Starmer Faces Badenoch at PMQs After Oil Sanctions Shift — Keir Starmer Pmqs Grilling

Keir Starmer is due to face Kemi Badenoch at PMQs today after the UK relaxed some sanctions on Russian oil, setting up a keir starmer pmqs grilling over a decision taken as oil costs soared. Andrew Bowie has tabled an urgent question for after PMQs on the same move, giving ministers a second chance to defend the policy.

PMQs and the urgent question

The government relaxed strict sanctions on Russian crude before today’s exchanges, and Conservatives attacked the decision as insane while calling for more North Sea drilling. That criticism now lands directly in Parliament, first at PMQs and then in the urgent question Bowie secured.

The immediate political pressure is on Starmer and Badenoch’s exchanges in the Commons, where the prime minister will need to answer for the policy before Bowie presses ministers on the same point. The arrangement gives opponents two separate moments to challenge the government on why it loosened the sanctions while prices were rising.

Starmer and Labour timing

Starmer has said he is committed to staying on as leader and prime minister until the next election, with no formal leadership contest underway. Ministers familiar with his thinking say he has no plans to step down before the Labour Party conference in September and is unlikely to relinquish office before Christmas.

The leadership speculation surrounding Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting is running in the background, but the facts now on the table are narrower: Starmer is staying put, and the question today is how he answers Badenoch over Russian oil sanctions. A Starmer loyalist put the mood more bluntly, saying, “The writing is on the wall, even if we don’t know exactly what form that takes yet,” but that talk does not change the immediate task in the Commons.

Burnham, Streeting, and November

Sources close to Starmer argued that Burnham would be unable to take over as prime minister until November after the mayoral by-election that would follow if he is elected MP for Makerfield next month. Allies of the prime minister also suggested Burnham’s candidacy could be scuppered if Labour loses control of Greater Manchester.

For now, the practical question for readers is whether ministers can justify the sanctions change without reopening wider doubts about the government’s direction. Today’s answer will come first from Starmer at PMQs and then from ministers facing Bowie’s urgent question after it.