NEW: ministers have admitted that defence spending will not reach 2.5% until after the election - by me in i newspaper inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

Sending my best wishes and congratulations to Witham's most famous resident Olly Murs and his wife on the joyous birth of their baby daughter.

I am sure she won't be a 'troublemaker' like her dad!

.Rishi Sunak again insists National Insurance + income tax amount to 'double taxation'.
But asked 3 times by Keir Starmer, refuses to deny he would fund abolition of NI via cuts to NHS, state pension or a tax rise.

Surprised the PM didn't shut that down with clear denial.

Yet another potential story has come across my desk this morning which makes me furious that it's not possible to issue housing associations with a Freedom of Information Act request. They take huge amounts of taxpayers' money in development funding. We should be able to ask Qs.

Suspect this might be a theme of #PMQs

Paul Waugh justin webb Justin got an update that it will apply to NI.

.Kemi Badenoch has observed collective cabinet responsibility while setting out clearly just what kind of Tory leader she will be.
Many party members will be impressed.
But if Boris Johnson enthusiastically and publicly backs Priti Patel MP for leader, cd be v interesting.

.justin webb asks re smoking ban bill: Will it or will it not apply in NIreland?

Chief Secretary Laura Trott: 'I don't know the answer to that question, actually'.

JW: 'It does suggest you haven't entirely thought this through.'

Trott: a health minister wd be able to answer

Four more ⁦House of Lords⁩ defeats for the government tonight on #RwandaBill , by margins of 17 to 57 votes. This speech by Lord Hope, ex-Deputy President of ⁦⁦UK Supreme Court⁩, well expresses the idiocy of what we are being asked to do hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2024-04-…. /1

383 for, 67 votes against smoking ban bill.
Full division list will reveal just how many votes against were Tory

I suspect this could become as much of a meme as 'That.. is..a..DISGRACE'

Upside-down, back-to-front, it all makes as much sense.

.Wes Streeting MP certainly enjoying the Tory divisions caused by this smoking/vapes bill.

Says PM 'too weak' to take on his own party and argue for the bill.

Knows that the more he ridicules them, and supports the bill, the bigger the Tory rebellion - and more chaos for Sunak.

Looks like Liz Truss is set to speak in the Commons - for the first time this year.

She's one of just 22 MPs who have not spoken in the chamber in 2024.

(Truss looks lined up to oppose the smoking/vapes bill)

Tory MP Mark Francois points out that next year the Govt plans to retire 30 RAF Typhoons (out of total of 137) and sell them off cos of 'budget pressures'
Says that's 'akin to selling Spitfires before the Battle of Britain'
Sunak: individ decisions upto service chiefs + ministers

Significant. Keir Starmer on Iran/Israel: 'If diplomacy takes centre stage, and it must, then we also need to be clear diplomatic premises should not be targeted and attacked. That is a point of principle.'
Clear signal Israel was wrong to bomb Iranian. consulate in Damascus