Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

Ian Blackford is greeted with a chorus of groans and heckles - not an appropriate response to a very serious question about the Khashoggi killing.

The PM responds with a serious answer detailing the government’s response, but steers clear of the UK’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

This is certainly Ian Blackford’s most effective PMQs outing.

The government is on awkward ground here – as evidenced by the PM’s very carefully prepared and carefully-worded answer.

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The SNP's Westminster leader Ian Blackford raises the death of Jamal Khashoggi, and says Angela Merkel has said Germany will no longer approve new arms sales to Saudi Arabia. He asks if the prime minister will "finally commit" to ending the sale of arms to Saudi Arabia.

The prime minister says the UK condemns the killing "in the strongest possible terms" and says there remains an "urgent need" to establish exactly what happened.

She says she will be speaking to Saudi King Salman, and that no UK minister or official will be attending the investment conference in Saudi Arabia. She adds that if any of the individuals believed to be involved have UK visas, they will be withdrawn.

Mr Blackford says "condemnation won't do, it is action." He says Saudi Arabia is guilty of "multiple human right violations", and asks "what more evidence of criminality does the prime minister need before she fully commits to the ending of sales of arms?"

The PM says the government is concerned by events in Yemen and that the UK is the biggest contributor of aid to the region. She says to Mr Blackford that the Saudi led coalition is recognised by the UN security council.

She adds that the UK has the strictest procedures in the world on arms sales, introduced by Labour in 2000 and updated in 2014. She says no license will be granted where people are not compliant with regulations.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

As predicted it’s a pre-Budget austerity theme: Jeremy Corbyn works his way through council cuts, police cuts, nurse training cuts and Universal Credit.

Theresa May seems to be counter-attacking with a bit more vigour – which will help her with her own troops, at tonight’s 1922 Committee meeting (the meeting of backbench Tory MPs).

Mr Corbyn ends with an effective wrap-up of his battery of austerity complaints. He became a bit shouty at the end, as he frequently does, and the PM is icily calm in response.

All a bit scripted on both sides, but both teams will feel they delivered their attack lines.

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says applications for nurse training have dropped by 20% - the result of the government scrapping bursaries for nurses.

Mr Corbyn continues, and says the work and pensions secretary has let the "cat out of the bag" and people will be worse off under Universal Credit.

The PM tells the chamber that her government will be spending "£500m more on people of working age" by the end of this Parliament.

"Labour will take us back to square one," Mrs May fires back.

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Jeremy Corbyn says the prime minister is "completely out of touch with the reality of what Universal Credit is about".

"Individuals will be £50 a week worse off, will spend weeks waiting for the first payment, people are losing their homes and can't make ends meet - that is the reality of Universal Credit," he says.

Jeremy Corbyn says eight years of austerity has left 40,000 nurse vaccancies in the NHS, most of which are down to "cuts in the bursaries for nurses".

He calls on the prime minister to "restore the nurse bursary so those who want to become nurses in the NHS can realise their ambitions".

Theresa May says the government wanted to reduce the period of time that people have had to wait for their first Universal Credit payment, but "Labour voted against that change".

On Mr Corbyn's claim that the government need to be doing more for the NHS, Theresa May says "it is this government that has announced we are going to be putting £394m a week into the NHS."

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In response to criticism of Labour's costing in their 2017 manifesto, Jeremy Corbyn says "only one party costed their manifesto in the last election and it wasn't the Tory party".

He says the reality is that there are 21,000 fewer police officers than there were eight years ago.

He says the prime minister has said that people on Universal Credit will be protected, but the work and pensions secretary said the following day that "some people will be worse off".

Theresa May says those moved onto Universal Credit through the managed migration process will have protections, with 200,000 more people into work, extra money for some people and more support for disabled people.

"This is a system that helps get people into work and make sure work pays."

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Jeremy Corbyn says the government has cut 49% of local government budgets since 2010.

Staffordshire police have lost 500 officers, and the Chief Constable of has apologised to staff for cancelling rest days in order to deliver regular service, he says.

Mr Corbyn calls on the PM to apologise but she responds by saying £460m more has been made available to the police.

"There are 21,000 less police officers," shouts Mr Corbyn.

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Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn says austerity is not over and Conservative councilors and MPs have "lost faith in the prime minister".

He asks the prime minister to "cheer up gloomy Tories" and "confirm that next week the Budget will cancel the £1.3bn cuts planned for local government next year."

Theresa May says "actually, £1.3bn more money will be available over the next two years to local councils."

"I'm pleased to say that council tax is down in real terms since under the last Labour government," the prime minister says.

Theresa May says if Jeremy Corbyn wants to make statements about the Budget he should consider his last predictions that a million would lose there jobs when "three million more people are in work".

"He'll find out what's in the budget next week, but there's one thing we know for certain, Labour would still make a mess of the economy," she says.

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Jeremy Corbyn begins his first question echoing tributes to Sir Jeremy Heywood, who has announced he is standing down as head of the civil service due to ill health.

He says the PM says austerity is over, but the Conservative leader of Walsall Council says it is "live and kicking".

"Who is right?" he asks.

The prime minister says because of sacrifices made there are better days ahead, and more detail will be set out in the spending review next year.

She says this means support for public services going up, but unlike under a Labour government, "we'll continue to live within our means".

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The prime minister is in her place, and Prime Minister's Questions gets under way.

She pays tribute to top civil servant Sir Jeremy Heywood, who is standing down due to ill health.

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Conservative MP Greg Hands asks what discussions the Welsh secretary has had with the secretary of state for international trade on increasing exports from and foreign direct investment into Wales.

Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns says since 2010 Welsh exports have increased by 41% growing faster than the UK average of 36%.

"There are a whole range of success stories," he says.

Mr Hands asks what specific measures are being taken to promote trade investment in Wales.

Alun Cairns says the board of trade will be in Swansea in a number of weeks time to "help show off the great businesses in Wales".

Conservative MP Michael Fabricant asks about tourism in Wales post Brexit.

The Welsh secretary says North Wales has been voted the fourth top place to visit in the UK, and the government hope this will "elevate tourism in the area".

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

Is PMQs losing its lustre?

The weekly clash between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn has never been a showcase of parliamentary artistry, and the rather thinly attendance at last week’s session suggests MPs are ceasing to regard it as the key event of the parliamentary week.

Even the fragility of the PM’s position doesn’t seem to make it a crowd-puller, perhaps because her Tory critics seem loath to say in a very public forum what they’re happy to whisper into the ears of journalists.

So what can we expect?

Brexit is always with us, and there are plenty of foreign policy issues (Saudi Arabia, Chinese “re-education camps”, the US withdrawing from a nuclear arms agreement….) but the PMQs before a budget is often the occasion for a few gentle hints at goodies to be expected.

So an assortment of backbenchers will doubtless be firing in requests for spending on their particular causes. And after last week’s successful run of questions on the end to austerity proclaimed by the PM, Jeremy Corbyn may have another go (This morning he was tweeting a Guardian article on special needs pupils being failed by the education system.)

Scottish and Welsh issues will feature, because the weekly ballot for questions has thrown up a fair number of Scottish and Welsh MPs, including Labour’s Paul Sweeney and Susan Elan Jones, the SNP’s Patrick Grady and Mhairi Black, the Lib Dems’ Christine Jardine and the Conservative Paul Masterton, plus Welsh Affairs Committee Chair David TC Davies.

And there might be a bit of drama from Labour’s Jess Philips – who has suggested she raise the case of a businessman, accused of sexual harassment and racial abuse, who has protected his name with a non disclosure agreement.

Normally Parliament and the Courts have a kind of non-aggression pact, under which parliamentary privilege is not used to break such agreements, but that has been rather eroded over recent years, for example over the Trafigura case – so it will be interesting to see if the Speaker steps in.

Awks, under current circumstances, with accusations (strenuously denied) against Mr Speaker himself.

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The first question to the Welsh secretary today is from Labour MP Madeline Moon on the placement of young people from England in private sector care homes in Wales.

Secretary of State for Wales Alun Cairns says the government is clear that "the needs of the child are paramount when making the care placements".

"Planning policy and approval for care inspectors should also be highly considered," he says.

The Welsh secretary says he is working to encourage more foster carers to come forwards.

Labour MP Stella Creasy has tabled an amendment to the Northern Ireland Bill which will be debated in the Commons this afternoon that would ensure the province complied with human rights legislation that applies in the rest of the UK.

The amendment stipulates that in the absence of devolved rule in Belfast, the UK government must “issue guidance” to Northern Ireland departments to “specify how to exercise their functions” in relation to how the enforcement of anti-abortion laws is incompatible with the human rights of the people of Northern Ireland.

A large number of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs have declared their support for the amendment, but some Tory MPs including Tom Tugendhat and Tim Loughton have also endorsed it.

The amendment does not have to be selected by the Speaker for debate, but considering the number of MPs pledging their support, it is likely that it will be.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK which applies the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, which effectively criminalises any woman seeking an abortion with a theoretical maximum term of life imprisonment.

Yesterday, a ten minute rule bill tabled by Labour backbencher Diana Johnson sought to end the criminalisation of women who seek an abortion in Northern Ireland, and passed the House by 208 votes to 123.

The plan to liberalise the law faces strong opposition from the DUP, whose 10 MPs the prime minister depends on to prop up her minority government.

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Work and Pensions Committee chair Frank Field thanks the witnesses for their time and closes the evidence session.

Mr Field closes by praises the work ethic of all the single mothers who gave evidence, despite "everything being thrown at them" in the process of claiming Universal Credit for their childcare costs.

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Nail technician Vikki Waterman tells the committee she just wants to be able to "go to work and provide for my family" but has had to take the decision to stay self-employed because of the complex system.

Hairdresser Gaynor Rowles says she has a good support network but the impact of Universal Credit has left her feeling "not her normal happy self".

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Universal Credit is a benefit for working-age people, replacing six benefits and merging them into one payment:

• income support
• income-based jobseeker's allowance
• income-related employment and support allowance
• housing benefit
• child tax credit
• working tax credit

It's being rolled out across the UK. But concerns are being raised that 3.2 million working families will lose £48 a week - about £2,500 a year- compared with the old system.

The National Audit Office, which oversees government spending, said that the Universal Credit programme was "driven by an ambitious timescale" and that it had suffered from "weak management, ineffective control and poor governance".

Read more about the government's policy here., external

Image source, Getty Images

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Labour MP Rosie Duffield asks the witnesses what changes the government could make to childcare support on Universal Credit to work for them.

Mum Gaynor Rowles says the government could help with "upfront costs", describing how she has had to pay £188 upfront for each of her twins when they changed nurseries - "where do I find that money from?" she asks.

Vikki Waterman calls for a "simplification of the system" and says that everytime she speaks to someone on the phone they are a different person, and she gets "passed from pillar to post".

Lucy Collins describes how the assessment period system for Universal Credit childcare claimants is "so complex" and difficult to understand.