Watch live as Sir Keir Starmer faces off against Kemi Badenoch for the final time this year at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday (17 December).
It comes as UK inflation dropped far more than expected last month, with food prices falling to ease the cost of living for households across the nation, new official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed.
The rate fell to 3.2 per cent in the year to November, the lowest it’s been in eight months. However, the figures come a day after the unemployment rate rose to 5.1 per cent in the three months to October.
A five-day strike by NHS resident doctors also began at 7am today and is set to last until 7am on Monday (22 December), and will likely be a topic of conversation in the Commons.
Earlier today, Wes Streeting said he did “everything we could do” to try and stop the strikes, which he said has come at the “worst time” as flu cases soar.
In a statement, Dr Jack Fletcher, chair of the resident doctors committee at the British Medical Association (BMA), said the latest strike was the result of “hurried, last-minute offers” from the government.
Meanwhile, the government has just confirmed the UK will rejoin the Erasmus exchange scheme for students from 2027, a move that will allow British students to study abroad at universities in Europe for the first time since Brexit.
