Sarah Dines, the Conservative MP for Derbyshire Dales, raises concerns about a town in her area being "debanked", after it was announced NatWest was closing Bakewell's last remaining bank.

She says this means this would mean there would no be no banks lefts in the whole of the Derbyshire Dales and the Peak District.

Dines says NatWest are ignoring vulnerable and elderly people, as well as businesses, in "a thriving market town".

Sunak replies by saying all customers should have appropriate access to banking and that the government has legislated to protect access to cash.

He adds that the financial services sector will provide a cash deposit service in her area, with Post Office services also available.

Chris Mason
Political editor

A fourth party leader gets a question today: Sir Ed Davey of the Liberal Democrats.

The tussle between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives is a crucial one in the context of the next general election.

The Lib Dems believe people's experience of the NHS is an issue worth pursuing.

Striking too was mention of a corner of North Yorkshire – Harrogate.

It is a Conservative seat right now. But, you guessed it - it is one the Lib Dems have previously held.

The next question comes from Lib Dem leader Ed Davey who says three years ago, the government made a commitment to 40 new hospitals, and significant upgrades to hospitals "in most need".

But Davey says many schemes are "badly delayed".

He asks if the PM will explain why his government is "happy to let patients, doctors and nurses suffer for years" in "unfit and unsafe" conditions,

In response, Sunak says the government is delivering 40 new hospitals by 2030 and good progress is being made.

That programme is being backed by more than £20bn of investment. He adds that is right that RAAC hospitals are prioritised.

Chris Mason
Political editor

The politics of migration has framed the main exchanges between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer – peppered with rather laboured jokes about marbles, courtesy of the row over the last few days about the Elgin Marbles - the Parthenon Sculptures.

Starmer is seeking to prod at an issue that is convulsing plenty of Conservative MPs.

Why is the issue having such an effect on Tory MPs?

Because it matters to millions of people. And because it is a transparent example of a vast gap between what the Conservatives promised and what has happened.

Legal migration has ballooned.

“There is only one party that has lost control of the borders,” Keir Starmer was able to crow.

Rishi Sunak replied that "levels of migration are far too high and I am determined to bring them down to sustainable levels".

He pointed to measures he believes will bring the number down.

Within government now there is a hearty and heated argument about how to do that – without damaging the economy or meaning the NHS and social care doesn’t have enough staff.

Would Labour allow an additional 100,000 migrants every year?published at 12:34 Greenwich Mean Time 29 November 2023

12:34 GMT 29 November 2023

At PMQs a little earlier, Rishi Sunak accused the Labour leader Keir Starmer of striking “a secret backroom deal with the EU that would see an additional 100,000 migrants here every year”.

Mr Starmer has previously said he would negotiate a returns agreement with EU countries to send back somefailed asylum seekers - if Labour wins power.

Mr Sunak's claim – which we’ve looked at before is based on an assumption that Labour would have to take 13% of all asylum seekers arriving in the EU as part of such an agreement.

The Conservatives have said this is because the EU has a policy of sharing asylum seekers between countries based on population size. They say this would mean the UK taking more than 100,000 of them a year.

But although the EU has been discussing for years how to share responsibility for refugees, no deal based on population is in place.

Labour has said it would not - and could not - sign up to an EU quota scheme because the UK is not a member state, so any agreement would have to be outside that.

Stephen Flynn of the SNP follows up by saying it's not a matter of energy production - saying Scotland produces six times more gas than it consumes. It says it's a "consequence of failed energy policy here in Westminster".

He says his party believes that Scotland's energy wealth should benefit the people of Scotland, and asks Sunak why he doesn't think the same.

Sunak responds by saying that the UK's entire energy grid is integrated, bringing benefits to people across the country.

He also says the government has provided raises to benefits, as well as cost of living payments.

Now we turn to the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn. He said many Scottish families who saw it snow today would have been “filled with dread” as they know they “simply cannot afford to pay energy bills” as the weather turns colder.

Given this, does the prime minister “regret offering no” financial support for families this winter, Flynn asks.

Rishi Sunak says Flynn is “simply not right” and pensioners will see an extra £300 on top of their usual winter fuel payments.

Now we have a question from Conservative MP Rehman Chishti, who praises the government for responding to the "shocking" rise in antisemitism, and allocating funding to address this in the Autumn Statement

However, he says there was no funding the Autumn Statement to deal with islamophobia, and the independent adviser role for islamophobia has been vacant for one year.

Sunak says "we won't tolerate anti-Muslim hatred in any from and expect it to be dealt with anywhere it occurs".

He says the government has provided £6m in funding to Tell MAMA, a service that supports people affected by anti-Muslim hatred, and also doubled the funding for protective security measures.

Chris Mason
Political editor

The prime minister concludes an answer by saying “Britain isn’t listening,” but for some reason his microphone had been turned off.

So we heard it in here, but whether many people beyond these walls did, I’m not so sure.

Sunak says at the beginning of the year the government said it would halve inflation and it has delivered.

He says the whole time, Starmer backed inflationary pay rises and no controls for welfare, and borrowing £28bn a year that would "just make the situation worse".

Sunak says in the past week, the government has delivered "the biggest tax cuts since the 1980s", increased pensions and benefits and secured £30bn of new investment for the country.

Starmer continues to criticise Sunak's record in office, accusing him of "living in la la land".

He says Sunak first promised to get the NHS waiting lists down, but they went up. He said he was getting control of immigration, that went up, Starmer says.

"He then turned his hand to bringing taxes down - the tax burden is now going to be higher than ever".

He says Sunak has now taken a keen interest in Greek culture, describing him as the "man with the reverse Midas touch".

"Everything he touches turns to... rubbish", he says.

Sunak replies that Starmer's comments are "a bit rich" from someone who described all immigration law as racist and said it was a mistake to control immigration.

He says the government has taken steps to control migration and would continue to do so.

"This is the person who stood on a platform and promised to defend free movement," the PM adds.

Starmer says only one party has lost control of borders and they're sitting right there, pointing to the Tories in the Commons.

"This is a government not just in turmoil but in open revolt," he adds.

"The former home secretary thinks he's failing because of his magical thinking, and the current home secretary thinks he's failing... and even took time out to from insulting people in the North East to admit he agrees with Labour."

Starmer says the PM seems be the "only person without his own personal immigration plan".

He asks why should the public have faith in him if his own side don't?

In response, Sunak says the government has taken significant measures on migration - and will take more.

He says the ONS say more recent estimates indicate a slowing of immigration as a result of the moves the government has taken.

Sunak says he's surprised Starmer is taking this position, and reads out a previous quote from the Labour leader from when he was a "pushy, young, shadow immigration minister". Sunak says Starmer told the House that "limits on skilled migrants are a form of economic vandalism".

He then accuses Starmer of now making a U-turn.

Starmer accuses Sunak of suggesting that meeting the prime minister of Greece is "somehow supporting the EU" instead of discussing serious issues.

He accuses the PM of digging "further into that hole he's made for himself", saying that he is conducting a war on reality.

Starmer adds that Labour would scrap Sunak's "perverse wage-cutting policy", and asks Sunak why he won't.

Sunak replies by saying illegal boat crossings are down by a third this year, which he puts down to the government's actions.

He accuses Starmer of backing "Brussels over Britain every single time".

The prime minister claims the Labour leader showed his "true colours" by choosing Ode to Joy - the anthem of the EU - when asked this week what song which best sums up his party.

"Literally the anthem of the European Union."

Keir Starmer - who met the Greek PM himself this week - says he discussed immigration, the economy and security with him and said we wouldn't change the law regarding the marbles.

"It's not that difficult prime minister," he says.

He says Sunak has "no plan" on boat crossings and migration is at a "record high".

"His (Sunak's) policy is that companies can pay workers from abroad 20% less than British workers - that has contributed to those record high immigration levels, hasn't it?" Starmer adds.

Sunak replies that the government is happy to discuss important topics of substance with its allies.

But he says "when it was clear" the purpose of the meeting was not to discuss substantive issues of the future, but rather to grandstand and relitigate issues of the past, it was "inappropriate".

It may seem alien to Starmer, Sunak says, but when "people make commitments they should keep them".

Continuing with the reference to the Parthenon Sculptures, Starmer says the prime minister has "lost his marbles".

He says the Greek prime minister came to London to meet with Sunak, describing him as a fellow Nato member, an economic ally, as well as an ally in tackling migration.

Starmer says that instead of discussing serious issues, Sunak "tried to humiliate him and cancelled at the last minute".

"Why such small politics?" he asks.

Responding to Starmer's question, Rishi Sunak says the levels of migration are "far too high" and he's determined to bring them back down to "sustainable levels".

He says the government is reviewing recommendations from the Migration Advisory Committee on further action.

The prime minister adds that earlier this year he took the "toughest action ever taken to reduce legal migration" by cracking down on students bringing family members to the UK with them - and says forecasts suggest migration is likely to drop as a result.

He accused Starmer of a "secret back-room deal with the EU", which he claims would see thousands more people come to the UK.