We're now closing our live coverage of Prime Minister's Questions - which saw Deputy PM Oliver Dowden and Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner trade criticism, claims and jibes about child poverty, mortgage costs and bringing inflation down.

You can read more about some of the key issues of the moment here:

• Mortgages to jump by £500 for a million households
• No decision yet on public sector pay rises - Sunak
• Senior Tories criticise Illegal Immigration Bill

Join us again next week. We're expecting PM Rishi Sunak to be back at the dispatch box. It will be the last PMQs before the summer recess, and will come a day before three by-elections - seen as an important indicator of the political mood in the country.

Today's page was written by Kate Whannel, Adam Durbin, Andre Rhoden-Paul, Chas Geiger and Ece Goksedef. It was edited by Dulcie Lee and myself, Heather Sharp.

We didn't hear much about public sector pay during Prime Minister's Questions - but it remains a pressing issue for the government and we've just had some comments from Downing Street about it.

No 10 has reaffirmed that "no final decision" has been taken on public sector pay, with ministers still "carefully" considering whether to accept the recommendations of official pay review bodies.

It's understood rises of between 6-6.5% for employees including teachers, junior doctors and police, have been recommended.

The prime minister's official spokesman said: "We are still working through that process."

But he added there would be concerns about borrowing to fund pay rises, saying double-digit increases "would be inflationary".

Read more: No decision yet on public sector pay rises

The largest increase in the minimum wage?published at 13:23 British Summer Time 12 July 2023

13:23 BST 12 July 2023

Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden told MPs: "We have introduced the National Living Wage, something the party opposite totally failed to do, and increased the National Living Wage by the largest amount ever."

The Conservatives did indeed introduce the National Living Wage in 2016, but it was in many ways identical to the National Minimum Wage, which Labour introduced in 1999.

In April, the NLW rate for people aged 23 and over increased by 92p per hour, which was a 9.7% increase.

This is a higher increase in cash terms than in any other year, but it was increased so much because the rate of inflation is so high. If rising prices are taken into account, it will not feel like as big an increase to employees.

Just joining us or need a recap? The green benches were a little emptier than usual - perhaps because it's the second week in a row of the two deputies appearing - but the exchanges were still feisty:

• Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner drew parallels between the government and the Conservative administration in the 1990s, highlighting mortgage woes, and also focusing on child poverty
• She said rising bills, higher mortgage payments and lower real wages were pushing families to the brink, and accused the Tories of crashing the economy

• Deputy PM Oliver Dowden said the government is building houses at a record rate, and claimed the government has lifted 400,000 children out of child poverty as well increasing the national living wage by the largest amount ever
• He added the government is taking many measures to help people with the cost of living and accused Labour of "hugging the magic money tree"
• The SNP's Mhairi Black asked how high mortgage rates have to rise until the government "takes it seriously" - Dowden countered that discipline is needed to bring inflation down
• Other questions from backbenchers covered access to NHS dentists, railway ticket office closures, the HS2 rail scheme and seagulls nesting in a telecoms mast

Labour's Angela Rayner and deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden stepped in for their respective bosses at today's PMQs .

And Rayner didn't miss the chance to take aim at an absent Sunak - he's at the Nato summit in Lithuania.

Take a look:

That's the questions in the House of Commons over for another week - but stay with us as we recap the key moments and bring you more updates and analysis.

PMQs has finished now but we'll continue to bring you the highlights from this week's session.

Wera Hobhouse from the Liberal Democrats asks about her bill to give people protection from workplace sexual harassment allegations.

She says the bill has full government support but is stuck in the House of Lords, who are seeking to amend it. Hobhouse asks if the government will offer government time in the Commons to ensure it passes.

Dowden says the government are working on the bill the equalities minister will be happy to meet with her to discuss it.

And that's it from the Commons, stick with us for plenty of analysis as we dig into the figures thrown around in that session.

Labour's Dan Carden says the forced isolation of people in care homes during the pandemic had terrible consequence and created profound trauma.

He asks the government if it will introduce legislation which gives people using the health and care services the right to be accompanied by a care supporter.

Dowden says the MP is right to highlight need for care supporters and will raise it with colleagues.

The SNP's Anne McLaughlin speaks of the "terror and abandonment" she felt when she had problems paying her mortgage, and says people on low incomes often can't get help.

Given that the current "mortgage crisis" was two years in the making, she adds, does Dowden really think that he and Rishi Sunak can fix it in 12 months?

The deputy PM says it's "deeply disturbing, upsetting and worrying" for anyone to contemplate losing their own home.

That's why the chancellor has come up with his mortgage charter, signed up to by 90% of the market, he says, adding that after three months, people on universal credit can access further support.

Conservative MP Duncan Baker says that in his constituency, North Norfolk, they have "a whole area totally cut off from having a mobile signal until August because of nesting seagulls taking up residency in the new telecoms masts".

He says that nests are protected and cannot be moved, meaning people there cannot make emergency calls.

And he asks Dowden to help call on Natural England, a public body sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, "to be sensible" and make sure the phone mast can start working again.

Dowden says he'll take it up with them.

Plaid Cymru's Hywel Williams asks why people in Wales are having to pay £5bn for the "white elephant" of HS2 when it goes nowhere near the country.

Dowden replies that it is thanks to the strength of the United Kingdom that record sums are going to Wales.

East Lothian MP Kenny MacAskill from the Alba Party asks about fuel poverty.

He wants to know when the government will bring in a social tariff to ensure the poor and vulnerable can get through the winter without calling the ambulance service because they are freezing.

Dowden says they are exploring the best approach to consumer protection from April 2024 as part of wider retail market changes.

He re-emphasises that they paid half of energy bills in Scotland this winter, and says it is part of the strength of the union.

Labour's Cat Smith asks Dowden about plans to scrap tickets offices at her local Lancaster train station, which she says is "yet another cost-of-living bombshell" hitting her constituents.

Dowden replies that it is important railways continue to "reform" after the "record amount of money we gave them during Covid".

He adds if Smith is concerned about people's ability to use the railways she should condemn "totally unjustified" strikes.

The SNP's Pete Wishart says he has never seen anything as grotesque as a minister asking for a Mickey Mouse mural - designed to welcome child asylum seekers to a reception centre in Dover - to be painted over (you can read the story here).

Can the minister look into the deepest recesses of his soul and simply condemn it, he asks.

Dowden doesn't take up the offer, instead saying real compassion means stopping the vile people-smuggling trade condemning women and children to death.

The government is taking action to stop the boats, he says.

Rayner had a problem when it came to free school mealspublished at 12:27 British Summer Time 12 July 2023

12:27 BST 12 July 2023

Iain Watson
Political correspondent

The focus of the questions at PMQs - or accurately Deputy Prime Minister's Questions - was poverty.

But some of the exchanges were also extremely poor, with the trading and questioning of statistics.

Angela Rayner traded her usual humour and satire for passion.

She attacked the government's record on child poverty and homelessness. But she had a problem.

Sitting right next to her on the front bench was the shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

So when Angela Rayner asked how many primary school pupils had been forced in to poverty, she could not say a future Labour government would extend free school meals to all children of that age - because that would be a spending commitment which might undermine Labour's "fiscal rules".

This in turn allowed Oliver Dowden, in a far from punchy performance, to point to a previous Conservative-led government's record in giving free meals to younger children.

Conservative MP for North West Hampshire Kit Malthouse asks when allocations for the third round of levelling-up funds will be announced - and whether all parts of the country will benefit, including the south-east and the "very deserving town of Andover".

Dowden says a new approach to the third round of funding will be announced soon.

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey gave an example from a woman called Emily in Somerset who booked an appointment with a local NHS dentist in January for 14 June, and in late May she was informed that the dentist was closed in April.

He asked: "Can the deputy prime minister tell Emily and millions of people like her when they can get an appointment with a local NHS dentist?"

Dowden replies that their investment plan adds an extra £2.4bn to training and retaining crucial NHS staff, including dentists.

He adds, with this plan, "Number of dentists will rise by 40%."

Image source, House of Commons

The SNP's Mhairi Black points out the chancellor is telling homeowners to just shop around, following rising mortgage payments.

She asks if Dowden understands that people need help now.

He replies the fundamental thing we have to do is halve inflation because higher inflation drivers higher mortgage rates.

Image source, House of Commons

The SNP's Mhairi Black says mortgage rates have surpassed the levels they reached after last year's mini-budget.

How high do mortgage rates need to go until the government takes it seriously, she asks.

Dowden replies that higher mortgage rates are driven by higher inflation, which he says was caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a post-Covid supply change.

Only by getting inflation under control can we get mortgages down - that requires discipline on spending, public sector pay and energy supply, he says.

Dowden says Labour claims to be the party of working people, but under their plans, people can't even get to work, with Just Stop Oil protesters "blocking our roads", "their union paymasters stopping our trains" and the "hated ULEZ stopping cars across our capital".

While the Conservatives get Britain moving, Labour is "standing in everyone's way", the deputy PM concludes.