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Angela Rayner labelled Rishi Sunak a “pint-sized loser” as she claimed Boris Johnson was the Conservative Party’s “biggest election winner” during a heated Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) exchange.The Labour deputy leader accused Oliver Dowden of urging the prime minister to call an early general election to minimise Tory losses on Wednesday (24 April).Ms Rayner said: “Has he finally realised that when he stabbed Boris Johnson in the back to get his mate into No.10 he was ditching their biggest election winner for a pint-sized loser?” More

Prime Minister’s Questions descended into chaos on Wednesday 24 April, as a Tory MP opened the session by attacking Labour with a long-winded question.Jonathan Gullis stood to speak for 85 seconds, before asking deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden if it was “time for Stoke-on-Trent Labour to axe the garden tax”.His softball question to Mr Dowden, who was standing in for Rishi Sunak, was met with loud jeers from the opposition.After Commons speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle moved the session on, the deputy PM joked that “there was not much he could add” to Mr Gullis’s point. More

Angela Rayner told Tory MPs to “stop obsessing” over her council tax and “get a grip” during a fiery Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, 24 April.The deputy Labour leader’s reply came after Oliver Dowden aimed a jibe at her, joking that she would be claiming the House of Commons as her principal residence soon.Ms Rayner has faced scrutiny regarding whether she paid the right amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her Stockport council house because of confusion over whether it was her principal residence.She has insisted she believes she followed the law at all times. More

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said it was “reasonable” to cut 72,000 civil service jobs to fund Rishi Sunak’s pledge to boost defence spending to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2030.Speaking to BBC Breakfast today (24 April), Mr Shapps said: “That actually will take the civil service back to where it was before Covid, so I think that is a very reasonable approach.“We think it is important we fund the front line. It comes before everything else and if we don’t defend the nation, then everything else becomes slightly less of an issue.” More

Rishi Sunak, Jeremy Hunt, and Grant Shapps arrived in Warsaw on Tuesday (23 April) just hours after the government’s controversial Rwanda Bill was passed.The prime minister is expected to unveil an extra £500 million of military funding to Ukraine and announce the largests supply of munitions as he reinforces his ties with key European allies.The largest package of munitions is expected to include a mix of 1,600 strike and air defence missiles; an unspecified number of Storm Shadow cruise missiles, one of the most powerful weapons; and 400 all-terrain and armoured vehicles.Mr Sunak will meet his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk, as well as Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of Nato, to discuss European security and support to Ukraine. More

A Tory immigration minister was grilled on immigration figures as migrants were seen travelling through the Channel on a boat live on air.Michael Tomlinson was questioned on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, 23 April, after Rishi Sunak’s controversial Rwanda bill was given the green light in parliament the day before.“People crossing the channel… have known that they could be sent to Rwanda… What we’re seeing right now… on BBC Breakfast is people still prepared to take that risk. They are not deterred,” host Jon Kay said.Mr Tomlinson pushed back that “the deterrent effect” would take time.“Hardly anyone is getting on a small boat now from Albania because the deterrent effect has come in,” he insisted. More

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has said not a single asylum seeker will go to Rwanda under a Labour government.The Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration Bill) cleared Parliament shortly after midnight today (23 April) after peers backed down, ending resistance to the scheme.The prime minister hopes the Rwanda scheme will deter migrants from seeking to cross the English Channel, Ms Cooper called the Bill “an extortionately expensive gimmick rather than a serious plan to tackle dangerous boat crossings” during an interview with Sky News.When asked by presenter Kay Burley: “So no one during a Labour government will go to Rwanda?”, Ms Cooper replied: “No, that’s not our plan.” More

Power briefly went off in the House of Lords on Monday evening (22 April) as a peer was mid-way through a speech.Lights in the chamber flickered before going out while Lord Bellamy was speaking at the despatch box.After television screens and microphones also turned off, the justice minister prompted laughter as he joked: “I must have said something controversial.”Lord Bellamy was able to continue reading his notes by using a table lamp during a short debate on support for parents considering separation.It came amid the late-night back-and-forth between the Commons and Lords over amendments to Rishi Sunak’s controversial Rwanda bill. More