Prime minister’s questions: a shouty, jeery, very occasionally useful advert for British politics. Here’s what you need to know from the latest session in POLITICO’s weekly run-through.
What they sparred about: Winter fuel payments and the two-child benefit cap. In the first joust since recess, Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch took Prime Minister Keir Starmer to task over the government’s flip-flopping on money for pensioners and significant ambiguity about funding for struggling parents.
Message discipline: The removal of winter fuel funding for all but the poorest pensioners was widely blamed for Labour’s poor local election results last month. Starmer said a fortnight ago he wanted to increase payment eligibility. Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed Wednesday some payments would indeed be reinstated in time for this winter, though Pensions Minister Torsten Bell said on the same day that the universal element of the payment won’t return. Confused?