{"id":394978,"date":"2026-01-28T12:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/394978\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T12:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:36:07","slug":"pmqs-live-updates-andrew-griffith-presses-david-lammy-on-business-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/394978\/","title":{"rendered":"PMQs live updates: Andrew Griffith presses David Lammy on business rates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>David Lammy and Andrew Griffith in the spotlight today at PMQspublished at 11:01 GMT<\/p>\n<p>11:01 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-3u1n9h-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/f3054cf1-6d66-41ba-9705-efdd2c0fe570.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Joshua Nevett<br \/>Reporting from the House of Commons<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It\u2019s almost Wednesday lunchtime, which usually means it\u2019s time for PMQs (aka Prime Minister&#8217;s Questions).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But with Keir Starmer off to China, David Lammy will be covering for him at DPMQs (aka Deputy Prime Minister\u2019s Questions).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">By convention, a stand-in takes the place of the opposition leader if the prime minister is away.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Today, Conservative shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith will fill in for Kemi Badenoch and take the lead in peppering Lammy with questions from across the dispatch box.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">There are plenty of issues to get stuck into.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The prime minister\u2019s trip to China, which the Conservatives have criticised, with Badenoch accusing Starmer of being \u201cin hock\u201d to the country, could feature.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Griffith may press Lammy on business rates, after the Tories called the government\u2019s discount for pubs and music venues a \u201csticking plaster\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Equally, the row over the deal to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands could come up. The Tories have been calling for the deal to be scrapped after it was criticised by US President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Also, given Lammy is the justice secretary, plans to limit jury trials in England and Wales to reduce court backlogs could be raised by the Conservatives or Labour MPs, particularly Karl Turner, who has urged the government to U-turn on the proposals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">We&#8217;ll get you up to speed on the past week in politics as we build up to PMQs at 12:00 &#8211; which you can Watch live at the top of the page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Lammy and Andrew Griffith in the spotlight today at PMQspublished at 11:01 GMT 11:01 GMT Joshua NevettReporting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-394978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}