House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Toby Perkins asks if it's policy for England to boycott the World Cup in Russia and if not "what on earth was the foreign secretary on about".

Theresa May says Boris Johnson was communicating that "depending what comes out" of the investigation into the suspected poisoning of an ex-spy "it may be appropriate to look at whether ministers and dignitaries should attend".

House of Commons
Parliament

DUP Westminster leader Nigel Dodds asks if the prime minister will praise Michel Barnier for his achievement in releasing negotiation guidelines that "managed to unite the government and the opposition in utter defiance".

He asks if the PM agrees that "now is the time for the EU to get on and examine pragmatic, sensible arrangements" for the future EU/UK relationship.

Theresa May says "now is the time for the EU negotiators to get on with the job of discussing that trade partnership for the future".

She adds that she's looking forward to discussing "practical details" of maintaining the Irish border with the European Commission and the Irish government.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Marsha de Cordova says the £9bn Battersea Power Station development only offers 9% affordable homes, described as an "insult to thousands of people on the housing waiting list in Wandsworth".

She asks if the PM is "embarrassed" this has been overseen by a Tory council.

Mrs May responds that the site had been "derelict for 40 years" and it will now be "providing homes and jobs - something to welcome".

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Sarah Wollaston asks about last week's bad weather and says that a road in her constituency, the A379, has been partially washed away. She asks that the PM "assure my constituents that they won't be left isolated".

Theresa May says she's "pleased to announce" that the government will provide financial assistance to ensure the road is rebuilt as quickly as possible.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

The SNP leader at Westmisnter Ian Blackford usually attracts a jeer from Conservatives as he rises to bat for the SNP.

His colleague Mhairi Black gets a gentler reception, having recently returned from illness. But the SNP MP maintains her combative reputation

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

SNP MP Mhairi Black says the prime minister is continuing to "sing the praises" of universal credit despite the "devastation" the rollout of the new benefit is causing.

She says Conservatives at Stirling Council have called for over half a million pounds in funding to "mitigate the enormous human suffering" of the changes.

Theresa May replies that universal credit "encourages and enables people to get into the workplace".

A "number of changes" to the operation of the benefit have been made, she adds, including the possibility for people to get "100% advances" of their money where appropriate.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Emma Reynolds asks why there has been a 60% drop in the number of apprenticeships.

Theresa May points to the apprenticeship levy and says there is "a commitment through a number of years" to increase their uptake.

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Parliament

Image source, HoC

Conservative Maria Miller, who chairs the Women and Equalities Committee, asks when the government will take forward its review on protections for pregnant women at work.

Theresa May promises that the legislation relating to redundancy will be reviewed within the next 12 months.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative backbencher Justin Tomlinson asks if the PM will congratulate the Oscar winning short film The Silent Child, and its deaf 6-year-old star Masie Sly, as well as her school which is in his constituency. It has "helped her fulfill her true potential".

Theresa May says "everybody was captivated by Maise's example" and that the award and the film was "important in highlighting the issue of disabled people, particularly deaf people".

House of Commons
Parliament

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Nottingham Labour MP Lilian Greenwood says the city needs to find an extra £12m this year to care for elderly and disabled people.

She says that the government's proposed solution - to raise council tax by 3% - will only raise just over £3m, leaving a "huge gap to to be filled".

She calls on the prime minister to "wake up to the social care crisis" and urge the chancellor to give local authorities more money for care in next week's spring statement.

In reply Theresa May says the chancellor has given more money to the social care sector at "successive fiscal events". She says "£2bn extra" has been put into financing social care by local authorities.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

Do cabinet ministers - such as the Education Secretary Damian Hinds - practise their sage nodding of agreement in front of a mirror on Wednesday mornings?

House of Commons
Parliament

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SNP MP Stewart McDonald raises the case of Raif Badawi.

Mr Badawi established the Liberal Saudi Network, a now-closed online forum that sought to encourage debate on religious and political matters in Saudi Arabia in 2008.

In 2012, he was arrested in Jeddah and charged with "insulting Islam through electronic channels" and "going beyond the realm of obedience".

"Will she pledge to raise his case... and stand at that dispatch box and say that he will be set free", he asks.

The prime minister promises that she will be be bringing up "a number of cases", adding that Mr Badawi's "is not something that waits for the visit of the Crown Prince to raise."

"We will continue to do so."

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Louise Ellman claims the government is on course to "plunge a record 37% of children into poverty" and links it to council cuts, asking if it's a government which is really "working for everyone".

The prime minister tells her the number of people in absolute poverty has fallen.

She says the government has increased the national living wage, increased the personal allowance and reformed benefits to get more people into the workplace.

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Parliament

Scottish Conservative Kirstene Hair says that SNP "tax hikes" mean that armed forces personnel stationed in Scotland will pay more tax than personnel stationed elsewhere.

She asks if the UK government will "clean up the SNP's mess and mitigate the tax rise for our brave service men and women".

Theresa May says that there are "many people in Scotland who will be paying higher taxes in Scotland than in the rest of the UK", starting with people earning £26,000 a year. She says the defence secretary is "looking into" the issue.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

There's been a little bit of a rebuke from the Speaker for the front benchers (the PM, Jeremy Corbyn and Iain Blackford) for using up so much time (25 minutes or so) before backbench MPs get in….

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SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford asks if she will call on people to open accounts to make recently reprieved branches of RBS "sustainable".

RBS recently said it would keep 10 closure-threatened branches open until at least the end of the year, with the use of the branches reviewed by independent research.

In reply, Theresa May says the situation is a "commercial matter for the Royal Bank of Scotland".

She adds that the closure of physical branches is often due to people deciding to bank online, and it should be "up to customers" to make this choice.

House of Commons
Parliament

Jeremy Corbyn says that "more than twice as many people are sleeping rough on our streets" which he calls "a mark of national shame".

"How does the prime minsiter really propose to tackle the homeless crisis?" he asks.

Theresa May says that the government will build more homes, that tenants will get a fairer deal and that more council houses have been built under the current government than under the last Labour one.

"The record of the last Labour government was described as a crisis and bringing misery and despair," she tells the chamber.

"Who said it? The Leader of the Opposition," Mrs May says.

"It is the Conservatives that are delivering the homes the country needs."

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

Ouch – a slap-down for Labour MP Toby Perkins….. The Speaker has delivered a few stinging rebukes across the House in recent weeks. They are not forgotten and sometimes not forgiven by their targets

House of Commons
Parliament

Jeremy Corbyn says he's glad the government is treating homelessness with such "urgency" that it took four months for the taskforce to meet.

He says many in this country are "upset and embarrassed" about the level of rough sleeping, and asks if "cutting homelessness services by 40%" has contributed.

Mrs May responds that "bringing people together in a meeting" is not the only way to solve the problem but it's about "getting out there on the ground and doing something about it".

There are 48 projects under way in this area, she points out, and there's an effort to "deal with underlying issues" leading to homelessness.

"It's about people not numbers," she says.