Are small boat crossings down by a third?published at 12:57 Greenwich Mean Time 17 January

12:57 GMT 17 January

In an exchange on small boat arrivals, Sunak said the numbers of people coming to this country were down by a third.

That’s true - the overall numbers in 2023 were a third lower than the year before:

In 2023, 29,437 migrants arrived in small boats

In 2022, 45,755 migrants arrived in small boats

However, the 2023 figure was still significantly higher than arrivals in 2020 and the small boats are still coming – with 263 migrants crossing last week

Image source, .

There was a lot of energy in the chamber for today's PMQs, with a robust exchange between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer, and a number of interventions from Speaker Lindsay Hoyle.

• The Rwanda policy was the focus of the questions from leader of the opposition Starmer, who mocked the government for losing contact with thousands of asylum seekers
• Starmer also said Sunak didn't believe in or think the policy would work, so questioned why anyone else should back the PM?
• Sunak retorted that Labour didn't have a plan to stop small boat crossings and claimed the government's immigration policies were working
• The PM accused the Labour leader of saying one thing and doing another, and claimed his government was delivering a "brighter future"
• The SNP also criticised Sunak over the Rwanda plan, saying the government was "tearing itself apart"
• In other matters, Green Caroline Lucas pressed Sunak to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, but the PM said Hamas had to release hostages first and stop rocket attacks on Israel
• Sunak also faced questions about the contaminated blood scandal, HS2 and today's inflation figures, which showed a slight rise

And just the final question to bring you from the PMQs. Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper says entire hospital buildings are being closed down because they are structurally unsafe.

From "broken promises on new hospitals" to backlogs of repairs, she adds, people are "sick and tired of waiting".

By the time of the next election, how many broken hospitals will be fixed and will people in her area (St Albans) be able to point to "a single spade in the ground?", she asks.

Sunak replies that record sums are being spent to deliver 40 new hospitals and 90 different hospital upgrades, including in Cooper's area.

Image source, House of Commons

The President of Rwanda Paul Kagame has said he will return UK taxpayers' money, if no asylum seekers are sent to Rwanda under the government’s deal with the country.

The UK government says it has paid £240m to Rwanda so far, with a further £50m expected in the 2024-25 financial year. So far, no asylum seekers have been sent to the country.

But asked by the BBC, on the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos, why his country was taking millions of pounds of UK money, without so far taking any asylum seekers, President Kagame replied: “It’s only going to be used if those people will come."

“If they don’t come, we can return the money,” he added.

Kagame did not clarify how much of the money he would return, or when.

Asked by the BBC’s Economics Editor Faisal Islam about the current political and legal obstacles around the deal with his country, Kagame said that it was “not Rwanda’s problem”.

“Ask the UK - it is the UK’s problem, not Rwanda’s problem”, he said.

Labour MP Peter Peter Dowd asks a question about inflation, asking if the PM will take responsibility for the today's surprise rise.

Sunak responds by saying that inflation was at 11% when he got the job - today, it is at 4%. The recent uptick is following the same trend as in other countries such as France and Germany, he says, and adds that the crucial thing is that inflation has been halved ahead of schedule, which has helped people across the country.

The PM then hits back at Labour, saying the opposition party's plan would saddle people with £28bn of tax rises.

Conservative MP James Gray asks if the PM agrees that a remote, rural hotel is the wrong place to house refugees and asylum seekers.

He thanks the home secretary for yesterday announcing that the Wiltshire hotel in Wootton Bassett, in Wiltshire, will be "returned to its proper purpose" in April.

Sunak says Gray is right, and that the use of hotels costs taxpayers £8m a day. He says the government's plans to reduce the number of people coming means they can close the first 50 hotels across the country.

He says the only way to resolve this once and for all is to implement the Rwanda scheme, adding: "That's how we will stop the boats."

Image source, House of Commons

Labour's MP for Ealing Central and Acton, in west London, Dr Rupa Huq, asks Sunak about HS2. After a high-speed line linking Manchester to Leeds was scrapped last year, she asks whether Sunak can confirm the route will still reach London as planned.

"Could the PM today commit to ensuring it at least reaches Euston - or is he intent on stopping all travel forms, except private jets maybe?"

Sunak says he is working with the private sector to raise private money, arguing this will save the taxpayer money, and deliver the connection to Euston as planned.

The attack line from Sunak we will hear repeated in coming monthspublished at 12:35 Greenwich Mean Time 17 January

12:35 GMT 17 January

Chris Mason
Political editor

The rows about Rwanda have framed the main exchanges at Prime Minister’s Questions between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.

The Labour leader’s repeated focus on the more than 4,000 people who have gone missing in the asylum system was clearly designed to expose that the prime minister was unable to offer an answer.

But it was also about a bigger argument opposition parties are attempting to make - that amid all the noise about the Rwanda scheme, the government has lost control of illegal immigration.

The government argues that this is precisely why the Rwanda plan is necessary - to do something radical and different that could make a difference.

Sunak also repeated an attack line we will hear repeatedly in the coming months – that Starmer doesn’t believe in anything and regularly changes his mind.

Chris Stephens, SNP member for Glasgow South West, asks when will people be compensated for the contaminated blood scandal?

Sunak replies that he recognises the suffering experienced by those affected, and says parliament was updated last year. "We're committed to responding to final report."

You can read more about the infected blood inquiry here.

Image source, House of Commons

Back to the Rwanda bill, and the SNP's Patrick Grady asks why the government thinks the prospect of being deported to Rwanda will deter migrants from coming to the UK.

"Is it because Rwanda is less secure or less safe?"

There is nothing wrong with Rwanda, Sunak replies, but it is not the UK. We know deterrence works, he adds, because a returns scheme with Albania has cut migrant numbers from that country by 90%.

A new tone from Starmer at PMQspublished at 12:28 Greenwich Mean Time 17 January

12:28 GMT 17 January

Henry Zeffman
Chief political correspondent

Sir Keir Starmer chose a slightly different tone at prime minister’s questions today - mockery.

It was inevitable that he would focus on Rwanda, as he did last week. And PMQs often has a lighter tone than other Commons exchanges.

But the Labour leader definitely deployed his quips in a more persistent way than usual.

Labour clearly believes that the government’s stuttering attempts to get the policy up and running will help them make an argument about broader incompetence.

Yet on the Conservative benches opposite it was clear that Rishi Sunak believes this is a strong subject for him too, allowing him to question Starmer’s own policies on illegal immigration and asylum.

Indeed, many Conservative MPs of different parts of the party believe that getting the policy operational will help the party electorally. They disagree on exactly the best way to make the policy work though, and that’s why this afternoon’s debates will be so heated.

Image source, House of Commons

Green MP Caroline Lucas asks the PM about the difficulties of getting aid through to Gaza, quoting Oxfam in saying that the UK government was complicit in the suffering of people in Gaza by not backing an immediate ceasefire.

She asks Sunak what it will take to back a permanent bilateral ceasefire?

Sunak says he wants to see a peaceful resolution to the conflict as soon as possible and a sustainable ceasefire put in place, but in order to achieve that Hamas would have to release hostages, no longer be in charge of Gaza and stop rocket attacks on Israel.

Rishi Sunak says it is important that the government stops the boats, saying illegal migration is "not fair".

He says many of these illegal immigrants are jumping the queue, many of whom are exploited by the criminal gangs.

Sunak asserts that "the fair and compassionate" thing to do is to break the criminal gangs, "and that's why we're going to stop the boats".

Flynn says the Rwanda bill is "straight out of the cruel and callous right-wing play book" and that the PM's time in office is fast approaching its conclusion.

"Does he seriously want this to be his legacy?," he asks.

Sunak responds with a dig about taxes.

He asks why, if the leader of the SNP cared about supporting working families, the SNP was making Scotland "the highest taxed part of UK".

The SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn says the government is "tearing itself apart on how quickly it can send vulnerable people on a plane to Rwanda".

He says the anger Sunak has seen from his backbenchers is surely nothing compared to the anger of the public.

Sunak says it's another week when it's "crystal clear" Starmer "doesn't believe in anything".

The reality, he adds, is that inflation has been more than halved, real wages are rising, mortgage rates are beginning to fall, and taxes are being cut.

Instead of putting that at risk with Labour's "£28bn tax grab", he concludes, let's stick with his plan "delivering a brighter future for Britain".

Starmer reiterates his claim that Sunak doesn't believe in the Rwanda policy, and lists senior Tories who have spoken out against the plan.

He says that a Tory MP has said that things have got worse under the Conservatives, and that Britain was "a sadder place".

He asks if the PM can't even convince his own MPs to support him and his policies, why should anyone else think differently?

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak responds by saying it is "rich" to hear Starmer talking about belief, saying it is possible one can "can belive in something and stick to that position" on the Conservative side of the House - to loud cheers, prompting another interruption by the Speaker.

Sunak points to another example of Starmer "doing one thing, saying another". He says the Labour leader backed the banning of the Hizb ut-Tahrir terror group despite Starmer's legal defence of the group in the past.

"When I see a group chanting 'jihad' on our streets, I ban them. He invoices them!" says Sunak, to loud cheers.

Starmer says it's nonsense, and the PM has been "brutally exposed" by his own MPs "yet again".

He says MPs are in an open revolt against Sunak's policy, each other, and reality - another joke that gets a few chuckles from the benches.

He asks if there is any wonder "this gimmick is doomed for failure" when the PM "doesn't believe in it".