Labour leader Keir Starmer criticised Boris Johnson for initially backing Matt Hancock even after he admitted breaking social distancing rules
Sir Keir also challenge the PM over the case of Ollie Bibby whose family were not able to visit him in hospital before he died
The prime minister said instead of focusing on "stuff in the Westminster bubble" the government is "getting on with rolling-out the vaccine"
It was Boris Johnson's first PMQs since Matt Hancock resigned as health secretary
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford criticised the backlog in applications for EU citizens to apply to remain in the UK
Boris Johnson said the government will "study in detail" a High Court's ruling that the Northern Ireland protocol is lawful
Image source, HoCThanks for following our coverage of this week's Prime Minister's Questions
The team with you today were Justin Parkinson, Paul Seddon and Richard Morris.
Do join us again next week
Iain Watson
Political correspondent
Sir Keir Starmer knew he may have had a brief window to raise the wider lessons from Matt Hancock’s departure from office.
As tomorrow’s by-election in Batley and Spen might yet obscure the events of last week.
A brace of Conservative MPs were very keen to use PMQs talk about tomorrow’s poll in West Yorkshire.
So the Labour leader was keen to establish in voters’ minds questions over the prime minister’s judgement in not sacking Matt Hancock straight away.
He also wanted to suggest that ministerial hypocrisy extended beyond Hancock, and he sought to use PMQs to highlight an ongoing Labour attack - that there is one rule for the government, another for everyone else.
The prime minister was far from sure-footed when the Bibby family’s plight was raised.
But some of his best lines were in denouncing Sir Keir Starmer’s recent hesitant and redrawn reshuffle, comparing this to what he was arguing was his own swiftness in replacing Matt Hancock with Sajid Javid.
Also worth mentioning – the SNP’s Ian Blackford mitigated his congratulations for the England team by pointing out that they couldn’t score against Scotland.
All politicians are well studied in the art of trying to turn adversity to advantage….
Following a dramatic week of news about former health secretary Matt Hancock, his resignation from the cabinet dominated the exchanges between Johnson and Starmer.
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Reality Check
Labour leader Keir Starmer pressed the prime minister on why he hadn’t sacked Matt Hancock from his role as health secretary on Friday, when the news of his affair broke in the Sun.
Hancock apologised later that day, saying he had “let people down”.
Boris Johnson’s official spokesman then said the prime minister had accepted Hancock’s apology and “considers the matter closed”. The spokesman confirmed that the prime minister had confidence in the health secretary.
The next day, Hancock resigned as health secretary.
In a letter to Hancock, external, the prime minister said: “You should be immensely proud of your service. I am grateful for your support and believe that your contribution to public service is far from over.“
Boris Johnson’s spokesman said: “The prime minister spoke to the former health secretary on Saturday, Matt Hancock offered his resignation and the PM thought it was right decision.”
On Monday, the prime minister spoke to the press in West Yorkshire. He said: “When I saw the story on Friday, we had a new secretary of state for health in on Saturday.”
Image source, HoCThe last question come from the DUP's Ian Paisley who asks about the Northern Ireland Protocol, adding that the Belfast High Court has said it conflicts with the Act of Union. He asks the PM to "reverse the mistakes" of the protocol, save the Union and put Northern Ireland out of its commercial "misery".
Boris Johnson says that "nothing" will be allowed to affect Northern Ireland's membership of the UK.
That ends today's PMQs.
Here are details of the court judgement.
Image source, HoC
Image source, HoCLabour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy says London is "experiencing a knife-crime epidemic" and she fears more young people will "needlessly lose their lives" especially with summer approaching.
She asks why the government has cut over 70% of youth services in the past decade.
Boris Johnson says the government will "continue" to invest in youth services.
He adds that Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, is "totally failing to grip this".
Stephen Farry, from Northern Ireland's Alliance Party, asks about the expected EU decision to postpone a ban on chilled British meat products being sold in Northern Ireland.
He asks whether this, along with a Belfast court ruling this morning that the Northern Ireland Protocol is lawful, will allow the UK and EU stop debating post-Brexit rules in "constitutional" terms and work on "pragmatic solutions" to border issues.
In reply, Boris Johnson says the chilled meat ban, along with problems importing certain cancer drugs, is down to the EU's "application of the Protocol".
"I hope that all that can be fixed - and then we can move on".
Image source, HoCSNP MP Philippa Whitford says that cases of the Delta variant in the UK are "surging" because of the delay in banning travel from India. She asks if the UK should continue with furlough payments and business support.
"No" replies Boris Johnson. He says that while the Delta variant is "seeded and growing in 74 countries around the world" the UK is the only country which has high vaccination rates which are effective against the variant.
He says the government will continue with its "cautious but irreversible" easing from lockdown.
Image source, HoCJoining by video link Labour's Christina Rees asks why more than 450 DVLA staff in Swansea are having to return to the office with Covid cases "rising significantly" in South Wales.
The PM replies that rates of infection and disease have been declining at the DVLA site and he hopes employees can get back to normal working as soon as possible.
Image source, HoCConservative Damian Collins asks about the "proliferation" of hate speech, harmful content and anti-vaccine conspiracies on social media - and when the government's draft Online Safety bill can be scrutinised by MPs.
The PM says pre-legislative scrutiny will begin as soon as a committee is set up for that purpose.
Image source, HoCGreen MP Caroline Lucas calls for the government to introduce a legally-binding commitment to halt a decline in biodiversity.
She says the current proposals - contained in the much-delayed Environment Bill - were recently described as "lacking teeth" in a report by MPs.
Boris Johnson replies that the government is committed to promoting biodiversity both at home and around the world - and points to the conclusions of the recent G7 summit as evidence of this.
Iain Watson
Political correspondent
Sir Keir Starmer sought initially to focus on what he felt might be Boris Johnson’s Achilles heel:
Not the fact of Matt Hancock’s resignation but the manner of it.
While Hancock has left office, this was not at the instigation of the prime minister.
He had initially considered the matter closed last Friday when Hancock apologised but remained in office, only to go the next day.
So it is Boris Johnson’s judgement as much as Matt Hancock’s behaviour that Starmer was trying to criticise.
But – as England’s football result was obviously also a topic at PMQs, it is fair to say the prime minister scored an own goal.
Starmer said he had spoken to the Bibby family who followed Covid rules, but as a result were restricted from seeing their dying son Ollie in hospital.
And at one point it appeared Johnson was suggesting this was a "Westminster bubble" issue.
Sir Keir has been criticised by some of his own MPs for not offering robust enough opposition.
Today rather than sticking to a lawyerly but dry cross-questioning, he talked about a family’s plight and displayed some emotion.
While Boris Johnson had some good political attack lines, they felt less resonant in a PMQs dominated by a real family’s concerns as much as the fallout from a ministerial resignation.
Image source, HoCSNP Westminster Leader Ian Blackford congratulates England on their win last night, and wishes them "all the best in the tournament ahead".
In July 2019, he says, the PM gave an "unequivocal guarantee to EU nationals living in the UK" that they would have "absolutely certainty" to be able to continue living and working in the UK. He says there are "hundreds of thousands of unprocessed applications" as the settlement scheme closes today.
He asks for the deadline to be scrapped "before we face another Tory Windrush".
Boris Johnson says it is "fantastic" that 5.6m people have applied so far, and the government is processing applications "as fast as we possibly can".
Ian Blackford says overnight "thousands of our friends and neighbours" could become illegal immigrants in the UK. He says this is causing EU citizens "untold stress". An EU citizen has told him she is feeling suicidal over the changes, he tells the PM.
Boris Johnson says "this is an outstanding success because we've had huge numbers of people applying".
He says it's been five years since the Brexit referendum, and the government has funded plenty of programmes to help those citizens. He says all applications that are submitted by tonight will be processed.
In his final question to the PM, Sir Keir Starmer says the PM is trying to take credit for the new health secretary, Sajid Javid, being in place.
Referring to his handling of Matt Hancock situation, he says there's a "pattern" of backing people in government who break the rules, with "one rule" for ministers "and another for everyone else".
Boris Johnson replies that the vaccine roll-out "would have been fatally impeded" had the government followed Labour's policies.
Economic growth and employment are now going up, he tells MPs.
Image source, HoCKeir Starmer says he spoke to Ollie's mother this morning - and she told him she had "hung on to every word" ministers said about the rules and then followed them.
He asks the PM whether he asked Matt Hancock whether he'd broken "any other rules" before initially backing him last Friday, after pictures of him kissing his aide first emerged.
In reply, the prime minister again avoids mentioning his initial backing for Hancock - saying simply that there is a new health secretary and that is the "right response to the situation".
He says the "best response" to the grief and pain suffered by families is to "get on with a new health secretary" and continue the vaccine roll-out.
Image source, HoCLabour leader Sir Keir Starmer says the PM was happy to keep the health secretary in place when he said he was "absolutely hopeless" but he had also "broken the rules" and employed his friend at the taxpayers' expense.
Starmer says Ollie Bibby died with his family and friends unable to spend time with him, he begged to see his family in hospital. Only one member of his family was able to see him. He says Ollie's mum is "livid" that Matt Hancock, who was in charge of making social distancing rules, was breaking them.
Boris Johnson says the UK "shares the grief" of the Bibby family, along with many other families up and down the UK during the pandemic.
He says the government is focusing on rolling out vaccines at a rate, which means that families like Ollie's would not have to suffer the same thing again.
Image source, Penny BibbyOllie Bibby with his mother Penny
Keir Starmer says Matt Hancock has "done a runner", adding that the PM has tried to "take credit" for his resignation.
He adds it was "blindingly obvious" that there was a conflict of interest in Hancock's lover Gina Coladagnelo being taken on as a non-executive director of the Department of Health and Social Care.
Boris Johnson replies that the UK's vaccine roll-out has been working and that the country is "now ahead of Israel" in terms of jabs given.