Starmer says MPs would get vote on any decision to deploy troops to Ukraine
Starmer tells MPs about the Coalition of the Willing meeting yesterday, and says he will set the details out to MPs in a separate statement in due course.
If troops were to be committed on the ground, MPs would get a vote, he says.
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Wendy Morton (Con) says green fields in her constituency are under threat. Does Starmer accept his housing targets can be met without green fields being sacrificed.
Starmer says the government will be able to achieve its goals without ripping up farmland.
And that’s the end of PMQs.
Angus MacDonald (Lib Dem) says the problem of young people emigrating is particular severe in the Scottish highlands. They have a demographic crisis. What is the goverment doing to address this?
Starmer says the UK government is providing record investment into apprenticeships. But the SNP government blocked a welding apprenticeship scheme on the Clyde because it was linked to defence, he says.
Fabian Hamilton (Lab) asks for an inquiry into maternity deaths at Leeds hospital.
Starmer says he wants this inquiry to start as soon as possible. A chair of the highest standard will be appointed, he says.
Alison Griffiths (Con) says a cargo vessel last year lost 16 containers off the Sussex coastline. The clean-up effort was led by volunteers, she says. She asks Starmer to pay tribute to them.
Starmer thanks the volunteers. He says liability for the cost of any clean-up lies with the polluter.
ShareStarmer declines to criticise Trump any further over Greenland threats, saying siding with Europe over US would be mistake
Davey also asked Starmer about Greenland. If Trump were to seize Greenland, that would be the end of Nato?
Starmer thanked Davey for raising this. He went on on:
The future of Greenland is for Greenland, for the Kingdom of Denmark and for Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark alone.
I put out a statement to that effect, along with, fellow allies in Europe.
But of course, Nato is hugely important, the single most effective and important military alliance the world has ever known.
Starmer says Davey is trying to get him to choose between Europe and the US. “That would be a strategic mistake for our country,” he says.
ShareEd Davey says it’s ‘ridiculous’ Starmer won’t say whether or not US raid on Venezuela breached international law
Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, asks Starmer if he agrees with Geoffrey Robertson KC, head of his former chambers, who said that the US operation against Venezuela was illegal.
Starmer says he and “Geoffrey” have disagreed on many things over the years. He says Nicolás Maduro was not a legitimate leader.
Davey says it is “ridiculous” that Starmer cannot say whether or not he thought Trump broke international law.
ShareBadenoch defends her shadow attorney general as Starmer says is Abramovich work conflicts with Tory sanctions policy
Badenoch defends her shadow attorney general, David Wolfson. She says he is representing British veterans challenging Labour’s Northern Ireland legislation pro bono.
And she says she would take Wolfson any day over Lord Hermer, Labour’s attorney general, who had Gerry Adams as a client (before he became a minister).
Starmer says he accepts that lawyers work for clients whose views they do not support. But he says the Tories support sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. But Wolfson is on the other side, he suggests. He says Badenoch should be able to see the conflict of intereest.
Badenoch says Ben Wallace told the Today programme this morning that defence spending had fallen under both main parties. It was last at 3% under the Tories, she says.
She says Starmer sat in shadow cabinet under a leader who did not even support Nato.
She says SAS veterans have said the government’s Northern Ireland Troubles bill is a threat to the SAS.
Starmer says Badenoch’s reply is embarrassing. The Tories were in office for 14 years, he says. And he says Badenoch has a shadow attorney general who is working for Roman Abramovich.
And the Tories gave immunity to IRA terrorists with their Northern Ireland legislation, he says.
If Badenoch wants to bring this back, she should say so.
Badenoch says the deployment of British troops to Ukraine could lead to them being at war with Russia. She asks when the government will get defence spending up to 3% of GDP.
Starmer says he spoke to President Trump twice over the Christmas period about Ukaine. He says there is no gap between the UK and the US on the Ukraine plan.
On defence spending, he says the money for the increase is provided in the budget.
When the Tories were in power, the armed services were “hollowed out”, according to Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, he says.
He says he is proposing to raise defence spending three years earlier than would have happened under the Tories’ unfunded promise.
Badenoch asks how many British troops might be deployed to Ukraine, and in what capacity.
Starmer says he was with Nato allies all day yesterday.
He says the Ukraine agreement was set out last night. He says British troops would go to Ukraine “to support Ukraine’s capabilities if it conducted deterrence operations and to construct and protect military hubs”. He says the number of troops being deployed would be set out at the time.
Badenoch says today is the earliest opportunity for Starmer to make a statement about Ukraine. She claims Starmer is “scared” to take questions on this.
She asks him if he will call for an urgent of meeting of Nato leaders to discuss Greenland.
Starmer says that in the past Badenoch criticised him for missing PMQs to attend an international meeting.
ShareBadenoch says it is ‘astonishing’ Starmer not making statement to MPs about Ukraine decision today
Kemi Badenoch welcomes “the prime minister’s efforts” to secure peace in Ukraine and in Greenland.
But she says it is “astonishing” that the statement to MPs on Ukraine won’t happen today.
She says he should have done, given the commitment to deploy troops.
She says, even though the US is the UK’s closest ally, the sovereignty of Greenland is sacrosanct. She asks what Starmer is doing to make that clear to Donald Trump.
Starmer says the agreement yesterday was a political declaration. Further steps would have to take place before a troop deployment.
He says he will make a statement to MPs at the earliest opportunity.
ShareStarmer says MPs would get vote on any decision to deploy troops to Ukraine
Starmer tells MPs about the Coalition of the Willing meeting yesterday, and says he will set the details out to MPs in a separate statement in due course.
If troops were to be committed on the ground, MPs would get a vote, he says.
Keir Starmer starts by saying he hopes all MPs had a happy Christmas. It probably feels like a long time ago, he says. But not for Reform UK – “because today is the day they celebrate Christmas in Russia”.
ShareStarmer faces Badenoch at PMQs
PMQs is about to start.
Here is the list of MPs with a question.
PMQs Photograph: HoCShare