Vicki Young
Politics Live presenter

With global oil prices still high due to the war in Iran, Kemi Badenoch pushed Keir Starmer on the pressing issue of energy costs.

Speaking to me on Politics Live after PMQs, the shadow home secretary Chris Philp says, “what we should be doing is sinking new gas wells in the North Sea. We’d make £25bn in tax revenue which could be used to subsidise energy bills.”

Chris Ward, the Cabinet Office minister, rejects the idea of new drilling, telling me: “the longer we’re stuck on the fossil fuel roller coaster, the worse it is for businesses and households, and that’s why the big strategic decision the government has taken is to invest very heavily in renewables.”

Two starkly different positions from Labour and the Conservatives – but will either message comfort people worried about rising energy bills?

We're ending our live coverage of the Commons - thanks for joining us.

PMQs fact-check: What is happening to energy bills?published at 13:10 GMT 25 March

13:10 GMT 25 March

By Tamara Kovacevic

A little earlier at Prime Minister’s Questions Keir Starmer and Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch clashed over energy bills.

Starmer said: “Because of the action we’ve taken, bills are coming down by up to £100 next month”.

Badenoch replied: “He says bills are coming down. They are higher than when he came into office”.

Both claims are true.

Energy bills will be around £117 lower from April to the end of June in England, Scotland and Wales, for a household using a typical amount of energy.

However, the bill for a “typical household” will still be higher in April this year than in July 2024, when Labour came to power.

In July 2024 it was £1,568, external and in April 2026 it will be £1,641 - £73 higher.

Image source, UK Parliament

From energy prices to new drilling in the North Sea, this week's PMQs saw leaders going head-to-head about the cost of living.

Here's what we heard this week:

• Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch began by asking Starmer if he would approve licences for the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea - PM Keir Starmer replied by saying it's a matter for the energy secretary, but the only way to "take control of our energy prices" is through renewable sources
• The Tory leader criticised Starmer, saying he is the first PM "to be pushed around by the energy secretary" and then turned her attention to energy bills, which she says are higher than when Starmer took office

• Starmer hit back, attributing the spike in prices to the US-Israeli war with Iran - he argued that the way forward is a mix of renewable energy alongside oil and gas
• Things took a dramatic turn as Reform UK MPs walked out of the chamber. Reform said the walkout was in response to the PM's "pathetic response" to party leader Nigel Farage's question about small boat crossings
• Turning back to the debate on North Sea oil licences and the cost of energy, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey shared his concern that thegovernment's support for household energy bills "won't cut it", if the war pushes up bills by £500 this year

Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith references the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). He asks the PM if he will make the decision to ban the Iranian group as a terrorist organisation.

The IRGC is part of the Iranian armed forces and is a major military, political and economic force in Iran.

Starmer says the government has sanctioned the IRGC and the proscription powers aren't designed for a state organisation.

PMQs has now ended - we'll bring you a recap and more analysis shortly.

Chris Mason
Political editor

Reform UK say they walked out of PMQs en masse after Nigel Farage’s exchange with the prime minister because of "Starmer’s pathetic response and failing to take action on the border crisis"."He isn’t serious about stopping the boats," a spokesman says.

Before Reform UK MPs walked out of the chamber, party leader Nigel Farage was given a chance to put a question to Starmer.

Farage asks whether it is "now time to admit" that the government's plans to "smash the gangs" when it comes to small boat crossings is "a total abject failure".

He also asks "what is plan B?"

Starmer describes Farage as a man who "voted against giving law enforcement counter terrorism-style powers to tackle that".

Pointing to Farage's stance on the Iran war, Starmer says it is "hard to take anything he says seriously".

Returning to the debate on North Sea oil licences, before the Reform UK walkout we just mentioned, Lib Dem leader Ed Davey said the prime minister "is actually right" and Badenoch "is wrong" - to more loud jeering in the chamber.

"The law is clear and I believe in the rule of law," Davey says.

"All of of my decisions are based in the best interests of our country", Starmer says, repeating that he's decided the UK "will not get dragged in" and will focus on collective self-defence with allies.

Davey says he's concerned the government's support for household energy bills "won't cut it", if the war pushes up bills by £500 this year.

Starmer says the government "will keep this under careful review", with energy bills capped until the end of June. "Appropriate support" will then be put in place, he says.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

Reform UK’s MPs have just staged a walkout of PMQs.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

A noisy score draw in the final PMQs before a two week recess.

The prime minister at least engaged with Kemi Badenoch’s questions this week - as she urged him to give the go ahead to North Sea oil drilling in the Jackdaw and Rosebank fields.

His repeated reference to "quasi judicial" process allowed the Tory leader to accuse him of hiding behind process and of being too "pathetic" to stand up to the energy secretary.

She also managed to squeeze in a jibe about Morgan McSweeney’s phone and dubbed Labour the "welfare party".

Tory MPs love this stuff but the noise was rising on the Labour benches as Starmer had the final say, as he always does in these sessions.

Badenoch claims bills are higher than they were when Starmer came into office, and that families and businesses will "suffer" from "the spike in energy costs because of his decisions".

She says the UK could drill our own gas, but the PM is "planning another giveaway to people on welfare" and "taking money from those who do work to give to those that don't".

The Tory leader asks if this proves Labour and are now "just the welfare party".

Starmer hits back, attributing the spike in prices to the US-Israeli war with Iran - one, he says, Badenoch thinks the UK "should join without following through on the consequences".

"Time and again she gets the big calls absolutely wrong," says Starmer.

Image source, House of Commons

Badenoch says stopping all new drilling in the North Sea was "reckless" when it was a promise before the election. It is "catastrophic" in the middle of a global energy crisis, she adds.

Approving new licences would show Starmer is serious about cutting bills, she says, asking why he doesn't do it.

Starmer says bills are coming down by up to £100 next month, then they will be capped for three months, "protecting households across the country".

The Conservatives and Reform UK voted against it, he adds, "because they just don't get the impact on working people that we will protect".

Kemi Badenoch says Starmer "can change the legislation".

She then turns to Norway, whose government she says drilled 49 wells in the North Sea last year, compared to the UK's zero.

"Why is energy security the right policy for labour in Norway but the wrong policy for Labour in Britain," she asks.

Starmer responds by saying that "oil and gas is coming out every day, there's a mix of that and renewables".

He also says that the "most important thing" for energy security is to "ensure we de-escalate this war".

Image source, House of Commons

Badenoch says that Starmer is the prime minister so "can make this decision today", calling him "so weak" and the first PM "to be pushed around by the energy secretary".

She says that her stance has the support of the GMB Union, Tony Blair and RenewableUK, and asks why Starmer "thinks he knows better than everybody else".

Starmer replies that "the law prescribes the decision maker" - which is met with some jeers.

"She's attacking me without having read" the legislation, he says, adding that decisions have to be made by the secretary of state.

"Oil and gas is part of the mix for many years to come, but we do need to get onto renewables," he says.

He says that the war in the Middle East has put this on the agenda, and says that's why he "stuck to his principle" not to join the war - accusing Badenoch of wanting to jump in "without regard for the consequences".

Badenoch says the UK "can have renewables and oil and gas", and that Starmer "loves to hide behind legal processes".

"I thought he [Starmer] was the prime minister," she says in response to Starmer claiming the matter was for the energy secretary.

She asks if the prime minister will approve the licences, or if the energy secretary is "running the government".

Starmer says the legislation makes clear the responsibility lies with secretary of state.

The PM says Badenoch needs to read the legislation that was applied by the Tories for the 14 years when they were last in power, and that it is "exactly the legislation that they used to put the licences in place".

Starmer says it's a matter for the energy secretary as to whether the government will approve the licences for the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields in the North Sea.

Licences were granted but struck down because of "defects" in the processes under the previous government, Starmer says.

Oil and gas are coming out of the North Sea all the time, he says, but "we need to take control of our energy prices" and the only way to do so is renewables, he adds.

The Conservatives used to argue the same thing, he says, pointing at Badenoch and saying she supported renewables, quoting her past words back to her.

Image source, House of Commons

Kemi Badenoch begins by pointing back to last week's PMQs and says Starmer "didn't answer a single" question.

She asks if Starmer will "approve the licences for Rosebank and Jackdaw gas fields in the North Sea".

• For context, Rosebank is an oil field that lies west of Shetland in the North Atlantic, and Jackdaw is an offshore natural gas field in the central North Sea.

Starmer starts by referencing the four Jewish charity-owned ambulances that were set on fire in Golders Green, north London.

He says an "attack on Britain's Jewish community is an attack on all of us".

Starmer goes on to say the government is also accelerating its social cohesion plan to strengthen "British values of tolerance, decency and respect".

Image source, House of Commons

Starmer is now on his feet and Prime Minister's Questions is under way.

We'll be bringing the latest right here, and you can also watch live above.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

A looming cost of living crisis triggered by the Iran war is dominating everything at Westminster (and beyond) – but that does not mean it will necessarily dominate PMQs.

Kemi Badenoch may opt to go on the attack over Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s plans for targeted fuel bill help for poorer households – and repeat her call for green levies and a planned petrol tax increase to be scrapped.

But after her success last week in putting the PM on the spot over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, the Tory leader may decide to focus instead on the curious case of Morgan McSweeney’s mobile phone.

Conspiracy theories are running wild after it was revealed that the PM’s former chief of staff had his mobile phone stolen last October.

McSweeney’s phone is assumed to have contained messages about his role in the appointment of Mandelson that may now never see the light of day in the document dump forced on the government by MPs in a vote last month.

The Metropolitan Police did not investigate the theft, and it’s since emerged that the force recorded the wrong address for the theft.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting this morning said the police had questions to answer.

All of this feeds neatly into Badenoch’s "broken Britain" narrative and that, combined with the ability to pile on the pressure over the Mandelson scandal, may prove hard to resist.

Image source, PA Media

Social media bans, digital curfews and time limits on apps are set to be trialled on the homes of hundreds of UK teenagers, the BBC reports this morning.

The test, led by the UK government, will see 300 teens have their social apps disabled entirely, blocked overnight or capped to one hour's use - with some also seeing no such changes at all - in order to compare their experiences.

It will run alongsidethe government's consultation asking whether the UK should follow in Australia's footsteps by making it illegal for under-16s to have access to many social media sites.

Technology secretary Liz Kendall said it was about "testing different options in the real world".

Read the full story here.