As it happened: PM challenged over cost of living

1. Boris Johnson faced MPs amid growing pressure over the cost of living crisis
2. The prime minister held a cabinet meeting on Tuesday to ask for ideas to tackle rising prices, without spending more taxpayers' money
3. Proposals included reducing childcare costs by easing health and safety rules and relaxing the frequency of MOTs
4. Sir Keir Starmer challenged the PM over forecasts, saying UK would have slowest growth among G7 nations
5. Boris Johnson said the inflation crisis was global and the government was taking steps to tackle pressures
6. The PM said there was no place for sexism or misogyny in Parliament, following claims about Angela Rayner in a Sunday newspaper
7. The paper quoted Tory MPs saying Labour's deputy leader crossed and uncrossed her legs to distract Johnson at the dispatch box
8. Following a question from MP Caroline Lucas about MPs under investigation, the PM also confirmed that sexual harassment was grounds for dismissal

Goodbye

Getty Images

That wraps up our coverage of today's Prime Minister's Questions.

Thanks for joining us - enjoy the rest of your afternoon.

What came up at PMQs?

Let's have a look back at how PMQs played out in the Commons...

• In the exchanges between the PM and Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer raised the issue of misogyny and the Angela Rayner row, with Boris Johnson again condemning it
• Starmer accused the prime minister of "denying the facts" on rising prices, branding him the "comical Ali of the cost of living crisis"
• But Johnson said the UK would have the fastest-growing economy in the G7 by 2024
• The Labour leader also asked if raising taxes during a cost of living crisis had made things better or worse for working people, calling the PM an "ostrich"
• But Johnson said the government had cut taxes for working people - citing a fall in National Insurance contributions
• The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford asked about the number of children across the UK who depend on food parcels, while the DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson raised issues with the Northern Ireland protocol
• And Green MP Caroline Lucas asks the PM about newspaper reports that 56 MPs have been reported to Parliament's complaints scheme over allegations of sexual harassment, including three cabinet ministers
• The prime minister said sexual harassment was "intolerable" and "of course... grounds for dismissal"

Cost of living poses huge problem for government

Vicki Young

Deputy Political Editor

The focus at PMQs today on the cost of living is no surprise given the local elections next week.

This week, we’ve heard leaks from cabinet about their plans in this area, which crucially don’t cost the government any more - like less regular MOT tests.

I think this helps Sir Keir Starmer, because Labour have a policy of a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies.

It means he can specifically come up with something, whilst accusing the government of not doing enough.

This is obviously a huge problem for the government, and everyone expects it to get worse because inflation is rising.

The government seems to be suggesting that although it has already taken action on this issue, people are going to have to wait a bit longer for something else.

Of course, the point many people would make is they need the help now.

Conservatives confirm investigation into porn allegations

While we were watching Prime Minister's Questions, the Conservative Party has confirmed that it is investigating reports a Tory MP watched porn on his mobile phone while sitting next to a female minister in the Commons chamber.

A spokeswoman said Tory chief whip Chris Heaton-Harris was "looking into the matter", adding: "This behaviour is wholly unacceptable and action will be taken."

You can read the full story here.

Rees-Mogg's hunt for a seat

Iain Watson

Political correspondent

With little more than a week to go to local elections, it was hardly surprising that PMQs was dominated by attack lines from the political parties.

Incidentally, Jacob Rees Mogg spent PMQs in a vertical position behind the Speaker’s Chair, nursing a red ringbinder.

An undoubted expert in identifying empty chairs around Westminster, he nonetheless failed to find a seat for himself today on the front bench.

Reality Check

Are 830,000 children relying on food parcels?

The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: "This morning, the Trussell Trust confirmed that 830,000 children across the UK are being left to depend on emergency food parcels."

The figures he's referring to come from The Trussell Trust, which is the UK's largest network of food banks.

But what they actually said was that between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022 "more than 830,000 parcels were provided for children".

It is unlikely that those went to 830,000 different children - the true number of individual children receiving food parcels was probably much lower.

PM urged to apologise after High Court care home ruling

UK Parliament

The last question comes from Liberal Democrat Daisy Cooper.

She raises the High Court ruling which found government policies on discharging patients from hospital to care homes in England during the pandemic was unlawful.

She asks the PM to apologise to bereaved families and to the care workers "for the comment he made when he said too many care homes didn't follow procedures".

Boris Johnson says he wants to renew his apologies and sympathies to those who lost family members.

He tells MPs that the start of the pandemic was "a difficult time" and that "we didn't know Covid could be transmitted asymptotically".

MP asks why Khan was adviser on grooming

Labour MP Jeff Smith asks why the MP for Wakefield, Imran Ahmad Khan, was previously put on a panel advising the government on grooming.

The Tory MP was convicted of sexual assaulting a teenage boy and thrown out of the Conservative party as a result.

Khan denies the allegations and has said he will resign from the Commons to focus on his appeal.

Smith accuses the Tories of failing to take seriously a complaint from Khan's victim.

Boris Johnson says the Home Office has issued a statement about this.

You can read more here.

Reality Check

Were taxes 'hiked' in March?

During exchanges about the cost of living crisis, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer criticised the prime minister, saying: "He backed a tax-hiking Budget."

But Boris Johnson responded by saying: "Our chancellor cut taxes on working people."

The measures announced in the Spring Statement in March mean the government will collect less in income tax and National Insurance than they had previously planned.

But those changes are smaller than the hikes in taxes, such as the increase in National Insurance that the chancellor had previously announced.

So the Spring Statement was not a "tax-hiking budget", but taxes are nonetheless rising, with the overall tax burden expected to increase to the highest level since the late 1940s.

You can read more about it here.

Labour asks for support for pre-payment meters

UK Parliament

Labour MP Hilary Benn says increasing numbers of people on pre-payment energy meters are disconnecting themselves because they have run out of money.

He asks the PM what he is doing to make sure all people have a "right to light and to warmth".

Boris Johnson says the government is working with energy companies to "protect people at this difficult time".

He also points to existing government winter fuel payments to help people with costs.

Post-Brexit impact on NI

Iain Watson

Political correspondent

It’s not surprising ahead of the Northern Ireland elections that the DUP are raising the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The PM has not dampened down suggestions that domestic legislation could be introduced to over ride the Protocol.

But it will be easier to judge the government’s position once the tightly fought elections are over at the end of next week.

Facebook should compensate fraud victims, says Tory MP

Conservative Anthony Browne says Google and Facbeook make vast profits from advertising fraudsters.

He says those companies should compensate the "victims they helped create".

Boris Johnson says his government are looking at how they could "make that measure work".

But he adds that it is important to "proceed with care".

Sexual harassment grounds for dismissal, says PM

UK Parliament

Green MP Caroline Lucas asks the PM about newspaper reports that 56 MPs have been reported to Parliament's complaints scheme for allegations of sexual harassment, including three cabinet ministers.

She asks him to "confirm" whether sexual harassment would be considered grounds for dismissal under the ministerial rulebook, known as the ministerial code.

In reply, the prime minister says sexual harassment is "intolerable".

He adds: "Of course it's grounds for dismissal".

Blackford presses PM on child poverty

UK Parliament

The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford associates himself with the condemnations of what he describes as "disgusting sexism".

He then asks about the number of children across the UK who depend on food parcels - put at 830,000 by the Trussell Trust.

Blackford calls on the PM to match the "game-changing" child payment scheme introduced by Scotland's SNP government.

Boris Johnson says the government is already taking action to help "hard-pressed families" in a "tough time", and has increased council funding for this.

He also says Scottish families benefit from the UK's economic union.

Post-Brexit rules harming stability in Northern Ireland, says DUP leader

UK Parliament

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says the cost of moving goods from Britain to Northern Ireland has risen by 27% in the first year of the Northern Ireland protocol.

He says the post-Brexit arrangements are "harming our stability".

Boris Johnson says it is vital the Northern Ireland protocol commands the support of all sides.

A live party political broadcast

Iain Watson

Political correspondent

The PM has thrown a spotlight on Conservative local election tactics by denouncing a range of Labour councils as ‘bankrupt’.

A large chunk of PMQs is resembling a shouty version of a party political broadcast on both sides of the House.

PM has head in the sand over living standards - Labour

UK Parliament

In his final question, Sir Keir Starmer says the prime minister has had his “head in the sand” - and, having let prices spiral out of control, then “made it worse” by introducing tax rises.

In contrast, he says Labour has a "proper plan" for the economy, including introducing a windfall tax on oil and gas companies and funding better insulation for homes.

But in response, Boris Johnson says the Labour leader is "doomed to be a permanent spectator".

He says Labour has "no plan" to protect people from social care costs, or clamp down on migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats.

Party election strategy

Iain Watson

Political correspondent

Part of Labour’s strategy has been to portray the Conservatives as a tax-raising party - partly as Sir Keir Starmer knows this makes some of Boris Johnson’s own MPs uncomfortable.

But also the party’s strategists know that eroding or eliminating any Conservative lead on the economy will have potentially a more enduring significance than poll leads based on discontent with the PM.

Counter intuitively it is a Conservative prime minister summoning up the spirit of NHS founder Nye Bevan to justify raising tax to fund the health service.

PM: We would do more for working people than Labour 'by a mile'

Sir Keir Starmer says the PM has "only just woken up to the cost of living crisis" and mocks a proposal to reduce the number of MOTs needed.

"It makes the cones hotline sound visionary," he says.

The Labour leader then accuses the government of protecting the profits of North Sea oil companies while raising taxes on working people.

Boris Johnson says his plans would do more for working people than Labour "by a mile".

He points to the £150 council tax rebate and says taxing oil companies would "clobber business".

PM an ostrich over rising prices, says Starmer

UK Parliament

The Labour leader calls the prime minister an “ostrich" putting his "head in the sand" over cost of living issues.

Starmer also attacks the government's hike to National Insurance this April - which his party has previously called the wrong tax rise at the wrong time.

Defending the government's record, the prime minister again points to a rise in the legal minimum wage.

He also points to a decision to tweak National Insurance thresholds will east the burden on taxpayers.