Sunak issues apology on behalf of government for past ban on LGBT people serving in military
Rishi Sunak starts by saying the ban on LGBT people serving in the military until 2000 was a stain on the country. He says a report out today makes this clear. He goes on:
Today, on behalf of the British state, I apologise.
Key events
Carla Lockhart (DUP) asks about support for children with cancer.
Sunak says he can imagine how difficult it is for families with a child with cancer. He will look at the issue Lockhart has raised, he says.
And that’s it. PMQs is over.
David Davis (Con) says NatWest’s customers should be worried about what happened to Nigel Farage. (NatWest owns Coutts). He says banks should be required to say how many accounts they have closed for similar reasons.
Sunak says the government is continuing to look at this issue.
Lee Anderson, the Tory deputy chair, asks about Keir Starmer’s stance on the two-child benefit cap.
Sunak says he does not think anyone believes Starmer supports the policy he is now backing.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, says Sunak has no responsibility for what Starmer does.
Barry Sheerman (Lab) says John Major has condemned Brexit as a catastrophic decision. Does Sunak agree?
Sunak says it was seven years ago. He says since the UK left the single market, the economy has grown faster than Germany’s.
Alicia Kearns (Con) asks if the government is still committed to a ban on conversion practices.
Sunak says “conversion therapy” is an “abhorrent practice”. He says the equalities minster will update MPs on what is happening in due course.
Mark Francois (Con) says 457 members of the armed forces were killed in Afghanistan. He says he was stunned to see a video posted by Tobias Ellwood, the Tory chair of the defence committee, praising the Taliban government.
He says this was “silly and naive”. He asks Sunak to condemn it.
Sunak pays tribute to servicemen and women. The government will continue to call out human rights abuses, he says. But he says the government also has dialogue with regimes – without condoning what they do, he says.
He says he will look at the case Francois mentioned.
Jacob Rees-Mogg (Con) asks if there will be an inquiry into the cancellation of a bank account by a bank with the government as a shareholder. He seems to be referring to the Nigel Farage case, although he does not name him.
Sunak says people should not have their accounts closed for exercising the right to free speech. The rules are being tightened, to stop this happening, he says. In the meantime, people can complain to the ombudsman, he says.
Sunak says the government has delivered the number one ask of the BMA, lifting the cap on pensions contributions. Doctors should get back to work, he says.
Greg Clark (Con) asks about the gigafactory announcement, and asks if the government will bring more such factories to the UK.
Sunak says this is one of the biggest investments in the car industry in the UK.
Dame Diana Johnson (Lab) asks why Sunak has been summoned to give evidence to the infected blood inquiry next week.
Sunak says the scandal should never have happened. He is due to give evidence shortly, so it would be inappropriate to say more now, he says.
Shailesh Vara (Con) says, if Labour favours economic migration, it should say so. He suggests young men arriving on small boats are not genuine asylum seekers.
(In fact, based on the number who actually do got their asylum applications considered, a majority of them are.)
Sunak says Vara is right. He says Labour does not have a plan to deal with illegal immigration.
Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, says the two-child benefit cap has left 250,000 children in poverty. Does the PM take comfort from Labour’s support for it?
Sunak says he welcomes Labour’s support for it. But Keir Starmer has never kept a promise he has made, he says.
Flynn says Scots expect child poverty from the Tories. But not from Labour. A shiver is running along the Labour frontbench, he says, looking for a spine to go up.
Sunak says the best route out of poverty is through work. He says the government will reduce child poverty. He does not want to see any child grow up in poverty.
Starmer says he is 60, not 61.
He asks about the “40 new hospitals”. But there are not 40, they are not new, and many are not hospitals, he says.
Sunak claims 40 new hospitals are being built.
Referring to Hillingdon hospital (which serves Uxbridge), he says Labour wants to charge people visiting a hospital.
He is talking about the Ulez extension, a key issue in tomorrow’s Uxbridge byelection.