PMQs - as it happened: Corbyn says May ‘pouring petrol on burning injustices’ with universal credit rollout
Updates from Westminster, as they happened
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Jeremy Corbyn has clashed with Theresa May over failings related to the government’s flagship welfare programme, claiming the prime minister is “pouring petrol” on the “burning injustices” she set out to resolve.
As the roll-out of universal credit accelerates, the Labour leader criticised the highly-contentious policy, saying that it is forcing more children into poverty and driving claimants to use food banks in greater numbers.
"The prime minister is not challenging the burning injustices in our society, she's pouring petrol on the crisis. When will she stop inflicting misery on the people of this country," Mr Corbyn said.
It came as speculation swirled around Westminster over a plot to oust Ms May as prime minister from her own backbenchers.
Members of the European Research Group (ERG), an influential group of Tory Eurosceptics, spent nearly an hour war-gaming plans to oust the prime minister over her Brexit blueprint at a meeting on Tuesday night.
However senior figures, including ex-Brexit secretary David Davis and Jacob Rees-Mogg, distanced themselves from reports of plans to oust Ms May from Downing Street.
See below for live updates
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis also said he thinks "we have got a very good" prime minister, but said disagrees with her on "one issue".
Over in the Lords, peers are grilling security experts on foreign policy in a changed world.
Robert Hannigan, a former GCHQ director, says the West has previously underestimated how far terrorists will go. No one anticipated that Al Qaeda would fly passenger planes into the Twin Towers or Isis would broadcast beheadings as propaganda.
Terrorists are interested in catastrophic cyberattacks and they 'watch Hollywood films', he says. But they do not have the capabilities yet, according to Mr Hannigan. He warned that the biggest risk would be states assisting terror groups, either directly or indirectly by allowing criminality to flourish.
The ERG press conference is over and pro-EU MPs have already begun to ridicule the proposals.
Labour's David Lammy, a supporter of the Best for Britain campaign, said: “No-one asked for the ERG’s report, which offers no serious plan for Brexit.
"As this group of hardliners has no mandate, no parliamentary and no public majority, it should be met with a collective shrug of the shoulders.
"While Boris Johnson's fantasy cabinet write documents about how easy everything is going to be post-Brexit, every day we see businesses deciding to not invest or pulling out of the UK. This is the real impact on Brexit."
Senior Brexiteers in the ERG sought to distance themselves from the reports of a plot to oust May.
At the press conference just now, Jacob Rees-Mogg said the PM was "fantastically dutiful".
He said: "I have long said, and repeated again and again, that the policy needs to be changed but I am supporting the person.
"Theresa May has enormous virtues, she is a fantastically dutiful prime minister and she has my support.
"I just want her to change one item of policy."
Davis Davis said: "I have made very plain from when I resigned and thereafter that I think we have got a very good Prime Minister and, like Jacob, I disagree with her on one issue - this issue.
"She should stay in place because we need stability and we need decent government as the backdrop to what we are doing in the coming six months."
And we are off! The PM starts by paying tribute to Alastair Cook on his retirement from international cricket. May is huge cricket fan.
David Duguid, a Scots Tory, asks about fishing communities after Brexit.
May says the UK will take back control of its waters after Brexit and decide who fishes in its waters.
Jeremy Corbyn is on his feet. He asks what a number of organisations, including Gingerbread, the National Audit Office and the National Housing Fesderation have in common.
He's getting at their disapproval of universal credit, the government's flagship benefit overhaul.
May says there was a need for a shift to benefits. There were some people being paid £100,000 a year on benefits in the past.
Corbyn says the government knows the policy is 'flawed and failing' and is pushing children into poverty, and pushing people into rent arrears. He asks if she distrusts claimants or her own government analysis.
May starts reading testimonies from claimants who have apparently found universal credit helpful. She says unemployment is at a record low.
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