PM defends record as Badenoch says he squandered election win

Sir Keir Starmer has defended his record in government after Kemi Badenoch accused him of having "squandered his political capital" in the last Prime Minister's Questions before elections next week.

The Conservative leader said Sir Keir had presided over "one disaster after another" was now focused on "saving his own skin".

The prime minister said Labour had delivered rights at work, security for renters and lifted half a million children out of poverty adding: "That's our mission, nothing is going to hold us back."

He said the Tories were playing "political games" - a reference to the party's attempt to launch an inquiry into whether the PM misled MPs over the appointment of Lord Mandelson.

On Tuesday evening, the House of Commons voted not to refer the prime minister to the Privileges Committee by 335 votes to 233.

The majority of Labour MPs voted against the motion, following a No 10 operation to rally support for the prime minister.

Sir Keir has rejected claims he misled the Commons about the vetting process for Lord Mandelson, who was appointed as the UK's ambassador to the US but sacked seven months into the job.

Badenoch said the prime minister had been reduced to "begging" his MPs for their support in the vote and drew a contrast with the weeks following the 2024 general election when she said the government benches were "full of sycophantic questions from adoring new MPs".

"This government is like a bad episode of Game Of Thrones," she said, and in a reference to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, added: "His own people have turned against him and all the while, the prime minister is holed up in his castle, wetting himself about a visit from the King in the North."

The Conservative leader argued that the UK could not defend itself because too much money was being spent on welfare and the prime minister was unable to cut benefit bills because he had "squandered all his political capital saving his own skin".

The prime minister replied that the government was increasing defence spending to its highest level since the end of the Cold War.

He also said the government had introduce the youth guarantee aimed at helping young people into work.

Referring to the Privileges Committee vote on Tuesday, Sir Keir said that while he had been chairing a meeting on the war in the Middle East, Badenoch had been engaged in "a desperate, baseless political stunt".

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey used one of his two allotted questions to ask about food security, following the war against Iran and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz.