Politics live: Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer debating Queen’s Speech – after PM’s ‘beergate’ joke to Labour leader – Sky News

By Jon Craig, chief political correspondent

As U-turns go, this one is swift even by the standards of this government. 

And it reveals yet more tension between Nos. 10 and 11 Downing Street on tax and spending.

Responding to Sir Keir Starmer’s calls for emergency help in the cost of living crisis, Boris Johnson makes MPs sit up when he says: “The chancellor and I will be saying more in the coming days.”

Really? That appears to be news to Rishi Sunak and the Treasury. 

“There’ll be no emergency budget and we’ll set out the budget timetable in the usual way,” a Treasury official tells Sky News.

That’s pretty categoric, then. 

So what’s the PM up to? Is he trying to bounce his chancellor into announcing emergency action? Or is there yet another row between the pair behind the scenes?

At the beginning of these proceedings, Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle announced that MPs will debate the cost of living next Tuesday and economic growth on Wednesday.

The chancellor will speak for the government on one of those days. 

Now he’s under immense pressure to act. And not from opposition MPs, but from his next door neighbour in Downing Street.