DEPUTY Prime Minister Angela Rayner is set to stand in for Keir Starmer at today’s PMQs.
It comes after Rayner chaired Cabinet for the first time in a rare move for the Deputy Prime Minister to lead the meeting.
When the Prime Minister is unable to attend, the next most senior minister chairs the meeting under conventions set out in the Cabinet manual.
A Downing Street spokesman said the Government was “getting on with the job” while Starmer is away.
Why is she standing in for Keir Starmer at PMQs?
Keir Starmer is away at the G7 summit.
The the conference in Canada, leaders from the world’s wealthiest countries met for talks on global security.
Leaders signed a declaration supportive of Israel and damning about Iran.
The statement read: “We, the leaders of the G7, reiterate our commitment to peace and stability in the Middle East. In this context, we affirm that Israel has a right to defend itself. We reiterate our support for the security of Israel.
“We also affirm the importance of the protection of civilians. Iran is the principal source of regional instability and terror. We have been consistently clear that Iran can never have a nuclear weapon.”
Yesterday, a Downing Street spokesperson said the Prime Minister is “always in charge” and kept updated and the focus of the G7 to urge de-escalation in the Middle East was reflected in the Cabinet meeting.
Who is Chris Philp and where is Kemi Badenoch?
It is Westminster tradition that if the Prime Minister is unavailable on PMQs day, they will be replaced by their deputy. Meanwhile, the Leader of the Opposition will have their second in command do the same.
Therefore, Rayner will take on shadow home secretary Chris Philp.
Philp – who was a Home Office minister – will likely lead on the national grooming gangs inquiry after Starmer cited his time in the Home Office.
Kemi Badenoch called a Westminster press conference on Monday, where she denied politicising the issue but attacked people who she claimed sought to “tone police those who are pointing out when something has gone wrong”.
The PM also contrasted his time working as England and Wales’ chief prosecutor, and his initial years as an MP when he called for mandatory reporting, with Badenoch’s time in Government.
“Kemi Badenoch, I think, if I remember rightly, was the minister for children and for women, and I think the record will show that she didn’t raise the question of grooming once when she was in power, not once, not one word from the dispatch box on any of this,” he told reporters.
“Chris Philp (the shadow home secretary), I think, went to 300-plus meetings when he was in his position in the Home Office and at not one of those meetings did he raise the question of grooming.
“So, I know there’s some discussion of this ‘far-right bandwagon’. I was actually calling out politicians, nobody else, politicians who in power had said and done nothing, who are now making the claims that they make.”
