PMQs LIVE: Commons erupts as Keir Starmer grilled by Kemi Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch slammed Sir for refusing to commit to a cap on migrant numbers.

The Tory leader said: “The Prime Minister says he wants to talk about immigration. I have committed to a cap on migration. Why won’t he?”

Sir Keir said: “She presided over record numbers of asylum seekers in this country, a record number of lawful and irregular migrants, that is 14 years when they lost control of the borders.

“They set a cap for each of those 14 years. It wasn’t hard, it didn’t stop people coming and it got a record number. They should apologise for what they have done with their open borders policy.”

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp is repeatedly telling Sir to “answer the question” on immigration.

Mr Philp is finger-jabbing at the PM, saying “you signed it, you signed it”.

Tory leader Mrs Badenoch revealed that Sir Keir signed a letter four years ago calling for some foreign criminals to be allowed to stay in the UK.

The Tory leader said that one such foreign criminal whose deportation was blocked had gone onto commit murder.

She asked Sir Keir: “Will he apologise for signing these letters?”

Sir Keir said: “They lost control of the borders and the particular example she puts to me is an example of failure under her government to take the necessary measures to keep our country safe.”

Mrs Badenoch slams the Prime Minister for not setting a target to slash net migration as one of his six priorities.

But Sir Keir pointed to the record levels of net migration under the .

The Prime Minister welcomes the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but admits the future is far from certain in Syria.

He told the Commons: “The people of Syria suffered for far too long under his brutal regime.”

It’s likely to be an interesting session in Parliament.

Folllow all the drama here.

Shabana Mahmood appeared to accept that the Government’s plans for fast-tracking prison building would involve overruling the objections of local authorities.

The Justice Secretary was asked on Breakfast: “The Telegraph this morning saying… you’re going to fast-track applications and overrule the objections of local people and local councils. Is that right?”

“Yes, so our manifesto commitment was that we consider prisons to be of national importance,” she said.

“These are critical infrastructure projects, they are absolutely necessary to make sure the country doesn’t run out of prison places.”

She said that in future a new prison building will take place according to the crown development route, with the decision going to , the Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary.

Asked about concerns people may have about a prison being built near their homes, she said: “What I would say to your viewers is of more concern is when the nation runs out of prison places, you know, you have to pull emergency levers, as I had to when I first came into office, to make sure that there’s enough space in our prisons…. We have to be honest about the fact that prison building is required.”

The Prime Minister is facing widespread fury over the prisons fiasco.

The country’s prisons will still run out of space despite Government plans to build four more jails, the Justice Secretary has said.

Shabana Mahmood also suggested councils could be overruled to push through the building plans in a bid to grip the overcrowding crisis.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has promised to find a total of 14,000 cell spaces in jails by 2031.

Some 6,400 of these will be at newly built prisons, with £2.3 billion towards the cost over the next two years.

Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins has backed farmers protesting outside Parliament and urged them to bin the hated policy.

It comes as tax experts have cast doubt over Treasury figures that around 500 estates will be affected each year by the inheritance tax changes.

The Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) has calculated that up to 75,000 individual farm business owners are “likely to be affected” over the coming generation.

Speaking at the Environment Committee on Wednesday, David Sturrock, senior research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank said the figures are on a “no behavioural change basis”.

“We might expect that of these estates who, if they did nothing, would pay higher tax. Some will change the ownership structure or make gifts in a way that should mean that that number would be lower.

“Of course, there’s a lot of uncertainty from that behavioural change but also the economic factors that drive forecasts, like land prices and so there’s some certainty in both directions on those figures.”

“There’s a lot of different numbers that have been going around of course,” he added.

“The figures that come from Defra are about the value of farm businesses.

“In order to say something about how many would be potentially taxable, we need to know about their ownership structure but that’s something we don’t have the data on together with the value of those farms”.

Here’s the order paper for Prime Minister’s Questions today…

Amid the noise from outside, where farmers are tooting the horns on their tractors, these backbench MPs will be hoping to receive commitments from Sir Keir on a range of topics.

There are no shortage of topics the Prime Minister could face some sticky questions on:Farming – Sir Keir is facing huge protests today in Westminster over the Government’s hated farming tax. Syria – Will the Government establish diplomatic ties with the main rebel group that overthrew Bashar al-Assad? Syria – Could the terror threat increase, as a result of events in the Middle East? Syria – Why has the Home Office suspended asylum claims from Syrians? Strikes – Is Labour facing another bittle battle with the unions over public sector pay? Prisons – The Government has vowed to overrule local communities in a bid to build more prisons.

Prisons – The Ministry of Justice has warned the country’s prisons will still run out of space despite Government plans to build four more jails. Sir Keir will be keen to avoid more headlines of career criminals saying they are Labour voters for life…

The “RIP British Farming” protest has been organised by Kent Fairness for Farmers and Save British Farming in response to the “toxic” Budget, which included changes to inheritance tax for agricultural businesses and a faster phaseout of EU-era subsidies in favour of environmental payments.

After 13,000 people rallied in Westminster against the Budget last month, tractors are expected to travel into the capital from across the country, including from Exmoor, Shropshire, Somerset and the home counties, for the latest protest.

The tax change is going to be “unaffordable” for many farmers, which means they are going to have to either “sell land or sell up”, a leading estates lawyer has warned.

Speaking to the Environment Committee, Stuart Maggs, head of tax and partner at Howes Percival law firm, said for years best advice to farmers has been to retain the farm until death, which means a lot of 70 to 90-year-olds are still working on the farms.

“Even if you’ve got the next generation involved, to bring the average down, the person who owns the farm has naturally been at the elder end of the spectrum,” he told MPs.

“So this change coming in now has really hit home to farmers, because they’re in a situation where there’s nothing they can do about it. They can’t give away and survive seven years.”

He added that rules called gifts with reservation means that if one generation gives the land to the younger generation but still enjoys the benefit from it – i.e. they live on the land or it’s paying for them in their older age – they will get taxed.

It means this charge “is going to be a burden”, he added. “With agriculture estates getting a rate of return of about half a per cent to 1%, it simply means this going to be unaffordable. And so farms are going to have to sell land or sell up. And it’s going to happen a lot.”