Katie Williams
Live reporter

Image source, PA Media

Keir Starmer faced his first PMQs since his resignation this afternoon, on a day when more Labour figures publicly backed Andy Burnham to be the next leader of the country.

Starmer's Chief Secretary Darren Jones endorsed Burnham in an interview this morning, ruling himself out of any leadership contest.

New Health Secretary James Murray also backed Burnham, saying he has the "determination and drive" to make a difference.

Former defence minister Al Carns could still consider challenging Burnham in a contest, telling BBC Newsnight on Tuesday that he wants to "see behind Andy Burnham what the policies are" before making a final call.

Starmer arrived to cheers in the Commons, but Tory leader Kemi Badenoch did not hold back in launching a stinging critique of his cabinet, asking whether he felt "let down" by colleagues. Here's a recap of the key exchanges.

Starmer's passionate defence of Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson stood out - given how often his critics point to what they see as his sterile public demeanour, writes our political editor.

We're pausing our live coverage, you can read our story here.

Image source, EPA

After telling BBC's Newsnight on Tuesday he was "pretty serious" in considering a leadership bid, former Armed Services Minister Al Carns has been speaking to GB News.

Asked whether he's been approached by Labour MPs to stand, Carns says he's been speaking to "lots of people over the last two weeks - it's pretty consistent".

He adds those conversations range from "what are you doing, Al?" to "have you thought about this policy? Can you help me with that idea? And everything in between".

"My view is, I just step back from it all and say, whoever's going to lead the country, tell me what you want it to be in 2029 and 2034... just be really, really clear on the objectives you want to get to," he says.

An ally of Keir Starmer has said that one of the biggest challenges facing Andy Burnham is that "there is no money".

Speaking BBC Radio 5 Live, Cabinet Office minister Chris Ward says Burnham will face three main challenges should he succeed in his bid to replace Starmer.

The first issue is that "there's no money", he says, the second is that there is "no time", and the third is ensuring the Labour party maintains unity.

On the first challenge, Ward tells 5 Live's Matt Chorley that a new government cannot "suddenly invent a way through" fiscal challenges.

Ward also says "getting anything over the line is so difficult and so time consuming".

Addressing the third issue, he says: "The Labour party is a tricky beast and he's going to get challenges on that front from different sides."

Jack Fenwick
Political correspondent

Image source, PA Media

The Conservatives have said Kemi Badenoch will not apologise for her language after a fiery Prime Minister's Questions in which she repeatedly attacked government ministers.

Badenoch said Labour MPs were cheering on Sir Keir despite there being "400 knives stuck in his back", with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle at one stage calling for a "little bit more decorum and respect".

She also suggested many Labour MPs are "traitors and deserters" before branding Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson a "spiteful class warrior".

Badenoch and Phillipson had a heated exchange in the moments after PMQs, when the leader of the opposition accused the education secretary of "destroying children's lives".

Image source, Getty Images

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has accused Tory leader Kemi Badenoch of having "lost her head" during PMQs when branding her a "spiteful class warrior".

Phillipson took to X after the Commons session in which Badenoch broadened her attack on members of Starmer's cabinet, including the education secretary, as well as Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

"Kemi lost her head at PMQs - and afterwards too. It's not the first time. She's compared me to a Gestapo officer," Phillipson wrote.

She added: "I wonder what it is about a working class woman driving record investment in state schools by ending private schools' tax breaks that the Tories hate so much."

Speaker Lindsay Hoyle called for "decorum" in the Commons, and urged MPs to choose their words carefully.

We'll bring you more from the Conservatives on this in our next post.

Image source, Reuters

When Labour MPs return to Parliament after the summer recess, they'll be following the instructions of a new leader.

Keir Starmer announced he would be stepping down as Labour leader - and therefore prime minister - on Monday 22 June.

During his speech, he confirmed that nominations would open for a new leader on 9 July.

They will close a week later on 16 July, when Parliament breaks for recess.

That means if front-runner Andy Burnham runs for the leadership uncontested, he will be prime minister over the recess and into the start of the new Parliamentary term on 1 September.

With only a few weeks left in charge, Starmer has already begun briefing Burnham and has authorised his prospective replacement for talks with civil servants as he seeks an "orderly" transition of power.

Katie Williams
Live reporter

Image source, Pool/Getty Images

Today's PMQs saw a mix of heated and sympathetic exchanges.

Keir Starmer arrived to cheers in the chamber, even making a quip at one point about the man tipped to succeed him, Andy Burnham.

There were some sympathetic words from Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, who said he recognised "how difficult it was" for the PM to make his resignation statement on Monday.

In another nod of solidarity, Tory veteran Desmond Swayne threw everyone by referencing a cautionary poem, in which a little boy runs away from his nurse and is eaten by a lion.

It appeared to be a jibe at the Labour MPs who pushed for Starmer's resignation - the moral of the poem is: "And always keep a-hold of Nurse / For fear of finding something worse".

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch was less conciliatory, launching stinging attacks on Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.

At one point, the speaker interjected with a call for "decorum" and "respect".

Starmer jumped to the defence of his cabinet ministers - his passionate pride in Phillipson's life story, rising from poverty to the cabinet, really stood out, our political editor writes.

Image source, PA Media

Health Secretary James Murray has become the latest senior Labour figure to say he is backing Andy Burnham to take over from Keir Starmer as prime minister.

Murray has been in post just over a month, having inherited the health department following Wes Streeting's resignation on 14 May.

Explaining his decision, Murray says he believes that Burnham has the "determination and drive" to make a difference.

He also references Burnham's "fantastic track record in Greater Manchester" which "points to what he will do in Downing Street".

Vicki Young
Politics Live presenter

I've been speaking to Jenny Chapman, government minister and close Starmer ally, about the PM’s decision to step down.

She tells me she’d wanted Keir Starmer to stay in Number 10 – “I’m team fight!” she said.

I ask her how he’s taking the events of the past week. Baroness Chapman replies: “Better than I would I think. He’s very steady and he knows that he has a job to complete."

"He feels quite deeply that he needs to make sure that what follows is successful too. He really wants the next government to succeed and he wants the new leader to succeed," Chapman adds.

You can catch up with today’s Politics Live on BBC iPlayer.

Is Labour delivering 'record' defence spending?published at 13:12 BST

13:12 BST

By Ben Chu

At PMQs Keir Starmer said Labour was delivering the “biggest sustained boost to defence spending since the 1980s. That's £270bn over this parliament”.

The £270bn figure is correct, based on the Ministry of Defence’s budget settlement set in the 2025 Spending Review over the four years to 2028-29.

But the record post-1980s increase in defence spending is a low bar, because defence spending has been on a mainly downward path since the middle of the 1980s when it was 4.6% of GDP.

Starmer also said the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) will take defence spending “even higher” and will be published before the next Nato summit on 7 July.

When John Healey resigned as defence secretary earlier this month he said the planned DIP would have taken defence spending to 2.68% of GDP by 2030, up from 2.6% in 2027, an increase of £2.4bn a year in today’s money.

Healey argued the DIP should deliver no less than 3% of GDP defence spending by 2030. That would require an increase of £12bn a year in today’s money on 2027 levels.

By-elections: Badenoch congratulated Starmer on being the other party leader to win a by-election this week, referring to Burnham's win in Makerfield and the Conservative win in Aberdeen South. Starmer said he was "very pleased" with Labour's new MP.

Defence Investment Plan (DIP): Badenoch pressed the PM on the DIP, referencing the resignation of Defence Secretary John Healey. Starmer said his government has delivered the biggest sustained boost to defence spending since the eighties, and the DIP will take that even higher.

Badenoch blames Reeves: The Tory leader spent much of PMQs targeting the chancellor. She said Reeves "killed economic growth" and claimed Starmer wouldn't "be in this mess" had she found money for the DIP.

...and Phillipson: Badenoch asked Starmer if he has been "let down" by the education secretary given the number of teachers has gone down. The PM maintained he's "so proud" that she's sitting there beside him.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

Image source, House of Commons

A nice moment there as veteran Tory bruiser Desmond Swayne throws everyone with a question about a little boy called Jim “who ran away from home and was eaten by a lion”.

Starmer responds with an anecdote about Swayne welcoming the holidaying Starmer family to his New Forest constituency with a bottle of champagne.

Beyond the heated rhetoric from the front benches, there is some sympathy for the PM’s plight.

Image source, House of Commons

Plaid Cymru MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd, Liz Saville Roberts, says Keir Starmer's resignation comes "close on the heels of the end of Labour's 100 year dominance in Wales".

"People simply didn't feel his party stood up for them," she says, calling this part of the PM's legacy.

Referring to a tradition of leaving notes on your desk for successors, she asks whether the PM will pass on the message that "democratic choices including those of devolution can't be dismissed".

Starmer says he'll leave a note saying what his government delivered for Wales was the "largest ever devolution settlement".

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

Ed Davey takes a swipe at Kemi Badenoch for the tone of her attack on the PM.

The Tory leader and her team are having none of it.

Davey is being far more sympathetic towards the outgoing PM.

Davey turns his attention to the ongoing heatwave, asking the prime minister whether he will warn his successor against listening to the Conservatives or Reform UK and back Liberal Democrat plans to "cut bills and tackle climate change".

Starmer thanks Davey for raising climate change, which he describes as "one of the most significant challenges of our time".

The prime minister says it used to be "common ground" that climate change was a "generational challenge", but adds that it is a "shame that in order to chase Reform votes" the Conservatives have "changed their minds".

"I will always maintain that we must be global leaders on climate change and we always will be," Starmer adds.

Image source, House of Commons

Next up, Leader of the Liberal Democrats Ed Davey says he hopes the government will implement "in full" the recommendations of a new report into maternity care.

• For context: the Ockenden Maternity Review – the largest maternity review in NHS history - was published a short while ago. It details how failings led to baby deaths and avoidable harm. You can read more about this in our separate live page.

Davey says he wants to recognise "how difficult it was" for the prime minister to make his resignation statement on Monday, and says it's a reminder that "we are all human and it's something that everyone should remember".

He asks if Starmer will urge Burnham to adopt the Liberal Democrats' plan for a growth and defence partnership with Europe.

Starmer says he's "very proud" to have "reset" Britain's relationship with the EU, which is "in the best interests of our country".

Badenoch says Starmer has "made many mistakes, otherwise he wouldn't be going".

She says he has also been let down by his energy secretary, who is "killing industry", "by a chancellor killing jobs, by backbenchers who don't understand being in government is about tough choices".

She says Starmer has "U-turned again and again to appease them".

Starmer says because of Labour's decisions the country is moving "in the right direction", listing achievements such as improving workers' rights, lifting children out of poverty and standing with Ukraine.

Chris Mason
Political editor

The prime minister on his way out, Kemi Badenoch sought to broaden her critique to other senior Labour folk - not least Andy Burnham, who she described witheringly as a "pair of eyelashes and a black T-shirt".

Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson were also in Badenoch’s crosshairs.

Starmer’s defence of Phillipson, and his passionate pride in her life story, rising from poverty to the cabinet, really stood out - given how often Starmer’s critics point to what they see as his often sterile public demeanour.

Image source, House of Commons

Badenoch says if the education secretary knew so much about poor children, she wouldn't have given them fewer teachers.

Referring to the reaction in the chamber, she says she's "never seen this much excitement" on Labour's benches, accusing them of cheering loudly while they've stuck "400 knives" in the prime minister's back.

She says Starmer tried to cut welfare but the MPs behind him stopped him. "Does the PM feel betrayed by the people he got into Parliament?" she asks.

The Speaker interjects, asking people to think about the language they use and calling for "decorum" and "respect".

Starmer says he's proud of all his MPs, saying they picked up the party, turned it around and won a landslide victory in 2024.

He adds that Badenoch "won't even talk about" the Tories' "failure after 14 long years".

Badenoch asks Starmer again "if it's all so fantastic, why is he resigning?", adding that it is "very generous" of the prime minister to stand up for his ministers "because they didn't stick by him".

She then asks MPs to raise their hand if they think Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is doing a good job. There is laughter on her side of the benches when Badenoch says not even Phillipson raises her hand.

She asks the prime minister whether he agrees that he has been "let down" by the education secretary, given that the number of teachers has gone down.

Starmer responds by saying that Phillipson grew up in poverty and represents "an incredible story of social mobility and success", saying he is "so proud" that she is sitting there.