Politics as it happened: Sunak says intelligence services are assessing Gaza hospital blast after sombre PMQs

Good morning and welcome to NationalWorld's PMQs live blog with myself, Politics Editor Ralph Blackburn. The post-conference PMQs is usually quite punchy, however it has been overshadowed by the war in Israel which threatens to spill into other parts of the Middle East. It is likely to be more sombre and less combative than usual. A reminder that it starts at 12noon - and if you have any questions or comments, please send them to [email protected].

The Conservative candidate for Tamworth’s by-election, Andrew Cooper, has been slammed after a diagram he created telling parents who are struggling to feed their kids to “f*** off” has surfaced on social media, my colleague Isabella Boneham reports. Cooper posted the diagram drawn in pen on a piece of paper in 2020 on Facebook.

He asks the question on the diagram: “Can you feed your kids?”. This then points to either a “yes” or a “no” with “well done” underneath the yes and underneath the no other boxes appear such as “Do you have to pay for TV” and “Do you have a phone contract”. “Yes” answers to these boxes leads to the big box which says “F*** off”.

Otto English posted a picture of the screenshotted Facebook post from 2020 on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. He said: “Hadn’t heard of Cooper before but frankly Tamworth deserves better.”

After the image emerged, Cooper said that "most people in Tamworth would agree that benefits are no there to pay for luxuries". The by-election is on Thursday. Read Isabella's full story here.

The main story from the Israel-Hamas war today is the dispute over a deadly blast at a Gaza hospital, which Palestinian authorities say has killed 500 peoples. They say this was from an IDF airstrike, however Israel says it has proof that the explosion was from a misfiring Hamas rocket. The IDF has released audio which it claims shows Hamas fighters saying: “It’s from us?”

Read my colleague Heather Carrick's full story here.

Andy McDonald, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough, has said he believes it was an IDF strike which hit the hospital which is a "war crime". He cites the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu's social media advisor initially claimed it was an Israeli strike, and previous errors with IDF statements - specifically around the death of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

McDonald says: "The killing of hundreds of Palestinians in Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital is a war crime, as is the Israeli army's collective punishment the civilian population of Gaza as a whole. Politicians around the world must say loud and clear: End the siege on Gaza."

It will be interesting to see Starmer's response.

People in the UK drastically overestimate the number of asylum seekers coming to the country, a new study has revealed.

Polling by the British Red Cross found that 59% of people believe refugees make up a much higher proportion of migrants than they do in reality, my colleague Imogen Howse reports.

Almost one in 10 Britons believe they represent 75% of people migrating to the UK, while according to figures from the Home Office, asylum seekers make up just 7% of overall migration.

The survey of 2,000 UK adults also found that the majority of the public (63%) believe that "most" people seeking asylum travel further than neighbouring countries, while nearly a third (30%) believe "most" attempt to make it to the UK.

This is an argument many critics use in an attempt to prove people arriving in small boats are not 'real' refugees, but data from the United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR) shows that this is a misconception - as 70% of the world's asylum seekers remain in countries next to their country of origin.

Despite these misunderstandings though, Red Cross' research also shows that the majority of Brits (87%) still believe the UK should offer refuge to people fleeing war, conflict, and persecution. Meanwhile, nearly half (43%) of people say the UK should take "at least our fair share".

The Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has urged people not to rush to judgment over the Gaza hospital tragedy which is feared to have left hundreds dead.

Hamas said an Israeli air strike led to the blast, but the Israeli military said the explosion was caused by a misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and released imagery and communications intercepts aimed at supporting their case.

Cleverly promised the UK will work with allies “to find out what has happened and protect innocent civilians in Gaza”.

He said: “Last night, too many jumped to conclusions around the tragic loss of life at al Ahli hospital. Getting this wrong would put even more lives at risk.

“Wait for the facts, report them clearly and accurately. Cool heads must prevail.”

PMQs is about to kick off, the House of Commons is filling up and we're just waiting for Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer.

Rishi Sunak opens with comments on the Gaza hospital blast: "I know the whole house will have been shocked by the scenes at al-Ahli hospital ... we are working independently and with out allies to find out what has happened."

Dundee West MP Chris Law raises the case of his constituent, Nadia El-Nakla, the wife of Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf, whose parents are stuck in Gaza. He asks about alleged Israeli strikes on the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Sunak says "we continue to have dialogue both with the Israeli's and the Egyptians about the Rafah border crossing".

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer starts by welcoming the party's new MP Michael Shanks to the chamber. He then moves on to the tragic blast at the hospital in Gaza. He says people in Gaza must be able to feel safe and that "international law must be upheld". This is quite a notable shift from Starmer, who has previously focused on Israel's right to defend itself. He asks Sunak for an update on al-Ahli hospital.