MPs laugh at Theresa May's claim that 'austerity is ending' during PMQs clash with Corbyn
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Your support makes all the difference.Theresa May's claim that "austerity is ending" was met with laughter by MPs as the prime minister clashed with Jeremy Corbyn at Prime Ministers Questions.
Condemning what he called a "broken promise Budget", the Labour leader demanded to know why the government had not pledged to end the benefit freeze.
That prompted confusion over Labour's own policy on the issue after a spokesman for Mr Corbyn said the party would not necessarily raise benefits in line with inflation, despite John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, having said it would.
The Tories were later engulfed by confusion of their own after Downing Street refused to endorse Brexit secretary Dominic Raab's suggestion that an agreement with the EU was likely to be in place by 21 November.
As Britain prepares to leave the EU, Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, announced plans to recruit 1,000 more diplomatic staff.
His predecessor, Boris Johnson, was also in the news after it emerged that he had accepted an all-expenses-paid trip to Saudi Arabia just two weeks before the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
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David Davis appears to have backtracked on his comments last night, in which he suggested Theresa May would get her Brexit deal through Parliament because "terror will win". He's just tweeted to say that, in fact, he doesn't think the Chequers plan would command a majority in the Commons...
The son of Labour frontbencher Kate Osamor has stepped down as a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Haringey after admitting being in possession of £2,500-worth of drugs at a music festival.
Ishmael Osamor, who works for his mother as a communications officer, said he was resigning and apologised "for the unwelcome attention my case has brought to Haringey."
Labour will abstain on the government's tax changes during votes on the Budget tomorrow, John McDonnell has told reporters...
Theresa May begins by paying tribute to the victims of the antisemitic attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday, which killed 11 people.
Jeremy Corbyn is up. He also mentions the Pittsburgh attack, which he says was "disgusting, depraved and appalling".
The Labour leader says that if he was a prison governor, a local government leader or a head teacher, he would be preparing for "more difficult years ahead". He asks Theresa May if she thinks that analysis is wrong.
May says the Budget proved that austerity is ending, saying this is about "continuing to bring debt down and put more into our public services".
Corbyn says the warning of further cuts comes from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, including a £4.1bn cut to departmental budgets. He says austerity is not ending and adds:
"The reality is this was a broken promise Budget and she knows it."
He asks why the Budget included no investment in neighbourhood policing. May says the government has already invested in the police.
May says Corbyn on Monday called the government's planned tax cuts "frittering money away on ideological tax cuts", but that Labour has since said it will support them.
Jeremy Corbyn says the benefits freeze takes £1.5bn from 10 million low- and middle-income households, saying for them "there is no end to austerity".
He says Labour would end the benefits freeze and asks May to confirm that there are still £5bn of welfare cuts to come during this Parliament.
May says the government is helping people on low incomes by freezing fuel duty and cutting income tax.
She says if Corbyn wants to help working people he should vote in favour of the Budget.
Jeremy Corbyn calls on May to apologise for her "broken promise" that she will end austerity, saying "she has failed to do that".
May responds by trumpeting her own record on tackling "burning injustices", saying she introduced the Modern Slavery Act, stopped mentally ill people being held in police cells and introduced the race disparity audit.
"Under the Conservatives the hard work of the British people is paying off", she adds.
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