Rishi Sunak warned against using props by House Speaker
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle erupted at Rishi Sunak and cut him off during PMQs for breaking a Commons rule. The Prime Minister brandished a report on human rights authored by Sir Keir Starmer during their weekly clash at PMQs.
Mr Sunak was defending his Safety of Rwanda Bill from the despatch box, telling Sir Keir the draft legislation has the backing of four "eminent" KCs and a former Supreme Court judge.
Addressing Sir Keir, the PM added: "He's always been more interested in what lefty lawyers have to say, Mr Speaker."
He then produced what he described as a textbook which Mr Sunak said Sir Keir had authored for left-wing lawyers under the title European Human Rights Law.
The Prime Minister was about to launch another scathing attack, when his microphone was cut off, with jeers from the Opposition benches.
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Sir Lindsay rebuked Mr Sunak for not sitting down when he stood up, as per Parliamentary rules. Glaring and pointing a finger at the PM, the Speaker then said: "Can I just say, we don't use props in this House and I will certainly ensure that if you do need reminding I certainly will."
After the telling off, Sir Keir continued to attack the Prime Minister's Rwanda Bill, which he said Mr Sunak had to be talked into retaining by his own MPs.
During a heated exchange, the Prime Minister claimed Sir Keir had represented Hizb ut-Tahrir while working as a lawyer, a group the UK now plans to ban as a terror organisation.
The Labour leader told the Commons: "He has been brutally exposed by his own MPs yet again. He has got one party chair who says she hopes the Lords will rip his Rwanda deal to pieces.
"He's got two more who had to quit because they don't think it'll work. All of them appointed by him, all now in open revolt against his policy, each other, and reality.
"Is there any wonder they all think this gimmick is doomed to failure when the Prime Minister himself doesn't believe in it?"
Sir Lindsay Hoyle delivers his rebuke to the Prime Minister (Image: Parliament TV)
Mr Sunak replied: "It is rich to hear from him about belief in something ... and it will be news to him, it is actually the case that you can believe in something and stick to that position on this side of the House."
After Sir Lindsay urged both Labour and Tory MPs to stop shouting from the backbenches on an "important day", Mr Sunak continued: "Just this week we had another example of him doing one thing, saying another, because this week he backed the Home Secretary in banning the terrorist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, despite him personally using the European Court of Human Rights to try and stop them being banned.
"Don't take my word for it, the extremists' own press release said 'the Hizb ut-Tahrir legal team led by Keir Starmer'. I know he doesn't like talking about them because they have been a client, but when I see a group chanting jihad on our streets, I ban them, he invoices them."
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Sir Keir Starmer clashes with Rishi Sunak over missing asylum seekers at PMQs (Image: Parliament TV)
Sir Keir kept pressing the PM on 4,250 asylum seekers said to be missing, saying: "Spending ￡400million on a plan not to get anybody to Rwanda whilst losing 4,000 people is not a plan, it's a farce. Only this Government can waste hundreds of millions of pounds on a removals policy that doesn't remove anyone.
"Only this Government could claim that it's going to get flights off the ground only to discover they couldn't find a plane. Only this Government could sign a removal deal with Rwanda only to end up taking people from Rwanda to here."
Mr Sunak defended the Government's record on immigration, adding: "It's a bit rich to hear him in here pretending that he cares about how we actually stop the boats when he's been crystal clear and said even if the plan is working to reduce the numbers, he would still scrap it.
"It's because he has no values, no conviction and no plan, and it's back to square one."
The clash comes ahead of a crunch vote for Mr Sunak on the Safety of Rwanda Bill after some 60 Conservatives supported changes to the draft on Tuesday (January 16).
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