The prime minister has vowed to legislate to give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote, in line with Labour’s election manifesto commitment.

Dame Meg Hillier, the chair of the liaison committee of senior MPs, delivered a question Tuesday put together by members of the UK youth parliament.

She said: “They were highlighting the fact that the government promised in the manifesto to lower the voting age to 16…

“The commitment wasn’t included in the king’s speech, so they want to know prime minister, when might they see legislation coming forward on this issue?”

Keir Starmer told the committee: “We will definitely get it done. It’s a manifesto commitment. We intend to honour it. I think that if you’re old enough to go out to work, if you’re old enough to pay your taxes, then you are entitled to have a say on how your taxes are spent.

“And also, we do have voting at a younger age in different parts of the United Kingdom. The sky didn’t fall in, so it’s a commitment we made [and] it’s a commitment we intend to keep.”

The prime minister was also asked if he supported further “political education” in schools to prepare students for the responsibility of voting.

Starmer said: “I would term it as education about citizenship rather than sort of pure political indoctrination – but citizenship and how the state works, how you participate in it, what the institutions and structures are.

“I’m very pleased to see that that is part of the curriculum. I think it’s important that everybody learns about citizenship.”

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Keir Starmer has criticised the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) for failing to assess the potential economic impact of the government’s welfare reforms.

The prime minister said the watchdog’s economic forecast had not “priced in” the measures set out in the government’s Pathways to Work Green Paper, which was published alongside the Spring Statement.

He told the liaison committee on Tuesday afternoon: “On the impact assessments, it is significant to my mind that the ability of any policy or legislation to change any behaviour at all is not priced in, in other words the OBR has scored nothing against any change here.

“The assumption is not a single person changes their behaviour.

“I personally struggle with that way of looking at it because I do think that these measures will make a material difference and they need to make a material difference.”

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Lord Hermer has said the UK should celebrate the creation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) as a moment of “national pride”.

The attorney general also rejected the characterisation of critics of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), which oversees the implementation of the convention, who contend it is “interfering in the British democratic process.”

The comments came as Lord Hermer appeared before the joint committee on human rights, which questioned the cabinet minister on the work of the Attorney General’s Office.

In the opening question of the session, levelled by committee chair and crossbench peer Lord Alton, Lord Hermer was asked to reflect on the operation of the ECHR and its future, with 2025 marking the 75th anniversary of the convention’s creation.

The attorney general said: “The history of Western Europe is a bloody history of centuries of warfare.

“And in the short shadow of the horrors of the Second World War, of the Holocaust and of the carnage on the battlefields, this country, under the leadership of Winston Churchill, brought together the Council of Europe to identify our common values and to put it into a framework to protect and promote those values.

“And on this 75th anniversary of the creation of the convention, the convention of the Council of Europe, signed in London in 1949, the convention created the year after. This is a moment to celebrate it.

“It’s also a moment to reflect on it – to reflect upon the nature of the values that are contained in the convention, which I think are as relevant today as they were at the time it was formed.”

He added: “And so it is a moment of national pride to celebrate the convention because of the role that we played in its creation.”

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Donald Trump could wipe out Rachel Reeves’ fiscal headroom with his tariff plans, the OBR has warned.

David Miles, a member of the OBR’s budget responsibility committee, said US tariffs at 20 per cent or 25 per cent would “knock out all the headroom the government currently has” if they were maintained for five years.

Last week, Reeves restored her £9.9 billion of budget headroom after she revealed cuts to welfare spending at the spring statement.

Giving evidence to the Treasury select committee, Miles said: “If tariffs at 20, 25 per cent were put on the UK and maintained for five years, our assessment of what that does is that it will knock out all the headroom that the government currently has.

“Had we made that a central forecast, and had the government not changed policy at all knowing that we were going to take that as our central forecast, then the headroom would have pretty much all gone.

“Of course that would have been in some ways, a very extreme assumption.

“Because not only would that be as bad as people might expect in the very near term, but it would have been maintained for five years, which is beyond the next presidential election in the US.”

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Andy Burnham has said that UK welfare policy under governments of all parties is often written to “please certain newspapers”.

The Greater Manchester mayor, a former Labour MP, criticised the “punitive language” that he considers as often linked to benefits policy.

The comments came in a special public session of the work and pensions select committee, which travelled to Manchester to hear the evidence of Burnham and other regional policy makers.

In his evidence, Burnham called for a “bottom up” approach to welfare policy and reform of the system so that it is “truly empowering”.

He said: “Whitehall should increasingly and the DWP [Department for Work and Pensions] see itself more of an enabler of more localised approaches that may come through across the country.

“You can’t order people’s recovery from the top down, you can’t batter them with sanctions towards work – or you can try, but it’s unsurprising why we’re having an enquiry because it doesn’t particularly work.”

He added: “From my time in Westminster, and I very much was guilty of it at the time, I think benefits policy in this country is too much – under all governments – been sort of written to create headlines to please certain newspapers and not actually to do the job of encouraging the recovery of people back towards a better position in the in their life.

“And I think what happens is when you leave, when I left as a minister, as a shadow minister, and you come in as a mayor, I just don’t think about all that – ‘will this please this paper?’…

“And it’s obviously a completely different bottom up sort of offer that you give to people.

“When you give that offer, people respond… It is having the courage to step outside of a sort of ‘you’ve got to have a punitive language linked to benefits’. I mean, that’s been the Westminster way for quite a long time.

“If you really want to help people, if you really want to save money and get more people into work, I think you have to come at it a completely different way.”

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The House of Commons science, innovation and technology committee has heard oral evidence from TikTok, Meta and X officials as part of its inquiry into misinformation and harmful algorithms. 

The session saw MPs question senior representatives of the social media platforms on a range of topics, including whether their algorithms may spread misleading content and how they moderate this content. 

In one exchange, Wifredo Fernandez, X’s senior director for government affairs, defended the “amnesty programme” that saw individuals like Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate allowed back onto the platform.

In response to a question from Labour’s Paul Waugh, Fernandez said: “In late 2022, we instituted an amnesty programme that allowed accounts who had previously been suspended to reapply for reinstatement, so long as their violations did not violate the law and those accounts were included in that programme.”

Waugh commented: “During the [summer] riots, Tommy Robinson was regularly tweeting that Islam was a mental health issue. He shared videos of the disorder – encouraged people to join in the disorder.

“Would that be allowed again?”

Fernandez replied: “I can’t speak to that specific post.”

Labour MP Emily Darlington was another to question Fernandez over X’s content policies. She referred to a litany of malicious, racist, anti-semitic and misogynistic posts, which Fernandez admitted were “abhorrent”.

Responding to a post that expressed a desire to “shoot” the prime minister, Fernandez insisted X’s teams would “review that”.

Asked by committee chair Chi Onuwurah whether X is a safer environment since Elon Musk acquired the platform in 2022, Fernandez said it was.

He added: “We have a very dedicated and diligent safety team.”

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Ed Miliband has told MPs that Britain should “speed up, not slow down” in the drive to net zero.

Giving evidence to the House of Commons environmental audit committee, the energy secretary said that the government remains of the belief that economic growth and net zero “go absolutely hand in hand”.

Miliband told MPs: “This government sees no contradiction between net zero and economic growth. We believe they go absolutely hand in hand because net zero is a major contributor to growth — [it] can be.

“And the climate crisis is the biggest long-term economic threat our country faces.”

He added: “All of the evidence about our national interest says we should speed up, not slow down… The economic opportunities are going to go to those who lead, not those who hang back. And on climate, most recently in Los Angeles, we’ve seen the climate crisis is real…

“There are siren voices in the UK who are saying we should step back from this agenda, that now’s the time to give up on climate action because it is not in our national interest. And I think this is a massive fight about the future of our country.”

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The chair of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has rubbished the last government’s response to her policy recommendations.

Professor Alexis Jay said she experienced complete silence from the Home Office after publishing 20 recommendations at the end of the seven-year inquiry in October 2022.

She told the House of Commons home affairs select committee: “It was awful, I cannot tell you how it felt to constantly read the response from the government.

“It was inconsequential, unsubstantial, committed to nothing.”

Jay said she recommended to No 10 that a small group meet regularly to scrutinise how and whether the recommendations were being implemented.

But she added: “I got no response, and it was suggested to me I should discuss it with the home secretary.

“I raised it with [Suella Braverman] and she was very vague and nothing more was heard until [James] Cleverly was appointed later that year.”

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The attorney general has described the threat posed by populism as “one of the most profound challenges of our age”.

Under question at the justice select committee on Wednesday morning, Lord Hermer reflected on the importance of the rule of law and argued that the government must “explain” its importance “more than ever before”.

The attorney general, who heads of the UK Government Legal Department and acts as chief legal adviser to the government, was drawn on a recent speech he delivered, titled “The Rule of Law in an Age of Populism”.

He was asked how upholding the rule of law can responded to the risk to democracy posed by populism and misinformation.

Lord Hermer said: “The question raised is one of the kind of most profound challenges of our age, and I’m not going to be able to give you in the space of a kind of two minute answer, the full panoply of measures that governments here and allies across the world are going to need to be thinking about.

“But to return to what I said before, it’s not enough for us as a government to be simply applying the rule of law to the decisions that we make, although, of course, that is essential that we do so.

“There is, I think, an important moment for governments to be out explaining the importance of the rule of law to everyone in language that we all understand. And again, I really want to stress that is not a political motivation.”

He added: “There was a study that was published yesterday by a communications consultancy, FGS [Global], and they had a number of findings…

“24 per cent of the UK electorate, according to this poll, believe that voting doesn’t make a difference. And more than one in five people under the age of 45 agree with the statement that the best system for running a country effectively is a strong leader who doesn’t bother with elections.

“Now, that is a rule of law challenge for all of us.”

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The environment secretary has defended the government’s policy to change inheritance tax rules for farmers, insisting that the “vast majority of farms” will not be affected.

Steve Reed spoke to the environment, food and rural affairs select committee on Tuesday as farmers protested in the streets of Westminster over the government’s recent budget reforms.

Labour announced in the budget that there would be a 20 per cent inheritance tax on farms worth more than £1 million, a measure the president of the National Farmers Union (NFU) has described as “horrific” and a “betrayal”.

But Reed contradicted the NFU’s claim that the majority of farmers will now pay inheritance tax on their farms, arguing the government’s figures are “accurate”.

The environment secretary said: “I have every reason to believe that this data, projections based on actual hard data, is accurate and that the vast majority of farms will not be affected by the changes to APR [agricultural property relief], which is what I’ve said.”

He added: “Assuming these projections from HMRC, validated by the OBR and IFS, are correct then many of them, probably happily, are wrong because there are things that they can do to plan their tax affairs as most businesses or asset owners would do to limit their liability.”

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The prime minister appeared to laugh off Liz Truss’ claim the “deep state” ended her ill-fated premiership, when his predecessor’s comments were raised to him on Tuesday.

Facing a grilling at the House of Commons’ liaison committee, Rishi Sunak said: “I think that’s probably a question for her, rather than me”.

It came after Conservative MP William Wragg, who is also chair of the public administration and constitutional affairs select committee, questioned the PM as to the existence of a “deep state”.

Wragg also asked the prime minister if he was a member of the deep state, to which Sunak responded: “I probably wouldn’t tell you if I was!”

In February, Liz Truss wrote an article for Fox News, in which she claimed that forces on the left do not “just fight at the ballot box and seek a mandate for their agenda when it is election time; their agents are only too active in public and private institutions and what we have come to know as the administrative state and the deep state.”

PMQs verdict: Keir Starmer takes on Farage and Truss, the conservative cranks

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Rishi Sunak on Tuesday suggested that plans were in place to start flying alysum seekers to Rwanda once controversial legislation passes through parliament.

The prime minister was grilled by the House of Commons liaison committee about whether RAF or commercial planes would be used for the deportations.

It comes after reports suggested that the government is having trouble finding an airline to operate the charter flights.

Responding to questions from Labour MP and chair of the home affairs select committee Dame Diana Johnson, Sunak said: “The Home Office are making all the appropriate arrangements, there’s a range of options that they’re considering.”

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The head of the civil service, cabinet secretary Simon Case, was asked today how he squares his plans for “inclusiveness” with being a member of the all-male Garrick Club.

Labour MP Liam Byrne asked: “Forigive the impertinence of the question. But can you foster a genuine culture of inclusiveness while being a member of an all-male club like the Garrick?”

That prompted laughter and questions from other members, with liaison committee chairman Sir Bernard Jenkin asking fellow committee member Sir Robert Buckland if he wanted to “declare an interest”.

Sir Robert is also a member of the Garrick club.

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During his appearance before the liaison committee today, Rishi Sunak was asked if he ever “lies awake a night” worrying about UK inequality.

Liam Byrne, the chair of the business and trade select committee, said: “So this Christmas will see sales of luxury cars and private jets and superyachts hit an all time high. Yet food banks in my constituency are now running out of food. We’ve got homelessness at record levels, and last year, 4 million people experienced destitution.

“Just tell us, do you ever lie awake at night worrying about the level of economic inequality in our country?”.

Rishi Sunak responded: “I want to make sure that we can reduce economic inequality and spread opportunity, and I’m pleased that we are making progress on that.

He added: “So here are the facts: income inequality is lower today than it was in 2010. The number of people living in absolute poverty is lower 1.7 million fewer people, and the number of people in low paid workers the lowest on record”.

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During his appearance before the liaison committee today, Rishi Sunak was asked about the timescale for delivery on his “stop the boats” pledge, which he made at the start of the year.

Dame Diana Johnson, the chair of the home affairs select committee, asked the prime minister: “When will you stop the boats?”.

Rishi Sunak responded: “Well, the first thing to say is we have made progress, and that is that the numbers this year are down by a third, which is considerable progress”.

Pressed further, the PM added: “Well, there isn’t a firm date on this, because I’ve always said from the beginning you…”

“You said you were going to stop the boats”, Dame Diana interjected.

Sunak responded: “We will keep going until we do. This is not one of these things, where there is a precise date”.

How Rishi Sunak could fight a ‘stop the boats election’

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During his appearance at the liaison committee today, Rishi Sunak was asked whether the “principle of proportionality” is being upheld by Israel in its bombing campaign in Gaza.

Alicia Kearns, chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said: “Foreign secretary [David Cameron], when he was prime minister, was quite happy to say where he felt that international law was being broken in Syria. Equally, James Cleverly was happy to say that war crimes taking place in Ukraine.

“So surely there is a precedent that you are able to say if you believe that too many civilians are dying, that bombings have been indiscriminate and, therefore, that the principles necessity and proportionality are not being upheld”.

Rishi Sunak responded by accusing Kearns of “putting words in my mouth”.

Kearns continued: “Where does the responsibility sit for too many civilians dying?”.

The PM said: “Well, I mean, again, ask Hamas why they embed themselves in civilian populations. I think that’s genuinely an extraordinary question”.

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It was revealed last week that the government’s flagship Rwanda deportation scheme has already cost £240 million, despite no asylum seekers yet being sent to the African nation.

The government was also shown to have spent £100 million in the 2023-24 financial year, on top of the previously paid out £140 million figure.

Additionally, according to a letter from the Home Office to House of Commons select committee chairs, ministers are expecting additional costs of £50 million in the coming year.

It would bring the total spent on the scheme to £290 million.

The revelations came after a late night letter addressed jointly to home affairs select committee chair Dame Diana Johnson and public accounts committee chair Dame Meg Hillier was published on the Home Office website.

In a joint session this morning, the relevant committee chairs questioned the Home Office permanent secretary Sir Matthew Rycroft on the nature of the Rwanda plan’s cost and why the aforementioned figures were so hastily released by the department.

Sir Matthew admitted it hadn’t been the government’s choice to reveal the figures, and that they were only revealed after a mistake by a Rwandan official. Under an agreement between the two nations, the payments were not due to be released until next July.

Sir Matthew said: “The big thing that changed was someone in Rwanda had informed the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of the £100million from April. That found its way into the footnote of an IMF board paper. At that point it was clear to me it was in the public domain and I wanted you to hear about it from me.”

He also appeared to confirm that the total spend on the Rwanda Plan will surpass the reported £290 million figure.

Sir Matthew also told MPs that the Rwandan government could walk away from the deal without accepting a single asylum seeker.

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