PMQs: How did the SNP's Stephen Flynn, Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer perform as two-child benefit cap raised

The Labour leader got it from both sides as the SNP went after his defence of the two-child benefit cap.

Rishi Sunak enjoyed a comfortable return to PMQs on the final session before recess, with Sir Keir Starmer struggling to land blows with questions about the health service.The Labour leader challenged the Prime Minister on NHS waiting lists, and where the money was coming from, but was easily dismissed by virtue of having no clear plans of his own.

Meanwhile Stephen Flynn, the SNP Westminster leader, used his questions to focus on attacking Labour, specifically Sir Keir’s confirmation he would maintain the two-child benefit cap.

Rishi Sunak

Having been absent for the last two sessions, the Prime Minister could have been rusty, but instead delivered a confident performance, albeit one that relied on deflection.

Asked questions about the NHS, Mr Sunak spun it to suggestion Sir Keir supported strike action, before asking if he thought doctors should accept the recommendations of the independent pay review body.

Mr Sunak also defended the NHS workforce plan, an idea stolen by Labour, and dismissed criticism by pointing to the support for it, and the longer waiting times in Labour run Wales.He added: “On this crucial issue, while his MPs are back on the picket lines, yet again on this issue he simply refuses to take a position. It’s the same old story, he should stop taking inspiration from his friends outside and unglue himself from the fence.”

Sir Keir Starmer

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak enjoyed a comfortable Prime Minister's Questions.

For the longest time, Labour criticism of the Tories handling of the NHS was fertile ground, albeit one that did not transform into electoral success.However, the Labour leader failed to deliver a knockout blow with it. He pointed to growing NHS waiting lists, and claimed “we don’t get any more answers when he’s here than when he’s not”.

He added: “It means that since he’s stepped foot into Downing Street 260,000 have been waiting in daily agony for things like hip and knee replacements while he boasts. Has he figured out why after nine months, dozens of gimmicks, umpteen broken promises, his Government is failing more patients than ever before?”

Stephen Flynn

As has become a pattern in PMQs, Mr Flynn used his question to criticise the Labour party, claiming he could see a “shiver running along the Labour frontbench” at the suggestion the party would keep the two-child benefit cap if it came to power.

The SNP Westminster leader told the Commons: “Voters in Scotland are used to child poverty under the Tories, they almost expect it. But what they don’t expect is child poverty support from the Labour Party. If we look very closely right now, there is a shiver running along the Labour frontbench.

“For children living in poverty in Scotland, Westminster offers them no real change, it offers them no real hope.”

Comparing Labour to the Tories, he asked Mr Sunak if he can “take comfort in knowing that the heinous legacy of that policy will no longer just be protected by Conservative Members, but by Labour Members too?”.