Politics latest: Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch clash over immigration at PMQs (2025)

As well as the protest in Westminster, farmers are out in force across the country to make their opposition to the inheritance tax changes heard.

Ourreporter Christine Connoris at the protest in Cardiff today, and spoke to a beef and sheep farmer named Annabel, who is vehemently opposed to the farmers' inheritance tax changes.

Asked how she feels farmers are being treated, she replied: "I think it's appalling. It's one thing after another."

The inheritance tax changes will "hit 75% of farms" and "we can't take any more", she added.

She spoke to another person attending the protest called David.

Asked if he has sympathy for protesting farmers, he replied: "100%. No farmers, no food."

The government has just announced that, following official advice from medical experts, existing emergency measures banning the sale and supply of puberty blockers will be made indefinite.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM) had published independent expert advice that there is "currently an unacceptable safety risk in the continued prescription of puberty blockers to children".

The department said the commission had recommended indefinite restrictions while work is done to ensure the safety of children and young people.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said in a statement: "Children's healthcare must always be evidence-led. The independent expert Commission on Human Medicines found that the current prescribing and care pathway for gender dysphoria and incongruence presents an unacceptable safety risk for children and young people.

"Dr Cass’'s review also raised safety concerns around the lack of evidence for these medical treatments. We need to act with caution and care when it comes to this vulnerable group of young people, and follow the expert advice.

"We are working with NHS England to open new gender identity services, so people can access holistic health and wellbeing support they need.

"We are setting up a clinical trial into the use of puberty blockers next year, to establish a clear evidence base for the use of this medicine."

Mr Streeting is making a statement in the House of Commons on this issue now, and MPs will be able to put questions to him. Watch live here.

Aftergiving evidence to MPs on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee, Sky's business and economics correspondent Gurpreet Narwancaught up with the boss of the National Farmers' Union (NFU) about next steps if the government doesn't U-turn.

Responding to fears that farmers could go on strike, Tom Bradshaw said: "I think they (the public) should be surprised, but I can’t rule it out.

"If we've got to, we will carry on protesting through to the spring."

He went on to say: "The public have done nothing wrong. We absolutely have to have their support. I really don’t want them to get caught in the eye of this storm.

"Making sure we don't cut off their supplies, and we keep the public on side, is essential to making sure the government have to listen."

Mr Bradshaw added: "The sense of anger is one I've never known... it's now down to government. The ball is in their court. They could stop this tomorrow."

By Alix Culbertson, political reporter

Farming groups have been giving evidence to the environment, food and rural affairs committee about the government introducing inheritance tax on farms worth over £1 million from 2026.

They have called for the government to pause the policy and carry out a consultation to consider if there should be a U-turn or a different approach to the current tax reliefs that mean farmers do not have to pay any inheritance tax.

Victoria Vyvyan, president of the Country Land and Business Association (CLA), said the money the Treasury has said will be raised from the tax will only raise as much as the NHS spends in less than two days.

She added: "Is it worth ruining an entire industry for one and a quarter days of running the NHS?

"The best way to improve this sector is to grow, help us to invest, help us to grow our businesses.

"We have the capacity to add £40bn to the GVA of this country, and funnily enough that's the sum she [the chancellor] was looking for.

"Don't kill us, let us fight our way out of this corner."

NFU President Tom Bradshaw said he feels the government is doing anything but supporting farmers, despite Sir Keir Starmer saying Labour is the party of farmers.

He added: "Ever since the Second World War there's been a covenant between farming and government that farming gets on and does its job of producing food.

"It's never been about the returns, it's been about that way of life, that heritage, that custodianship and unfortunately with other changes in the budget, along with this one, it feels like that covenant has been broken."

He added that the food they produce gets very low returns but they are "supporting society" with it.

Mr Bradshaw called for help to make farming profitable rather than looking at "how we generate a little bit of tax income to rebuild our services".

It's not been all fun and games at the farmers' protest in Westminster today, as they came up against some regular SW1 dwellers.

Our business and economics correspondent Gurpreet Narwanwas on Whitehall as tempers flared when a pair of pro-EU protestors stationed themselves in front of the tractors parked up along the length of the famous road.

The pair were waving placards calling on the government to rejoin the EU, which antagonised some of the farmers.

What followed was an expletive-laden exchange between some Brexit-voting farmers and the pro-EU protestors.

An organiser with a megaphone urged everyone to calm down.

As farmers protest on Whitehall the government's changes to inheritance tax, Sir Ed Davey raises the topic.

He tells the House that "British farmers are the best in the world... because of our tradition of family farms where, from generation to generation, a commitment to high-quality food, to our precious environment and animal welfare is passed down".

The Lib Dem leader says family farms "were badly let down by the Tories", but now feel that "the government's budget will be the final blow".

He asks the PM if he will reverse the policy.

Sir Keir Starmer replies: “We put £5bn into farming over the next two years, that is a record number under the budget. Last week alone, £350m to support farmers across the United Kingdom.

“That does contrast with the last government - an underspend of £350m in relation to farmers."

On inheritance tax, Sir Keir says: "In a typical family case the threshold is £3m, and therefore the vast majority of farmers will be unaffected despite the fearmongering of the party opposite."

That concludes this week's session of PMQs. Scroll down to read all the key moments, as well as analysis. Stay with us for more analysis, and coverage of events in Westminster.

Sir Keir Starmer is now asked the crisis in Gaza and asked when Israel will be held to the same standards as Russia for "genocide".

"I was pleased to see that there's now a ceasefire in Lebanon," the prime minister responds.

"We desperately need that now in Gaza, something we have been pressing for there for some time.

"There are intense talks going on at the moment and that would provide a space for the hostages to be allowed out. They've been there for a very, very long time.

"But also that opens the potential for the pathway to the two-state solution, which I believe is the only peaceful way to resolve this ongoing conflict."

With Kemi Badenoch choosing not to mention the farming protests, it has fallen to the Lib Dem leader to raise the anger over inheritance tax.

The Lib Dems have started to style themselves as a party for middle and rural England, so Ed Davey will gladly grab hold of this.

He asked Starmer to "change course" over the policy.

But as expected, there was no signal of any change in position from the prime minister who simply restated the position that they are investing in farming.

That won’t go down well with the farmers who are currently just outside parliament laying into the government approach.

Sir Ed Davey is now on his feet and ask the PM about the situation in Syria.

"If America walks away and steps away will he step up and work with other allies to provide British leadership over Syria," he asks.

Sir Keir Starmer says "we all welcome the fall of Assad" and he "hopes this will be a turning point" for Syria.

"That is why we've been speaking intently and intensely with our allies in the region across the globe about how we ensure that this is peaceful, it is political and it's rejection of terrorism and violence," he says.

"This could be a turning point but in the past, we've always thought that what comes next is better and that hasn't turned out to be the case.

"And that's why we're working so hard on this and showing the leadership that he and the House would expect from this government."

Asked by the PM why she thinks the deals are bad things, Mrs Badenoch replies: "Because the numbers are going up under his watch."

She accuses him of having "consistently backed criminals over law-abiding British people", and goes on to accuse Sir Keir of having "defended terrorists" in the European Court, adding that he has voted against "more than 100 measures to control migration".

Kemi Badenoch repurposes one of the PM's regular refrains, saying: "He says he wants to smash the gangs - the only thing he has smashed is his own reputation."

Criticising the government for making an agreement with Iraq to target people smuggling gangs, she says it will cost half a million pounds which "won't even buy a house in his constituency".

"Many of the things he is taking credit for are our agreements," she asserts.

She points to Labour's pledge to end the use of asylum hotels, but says they are "expanding" their use because he scrapped the Rwanda "deterrent".

"A man who arrived by small boat told Sky News he was happy Labour was in power," she says. "That man said the Conservatives 'wanted to deport us, but Labour are making the procedure easier for us'."

Asked if this man was right, Sir Keir Starmer replies: "I really thought she should welcome the Iraq deal. Anybody who wants to deal with this vile trade would have welcomed it.

"She should also welcome the German deal this week," he says, adding that it is "well-documented" that it has been difficult to stop the parts for small boats reaching the French coast through Germany.

The PM says of enforcement action: "If she spent more time researching that than her terrible jokes, she would know about [it]."

Referencing the situation in Syria, she asks the PM if he will "strip citizenship from jihadi terrorist and supporters of Assad who want to come back and destroy this country".

Sir Keir replies: "I was Director of Public Prosecutions for five years. Unlike anyone on their benches, I was prosecuting for five years hundreds of thousands of criminals."

"For her to stand there and say I haven't done anything on law enforcement - I dedicated five years of my life to law enforcement, locking up criminals, which is more than she can say."

He hits out at the Tories for having no "remorse", saying: "It's like the arsonists complaining about the people trying to put the fire out."