Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves DESTROYED in BRUTAL PMQs clash on ’skyrocketing’ welfare bill

It's the end of the session and what a

contrast with the beginning. Mr.

Speaker, back in July 2024, those

benches were full of sickopantic

questions from adoring new MPs.

Yesterday, the prime minister was

reduced to begging those same MPs to

save his own skin.

>> Mr. Speaker, he's broken his promise to

grow the economy. The only thing that's

grown is the welfare bill. The only

thing that's grown is the welfare bill.

So, can the prime minister tell us? Can

the prime minister tell us how many more

people are out of work and claiming

universal credit since he took office?

>> Minister, Mr. Speaker, uh she talks

about what we've done uh in ter raising

people out of work. We have the youth

guarantee that we put in place for young

people. We've raised the national

minimum wage thanks to our chancellor.

We've helped young people into work by

cutting NHS waiting list thanks to the

work of the health secretary. We put

more police on the streets thanks to the

work of the home secretary. And we've

cut energy bills for young people thanks

to the work of the energy. I am very

proud what this Labor government has

delivered in the first session of this

parliament.

>> Mr. Speaker, the prime minister doesn't

want to say how many people how many

more people in fact are out of work and

claiming universal credit since he took

office. Perhaps he doesn't know. So let

me tell him the number is 1.5 million.

>> That is the entire population of Leeds,

Cardiff, and Edinburgh put together.

Hardworking people are being taxed more

and more to pay for a ballooning

benefits bill. So, can the prime

minister tell us why on his watch for

the first time ever, we are now spending

more on welfare than we earn in income

tax?

>> Prime Minister.

>> Mr. Speaker, the welfare system she

complains of the one they put in place,

Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, we are

reforming it to improve it. And what did

they do when we put that forward? They

voted to keep the same broken welfare

system.

>> Mr. Speaker, that answer was as honest

as his reason for sacking Ollie Robbins.

Perhaps he'd like to apologize for that

right now. Let me tell him let me tell

him why we're we're spending more on

welfare than we're earning in tax. It's

because of him and his terrible

policies. This is all under him. We are

spending so much on welfare. We cannot

afford to defend the country. And if he

won't listen to me, Mr. Speaker, perhaps

he'll listen to the former Labor Defense

Secretary, Lord Robertson, who is

saying, and I quote, "We cannot defend

Britain with an everexpanding

welfare budget." I agree with Lord

Robertson. Why doesn't he?

>> Prime Minister Speaker, this is the

Labor government that increased defense

spending, the highest sustained spend

since the Cold War. What did they do,

Mr. Speaker, when they came into power,

defense spending was 2.5%. And when they

left power, it was 2.3%.

And even their own secretary of state

admitted they hollowed out our armed

forces. So, we'll take no lectures from

them on defense.

>> Mr. Speaker, talking about more defense

spending is not the same as giving more

money for defense. He has been in office

for nearly two years. Mr. Speaker, what

he does have, he's got a welfare plan

until 2031, but he's not produced a

defense investment plan. We have gone

backwards on defense under him because

we are borrowing. We are borrowing to

pay for welfare. Yesterday, we learned

that the cost of government borrowing is

now the highest in two decades. That's

under him. Instead of getting a grip on

the economy, the chancellor is briefing

out rent controls to curry favor. Curry

favor with left-wing backbentures. This

is not a serious way to run the economy.

It is time the prime minister gives her

an easier job. So, will he listen to

businesses, listen to the country, and

reshuffle the chancellor?

>> Mr. Speaker, at the spring statement,

the chanc were very proud to say

inflation was down to 3% and falling.

Six interest rates in a cut. We've seen

the growth figures for the early part of

this year. And she says, well, the cost

of boring's gone up. Yes, because

there's a conflict in Iran. And what did

she want to do? What did she want to do

when when I said we wouldn't be dragged

into that war? because I thought through

the consequences including the economic

consequences. What did she do? She said

we should jump in with both feet without

regard to the consequences. She can't

complain now about the implications.

>> Mr. Speaker, I didn't hear him say he's

not reshuffling the chancellor.

>> It sounds like she's toast. Meanwhile,

the former deputy prime minister is on

maneuvers. This government is like a bad

episode of Game of Thrones. 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.

Yesterday, Mr. Speaker, yesterday one

Labor MP actually said that his days are

numbered. That's one of them. I wonder

who it was cuz they're all looking

guilty as hell. Is it the real reason,

Mr. Speaker? Isn't the real reason, Mr.

Speaker?

Mr. Speaker, isn't the real reason the

prime minister can't cut welfare that he

squandered all his political capital,

saving his own skin?

>> Mr. Speaker, she talks about political

games. That's what she was doing

yesterday.

>> This house considered our motion,

rejected it decisively because everyone

saw it for what it was, a desperate,

baseless political stunt ahead of the

May elections. And Mr. Speaker, whilst

she and they were playing games here, I

was chairing a meeting in Cobra, going

through the contingencies and managing

our war in the Middle East.

>> Mr. Speaker, they think little game here

is more important than managing the

implications of the war in the Middle

East, which will affect every single one

of their constituents. And none of them

ask any questions about it. None of them

want to debate it. They just want to

debate silly political stunts

>> because, Mr. Speaker, even though we

didn't join the war, no thanks to her,

my duty is to protect the British public

from the consequences, and nothing is

going to distract me from what matters

to the British public.

>> Mr. Speaker, I think the whole country

is sick of this man's tonedeaf, pompous

moralizing.

>> Last week, last week, last week,

Last week, we all saw him punch the

speaker's chair. This is not a man who

is in control.

>> Since the last king speech, it's been

one disaster after another. Cronyism,

jobs for friends of convicted

pedophiles, perigages for other friends

of convicted pedophiles, broken promises

on taxes, U-turn after U-turn after

U-turn. He's lost a deputy prime

minister, two chiefs of staff, two

cabinet secretaries, the support of his

backbenches, and all his credibility.

Yes. Yes. They can, Mr. Speaker. They

can jer as much as they like. They're

going to have to go to their

constituencies and explain to all those

people why they did what they did last

night. The fact is the prime minister

was reduced to whipping his MPs to save

him and pleading with a tax dodger to

rejoin his cabinet. How much longer do

we all have to put up with his shambles?

>> Mr. Speaker, I changed my party and I

won a general election.

>> She's changed her party, Mr. Speaker,

because when I became leader of my

party, their party was three times the

size it is now. She's changed it. It's