Starmer refuses to rule out freezing tax thresholds in budget

Badenoch asks Starmer to confirm he won’t break another promise by freezing thresholds.

Starmer does not answer that, saying the budget is next week.

But Labour won’t return to austerity, he says.

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No 10 says allegations about Farage’s conduct as a schoolboy ‘disturbing’ and Reform UK ‘dragging politics into dark place’

Peter Walker

Peter Walker is the Guardian’s senior political correspondent.

At the post-PMQs lobby briefing the PM’s press secretary went a bit further than Keir Starmer did in the chamber in criticising the new allegations about Nigel Farage’s racism when he was at school. (See 1.15pm.) She said:

These are disturbing allegations and it’s vital that Nigel Farage urgently explains himself. You’ve heard the prime minister speak just this week about Farage’s weakness in the face of divisive politics in Reform’s ranks. He’s still not condemned the language or taken action against one of his MPs racist comments, refused to condemn them when asked last week.

Reform is dragging our politics into a dark place. This Labour government stands for our patriotic British values of decency, intolerance and importantly unity. So, it’s for Nigel Farage to explain.

Reform UK has denied the allegations in full.

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Starmer signals that it would be wrong for House of Lords to kill off assisted dying bill with delaying tactics

During PMQs Kit Malthouse, a Tory MP who supports the assisted dying bill, asked if Keir Starmer would intervene to stop the House of Lords blocking the legislation. Peers started debating amendments to the bill at committee stage on Friday last week, but over the course of the whole day they only covered two amendments, and there are another 940 on the order paper. There is no formal process for timetabling debates in the House of Lords, and some peers strongly opposed to the bill seemed determined to talk it out (ie, filibuster) so that it has no chance of becoming law.

Starmer did not make an explicit commitment. He said the government was neutral, and parliament would have to decide.

It sounded as if he was not giving Malthouse the assurance he wanted. Originally there was a headline on the post at 12.05pm reflecting that.

But I’m afraid I missed, or did not hear, three words (in bold) that change the significance of what Starmer said. Here is the full reply.

The government is neutral on the passage of the bill.

It is a matter of conscience, and there are different and respected views across parliament, and it is for parliament to decide at the end on any changes in this chamber.

Scrutiny of the bill in the Lords is a matter for the Lords, but the government does have a responsibility to make sure that any legislation which passes through parliament is workable, is effective and, of course, enforceable.

So Starmer was saying it would be wrong for the Lords to block the bill.

In response, Charlie Falconer, the former Labour lord chancellor who is sponsoring the bill in the Lords, said:

There was obviously a lot of support in the Commons for the concerns Kit Malthouse raised with the prime minister and that’s a view I believe is widely shared across the Lords too, including from people who are not necessarily in favour of the bill.

As the PM made clear in his reply, it is for the elected chamber to decide on this matter and the Lords’ role is to scrutinise and suggest amendments where necessary.

I think the public, who are strongly in favour of choice at the end of life, would not understand and be outraged if the bill were talked out by procedural moves.

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This is what Keir Starmer said about Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, in response to the question from Lee Anderson. (See 12.29pm.)

He [Anderson] talks about dog whistle. Last week his leader said he didn’t have time to condemn the racist comments of his fellow MP for Runcorn. He also said he didn’t have time to condemn his party calling children in care evil. He didn’t have time.

I wonder if we could ask his leader, next door to him, whether he’s got time for his explanation for the stories in today’s papers.

And here is our latest story on this, with more political reaction to the multiple claims about Farage being racist when he was at school. Reform UK has said the claims are without foundation.

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PMQs – snap verdict

That was a routine and rather dull PMQs, with no obvious winner, although Kemi Badenoch probably had the upper hand. One notable development in British politics since the summer is that PMQs has stopped being a place where she underperforms, or even flounders; instead, she is now at least holding her own, or coming out on top.

Badenoch focused on the budget, and in particular on the very, very strong likelihood that it will involve a further freeze in income tax thresholds. Asking Keir Starmer to rule this out, and noting that he wouldn’t, was a simple ploy, and Badenoch did not even do that properly (because she said after the budget, not before, by mistake – see 12.06pm.) But she did not seem to let that put her off, and main point was to remind MPs that Rachel Reeves more or less said last year that freezing tax thresholds would be a breach of the Labour manifesto. Starmer could not really deny this, and so instead he just attacked the Tory record. Today it all felt a bit premature, but it was a rehearsal for the debate they will be having this time next week.

Starmer and Badenoch are both highly reliant on pre-prepared texts, but Badenoch did produced some comebacks that sounded at least half spontaneous. After her after/before gaffe, she came back with a line about how we might just as well have had the budget, given what is already known about it. When Starmer mocked her over her record as a Treasury minister, she defended herself by referencing what the Treasury was doing at the time on Covid. Starmer can still largely see of her attacks by reminding MPs of the Tories’ record, but today he seemed to be criticising Badenoch personally a bit more than in the past, and not just her party. Perhaps he is starting to take her a bit more seriously?

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The Scottish MP Torcuil Crichton, referring to the World Cup, asks Starmer if he can ask Donald Trump if he knows any reasonably priced hotels near the venue for the World Cup final. And he asks about reducing US tariffs on Scotch whisky.

Starmer says the goverment is doing what it can to help the whisky industry.

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Perran Moon (Lab) asks if the government will enshrine Cornish national minority status in the devolution bill.

Starmer says Cornwall’s national minority status will be protected in future devolution arrangements.

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Mike Wood (Con) says people who care about media freedom are glad the RedBird bid for the Telegraph has been dropped. But there is a risk that the paper will build up an intolerable debt burden. Will the government ensure this does not happen?

Starmer says he is not sure what Wood is proposing. He says he does not think nationalising the Telegraph would be the right approach.

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Liam Byrne (Lab) asks if the government will support a public inquiry into the Birmingham pub bombings in 1974.

Starmer says the government thinks the best way of dealing with this is through the independent commission for reconciliation and information recovery.

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Jack Rankin (Con) asks Starmer to say how much he received in donations from David Kogan before he was appointed as the new independent football regulator.

Starmer says those have all been declared.

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Josh Babarinde (Lib Dem) asks about a consituent with a problem with her bank.

Starmer does not really address the question, but he congratulates Babarinde on his engagement announced last week. He jokes about not knowing what questions you might be asked in parliament, and wishes Babarinde and his partner a lifetime of happiness.

💛 𝗔 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗮𝗹 🎉

Last Thursday, I asked a very special question in Commons after official business had finished for the day – not to the Prime Minister, but to my partner Connor (on his birthday!)

…and his answer was YES! 🤩

(1/4) pic.twitter.com/UBRxL0v4ro

— Josh Babarinde OBE MP (@JoshBabarinde) November 17, 2025

Babarinde was recently elected as the new president of the Lib Dems.

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Starmer urges Farage to find time to address questions raised by Guardian report with evidence of his schoolboy racism

Lee Anderson (Reform UK) accuses Labour of “dog whistle politics”. That generates laughter from MPs. Reform is cracking on with the day job, he says. He says Reform councils are working, he says. He asks Starmer to confirm the government won’t cancel local elections again.

Starmer says he did not realise Anderson was good at stand-up comedy. He says last week Nigel Farage said he did not have time to talk about Sarah Pochin’s racism. He says Farage should find to address the revelations about him in today’s papers. (See 10.43am.)

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Andrew Pakes (Lab) asks what the government can do to ensure young people get better training.

Starmer says the government inherited a situation where almost one million young people were not earning or learning. The youth guarantee will address that, he says.

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Caroline Voaden (Lib Dem) says she hosted a roundtable this morning with head teachers who talked about the postive effects of a complete ban on smartphones in their schools. So why won’t the government ban them in all schools?

Starmer says the vast majority of schools ban smartphones.

Some MPs shout that they don’t.

Starmer says schools ban phones in lessons.

He agrees with the sentiment of Voaden’s question, he says.

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Luke Charters (Lab) says he wants to talk about his own mental health problems. A “dark cloud” hung over him when his wife almost died when their first son was born. Does the PM agree that being honest about problems is an important part of being a man?

Starmer does agree. And he says he is proud the government is publishing a men’s health strategy.

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Jim Allister (TUV) says France, Germany and the US have all got compensation from Libya for the victims of Libya-linked terrorism. But the UK has not been able to do this. Why? And will the PM meet families affected?

Starmer says Allister is right to ask about this. He will organise a meeting.

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Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, says there are more than 300 suicides every year relating to problem gambing. But gambling companies make more than £7bn a year. One of them has move abroad, to avoid UK taxes. Will the government change the law so they cannot avoid tax like this?

Starmer says it is men’s health day. MPs will want to prevent this. It is something that touches almost all MPs, he says.

He says the government will do what it can to reduce suicide.

Davey says next to the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire is a field is covered by a big pile of rubbish. This is happening in other places now. Will he tell the Environment Agency to clean it up now?

Starmer says these are appalling scences. The Enviroment Agency will use all available powers to make sure the perpetrators pay, he says.

The waste pile by the River Cherwell near Kidlington, Oxfordshire. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty ImagesShare

Badenoch says she had a rountable with energy executives recently. What they said about the government was “unprintable”, she says.

She says Reeves U-turned on a U-turn with the budget. Doesn’t the country deserve something better than “government by guesswork”.

Starmer says the Tories left NHS waiting lists at a record live, child poverty going up and public services wrecked. Labour are sorting that out, she says.

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