Seher Asaf
Live reporter

That's a wrap on this week's PMQs, which saw Labour's Employment Rights Bill come under fire.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch largely focused on pressing Keir Starmer over the bill, with a few jabs at Labour's economic growth plans following a major speech by Chancellor Rachel Reeves this morning.

There was also mention of the lettuce meme that plagued Liz Truss's short prime ministership during a tense back-and-forth between Starmer and Badenoch. The latter described Starmer as "a lawyer not a leader", leading him to respond "if she carries on like this she's going to be the next lettuce".

We're ending our live coverage there, but we'll be back to do it all again next week. For further reading, be sure to check out:

• The latest: Reeves backs Heathrow expansion to boost UK growth
• At a glance: What was in Rachel Reeves's speech?
• Analysis: Labour must make economic growth ideas work this time
• Explained: How the changes to employment rights could affect you

As we mentioned earlier, it seemed likely we would hear something at PMQs related to recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures which suggest net migration could raise the UK population to 72.5 million by 2032.

The issue was raised in the final question put to the prime minister today, by Conservative Andrew Rosindell who said his constituents in Romford are "shocked" and "angry".

"That's 500,000 people a year, which is unsustainable," Rosindell said, adding there is "no mandate for such a colossal increase in immigration".

Starmer said Rosindell should talk to Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, saying net migration went "through the roof" under the last government and that Badenoch was "cheering it on" then.

"We're taking control, we will bring these numbers down," Starmer said.

Image source, PA Media

This week's PMQs saw Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch grill Prime Minister Keir Starmer on his plans for growth, following Rachel Reeves's major speech on economic growth this morning.

But she largely honed in on the Employment Rights Bill, repeatedly hitting out at the new legislation.

Here's a look back at the key moments:

• Badenoch repeatedly asked Starmer if he would drop the employment bill, saying it fails his tests for delivering economic growth. The prime minister defended the bill, saying it is about protecting workers' rights
• Badenoch said many of the policies Reeves announced today in her speech on economic growth came from the Conservatives
• At one point, Badenoch accused Starmer of misleading the House of Commons over his education policy last week, prompting Speaker Hoyle to interject and say she cannot make such an accusation

• Starmer warned Badenoch that she would be "the next lettuce" after she said the employment bill fails his growth tests
• Lib Dem leader Ed Davey asked Starmer if there are any ways to bring the rebuilding of hospitals forward, to which the prime minister said Labour's "funded plan" will "deliver them"

Much of today's PMQs focused on Labour's Employment Rights Bill, which the government says will mark the "biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation" - but some businesses have expressed concern over.

In brief, here's what the bill covers:

• Unfair dismissal: Workers will have the right to claim unfair dismissal against their employer from day one. That is a big change from the existing two-year qualifying period
• Zero-hour contracts: Company bosses will be required to offer a zero-hours worker a guaranteed-hours contract based on the hours they clock up during a 12-week period
• Flexible working: Flexible working is to become the "default" for all workers, with employers required to say yes to requests from staff from their first day starting in a job unless they can prove it is "unreasonable"
• Sick pay: Employees will be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay from the first day they are ill and those earning under £123 per week will also be eligible for it
• Unpaid parental and bereavement leave: Parents are currently only allowed to take unpaid parental leave and bereavement leave if they have been with a company for more than a year. The government plans to change this to become a right from "day one" in employment
• Fire and rehire: If a business needs to cut costs, it may try to change its workers’ terms and conditions - the new bill bans such fire and rehire practices in most circumstances

Want to know more? Here's a piece our business colleagues wrote last year about how the bill could affect you

Badenoch focuses on growth as Starmer decides it's time to hit backpublished at 12:32 GMT 29 January 2025

12:32 GMT 29 January 2025

Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent

So this was a duel of narratives, on the economy and on leadership.

The government is trying to seize the mantle of being "pro-growth", in reply the Conservative leader used all her time to focus on ways she think it’s responsible for destroying growth.

She labelled the employment bill the "unemployment bill" and stuck to that theme, adding the government’s ideas for growth are originally Conservative ones.

Keir Starmer has had a ready riposte every time to these attacks, which is to point to the verdict of the election. Now, as that recedes into the past, he’s also attacking Kemi Badenoch for comments she’s made about pensions, claiming she would means-test them.

The duel extended to personal attacks from both leaders too. Badenoch has clearly decided her charge that the prime minister is “a lawyer not a leader” is one that cuts through, so she repeated it.

Starmer has clearly decided it’s time to hit back. ”We know she's not a lawyer and she's not a leader. If she carries on like this she's going to be the next lettuce."

Davey next says that striving for growth means setting aside the PM's objections to a UK-EU customs union to improve trading with EU neighbours.

He asks Starmer if he'll begin removing the "growth damaging trade barriers" set up by the Tories on an upcoming trip to Brussels.

Starmer says the government's mission is growth and he's also focused on resetting the UK's post-Brexit relationship with Europe.

But Labour had "clear red lines" when it comes to the single market and customs union, which Davey knows, Starmer adds.

• For context: Starmer has called for a reset in relations with Brussels, but ruled out rejoining the customs union or the EU's single market.

Lib Dem leader Ed Davey - as he has done for the last few weeks - focuses his question on the NHS.

He says the Conservatives made hollow promises on rebuilding hospitals, and says urgent rebuilding programmes are now being postponed, which is harming people's lives. He asks if there any way to bring these projects forwards.

Starmer says people are "right to feel angry" at the Conservatives' "non-plan" to build more hospitals, which he says are "unachievable" and an "empty" promise.

He says Labour's "funded plan" will "deliver them".

• For context: Last week, the government said a host of hospital building projects in England were being delayed, with some having to wait up to 14 years before work starts.

Image source, House of Commons

Badenoch says Starmer's "arrogance" means he thinks it's his government that creates growth, but "it's actually business".

She then asks what's the point of his growth test is, if he won't drop the employment bill.

"She's got a nerve," Starmer responds, before saying the Tories broke the economy, the health service, and prison services and have no lessons to give.

"They failed on every front," he says, adding it's clear "they've learned absolutely nothing".

Badenoch continues to criticise the bill, and says it will benefit trade unions - to loud cheers from her benches of MPs.

She accuses Starmer of failing to deregulate for businesses, which she says stimulate growth, and suggests he is instead deregulating trade unions. The bill, she says, means less notice is needed for employees to launch strike action.

Starmer says the government's plans are being welcomed, naming the CBI as a supporter. "We're growing the economy and they left it in a mess," he tells MPs to cheers from his side.

Image source, House of Commons

Badenoch is sticking with her questioning of the employment bill, saying it would mean a new employee could start a job in the morning and take their employer to a tribunal that afternoon.

The bill is terrible for business but a great employer for lawyers, she says, adding: "I know the Prime Minister loves the legal profession, but he needs to stop being a lawyer and start being a leader."

She says this measure in the bill fails Starmer's growth tests – will he drop it, she asks again.

Starmer says Badenoch is talking "absolute nonsense", dismissing her tribunal line.

"Now, we know she is not a lawyer, she is clearly not a leader, if she keeps on like this, she is going to be the next lettuce," he says.

• For context: In 2022, during former prime minister Liz Truss's 45 days as leader, the Daily Star newspaper created a live web-cam feed to test whether her term in office would outlast a 60p iceberg lettuce.

Image source, Daily Star

Badenoch says Starmer's ideas are ones the Tories already thought of when they were in power, and that the government itself estimates the employment bill will increase business costs from £600m to £1bn a year in sick pay.

She says this will mean higher prices and less growth and asks again whether the PM will drop policies like these from the bill?

Starmer resolutely says no - arguing that the bill is about protecting workers' rights, which is what policies like this do.

• For context: The Employment Rights Bill was announced by the government in October, who hailed it as the "biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation". Many big business groups welcomed the plans but Tina McKenzie, policy chair at the Federation of Small Businesses, told the BBC last year that smaller firms could be left "scrabbling to make sense" of the changes.

Image source, House of Commons

Badenoch now says Starmer doesn't want to talk about the employment bill because he "doesn't know" the detail of it - before accusing him of last week misleading the Commons over his government's education policy.

Speaker Lindsay Hoyle interjects here, saying she can't accuse the PM of misleading Parliament, and asks her to rethink her language.

She then says the prime minister doesn't know what is "happening in here and out there", saying the costs the employment bill will force businesses to incur mean it's more of an unemployment bill - so will he drop it?

Starmer says Labour is proud of its record on championing workers' rights, adding that the government is driving growth on behalf of working people. The only policy Badenoch has is to shrink pensions, he adds.

• For context: MPs are not allowed to accuse each other of deliberately misleading the House during parliamentary proceedings.

Starmer responds by listing organisations that suggest the government's strategy for growth is working, including that the ONS says Labour has the highest investment for 19 years.

He also quotes previous comments from his opposite back to her: "'There's no point in me just complaining about Labour,' she [Badenoch] said, 'it's obvious that we Conservatives lost the confidence of business'," he said.

Badenoch, at end of 2024, said that Conservatives lost the confidence of businesses going into the July election because "firms knew we were going to lose".

"We're not taking lectures from them," Starmer says.

Badenoch begins by saying many of the policies Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced today (in a speech she gave in Oxford) came from the Conservatives.

She brings up the "growth test" announced by Starmer yesterday: "He said, 'if a policy is good for growth, the answer is yes. If it's not, the answer is no'," she says.

She suggests Starmer's employment bill "clearly fails" his tests for delivering economic growth, will cost businesses £5bn a year and asks if he will drop it.

• For context: At a meeting with business leaders on Tuesday, Starmer was quoted by various news outlets as saying Cabinet ministers had been told the government's "growth mission" was now the driving force behind policy decisions.

Image source, UK Parliament

It's time for Prime Minister's Questions.

We'll be bringing you the back and forth as it comes, so stay with us.

And remember, you can follow all the action by pressing watch live at the top of the page.

Damian Grammaticas
Political correspondent

All the focus on Rachel Reeves’ speech means Prime Minister’s Questions could be overshadowed this week.

Certainly Downing Street has been keen that it’s Reeves and her boosterism on the economy that gets the lion’s share of media coverage this week.

But it may depend on what the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch decides to do.

In recent week’s she’s taken different approaches. Last week she surprised many, including some of her own MPs by focussing all her questions on one topic, and not one that was immediately top of the agenda, education reforms. Prior to that she has tried peppering her questions with different issues.

Growth and the economy are clearly on the agenda but will she go for that, something else, or a more smorgasbord approach?

Image source, Reuters

Some big political news this morning that could come up in the Commons is the chancellor announcing government backing of a third runway at Heathrow Airport.

Speaking earlier this morning, Rachel Reeves argued that opening a third runway could create 100,000 jobs and said the government "cannot duck the decision any longer".

The issue has proved highly controversial over the years, with concerns over the impact on the environment and people who live nearby.

Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has already said he opposed the expansion of the airport – the government will be on the lookout for possible dissent on its own benches in the Commons.

In a speech outlining plans to increase economic growth, the chancellor also voiced her backing for a range of projects across England, including the redevelopment of Manchester United's Old Trafford football ground, and investment in the "Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor".

Prior to Reeves's speech, the Conservatives branded her economic growth plans "hastily-cobbled together".

Image source, PA Media

We've just spotted the prime minister, Keir Starmer, leaving No 10 and heading to the Commons.

He'll be quizzed by Kemi Badenoch and other MPs from 12:00 GMT.

Image source, Getty Images

The Commons debate could likely turn to net migration, after figures suggested net migration could fuel a rise in the UK population to 72.5 million by 2032, figures suggest.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has projected a population growth of 7.3% between 2022 and 2032, compared with an increase of 6.1% over the previous 10 years.

The Home office says it has committed to reducing those numbers "substantially", and would set out a "comprehensive plan" to "restore order to our broken immigration system".

The prime minister's official spokesman said that a cap on migration wasn’t the way forward, that Starmer has said that a "supposed cap" in place before "didn't have any meaningful impact on reducing immigration".

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the projection was "shocking and unacceptable", and must be "stopped from materialising."