A Conservative MP has openly spoken out against Kemi Badenoch in an astonishing House of Commons exchange.
Mark Pritchard MP admitted he "may lose the whip" but took aim at his own party leader's attack on Sir Keir Starmer.
The Conservative chief had criticised Keir Starmer for missing PMQs for two weeks, saying he had "evaded" their weekly bout.
However, Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin, praised Sir Keir Starmer for attending the Nato and G7 summits over the last fortnight.
He said: "Whilst we may disagree on the detail, can I agree with the Prime Minister as far as possible in this place. It would be better to keep partisan politics out of national security issues.
"Who knows, I may get the whip withdrawn for saying it, but so be it. There are things that go beyond party politics. So can I thank the Prime Minister for all his hard work in the national security interests of this country?"
Pritchard had become known recently as one of a small group of Tory MPs who wrote to the PM this month asking him to recognise a Palestinian state, something echoed by The Green Party and the Liberal Democrats.
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A spokesman for the Prime Minister refused to say if Keir Starmer has "full confidence" in chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.
When asked if he stood by McSweeney, who was accused of "alienating and ignoring backbenchers", a spokesman said Downing Street would "never comment on members of No10 staff"
The spokesman added: "The Prime Minister is fully focused on the job in hand."
Sir Keir Starmer has acknowledged he will be holding discussions with Labour MPs as he faces mounting opposition to his welfare reforms.
More than 100 Labour backbenchers have signed a "reasoned amendment" opposing the government's Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said he is "glad the prime minister has signalled retreat on his welfare plan".
He says he hopes Sir Keir Starmer "will now listen to everyone, not just his backbenchers" on disability benefits.
Davey said: I am glad the Prime Minister has signalled retreat on his welfare plans and hope that he will now listen to everyone and not just his backbenchers.”
Keir Starmer speaking in the Commons
PARLIAMENT.TV
The Prime Minister had hit back at Kemi Badenoch's claims that he has been "avoiding" Prime Minister's Questions.
Keir Starmer said: "There’s never been a more important time to work with our ally and to be absolutely serious in our response. That response was unserious.
"To suggest, at a time like this, that the Prime Minister attending the G7 Summit and the Nato Summit is avoiding PMQs is unserious.
He added: "It has made the world safer. For the leader of the opposition to belittle it just shows how irrelevant she and the party opposite [have become].
"They used to once be serious about these issues. They used to be capable of cross-party consensus, and all of that is slipping away."
The Prime Minister said his deal with Donald Trump has "saved thousands of jobs"
Starmer told MPs: "We secured president (Donald) Trump’s signature to fully implement our trade deal, which will slash tariffs on British goods.
"His executive order will remove aerospace tariffs completely, cut tariffs on cars from 27.5 per cent that British car makers face now to 10 per cent in a matter of days, saving thousands of jobs in the West Midlands and around the country.
"I’ve been to Jaguar Land Rover many times now. I’ve looked those workers in the eye and I know what this means to them, to their families and to their whole communities, and that is who I’m representing at summits like this, the working people of Britain."
Kemi Badenoch speaking in the Commons
PARLIAMENT.TV
Kemi Badenoch has accused the Sir Keir Starmer of "evading" Prime Minster's Questions, adding that "nobody cares" what he thinks.
The Conservative leader said: "He has evaded prime minister’s questions for two weeks, only to come back here to tell us what we already heard on the news.
"This is a weak statement from a weak prime minister, which can be characterised in two words, noises off.
"In his statement, the Prime Minister said, we urged Iran and Israel to honour the ceasefire. He said we are using every diplomatic lever to support this effort. What diplomatic levers are they?
"The same levers he’s using with his backbench rebels? Is he just asking them to please play nice?
"Let’s be honest, nobody cares what this Prime Minister thinks, and why should they when he doesn’t even know what he thinks, and clearly, no one cares what he thinks, because he was not involved."
Sir Keir Starmer said there is "now a window for peace" and he urges Iran and Israel to honour the ceasefire, and for Iran to return to the negotiating table with the US.
Starmer told the Commons that the Government is "using every diplomatic lever" to bring about an end to fighting, both between Israel and Iran, as well as in Gaza.
The Prime Minister reiterated his pledge to spend five per cent of GDP on defence by 2035, adding: "We estimate that we will reach at least 4.1 per cent per cent of GDP in 2027 on the way to five per cent by 2035."
Starmer addressing the House of Commons
PARLIAMENT.TV
Sir Keir Starmer has addressed his controversial welfare reform bill the House of Commons.
The Prime Minister said: "On social security, I recognise there is a consensus across the House on the urgent need for reform of our welfare system, because the British people deserve protection and dignity when they are unable to work and supported to work when they can.
"At the moment, they are failed every single day by the broken system created by the Conservatives, which achieves neither.
"I know colleagues across the House are eager to start fixing that, and so am I, and that all colleagues want to get this right, and so do I."
Labour rebels have warned the Government they cannot save its controversial welfare bill with concessions.
Richard Burgon, an outspoken supporter of the amendment, said the Bill must be dropped.
The MP for Leeds East posted on social media: "More press speculation about a tiny concession here or tweak there on the Disability Cuts Bill.
"But the simple truth is this: the Government still plans to slash £7BILLION from sick & disabled people.
"It must drop the Bill - and work with disabled people on a fair alternative."
Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey has called on Labour to scrap the bill
PA
The Liberal Democrats have said the Government should pull its controversial welfare reform bill.
Sir Ed Davey said: "The Government needs to pull this bill and go back to the drawing board. Even the Prime Minister’s own backbenchers can see the damage these cuts will do by leaving some of the most vulnerable without support and putting thousands of unpaid carers in impossible situations.”
The party's leader said the cost of the benefits system could be cut by tackling NHS waiting lists and getting more people back to work.
The Kingston and Surbiton MP added: "I hope the Prime Minister listens and pulls this bill instead of cutting vital support from thousands of vulnerable people."
Leader of the Commons Lucy Powell has confirmed that a vote on the government's welfare policy will take place on Tuesday.
Powell, the MP for Manchester Central, told the Commons that the second reading of the Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill will take place on July 1.
This will likely be followed by a vote on the "rebellion" amendment tabled by Hackney South and Shoreditch MP Meg Hillier, which has been backed by more than 120 Labour MPs.
Stephen Dixon confronted Conservative MP Andrew Griffith during a heated exchange about his party's catastrophic polling numbers on GB News Breakfast.
The interview came as a new YouGov MRP poll suggested the Conservatives would win just 46 seats if an election was held tomorrow.
Speaking about the damning poll, Griffith said: "I'm not overly surprised by it. I mean, we've seen a significant haemorrhaging, a collapse of Labour's support, which is unprecedented at this stage in the Parliament.
Morgan McSweeney has been pinned as the reason for the welfare cuts rebellion, with MPs accusing the Downing Street chief of staff for alienating and ignoring backbenchers.
One minister told The Times: "Morgan is responsible for shambolic political management. He was warned that this would happen and ignored it. He has completely failed to do his job."
Another added: "We are all very happy that we have a leader who’s so respected around the world… we just think he needs fewer over-excitable boys in his team."
However, one senior Downing Street source said: "It’s so depressing to think Keir and Morgan did all that work to cleanse the party of this self-indulgent rubbish, only for it to erupt back."
Sir Keir Starmer addressing the British Chambers of Commerce Global Annual Conference
POOL
Sir Keir Starmer has told a business conference he had to "fix the foundations" when Labour came into power.
The Prime Minister was addressing the audience at the British Chambers of Commerce Global Annual Conference in London.
He told the audience he was putting investment in skills of young people and in infrastructure which was "vital for the long term growth of our country."
Starmer also pointed to the spending review as an example of "a clear shift in the nature of this government" and they had "wiped the slate clean."
A shadow minister has said Kemi Badenoch's polling numbers are in "Liz Truss territory" in a dire warning for the Tories.
The anonymous minister told The Spectator: "The polls are absolutely horrific. Kemi’s personal polling is in Liz Truss territory.
"There is now no precedent for it. People say 'Let Kemi be Kemi' but there are increasingly few don’t-knows and they are moving against us.
"We are being frozen out of the national conversation."
The former Director General of UK Border Force has taken aim at Labour's "unrealistic" asylum hotels target, warning Sir Keir Starmer's "biggest political error" in tackling the migrant crisis.
Labour's pledge to end the use of asylum hotels by 2029 has been dismissed as "unrealistic" by the country's very own borders watchdog.
Donald Trump speaks to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer
REUTERS
This week's Nato summit has left Britain "more exposed" according to the Greens, as the party took aim at "bullying, bellicose" Donald Trump.
The party's foreign affairs spokeswoman Ellie Chowns MP said: "The Nato summit has left us all more exposed to the threat of nuclear war and failed to offer people across the world a strategic vision of a more peaceful world.
"Here in the UK, the Labour government has already slashed aid for the most vulnerable around the world to make way for increased arms spending and next week will try to force through cuts to disability support to pay for more.
"We do not need new US-controlled fighter jets to carry US-controlled nuclear weapons paid for by UK taxpayers that will make the world a more dangerous place.
"The UK government should be leading efforts to reduce and eliminate nuclear arsenals, not paying for the US to base more of them here. There is a choice to be made between welfare and warfare."
Sir Keir Starmer will have to hold a "humiliating" no confidence vote if he loses next week's crunch welfare vote, a former New Labour Work & Pensions Secretary has warned.
Lord David Blunkett, who established himself as a titan of the New Labour project, said the Prime Minister should delay next Tuesday's vote on cutting Britain's ballooning benefits bill until the autumn in a bid to reach a compromise with his rebellious backbenchers.
The ex-Sheffield Brightside & Hillsborough MP also warned that the Prime Minister failed to dissuade rebels from staging their welfare cuts mutiny because he has spent a lot of his premiership focusing on issues abroad.
Douglas Alexander appearing on GB News this morning
GB NEWS
Trade minister Douglas Alexander was grilled by GB News on what the Government had accomplished as Labour approach one year since their landslide victory.
GB News presenter Stephen Dixon asked Alexander: "Do you think you're getting anywhere as a Government?"
He continued: "You're a year in next week, and today, YouGov released their MRP poll of the new parliament.
"We know these MRP polls look at individual constituents, have proved to be in the past pretty accurate."
The MP for Lothian East responded: "Of course politicians look at opinion polls but the fact is this is a five year marathon, not a one year sprint. What this poll shows to me is that people are hungry for change."
A YouGov poll has revealed high levels of immigration is the main reason why 2024 Labour voters have left the party for Reform UK.
When asked the main reason why they no longer supported Sir Keir Starmer's party, 62 per cent said it was because "Immigration is too high."
Elsewhere, 44 per cent said it was because Labour has broken promises and 28 per cent said Reform UK closer to their values.
Keir Starmer at NatoPAThe Prime Minister is looking to water down his welfare cuts Bill in an attempt to combat a mass backbencher rebellion.
Downing Street is exploring tabling its own amendment for the vote on Tuesday to avoid Keir Starmer's first House of Commons defeat, reports The Telegraph.
One option currently being discussed is to include a promise to speed up the payment of funds to help people back into work.
Another potential option is offering assurances that reviews of policies in this area will be published soon.
