Nigel Farage called on Andy Burnham to declare a “national security emergency” over the small boats crisis.

The Reform UK boss said: “MI5 boss Sir Ken McCallum yesterday revealed that there have been 50 arrests in the last year linked to Iran.

“And I have to say this Government deserves praise for proscribing the IRGC, a very important move.

“But every week there are young, unidentified males from Iran coming into this country some of whom pose a genuine security threat to our nation.

“Is it not time the Government recognises that what is going on in the English Channel is a national security emergency?”

The Prime Minister replied: “Obviously we’ve seen the issues at RAF Fairford recently and they have been dealt with in the right way with the utmost seriousness by the police and security service.

“The key point is of course we do need to get boat crossings down.

“I hope he would recognise that they are coming down, removals are up. There is much more to be done but there is clearly progress in the right direction.”

(Image: BBC)

In her final question, Kemi Badenoch said: “The Prime Minister entered Downing Street promising the biggest change in 40 years.

“Now Labour MPs are briefing journalists they hope this Budget does as little harm as possible.

“Isn’t he too busy appeasing his own MPs, excusing his own mistakes, and avoiding difficult decisions to give the country the leadership it needs?”

Andy Burnham replied: “I used my conference speech to face up to difficult decisions. I faced up to a difficult decision about supporting older people in later life related to adjusting the triple lock so we can lay the ground for a national care service.

“I took a difficult decision about developing closer ties with Europe, supported by a majority of people in this country.”

(Image: BBC)

Kemi Badenoch called on Andy Burnham to set out a date for 3% of GDP on defence spending in the upcoming Budget.

The Tory leader said: “This is the money that Britain needs to keep us safe. Now the Prime Minister won’t even tell us what his plan is for another year. So why won’t he announce a date for 3% in this month’s budget?”

Kemi Badenoch hit out at Andy Burnham over the ballooning benefits bill.

The Leader of the Opposition asked: “This is a Government that approves importing oil from Russia, approves new drilling off the Falkland Islands but won’t approve new drilling in the North Sea.

“The truth is the PM is delaying a decision on energy to avoid a row with his backbenchers, just as he’s avoiding another row on cutting welfare.”

She added: “Is the Prime Minister afraid to cut benefits because he doesn’t want a fight with his backbenchers?”

He replied: “I want a system where we give the right support to young people upfront, so that they can be in training, education, or employment from 16 onwards.

“I think they do need better mental health support. I’ve argued for a different education system that gives parity to technical education alongside the university route, and we will bring forward the Milburn report soon. We will set out our response to it. We will bring down the welfare bill.”

Kemi Badenoch urged Andy Burnham to “stop faffing about” and give the green light to the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas projects.

She said: “This Prime Minister will say anything instead of dealing with the tough decisions that only he can take like on Britain’s energy security.”

The Prime Minister replied: “She asked me what I’m waiting for – I’ve had to wait for the Government process, which was struck down by the courts under the Conservative government, to be fixed because they messed it up, and we inherited that situation.

“So I will take a pragmatic approach on oil and gas, we will set out our decisions shortly.”

Kemi Badenoch said MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum had had to “slap down” the Prime Minister over his Brexit comments.

She asked: “So, does the Prime Minister agree with the director general of MI5 that talking up Russian interference was a mistake?”

Andy Burnham replied: “I think it’s important that we are clear-eyed about what happened in the past – there is incontrovertible evidence that outside actors, enemies to this country, have interfered in our democratic processes.

“And it is inconceivable that that was not taking place across the whole of the last decade.”

Kemi Badenoch used her first PMQs question to rip into Andy Burnham over a series of rows he is facing including over Brexit comments.

The Tory leader said: “The Prime Minister has had a busy few weeks tying himself in knots, explaining why national security shouldn’t come at the expense of social security, bumbling into a row still ongoing about Manchester City.

“He spent the last 48 hours trying to unsay that Russia influenced the 2016 referendum, when we all heard him say it. Does he ever get tired of putting his foot in his mouth?”

The Prime Minister replied: “I am glad that she’s raised my comments because it gives me an opportunity to say to the whole House how I intend to lead this country.

“We have lived through a decade of division and we know that hostile actors have been seeking to interfere in our democratic process – that is a matter of fact. We need to call that out and look straight at it in a way that the party opposite didn’t do.”

(Image: BBC)

(Image: Getty)

The Conservatives have called on Nigel Farage to say sorry for his Chagos Island comments.

Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: “Nigel Farage’s proposal to hand Chagos to his friend Donald Trump is simply extraordinary. How can a man who wants to lead our country take such a pathetic approach to our sovereign territory?

“Farage must stop trying to run from his own words, and apologise now for this shameful, unpatriotic act.”

Reform UK has issued a new statement in the row with Kemi Badenoch over the Chagos Islands.

A party spokesman said: “Calamity Kemi Strikes Again. Kemi Badenoch has risked causing a diplomatic row with Britain’s allies, all because she cannot control the Tory spin doctors around her that oversaw the disastrous premierships of Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Theresa May, and even David Cameron.

“The latest Tory lie, about Nigel Farage’s Chagos island commitment, just show that absolutely nothing has changed inside the Nasty Party, and it never will.

“Nigel has been the most fiercely outspoken man on the Chagos sellout, delivering a smashing blow to the joint Tory-Labour plans to hand control of the British islands to China’s allies. It was the government that Calamity Kemi served in that engaged in 11 rounds of surrender. Now, just like with her fake Stanford scholarship, she’s trying to rewrite history.

“Reform UK was proud to host a delegation of Chagossians at our conference in September, and would stand by our U.S. allies over the use of Diego Garcia, which is critical for international security. It is staggering that the Conservative Party feels the opposite way, and the US government has clearly let them know that today.”

The Tories have leapfrogged Reform UK into second place in a second poll this week.

The new survey by More in Common puts Kemi Badenoch’s party on 24%, up three points from the week before.

Labour is in the lead with 28%, while Reform is down one point on 21%.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has a question at PMQs today.

Other MPs due to grill the PM are listed in the image below.

(Image: )

Nigel Farage has ripped into claims by Andy Burnham that closer EU ties would help the UK tackle immigration.

Speaking on GB News, the Reform leader said: “He’s stuck with a completely outdated vision of what the European Union actually is.

“Would it help us deal with immigration? Would it hell.

“The so-called Dublin Agreement that we had before meant some years we had to actually receive more people from Europe than we sent back.

“We have total control over immigration. We can do what we like.

“The fact Tory and Labour governments have chosen not to use those powers is down to us, not because we’ve left the European Union.”

(Image: GB NEWS)

Just one in five jobs added to payrolls between 2014 and the end of last year went to British nationals, according to a major new report that warns of Britons being “written off” by the welfare system.

An analysis by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) found British nationals accounted for only 734,000 of the 3.7million additional payroll jobs created during this period.

EU nationals held 408,000 of the positions. The number held by non-EU nationals went up by about 2.5million.

The CSJ warns that annual spending on working-age benefits has increased by £50billion in real terms since 2019-20.

The think tank argues “successive governments have relied on low-skill migration to fill jobs”.

A furious row has erupted between Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch over the Chagos Islands.

The Tory leader took aim at the Reform UK boss over “humiliating” comments on a podcast about the British Indian Ocean Territory.

Mr Farage told the Benny Show: “I’d have gone in and said, ‘Right, you know what, mate? Chagos, it’s yours. Diego Garcia, in perpetuity, the most strategic American military base in the world, which it is.

“Outside mainland America, Diego is the most important thing America has for nuclear subs, for long-range bombers, for all of it. I’d have said, ‘Right, I’m guaranteeing you that. I’m giving up on this surrender. In return, just please stop talking about the Falkland Islands. I know you like Milei, but this really matters to us’. And there’s a trade, you see.”

Speaking to The Telegraph, Mrs Badenoch hit back: “Giving away British territory in return for someone keeping quiet is not a deal. It is humiliating.”

A Reform spokesman later added that it was “quite clear Nigel was talking about the Americans using Diego Garcia in perpetuity and not the Chagos Islands as a whole”.

Mr Farage wrote on X: “Kemi is lying again. She just can’t help herself.”

Andy Burnham will welcome Volodymyr Zelensky to Downing Street today in a public show of support.

The visit comes after US President Donald Trump’s diesel deal with Russia.

The Prime Minister is expected to announce an acceleration of military support for Ukraine, and to pledge further rounds of sanctions aimed at Moscow.