rise for NHS staff, comparing it to an increase given to the PM's former aide Dominic Cummings
4. A cross party group of MPs has said the impact of NHS Test and Trace is still unclear, and that the £37bn allocated for it "unimaginable"
5. The PM has said he wants to cut air passenger duty on domestic flights in a bid to boost travel across the UK
6. The National Audit Office has warned some local councils in England are at risk of financial failure amid a £605m funding shortfall

That's all from us

BBC Politics

We'll end our coverage now of this week's PMQs.

Our reporters today were Jennifer Scott, Paul Seddon and Richard Morris.

Thanks for following along with us.

Do join us again next week.

HoC

NHS pay rise: How much will staff be paid?

Reuters

The row over a pay rise for NHS staff has dominate this week in Westminster.

The government has recommended that NHS staff in England should receive a 1% pay increase this year.

Many other public-sector workers will have their pay frozen, with the government warning that the country's finances are under "huge pressure" because of the pandemic.

Health unions have criticised the 1% pay proposal and one - representing nurses - is calling for a 12.5% increase instead.

But how is NHS pay decided? You can read more here.

Watch: Starmer and Johnson on NHS pay

Reality Check

Did Keir Starmer vote against NHS plan?

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs that Sir Keir Starmer voted against the 2019 long-term plan for the NHS, after the Labour leader referred to it.

That is not correct – there were no votes on the NHS Funding Bill 2019-20 during its main stages through parliament.

Sir Keir had referred to the plan, saying that it committed the government to a 2.1% pay rise for the NHS.

The government has now recommended that NHS staff in England should receive a 1% pay increase this year.

On Tuesday, the head of NHS England, Sir Simon Stevens told a committee of MPs that the plan had indeed assumed a 2.1% rise.

But he also said "things have changed" since then and that it should now be up to the pay-review body.

What happened at PMQs?

HoC

Another session of Prime Minister's Questions has come to an end, here's what happened:

• Boris Johnson said he would like to "correct" European Council president Charles Michel's claim that the UK had blocked the export of Covid vaccines
• The prime minister said not a single jab had been blocked, and the UK opposed "vaccine nationalism in all its forms"
• Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer attacked the PM over the proposed 1% pay rise for NHS staff in England, accusing him of rowing back from a previous pledge to pay more
• Boris Johnson said nurses were valued by the government, and had seen their pay rise over the last three years under a previous pay deal
• The PM also defended his decision to take the UK out of the EU's Erasmus student exchange scheme, after SNP claims it would take opportunities away from young people

Watch: SNP challenge PM on replacement for Erasmus

PMQs sounding familiar?

Watch: UK has not blocked the export of vaccines - PM

PMQs: Boris Johnson on exports of Covid vaccine exports

Boris Johnson said he wanted to "correct the suggestion” from EU Council president Charles Michel that the UK had blocked the export of coronavirus vaccines.

The PM said the UK could be "proud of the support the UK has given to the international Covid response” including £548m towards the Covax project to get vaccines to poorer countries.

Labour challenges Johnson's claim on NHS pay

As PMQs finishes, shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth intervened to ask a point of order.

He says Boris Johnson said twice that Labour voted against the 2.1% pay rise for nurses debated in Parliament in 2019.

"This is not the case," he tells MPs.

He points out that Labour approved the 2.1% pay deal for nurses in 2019 without taking it to a vote.

He calls for the prime minister return to the House to correct the record, and says that if the PM wants to cut nurses pay he should have "the courage of his convictions to bring a vote back to the House."

With that, question time is over.

Grayling: Reverse the tide of deforestation

Former cabinet minister Chris Grayling asks the last question of today's PMQs.

He says he is passionate about "reversing the tide of deforestation" and suggests a kite mark scheme for food products from the UK.

He says it will allow consumers to "see clearly if [products] come from sustainable sources or from producers who do further damage to the environment".

Mr Johnson says it is a "very impressive suggestion" that he will look into, but says the UK is already "leading the world in tackling deforestation".

Is 'levelling-up' agenda fair among northern towns?

HoC

Labour's Dan Jarvis - who is also mayor of the Sheffield City Region - asks if levelling-up the north is fair when Barnsley needs investment, but money is actually being spent in the chancellor's Richmond constituency in Yorkshire.

Boris Johnson says "we are devoted to levelling-up across the entire country" and that counts Barnsley and "everywhere else".

Labour MP highlights care staff on zero-hours contracts

HoC

Labour MP Alison McGovern asks why 375,000 care workers are on zero-hours contracts.

Boris Johnson says workers in the care sector will be among those benefiting from "record rises" to the national minimum wage.

He also says the speed of the UK's vaccination programme has offered quick protection to care staff and residents.

Smyth: Government is failing young people

HoC

Labour's Karin Smyth says the government was "failing young people" before the pandemic.

She said apprenticeship starts had been down by 29% and they missed their target of new apprentices by 81%.

She asks the PM to urge young people to go to a jobs fair in her constituency, and to "apologise to them for failing them so far".

Boris Johnson praises job fairs, but says the government "can be proud of its record" on apprenticeships.

Labour MP calls for reduced VAT for beauty salons

HoC

Labour's Kate Osamor calls for the reduced VAT rate of 5% offered to the hospitality industry during the Covid-19 pandemic to be extended to the beauty industry.

She accuses the prime minister of "refusing to listen" to the demands of salons.

The prime minister doesn't reply directly to her point about VAT, but says his "cautious but irreversible" roadmap for easing restrictions in England will allow a "fully recovery" in the sector.

Hanna: Tax Amazon to pay for nurses rise

HoC

On the video link, SDP MP Claire Hanna says there are 16,000 "dedicated nurses" who staff the NHS in Northern Ireland.

And she says the cost to pay for them equates to less than 2% of UK sales for Amazon whose revenues doubled during the pandemic.

She asks "what possible reason" the PM has for not imposing a "modest windfall tax" on companies who have benefited during the crisis in order to "properly pay though staff who have worked so hard" in the NHS.

Boris Johnson says she makes "an important point" about the discrepancy in tax paid by online companies and physical businesses, and promises it is an issue "the chancellor is trying to address".

SNP: Are universal credit payments enough without the £20 top-up?

HoC

The SNP's David Linden says by extending universal credit uplift of £20 a week to the end of the pandemic, the government is "conceding" that social security in the UK does not pay enough.

He asks why this uplift has not been extended to those on legacy benefits, such as disabled people.

Boris Johnson says the government has done "whatever it can" to support people during the pandemic. He asks Mr Linden to take this up with those in the Labour party who "want to abolish universal credit".

SDLP MP criticises 'fantasy bridge' from Scotland to Northern Ireland

The SDLP's Colum Eastwood criticises the idea of a bridge from Northern Ireland to Scotland, after the PM announced a feasibility study into the idea today.

He says the "fantasy bridge" could cost up to £33bn and will have to be built through unexploded munitions and radioactive waste.

The prime minister says the connectivity improvements suggested in the accompanying interim Hendy review, published today, will be a "massive benefit" to Northern Ireland.

He also accuses Mr Eastwood of being unduly pessimistic.

SNP: Rejoin the Erasmus scheme

HoC

Now it is time for the SNP's two questions - being asked today by Kirsten Oswald, after a power cut stopped the party's Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, getting online.

As the party's deputy leader at Westminster she asks the prime minister about the replacement for the Erasmus scheme - known as the Turing project - for studying overseas.

She says it offers less support across the board, and will be "taking opportunities away from our young people".

Boris Johnson says the MP is "wrong", saying Erasmus went to "kids from better off homes" rather than the whole country, which is the plan for its replacement.

Ms Oswald says students "can't trust a word the prime minister says" on the project - and cites a Scottish Tory telling the BBC "young people won't benefit from Brexit" - asking him again to reconsider rejoining Erasmus.

But the PM flatly refuses.

Analysis: A signal from the PM on NHS pay?

Jonathan Blake

BBC political correspondent

Amid the blizzard of figures from the prime minister in response to Sir Keir Starmer's questions about NHS pay was a significant sentence or two.

He said the government would look at what the independent pay review body had to say.

Perhaps a simple statement of fact but perhaps also a signal that if the body recommends a higher pay rise than ministers suggested, the government would not oppose it.

Other than that it didn't seem that Sir Keir Starmer was able to break any new ground in his argument that nurses deserve more.

Boris Johnson stressed the importance of recruitment and retention along with pay and sound management of the economy.

The Labour leader couldn't resist a couple of digs at the money spent on a TV studio in Downing Street and renovations of the flat above number 10.

And months after his departure, mention of Dominic Cummings' shows Labour clearly see his legacy (and pay rise) as a potent weapon against Boris Johnson.

Starmer: Nurses are facing a real terms pay cut

HoC

Sir Keir Starmer ends his questions saying the PM claims nurses will be rewarded, but the government are cutting their pay.

He says a 1% rise in pay but a 1.7% rise in inflation equals a real terms pay cut.

He repeats his line that Dominic Cummings got a 40% pay rise, but pay was cut for nurses, while taxes increase on families.

Starmer asks for a vote to be put on nurses pay in Parliament.

Boris Johnson says the government is 'steering a steady course' during the pandemic, and accuses Sir Keir of asking for more testing, and then complaining at the cost of NHS Test and Trace.