Key points
Both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn paid tribute to the former Speaker Michael Martin, who has died aged 72.
Corbyn kicked off his six questions by asking May whether she felt guilty about Amber Rudd having to resign for failures of her predecessor at the Home Office.
May suggested she update the house on what actions the government was taking to help the Windrush generation. She announced a review into what went wrong, which will report before parliament’s summer recess.
Corbyn moved on to say the economy was another government failure – with Britain the slowest-growing economy in the G7 and growth figures the worst in five years.
May said day-to-day spending was in surplus for the first time in years, net borrowing was the lowest in more than a decade and exports and employment were at record highs.
Corbyn said more people were in debt, more used food banks and more slept on our streets while more children lived in poverty. The NHS was suffering the longest funding squeeze in history. Will May apologise to NHS patients waiting longer than ever? he asked.
May said there were more people in work, and fewer children in absolute poverty. She said the chancellor had announced £10bn extra for the NHS but that it was also about how you spent that money and reformed the NHS.
Corbyn said March was the worst month on record for A&E and cancelled operations. There were thousands of NHS vacancies. But May intervened personally to stop the NHS hiring from abroad. He said the education secretary used to say there would be no cut in schools funding. Last week, he refused to repeat that pledge. Will May admit schools budgets are being cut? he added.
May said there was more money for schools. It was not just a question of how much money you put in. She said 1.9 million children were in good or outstanding schools.
Corbyn said the UK Statistics Authority said budgets were being cut. Yet May was in denial. And police budgets were an issue too. Home Office civil servants said there was a link between budget cuts and rising crime.
May said she had protected police budgets while Andy Burnham proposed cuts when he was shadow home secretary.
Corbyn said the shadow police minister was pointing to a cut in police budgets. He said about 21,000 officers had lost their jobs since 2010; violent crime was rising; and deaths from knife crime were going up, especially in London. The government was making a complete shambles of Brexit, damaging the NHS, damaging schools, and yet they claimed to be strong and stable. With council tax rising by more than 5% all over the country, wasn’t the truth that with the Tories you pay more and get less?
May said there was more funding going into the NHS, schools and social care. If Corbyn wanted to talk about council tax, he should go to Hazelbourne Road in Clapham. On one side, houses in Labour Lambeth pay about £1,400 a year. On the other side, in Conservative Wandworth, people pay about £700.
Snap verdict
That wasn’t really a PMQs at all; we just had two PPBs (party political broadcasts) blaring away in tandem, doing little to enlighten anyone. Corbyn’s PPB was better on passion, and it covered wider ground – in fact, there was little area of public policy where he failed to castigate the government – but May probably did better on specific, memorable detail (her Hazelbourne Road anecdote). The local elections take place on Thursday, and so perhaps this wasn’t surprising. Corbyn did start with a neat, sassy question about Windrush. But May’s announcement about an inquiry into what went wrong disarmed him, and also helped to explain why the Tory whips felt comfortable about ordering their MPs to vote against the Labour motion calling for all confidential government paperwork on Windrush to be disclosed later this afternoon. The government clearly feels that this will be enough to contain demands for the full disclosure of documents, although the inquiry she announced sounded very minimalist. She described it as a “full review of lessons learned” rather than a proper inquiry, and it does not sound as if it will be especially independent. (She talked about “independent oversight and external challenge”, which is not quite the same as having an independent person in charge.) It will also concluded before the end of July, which means it may be one of the shortest inquiries on record.
Memorable lines
Jeremy Corbyn on Amber Rudd’s resignation:
Did the prime minister feel the slightest pang of guilt when the home secretary was forced to resign due to failures of her predecessor?
Theresa May on council tax increases:
If he wants to talk about council tax … I suggest he goes to Hazelbourne Road in Clapham. On one side of the road in a typical home someone will pay nearly £1,400 in council tax. That is in Labour-run Lambeth. On the other side of the road, someone in a typical home will be just over £700 in council tax. That’s in Conservative-run Wandsworth. No clearer example can there be that Conservative councils cost you less.
