Image source, PA

That brings to an end our live coverage of today’s Prime Minister's Questions, but here’s a recap of some of the key developments:

• PM Rishi Sunak said that predictions that the average UK family will be poorer than its Polish counterpart by 2030 are due to energy price increases, but that people are getting generous support from the government
• Sunak also rejected comments by Labour's Keir Starmer that his government is not helping families and less well-off people, saying that "the wealthiest pay more tax and the poorest pay less tax" than in any year under the last Labour government
• Sunak refused to get dragged into comments on the latest Covid-related revelations and instead argued it would be better to let the Covid inquiry do its work rather than comment on "piecemeal bits of information"
• The SNP's Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn asked why the PM is "denying" access to the EU single market to the whole of the UK after his new Brexit deal guaranteed it for Northern Ireland
• Sunak insisted on the importance of the Good Friday Agreement and that the new Windsor Framework is not just about the "macro issue of membership of the EU"

You can read more in our latest news story here. Want to dig a bit deeper on the new post-Brexit deal? Look here. And finally, here's our simple guide on the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Today’s coverage was brought to you by Laura Gozzi, Jasmine Andersson, Adam Durbin, Chas Geiger, Kate Whannel, Emily McGarvey, James FitzGerald and Jasmine Taylor-Coleman.

Reality Check

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “After 13 years of Tory failure the average family in Britain will be poorer than the average family in Poland by 2030.”

He is basing that on taking the average rate of growth per person calculated by the World Bank, external for both countries between 2010 and 2021 and applying that for every year until 2030.

On the World Bank’s measure, the economy measured by GDP per person in 2021 was about 29% higher in the UK than it was in Poland, but if you apply, external 2010 to 2021 rates of growth from now until 2030 it does indeed put Poland ahead.

So Starmer would be correct in his projection if the average growth in each country seen between 2010 and 2021 continues at the same pace until 2030.

But GDP per person being lower in one country would not necessarily mean that the average family was worse off in that country.

That would be affected by other things such as distribution of income.

And it’s a big “if” to say that growth rates will continue unchanged for the next eight years.

MPs are now listening to a statement from Justice Secretary Dominic Raab on the establishment of an Independent Public Advocate to support those affected by major incidents or disasters.

You can watch the statement here.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper says the leaked WhatsApp messages show that, despite there being a shortage of Covid tests, in September 2020, one of Hancock's advisers sent a test to the Somerset home of fellow minister Jacob Rees-Mogg by courier.

She describes this as another example of "one rule for government ministers and another for everyone else".

"How many other ministers, Conservative MPs and members of their families received priority tests?", Cooper asks.

Whately replies that when she wanted a test for a member of her family, she used the same app as everyone else.

Much of these questions from MPs relate to a Daily Telegraph, external article that claims former Health Secretary Matt Hancock rejected expert advice on Covid tests for people going into care homes at the start of the pandemic, which he disputes.

Conservative MP Tim Loughton says that, at the beginning of the pandemic, there were competing calls about who should be prioritised for testing, as well as pressure to free up hospital beds for Covid patients.

He says some decisions may have been wrong in hindsight but adds it was an urgent situation.

He also tells MPs that Wales, where there is a Labour-led government, was slower to introduce testing for care home residents than England.

"Why are we not seeing equal outrage from opposition about that," he asks.

Whately agrees and suggests Labour would have made the same decisions as the Conservative if they had been in government during the pandemic.

Reality Check

Earlier in PMQs, Rishi Sunak said: "we've had record high numbers of housebuilding".

The prime minister didn't specify what year he was talking about but in 2019-2020, England saw the construction of 242,700 net additional dwellings.

This was more than in any other year in the last three decades, according to government figures.

That figure has since fallen back to 232,820 in 2021-22.

It's important to point out that both these figures are below the Conservative's target - set out in their 2019 manifesto - for 300,000 new houses a year in England by ‘the mid-2020s’.

Commenting on the Telegraph, external's report on Matt Hancock's alleged response to Covid testing in care homes, the Conservative's Sir Peter Bone says "we can't rewrite history" and the way the government handled the pandemic.

He says that the WhatsApp messages should be investigated as part of the Covid-19 inquiry.

With these details in mind, he asks if it is possible to get the inquiry to report earlier.

Health Minister Helen Whately responds that it's "not within the control of ministers".

Conservative Oliver Heald praises the judge Heather Hallett who is leading the Covid inquiry and says she will do a "very thorough job".

"What we are seeing today is trial by media and party politics," he says.

Whately agrees and says it would be better to try and learn lessons rather than score political points.

Whatley is responding to Kendall's statement now, beginning by expressing shock and disappointment at her Labour colleague's tone "when we are dealing with very difficult questions".

Getting into the substance of her statement, the minister again speaks of "difficult prioritisation decisions" over testing given limited capability at the start of the pandemic in spring 2020.

"The government followed the expert public health advice available at the time," she says.

Whatley then emphasises the UK only had capacity for around 3,000 tests a day in mid-March 2020, adding that testing policy evolved in line with public health advice and growing capacity.

"There were clearly meetings and conversations in other forums" than WhatsApp messages, she says, after describing the leaks as "selection of messages from a larger quantity of messages".

Whatley concludes by saying that those working government "strained every sinew" during their response to the pandemic.

Liz Kendall is picking up on details of the Telegraph, external's report that claims Matt Hancock rejected expert advice on care home testing.

She asks why, if the report is true, that there was a four-month delay in implementing Covid testing in care homes, and why care home residents were not prioritised.

She also presses Helen Whately for evidence that there was a shortage of Covid tests at the time.

"The importance of testing was never in doubt and there was full agreement on that in every part of government," says Health Minister Helen Whately in her response to Kendall.

She says "tough decisions about prioritisation had to be made" over testing.

And she acknowledges that the "situation in care homes was extremely difficult".

Referring to the Telegraph's story about Matt Hancock, she says leaked WhatsApp messages may provide a "limited and at times misleading insight".

Prime Minister's Questions has finished for the week, but we'll be sticking in the House of Commons for a while as Labour's Liz Kendall has lodged an urgent question.

Kendall, the shadow social care minister, asks the minister to make a statement about the testing of care home residents during the Covid pandemic.

The question is in reference to former Health Secretary Matt Hancock who has disputed claims that he rejected expert advice on Covid tests for people going into care homes at the start of the pandemic.

Conservative MP Alberto Costa has expressed his sadness over the recent train accident in Greece.

Costa, who chairs a parliamentary group focusing on Greece, describes the deaths of at least 36 people as a "tragic loss of life" - before moving on to a specific issue related to the possible parole of a murderer and sex offender in his constituency.

Read more about the train crash here.

Image source, House of Commons

Sunak feeling good but little light cast on issuespublished at 12:29 Greenwich Mean Time 1 March 2023

12:29 GMT 1 March 2023

Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent

This was punchy stuff today. Rishi Sunak is evidently feeling good about things. His deal with the EU has given him a sense of confidence.

The Labour leader’s approach was to tap into people’s everyday concerns - the rising cost of living, real wages struggling to keep up, problems with housing, saying Sunak was in "total denial" and unwilling to take on vested interests like the oil companies or those opposing planning reforms.

Sunak had his lines ready to attack Labour on this, saying “they claim they support levelling up, but they really need to keep up”.

Little light was cast on the issues. Most revealing was that Tory MPs cheered their leader as he parried Starmer’s questions. They seem happy with his deal with the EU and are showing few signs that there’s any gathering dissent about it or his leadership.

Labour's Cat Smith asks what the PM is going to do to remediate "crumbling hospitals".

She says that investment in the "so-called" 40 new hospitals the government pledged is yet to be seen.

Sunak replies that the government is backing the NHS to give it the resources that it needs.

He says the Conservatives have pledged "not just 40 new hospitals, but 90 upgrades, and diagnostic centres".

Image source, House of Commons

Sunak responds by saying that the important thing in Northern Ireland is to avoid a land border on the island of Ireland and stresses that the Windsor Framework will achieve just that.

"It's not about the macro issue of membership of the EU," he says.

Flynn continues with the issue of Brexit and the UK economy. He refers to previous comments from Labour leader Keir Starmer's, that access to the EU's single market would boosting economic growth in the UK.

"Does it hurt the prime minister to know the Labour Party believe in Brexit more than he does?" Flynn asks.

Sunak replies that it's "disappointing" Flynn is "seeking to play politics with the situation in Northern Ireland" as the government is just trying to restore the balance of the Good Friday Agreement.

The SNP's Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn is up now, who asks about Sunak's description of EU single-market access in Northern Ireland as "special, exciting and attractive".

"If that's the case, why is he denying it to the rest of us?" he asks the PM.