{"id":41603,"date":"2026-01-14T12:42:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=41603"},"modified":"2026-01-14T12:42:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:42:37","slug":"starmer-faces-pmqs-criticism-over-digital-id-u-turn-uk-politics-live-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/?p=41603","title":{"rendered":"Starmer faces PMQs criticism over digital ID U-turn \u2013 UK politics live | Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Nick Timothy<\/strong> (Con) criticises West Middlands police, and asks for a review of \u201cthe corruption of our criminal justice system by Islamists\u201d.<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> says the home secretary used to have the power to sack a chief constable. But he says Theresa May removed that when she was home secretary, giving the power to police and crime commissioners, and he says Timothy was her adviser at the time.<\/p>\n

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Kevin Bonavia<\/strong> (Lab) asks Starmer about Nigel Farage saying he would not support sending British troops to Ukraine as part of the coalition of the willing force.<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> says Farage is a \u201cPutin apologist using Russia\u2019s talking points\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Starmer says Reform UK’s plan to get rid of Online Safety Act ‘absolute disgrace’<\/h2>\n

Starmer<\/strong> attacks Reform UK for proposing to abolish the Online Safety Act. He says:<\/p>\n

[Reform\u2019s position] is disgusting on this. This is weaponising images of women and children that should never be made. And that\u2019s why we\u2019re acting.<\/p>\n

Reform not only refuse to do anything about it. But more than that, if they would scrap the Online Safety Act that stops children accessing content like pornography, suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, [that\u2019s an] absolute disgrace.<\/p>\n

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Starmer says X is now reportedly complying with UK law in relation to Grok image abuse, which he says is welcome if true<\/h2>\n

Emma Darlington<\/strong> (Lab) says Elon Musk has climbed down today under pressure from this government, according to reports today. But will the government ensure it takes action against any social media companies allowing abuse like this.<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> says the government has made it clear that it will back<\/p>\n

He says he has been told today X is complying to ensure full compliance with UK law. If that is happening, it is to be welcome. But he says this will be monitored.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/em> Starmer<\/strong> said:<\/p>\n

I have been informed this morning that X is acting to ensure full compliance with UK law. If so, that is welcome, but we\u2019re not going to back down. They must act. We will take the necessary measures. We will strengthen existing laws and prepare for legislation if it needs to go further, and Ofcom will continue its independent investigation.<\/p>\n

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Updated at\u00a007.32 EST<\/p>\n

Tom<\/strong> Morrison<\/strong> (Lib Dem) asks about a hospital serving his Cheadle hospital that needs repair.<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> says the government inherited a terrible situation with the NHS. The Tories should be \u201cashamed of themselves\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

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Robin Swann<\/strong> (UUP) says the government said it would amend the Northern Ireland Troubles bill. But the Irish goverment said both governments would have to approve the legislation. Does the Irish government have a veto?<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> says he has spoken to the taoiseach about this. He says the Irish will cooperate with the release of information about past incidents, but he does not address the veto point.<\/p>\n

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Ed Davey<\/strong>, the Lib Dem leader, asks about the NHS, citing someone who had to wait 31 hours on a trolley in hospital.<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> says that is not acceptable. But he says the Lib Dems always vote against Labour measures that would raise more money for the NHS.<\/p>\n

Davey<\/strong> asks Starmer is the government will strip South East Water of its licence given its record with the water shortages in Tunbridge Wells.<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> says the government is holding them to account.<\/p>\n

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Janet Daby<\/strong> (Lab) asks about claims made about crime in London.<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> attacks Reform UK. He says:<\/p>\n

What\u2019s obvious about London Reform is they\u2019ve got a candidate for mayor who doesn\u2019t like London, a new Tory recruit who struggled to pay his taxes in this country, and a leader spends more time in France than they say his constituency.<\/p>\n

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Badenoch<\/strong> does a call and response with her MPs, getting them to shout \u201cU-turn\u201d after every policy she mentions. Shje ends with jury service, saying she hopes there will be a U-turn on that too. She quotes an unnamed cabinet minister quoted in the media saying the party needs a new leader.<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> says Badenoch is losing party members all the time as they join Nigel Farage\u2019s \u201c<\/strong>laundry service for disgraced Tory politicians\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Badenoch<\/strong> says the Tories would abolish business rates.<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> says Labour is turning the country round.<\/p>\n

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Badenoch<\/strong> says the tax office said yesterday it did warn about the impact of the business rates revaluation. Did Starmer understand what the the impact would be? The Treasury claims it did not know about the impact the revaluation would have.<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> again attaks the Tories\u2019 record, and he says that Badenoch did not take the advice of Nadhim Zahawi who told her that the Tories made a mess of mass migration. He has joined the Tory migration to Reform UK. It is the second Boriswave.<\/p>\n

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Badenoch<\/strong> says Starmer has no need to worry about her. \u201cI\u2019m alright,\u201d she says. Will there be any change to the business rates policy, she asks.<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> says the govenrment will address the concerns of the sector. And he says the Tories did not care about pubs, given by the number of pubs that closed when they were in power.<\/p>\n

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Updated at\u00a007.13 EST<\/p>\n

Badenoch<\/strong> talks about jury trials. She quotes the Labour MP Karl Turner saying it made the party look stupid, but she says they were looking stupid anway. She asks for an apology for the farm inheritance tax U-turn.<\/p>\n

Starmer<\/strong> avoids the point, and attacks the Tories\u2019 record generally. He claims Badenoch had Nadhim Zahawi in for advice. He says he hopes she did not take tax advice from him. And he defected.<\/p>\n

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Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Nick Timothy (Con) criticises West Middlands police, and asks for a review of \u201cthe corruption of our criminal justice system by Islamists\u201d. Starmer says the home secretary used to have the power to sack a chief constable. But he says Theresa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[6948,1136,2395,132,11527,124,1347,14051],"class_list":{"0":"post-41603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-criticism","9":"tag-digital","10":"tag-faces","11":"tag-live","12":"tag-pmqs","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-starmer","15":"tag-uturn"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}