What time is PMQs today? Rishi Sunak faces questions on diplomatic row over the Elgin Marbles
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will face Sir Keir Starmer at today’s PMQs.
With the diplomatic row over the Elgin Marbles and plans to tackle sky-high net migration figures are likely the lead topics. The PM cancelled a meeting last minute with his Greek counterpart after Kyriakos Mitsotakis called for the marbles to be returned to Greece.
In an interview with the BBC, Mitsotakis compared the separation of the carvings to cutting the Mona Lisa in half.
On immigration, several countries are planning to negotiate Rwanda-style deportation deals with the UK if the government manages to make the plan legal, according to James Cleverly.
What time is PMQs today?
PMQs start at 12 noon and the session will last for about half an hour.
You can watch PMQs live on the UK Parliament YouTube channel.
What should we expect from PMQs?
Sir Keir Starmer is likely to question the PM over the Elgin Marbles row, after his party chair, Anneliese Dodds, criticised Sunak’s response.
She said it is “important that we have a statesmanlike response” to the issue, accusing the PM of being “quite thin-skinned and childish”.
She told Sky News: “There are really important, critical issues to be discussed internationally, whether that’s with the Greek Government or with other Nato allies.
“Keir Starmer met with the Greek Prime Minister and he focused on those issues, those issues critical for our country’s interests, and yet we seem to have heard from the Prime Minister just a stamping of feet and a slightly petulant walking away.
“That really isn’t the standard of behaviour we should expect from a prime minister of our country.”
She said that the decision on whether to return the Marbles to Greece was for the British Museum.
Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak is under pressure from within his own party over immigration, as the Government continues to seek an alternative to its Rwanda plan.
A big row is brewing over whether planned emergency legislation will give ministers the power to override the ECHR so deportation flights cannot be blocked by the Strasbourg court.
The i newspaper says a Tory insider told them between 20 and 40 MPs could rebel in an attempt to insert provisions to ignore the ECHR into the legislation because they believe the policy will continue to be stalled without them.