PMQs live: Starmer says MPs would get vote on deployment of troops to Ukraine

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Badenoch defends her shadow attorney general as Starmer says is Abramovich work conflicts with Tory sanctions policy

Badenoch defends her shadow attorney general, David Wolfson. She says he is representing British veterans challenging Labour’s Northern Ireland legislation pro bono.

And she says she would take Wolfson any day over Lord Hermer, Labour’s attorney general, who had Gerry Adams as a client (before he became a minister).

Starmer says he accepts that lawyers work for clients whose views they do not support. But he says the Tories support sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. But Wolfson is on the other side, he suggests. He says Badenoch should be able to see the conflict of intereest.

Badenoch says Ben Wallace told the Today programme this morning that defence spending had fallen under both main parties. It was last at 3% under the Tories, she says.

She says Starmer sat in shadow cabinet under a leader who did not even support Nato.

She says SAS veterans have said the government’s Northern Ireland Troubles bill is a threat to the SAS.

Starmer says Badenoch’s reply is embarrassing. The Tories were in office for 14 years, he says. And he says Badenoch has a shadow attorney general who is working for Roman Abramovich.

And the Tories gave immunity to IRA terrorists with their Northern Ireland legislation, he says.

If Badenoch wants to bring this back, she should say so.

Badenoch says the deployment of British troops to Ukraine could lead to them being at war with Russia. She asks when the government will get defence spending up to 3% of GDP.

Starmer says he spoke to President Trump twice over the Christmas period about Ukaine. He says there is no gap between the UK and the US on the Ukraine plan.

On defence spending, he says the money for the increase is provided in the budget.

When the Tories were in power, the armed services were “hollowed out”, according to Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary, he says.

He says he is proposing to raise defence spending three years earlier than would have happened under the Tories’ unfunded promise.

Badenoch asks how many British troops might be deployed to Ukraine, and in what capacity.

Starmer says he was with Nato allies all day yesterday.

He says the Ukraine agreement was set out last night. He says British troops would go to Ukraine “to support Ukraine’s capabilities if it conducted deterrence operations and to construct and protect military hubs”. He says the number of troops being deployed would be set out at the time.

Badenoch says today is the earliest opportunity for Starmer to make a statement about Ukraine. She claims Starmer is “scared” to take questions on this.

She asks him if he will call for an urgent of meeting of Nato leaders to discuss Greenland.

Starmer says that in the past Badenoch criticised him for missing PMQs to attend an international meeting.

Badenoch says it is 'astonishing' Starmer not making statement to MPs about Ukraine decision today

Kemi Badenoch welcomes “the prime minister’s efforts” to secure peace in Ukraine and in Greenland.

But she says it is “astonishing” that the statement to MPs on Ukraine won’t happen today.

She says he should have done, given the commitment to deploy troops.

She says, even though the US is the UK’s closest ally, the sovereignty of Greenland is sacrosanct. She asks what Starmer is doing to make that clear to Donald Trump.

Starmer says the agreement yesterday was a political declaration. Further steps would have to take place before a troop deployment.

He says he will make a statement to MPs at the earliest opportunity.

Starmer says MPs would get vote on any decision to deploy troops to Ukraine

Starmer tells MPs about the Coalition of the Willing meeting yesterday, and says he will set the details out to MPs in a separate statement in due course.

If troops were to be committed on the ground, MPs would get a vote, he says.

Keir Starmer starts by saying he hopes all MPs had a happy Christmas. It probably feels like a long time ago, he says. But not for Reform UK – “because today is the day they celebrate Christmas in Russia”.

Starmer faces Badenoch at PMQs

PMQs is about to start.

Here is the list of MPs with a question.

PMQs Photograph: HoC

Farage says Reform UK mayoral candidate should apologise for saying Lammy should 'go home to Caribbean'

The final question at the press conference was about Chris Parry, the Reform UK mayoral candidate who has posted on social media saying David Lammy should “go home to the Caribbean”. He has said similar things about other black politicians.

Farage said that Parry was “intensely patriotic”, but he went on:

I do think his comments on Lammy were over the top and he should apologise for them.

Reform UK has not said that about Parry before.

Cunningham complains too many migrants coming to London not willing to integrate

Q: London is seen as one of the most diverse cities in the world. Do you think it is too diverse?

Cunningham says of course London is diverse. But she says migrants have to integrate. That is what her parents did when they came to London, she says. She says now people come to London expecting people to adapt to accommodate them. She says:

You don’t come to London expecting London to change for you. And I find that some people come, expected it to change for them, and when it doesn’t change for them, they say we’re racist. There’s absolutely nothing racist about that. It’s called patriotism.

Farage says this is “absolutely right”.

Farage says Reform UK will vote against lifting two-child benefit cap

Q: [From the Guardian’s Alexandra Topping] Reform UK’s policy on the two-child benefit cap [which would just lift for families where both parents are working full-time] would only help 1% of the children affected. Will you for or against the Labour plan to life the cap in full?

Farage says his comment about being opposed to the two-child cap was misinterpreted. He was trying to be pro-family. He says he wants to prioritise benefit spending on British-born people.

Reform UK will vote against lifting the cap, he says.

Farage says he's 'very worried' sexualised deepfake content on X - but won't commit to stop taking money from it

Q: [From Rob Hutton from the Critic] Over the past 18 months you have taken £13,000 from X because your posts on the platform attract so many viewers. But now X is offering “child porn” on demand. Are you going to carry on taking “child porn money”.

For about the first time in this press conference, Farage sounds flustered.

He suggests the outside interest earnings figure that he has to publish are misleading, because they are gross figures and they do not take into account costs.

On the sexualised deepfakes features, he says he is “very worried” about this aspect. He says Sarah Pochin is leading for his party on this issue and urging the government to get X to remove it. He says he thinks X will listen to the criticism.

He does not commit to stop taking money from X.

Farage says he does not accept figures showing crime down in London, claiming crime survey data not reliable

Q: [From the Financial Times] How do you respond to claims that you are being misleading about the extent of crime in London. “London’s murder rate is the lowest in decades. It’s much lower than Chicago, New York and LA. Knife crime has fallen sharply over the past ten years. The proportion of adults who have been victims of personal crimes fallen to the lowest level since 2002. Do both of you admit that across lots of really important metrics, London has actually become a much safer city?”

Farage says he does not accept this. He says the Crime Survey is used to provide crime figures. That involved people replying to a survey. But many people just throw that in the bin, he says. He says this method of collecting data is “just completely out of date and don’t work”.

And he says he can think of times when members of his family have been victims of crime, but have not reported it.

Cunningham says she agrees with Farage.

I was a senior crime prosecutor in London. I can assure you, crime is not down. Crime is up.

And she says, although the police recorded crime data is supposed to be accurate, the police do not record some offences.

She goes on:

I think it’s a dangerous narrative to push that London, London is safe because it’s very disrespectful to victims.

Farage says Zack Polanski, the new Green party leader, is “clearly a lunatic”.

But he says, if you oppose drugs laws and support open borders, “then the Greens are clearly for you”.

Farage claims further restriction on drink-driving 'wholly unnecessary'

Q: [From the Telegraph] Will you support the Telegraph’s Save our Pubs campaign, set up in response to the government’s road safety strategy?

Farage jokes about saving many pubs over the years. He goes on to attack the government’s plans.

This is the drink drive thing is absolutely ridiculous, wholly unnecessary.

We’ve been where we’ve been since 1967. It’s worked pretty effectively.

You actually look at road casualty figures, safety figures in this country, through whatever cause, we are now incredibly safe on our roads, incredibly safe, much safer than France, way safer than Germany.

And we’ve actually reached a level on accidents beneath which it’s almost impossible to go, because there will always be human error of some kind.

He also criticises the plan to make young people wait up to six months from taking their theory exam until they can sit the driving test. (See 9.32am.)

Reform UK's candidate for London mayor says Met commissioner should have to quit over grooming gangs record

Q: Is Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan police commissioner, to blame for the state of crime in London?

Cunningham says Rowley claimed there was not a problem with grooming gangs in London. He was wrong. They ended up reveiwing 9,000 cases, she says. She says on the basis of that Rowley has to go “because on my watch you don’t you don’t get 9000 grooming cases wrong”.

Farage says the chief constable of West Midlands police should go first. He says his performance at the Commons home affairs committee yesterday was “absolutely abject”. And he pays tribute to Nick Timothy, the Conservative MP, for the way he was campaigned for the WMP chief constable, Craig Guildford, to go for supposedly misrepresenting the evidence used by the police to justify the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from the Villa Park match last year.

Farage says era of rules-based international order 'out of date', and move to 'world of national self-interest' could be positive

Q: Do you think it is a good thing if the rules-based international order no long exists?

Farage says that, after the horrors of world war two and the Nazis, he understands why people wanted to put new arrangements in place, including the European convention on human rights.

But he says so many of these institutions are now “hopelessly out of date”.

He goes on:

We are moving into a very new world of national self-interest, where countries will put their own national self-interest first. And that, by the way, will not be a bad thing, provided those countries are democratically run and have accountable leaderships.

The danger actually is not the existence of nation states. The danger is when nation states are not democratic or the leaders are not accountable.

Farage also says he cannot think of an example of two mature, functioning democracies going to war against each other.

He says the concept of international law may be “frightfully popular in Islington and Hampstead, and amongst many members of this government”. But it it now no longer fit for purpose in the way originally envisaged.

Cunningham implies she would scrap congestion charge in London

Q: What would you do about the congestion charge and the Ulex charge?

Cunningham says she does not think a war on motorists helps anyone. She says she would scrap this because “I want a war on criminals, not a war on motorists”.

(It is not clear from her answer if she is saying she would get rid of both the congestion charge and Ulez, or just Ulez. She implied both, but she was not specific.)