Aoife Walsh
Live reporter

Thanks for joining us as we followed the last Prime Minister's Questions of the year.

We brought you coverage of Sunak and Starmer's lively debate on homelessness, housing targets and the PM's support in his party.

We also heard Sunak and Starmer pay tribute to Mark Drakeford, after he announced he would stand down as Welsh Labour leader in March - triggering a contest for his successor as first minister. You can find our story about that here.

And you can find the latest analysis on what's been happening in Westminster from BBC political editor Chris Mason here.

I've been joined on this page by James FitzGerald, Tara Mewawalla, Chas Geiger, Owen Amos, Adam Durbin, Kate Whannel, Barbara Tasch and Emily Atkinson.

Let's take a moment to look back over the final PMQs of the year - which saw raucous jeers in the Commons quietened by the speaker as Sunak and Starmer traded panto-esque jibes.

• Starmer pressed the PM about the "meltdown" in his party for which "everyone else is paying the price" - after Sunak stared down a potential Tory rebellion over his Rwanda bill
• The Labour leader also accused his political adversary of being "tone deaf" to the plight of homeless people in the UK - though the PM said rough sleeping was down
• Sunak said the Tories had delivered on their agenda for 2023, claiming falling inflation and saying his government had cut small boat Channel crossings
• He attacked Labour's track record on home-building and said Starmer showed "shameless opportunism" by helping to defeat a government plan on homebuilding pollution rules earlier this year
• In a pair of questions about Gaza, the SNP’s Stephen Flynn highlighted the UK's abstention from Tuesday's UN General Assembly vote calling for a ceasefire - to which Sunak replied that the UK was working "night and day" to get aid in to the enclave
• And Labour MP Stephen Timms asked Sunak about the government salary requirement increase for a spousal visa. Sunak said the Home Office was looking at "transitional arrangements" to ensure the rules are fair, promising more information shortly

We've just heard from Rishi Sunak's spokesman - who says the PM will listen to suggestions for amendments on his updated Rwanda bill.

But he also explains any amendment put forward by MPs must be "legally credible, has the deterrent effect and ensures the scheme does not collapse". He adds: "Our focus remains on getting flights off the ground as swiftly as possible."

The bill made it through a first vote in the House of Commons yesterday, after a day of speculation about a potential significant rebellion within Tory ranks.

The spokesman also says Sunak still sees the Rwanda Bill - which is designed to put some asylum seekers on a one-way ticket to Rwanda to make their claim - as emergency legislation. But he declines to give a timetable for when it'll next be debated by MPs.

Asked about reports that the bill may not be put forward for the next stage of the parliamentary process until mid-January, the spokesman says no timetable has been set yet, and any suggestion otherwise was speculation.

Is rough sleeping down by 35%?published at 13:27 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2023

13:27 GMT 13 December 2023

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told MPs that "rough sleeping in this country is down by 35% since its peak thanks to the efforts of this government”.

He’s right about the fall.

The latest figures, external show that in Autumn 2022, there were 3,069 people estimated to be sleeping rough in England. That’s a 35% decrease on 2017, when the estimate was 4,751.

But current rough sleeping estimates are up by nearly three-quarters against 2010 levels – the year the Conservatives came to power (in coalition with the Liberal Democrats).

The data only provides a snapshot of people recorded as sleeping rough on a single night between October and November every year – so actual numbers may be higher.

Chris Page
Ireland correspondent

Image source, PA Media

The prime minister said at PMQs that the government "stands ready" to legislate to "protect Northern Ireland’s integral place in the UK’s internal market”.

Responding to a question from the DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson, he said the process could happen "at pace".

Legislation on post-Brexit trading arrangements has been a key demand from the DUP in its negotiations with the UK government to restore power-sharing at Stormont.

Later this afternoon, Donaldson will return to Northern Ireland to attend cross-party roundtable talks with the NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris at Hillsborough Castle.

The SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn used his question to ask why the UK didn't back a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict during yesterday's vote at the UN General Assembly.

The PM acknowledged that "too many people" had lost their lives in Gaza, and said the UK was getting more aid in.

Has government debt fallen?published at 13:00 Greenwich Mean Time 13 December 2023

13:00 GMT 13 December 2023

Telling MPs about how he had been getting on with his priorities for the year, Rishi Sunak said: "Inflation halved, the economy growing, debt falling".

He is right that inflation is half the level it was at the start of the year.

But the other two claims are questionable.

There has been zero growth in the economy so far this year, according to figures released this morning.

And the latest debt figures for October, external showed that public sector net debt stood at 97.8% of the size of the economy. The prime minister did not specify over what period he was talking about debt having fallen, but October's figure was the same as the previous month and 2.3 percentage points higher than October 2022.

• You can read more about the prime minister's five promises here

Here's a quick look back at the seasonal jibes traded by both leaders earlier.

Back to the Middle East.

Before the end of the session, Conservative MP Theresa Villiers brought up recently-published "appalling" reports of sexual violence committed by Hamas in its attack on Israel on 7 October, arguing that there was a risk hostages "could have this treatment inflicted on themselves".

She urged the PM to raise the issue so that the international community would demand "strongly" humanitarian access to hostages in Gaza.

Sunak replied that the reports were "shocking" - and that he had raised the concerns with the UN "a fortnight ago" and was liaising with the Israeli government.

"We continue to do everything that we can to ensure that all hostages can return safely to their families, including those British hostages and those with links to the UK," he added.

Mary Glindon, the Labour MP for North Tyneside, said that while the home secretary was in Rwanda signing a treaty, his department put out a contract to manage small boat arrivals until 2030 - at a £700m cost to the taxpayer.

"Doesn't this show even the Home Office doesn't think the minister's plan will work?" she asked.

Sunak said this was a "total mischaracterisation", adding it was an advert not a commitment.

The PM said the government had brought down small boat arrivals down by a third.

• Read more here

In an apparent allusion to Conservative differences over the Rwanda plan, Labour MP John Spellar said Tory divisions were not what was most pressing for the public or businesses - who he said felt that "Britain isn't working".

"When's he going to get a grip?," he asked.

Sunak responded by saying the most pressing issue facing people was the cost of living, which was why the government has done what it has to halve inflation.

He said ministers were supplementing this by giving people tax cuts from January, demonstrating "we are absolutely on the side of hard-working families".

We also heard Conservative MP James Morris ask about the Mental Health Act, which he says the Tories promised to reform in 2017 and 2019 and which he says is "not fit for the 21st Century".

Morris said people with learning disabilities and with autism were being sectioned under the act and kept in "inappropriate conditions", were not receiving "compassionate care", and were being "essentially criminalised".

Sunak said he would be happy to meet the MP and that he intended to bring forward a new draft mental health bill "when parliamentary time allows".

He told the house his party was carrying out the "largest expansion in mental health services in a generation" - the PM said this included £2.3bn of extra funding by March next year and the largest expansion of the mental health workforce ever seen in the country.

That's all for this week's session of PMQs - but there are still a few more questions to bring you up to speed on.

Labour MP for Battersea Marsha De Cordova says that with 12 days left until Christmas, hundreds of families in her constituency are worried about buying food and that Wandsworth food banks are bracing for worst winter yet.

She asks what the PM is doing to ensure families "do not go cold and hungry this Christmas".

Sunak says his party cares deeply "that the most vulnerable in our society get the support they need" and that is why welfare increased by "record amounts" this year, which were supplemented by cost-of-living payments worth £900, as well as help with energy bills.

He adds his government is deeply committed to helping those who need it and says it "has got a track record of delivering that help".

Labour MP Stephen Timms asks Sunak about the government increasing the salary requirement for a spousal visa to £38,700 - saying this move could lead to the marriage plans of thousands of couples being dashed.

He asks the PM if he can "give any reassurance" to those couples or families already in the UK needing to extend their stay that won't comply with the new rules?

Sunak says there is a long-standing principle that anyone who brings a spouse to the UK must be able to support them financially.

He adds that level hasn't been raised in a decade, adding that the family route "does contain provision for exceptional circumstances".

The Home Office are looking at "transitional arrangements" to ensure the rules are fair, with more information due to be released shortly, the PM says.

• Read more here: Tougher visa rules unveiled in plan to cut migration

We're now onto questions from backbenchers, and will continue to bring you the highlights on this page.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is among the first. He raises unionist concerns about what he describes as the Irish Sea border created by the Northern Ireland Protocol in the Brexit deal. He says this disrupts the UK's internal market.

Will the PM, he asks, "future-proof Northern Ireland's unfettered access" to this internal market?

Sunak says he recognises a need to do more in this area, and the government is ready to legislate to protect Northern Ireland's integral place in the UK - alongside a restoration of the Northern Ireland executive (which the DUP have resisted).

He adds that the people of Northern Ireland need devolved government urgently.

Flynn continues with Gaza, saying 153 nations voted in the UN for a ceasefire while the UK "shamefully abstained".

He asks how the PM can explain why other countries are wrong and Westminster right.

Sunak says the UK is "deeply concerned" by the fighting and is working "night and day" to get aid in to Gaza.

He adds that he has spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about opening up maritime corridors for aid.

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn is up next - and asks the PM to share his Christmas message for children being bombed in Gaza.

Sunak says more humanitarian pauses are needed to get life-saving aid into the Palestinian territory.

He says he supports a sustainable ceasefire but that means Hamas must stop firing missiles into Israel, and release hostages.

Sunak says that Starmer missed the prime minister paying tribute to the emergency workers at the beginning of the session.

He says all the Labour leader has to offer is borrowing £28bn - whereas, he says, the Tories have boosted the national wage, recruited more nurses and police officers, improved schools, cut small boat Channel crossings and halved inflation.

"We're getting on and delivering for working Britain," he finishes.

Starmer sticks with the story of Liam - asking whether that is really Sunak's Christmas message to the little boy.

Starmer says Sunak "just can't see the country in front of him and what (the Conservatives) have done".

He says it is an impossibly difficult year for many, and pays tribute to key workers.