Speaker to allow Labour’s amendment on Gaza vote – UK politics live

Key events

Christopher Hope from GB News says No 10 is not happy about the speaker’s ruling.

Figures in Number 10 are upset about speaker Lyndsay Hoyle selecting Labour’s Opposition Day debate amendment on the Gaza ceasefire.
One tells me “it’s without precedent”. A minister says selecting Labour’s amendment is “Bercowesque”.

Owen Thompson, the SNP chief whip, rises to make a point of order. He complains that this is unfair on the SNP.

That is because the vote on the Labour amendment will come first. If it is passed, as seems likely, the SNP motion as originally drafted will not be put to a vote.

(We don’t know yet whether the government will whip its MPs to vote against the Labour amendment, or whether it will let them abstain, and allow it to pass. The Labour wording is not the same as the government’s, but in practice it is hard to detect much difference between the government’s position and Labour’s. But, if the government wants to engineer a vote that will trigger a Labour revolt, it does have an incentive to vote down the Labour amendment.)

Hoyle says he will be publishing a statement explaining his position.

Hoyle says he will publish a note explaning his reasoning.

And he says current rules are too restrictive.

As he concludes his statement, there are loud protests from MPs.

Boost for Starmer as Commons speaker says he will allow vote on Labour's amendment on Gaza motion

The 10-minute rule bill motion has been defeated, by 81 votes to 63.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle says he second motion on the order paper will not be moved (ie, the SNP motion on green investment).

He says he has selected both the Labour and the government amendments, because this is an issue where MPs want to consider a wide range of options.

This is very good news for Keir Starmer, who was otherwise facing a huge revolt.

From Kiran Stacey

These are from the SNP MP Alison Thewliss on the delays in the chamber.

Labour now delaying the Gaza debate with fifteen minutes of spurious points of order. Utterly pathetic.

Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, has now taken the chair in the Commons.

The result of the division on the 10-minute rule bill motion is about to be announced.

No 10 won't say when UK last had successful Trident missile test

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing Downing Street would not say when the last successful Trident missile test occurred, PA Media reports. PA says:

The prime minister’s spokesperson told reporters that the UK government had “complete confidence” in Britain’s nuclear deterrent despite reports of a Trident missile test failure on 30 January.

He repeated the Ministry of Defence’s explanation that there had been an “anomaly” but said, for national security reasons, he was unable to expand on what that meant. Asked how the government could offer such assurances given the last test in 2016 also resulted in a misfire, the spokesperson said: “There really isn’t much more I can add on the technical issues. The purpose of this operation was a full two-month period of exercises which successfully validated the submarine and the crew. There was this specific anomaly but we are confident that the anomaly was specific to the test and that there are no wider implications.”

Asked when the last successful Trident missile test was, the spokesperson said: “I can’t provide any more commentary on matters of national security.”

He said he would not comment on whether Mr Sunak wanted to see a follow-up test after last month’s failed attempt.

Nicholas Watt from Newsnight suggests Labour MPs are spinning out proceedings in the chamber for a reason; they are still trying to get the speaker to agree to their party’s amendment on Gaza.

Negotiations with @CommonsSpeaker on Labour Gaza amendment taking time, according to one senior source familiar with discussions, because advice from clerks is clear: precedent would suggest calling SNP motion and government amendment. So not calling Labour amendment

Watt also says, if the Labour amendment is accepted, there will be a row.

A cabinet minister tells me there will be a whole host of problems if the commons speaker calls the Labour amendment. They believe it will break with precedent

We will have to wait another 15 mintues for the speaker’s decision on amendments to the Gaza motion. There has been a ten-minute rule motion first, on a bill proposed by Thérèse Coffey to do with driving regulations and Labour’s Chris Bryant have just finished a speech saying he opposes it. He has called for a vote.

Normally MPs don’t vote on 10-minute rule bill motions because there is no point. They don’t become law.

It does feel as if MPs are playing for time, for some reasons. There were numerous points of order after PMQs, which is unusual, and now we’ve got a vote. Maybe something’s up.

The SNP was due to have debates on two motions it has tabled today – on Gaza, and on the proposal for a £28bn a year green investment programme – but it has abandoned the second debate, Dan Bloom from Politico reports.

This means the voting on the Gaza bill won’t start until 7pm.

PMQs - snap verdict

Some of the pre-PMQs commentary suggested that we were in for particularly lively exchanges this afternoon. During recess last week, the UK went into recession, the Tories lost two safe seats in byelections, and Keir Starmer had to abandon another byelection candidate. Both leaders had plenty of material to hand with which they could taunt each other.

But instead we got a much more narrowly focused exchange, covering the Post Office Horizon scandal and Kemi Badenoch’s provocative response to allegations made against the government by Henry Staunton, the Post Office chair she sacked. Starmer’s script was more restrained, and less rhetorical or condemnatory, than usual, but it was effective nonetheless, because he sought to establish whether Sunak was willing to give an unequivocal defence of what Badenoch has been saying in the row, and it turned out he wasn’t. Sunak did not quite cut her loose. But he said about the bare minimum necessary to defend her without his lack of enthusiasm becoming too obvious.

Badenoch is favourite to be the next Tory leader after the next election and she probably does not care very much what Sunak thinks about her. But, as the subsequent exchanges made clear (see 12.33pm, 12.45pm and 12.48pm), she is collecting enemies at an extraordinary rate. This does not seem to worry those Tories who admire here, but at some point they may start to wonder whether this is a positive trait in a party leader.

Bob Blackman (Con) says when Sir Lindsay Hoyle was elected speaker, he said that when he made controversial decisions, he would publish the advice he had been given by clerks. Will he do it this afternoon in relation to the selection of amendments on the Gaza motion.

Winterton says the speaker will have heard this point.

Liam Byrne, the Labour chair of the business committee, raises another point of order. He asks about Canada saying Badenoch was wrong to say trade talks with the UK were still happening. (See 9.21am.) How can MPs find out if these talks are happening, or just going on “in the business secretary’s mind”.

Winterton says she cannot speak for the minister, but Byrne will have other opportunities to pursue this, she says.

Lucy Powell, the shadow leader of the Commons, raises a point of order. She asks what MPs can do to get clarification from Kemi Badenoch over why her comments to the house on Monday about the Post Office dispute were misleading.

Dame Rosie Winterton, the deputy speaker, says this is not a matter for her, but the government will have heard the point.

Graham Stringer (Lab) asks if Sunak realised, when he cancelled phase 2 of HS2, that trains to Manchester would end up going more slowly as a result because they would have to use unsuitable track.

Sunak ignores the point, but says that all the money saved from the HS2 cancellation will stay in the north, and that says that Labour does not have a position on HS2 phase 2.

Chris Elmore (Lab) accuses Sunak of failing to protect steel jobs in south Wales.

Sunak says the government has worked hard to secure a long-term, sustainable solution for the steel industry in south Wales. He says a £500m grant to Tata Steel will safeguard 5,000 jobs. The Welsh Labour government did not put a penny in to help, he says.

Sunak says bill to exonerate post office operators unfairly convicted will be published 'very, very soon'

Kate Osborne (Lab) says what Sunak said about the Post Office Horizon victims was disrespectful. Without the ITV drama, the government would not be doing what it is doing now. Will the PM commit to ensuring the law to exonerate post office operators will come before the election?

Sunak says the legislation will be brought forward '“very, very soon”.

Ben Bradshaw (Lab) says Kemi Badenoch, the equalities minister, told MPs that she had engaged extensively with LGBT groups. But an answer this week shows she has only met two groups hostile to trans people. Why does the government have a problem with trans people, and Badenoch have a problem with truth?

Sunak says the government is committed to LGBT rights, but that biological sex matters too.

UPDATE: Jim Pickard from the FT has more on that here.

FURTHER UPDATE: Badenoch’s team have given Pickard a call.