Key events
Sarah Olney (Lib Dem) asks about Iran. The US cannot show moral leadership. Will the UK step up and proscribe the IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps).
Lammy says it is long-standing policy not to say what bodies are about to be proscribed. But sanctions have been employed against Iran, and further measures are being considered, he says.
Melanie Onn (Lab) criticises what Donald Trump said about the armed forces. She asks what is being done to help homeless veterans.
Lammy says the government is dealing with homelessness amongst veterans, and he pays tribute to the valour of members of the armed forces.
Vicky Foxcroft (Lab) says reforms to the asylum system should support, not undermine, efforts to ensure that refugees get proper support.
Lammy says the goverment wants a proper asylum system. But that must involve making the system less attractive, he says.
John Lamont (Con) asks if Scottish Labour MPs are right to think their party will be slaughtered in the Scottish elections.
Lammy says Scots certainly won’t be voting Tory.
Richard Foord (Lib Dem) says his constituents in the south-west are under water. The government needs to invest more in flood defences there. Will Lammy invite JD Vance to a fishing trip there?
Lammy jokes that, if he does, this time he will get a licence. But he acknowledges this is a problem.
Alex Barros-Curtis (Lab) asks about funding for youth services in his Cardiff West constituency.
Lammy says a Labour government is making a difference for Wales.
Jim Allister (TUV) says now GB cars cannot be sold in Northern Ireland because of the post-Brexit rules in place. He asks what sort of government allows a foreign power to impose rules on its territory like this.
Lammy says he looked at this when he was foreign secretary. There is no evidence of serious disruption at the border, he says.
John Slinger (Lab) says Andrew Rossindell, the Tory who defected to Refom UK at the weekend, is on record as saying he would not mind replacing the NHS with an insurance system.
Lammy says Labour would never allow that.
Daisy Cooper, the deputy Lib Dem leader, says the Chinese are still holding Jimmy Lai in prison. But Keir Starmer has gone to China asking for a trade deal. What consequences will China face if they do not stop their campaign of espionage against the UK>
Lammy says China is too big to ignore. The UK has to engage, as countries like France and Canada are doing.
Cooper says Lammy could not name a single consequence China will face if they don’t stop spying on the UK. She says defence spending has to be ramped up now. Will the government consider the Lib Dem plan to raise £20bn through defence bonds.
Lammy says the goverment was spendinng 2.5% of GDP on defence when Labour left office. It was cut when the Lib Dems were in power with the Tories.
Mary Kelly Foy (Lab) asks about Send (special educational needs and disabilities) provision.
Lammy says the government is investing in Send.
Griffith says the Tories are getting stronger and stronger.
(That generates a lot of mocking laughter.)
He says there are no answers from the government for small business. Won’t the deputy PM admit that what Labour MPs are worried about is not Keir Starmer going to China, but him coming back.
Lammy says: “He’s not going to get this gig again.”
He says Badenoch told Desert Islands Discs this week that Britons need to queue. Her MPs are taking her advice; they are queing outside Nigel Farage’s office.
Griffith says Labour does not understand business. What is the cost of the government’s unemployment act?
Lammy says his father was run out of business under the Thatcher government. He says 26 ex-Tory MPs have already left the party. There are 100 days of the transfer season left, he says. It will be the most disloyal transfer season since Sol Campbell, he says.
Griffith says Lammy is the designated survivor. Lammy does not know the answer, he says. He says the extra cost of hiring a 21-year-person is £3,600. This is bad for ambitous people like “Andy from Manchester”, he says.
Lammy says Griffith cannot lecture anyone on U-turns. He was Boris Johnson’s net zero champion, he says.
Griffith says you don’t make young people better off by putting them of jobs. He says Labour should scrap business rates, as the Tories propose. But Labour won’t cut welfare to fund that.
He asks how much more it costs to hire a 21-year-old under Labour?
Lammy says the Tories left a shameful legacy for young people. The Tories would freeeze the minimum wage. They have nothing to offer the next generation.
Griffith says he spent 25 years building businesses. Lammy spent 25 years manufacturing grievance. This is “too little, too late”. The high streets are bleeding, and the chancellor is handing out sticking plasters. “They can’t even U-turn properly.” He says a senior adviser to Andy Burnham said yesterday Rachel Reeves just wanted a cheap headline.
Lammy says Griffith opposed the minimum wage, and says it was just something MPs passed to make themselves feel good. He says in fact it changes lives.
Andrew Griffith asks Lammy to confirm that 90% of hospitality, retail and leisure premises will get nothing from the business rates concession announced yesterday.
Lammy says it is always a pleasure to hear from the author of the Liz Truss mini-budget. He says under the Tories 7,000 pubs closed.
Anneliese Midgley (Lab) asks about out of control waste dumps, saying it is a problem in her constituency.
Lammy says this is a serious problem.
And, while on the subject of “garbage” he says, he says he notes that Kemi Badenoch has welcomed the clear our her party is having. She is getting rid of the rubbish.
David Lammy starts by saying a Holocaust survivor addressed cabinet yesterday to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. He says her evidence was very moving. The government is building a Holocaust memorial centre next to this parliament.
He also says pays tribute to the army captain who died at the weekend.
From Noah Keate from Politico
Never seen the Commons chamber or press gallery so quiet five minutes before #PMQs. Plenty of hacks are in China but hardly any MPs — public gallery packed to the rafters showing the continual interest in the weekly joust!
