Kemi Badenoch is reiterating her call for a "full, national inquiry" into grooming gangs - so let's recap some of the background to this story.

In 2022, child protection expert Prof Alexis Jay published the conclusions of a seven-year national inquiry into child sexual abuse in England and Wales, which investigated abuse in churches and schools, as well as by grooming gangs.

Interest around the subject was re-ignited at the start of this year when tech billionaire Elon Musk began calling for a second national inquiry into the scandal - a proposal that was backed by opposition MPs, as well as some Labour ones.

In January, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced plans for a nationwide review of grooming gang evidence and five government-backed local inquiries - but she stopped short of launching a statutory national inquiry.

On Monday, Home Office minister Jess Phillips said she expected more local inquiries into grooming gangs than the five already announced. Read more on that here.

This is just "distraction tactics" says Badenoch.

If she was PM, a national inquiry into child sex grooming would have been launched months ago she says.

She says the choice tomorrow is between "chaos and cover ups" under labour councils and "better services" under the Tories.

Starmer responds by saying no such inquiry happened during 14 years of Tory rule.

"It is so hollow," he says.

Tomorrow's local elections will be a verdict on the leader of the opposition, he says.

The prime minister has just defended the government's handling of the grooming scandal, watch the moment below as he's grilled by the Conservative leader.

Badenoch persists with this line of questioning as says the victims want a national inquiry, and that the child sex abuse inquiry "didn't cover this scandal in detail".

She says whether it's the streets of Birmingham (referring to the bin strikes in the city) or the townhall of Bradford, it's "chaos and cover-ups with Labour councils".

She asks Starmer when he will show leadership and "do the right thing"?

Starmer says the right thing to do is to have the local inquiries, to enact the recommendations already requested and to improve the criminal justice system, all of which he says Labour is doing and the Tories failed to.

Kemi Badenoch continues on the theme of the grooming gang scandal.

The Conservative leader observes that Starmer is no longer the director of public prosecutions, and says that people want to hear what he intends to do now.

Badenoch then challenges the PM to call a "full national inquiry" instead of local ones, which she says won't do the job properly.

Starmer replies that the issue has already been examined by a national inquiry, and explains that he believes the recommendations from that investigation should now be implemented.

One element of this implementation, he suggests, is to run local inquiries.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

Glum faces on the Labour front bench as Badenoch calls for a national grooming gangs inquiry.

It’s a serious subject - but undoubtedly awkward for Labour.

Badenoch accuses Starmer of failing to give specifics of local inquiries and says "nothing is happening".

She asks if he's dragging his feet to avoid "Labour cover-ups being exposed".

Starmer says he spent years prosecuting the gangs involved in these child grooming gangs - and says his record proves that.

Badenoch replies by saying he spent years staying silent and reiterates "we are asking for a full national inquiry".

Badenoch says the previous government's taskforce on rape gangs found 500 perpetrators.

More needs to be done, she says.

She says it has been months since she asked for a national inquiry.

One is happening in Oldham, but can the PM name where the four other local inquiries will be taking place, she asks.

Starmer replies that the Tories did not implement the recommendations when they were in power.

They "sat on a shelf" under the last government, he says. His government is investing in truth more than the last government, he claims.

Starmer replies to Badenoch's question on the grooming scandal, saying that this is a serious issue and criticises Badenoch for failing to address it when she was in government.

Starmer says his and the government's position is clear, that the recommendations in that report are implemented.

He says his government is investing more in truth and justice for victims than the Tories did in 14 years.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

Starmer’s joke about marathon man Robert Jenrick “still running” raises a laugh on the Tory benches.

The shadow justice secretary is often accused of having his eyes on Badenoch’s job.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has her first question of the session for Keir Starmer.

She says that the PM's safeguarding minister "admitted on the floor of the House that there was a cover-up of the child rape gang scandal".

"Does the prime minister think we should expose this cover up?" she asks.

Brian Wheeler
Reporting from the House of Commons

A cheer from the Tory benches as Kemi Badenoch takes her seat.

Have they anticipated another strong showing from the Tory leader after last week’s clash over the Supreme Court gender ruling?

Keir Starmer gets a louder cheer from his side as he leaves his entry until the last minute as usual!

Last chance for parties to give local election pitchespublished at 11:57 British Summer Time 30 April

11:57 BST 30 April

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

Image source, PA Media

The last PMQs before tomorrow’s local elections give the party leaders a public platform to set out their final pitches to those voting tomorrow.

There aren’t loads of councils up for grabs tomorrow. But in those areas that are voting the results will give us an idea of who is benefitting from the splintering of traditional party loyalties.

Another splintering taking place right now in our politics is around net zero.

Labour have made much of their push towards decarbonising the grid, a ban on new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, and easing the building of solar and wind farms.

But there are those within the Labour party who are concerned about this direction of travel and its impact on voters.

On the right, both Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage oppose the government’s net-zero policies. While the Green’s want Labour to go further and faster.

Until recently there was a relative consensus in our politics around the drive towards net-zero by 2050. That era is well and truly over. Expect that division to be on full display in today’s PMQs.

Brian Wheeler
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Keir Starmer is likely to be grilled about his government's net-zero policies after an explosive intervention by Tony Blair.

The former Labour prime minister's report does not call on the government to scrap its target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 - despite what opposition parties are saying about it.

It actually calls for more radical action to hit those targets. But the report does say limiting fossil fuel use is "doomed to fail" and the public no longer wants to make the financial sacrifices and lifestyle changes demanded by climate policies because they can see that the impact these will have is minimal.

And for some in Labour that sounds far too much like the kind of arguments being made by Reform UK and the Conservative Party.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch recently scrapped her party's longstanding commitment to the 2050 target and may be unable to resist making Starmer squirm over Blair's words.

Speaking about Blair's comments, Environment Secretary Steve Reed told Times Radio that the former prime minister had made "a valid and important contribution" but he did not not agree with "every dot and comma of it".

"This government is moving to clean energy because it's best for Britain. It's more energy security for Britain."

• Trade: Chancellor Rachel Reeves suggested that UK trade with the EU is more important than with the US - here's what she told BBC's Faisal Islam in Washington DC
• Immigration: Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said asylum seekers convicted of sexual offences will be denied the right to stay in the UK to "ensure these appalling crimes are taken seriously"
• Ukraine: Saturday saw Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelensky agree to "maintain momentum and continue working intensively" on efforts to end the war when they met in Rome after Pope Francis' funeral
• Supreme Court: After its ruling on the definition of a woman created a conversation in politics last week, BBC political editor Chris Mason reflects on how he has "never known another issue quite like it"
• Local politics: Finally, Conservative mayor of Teesside - Lord Ben Houchen - told BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg about the possibilities of the Conservatives forming an anti-Labour coalition with Reform in the event of a hung parliament at the next general election

A wildly unpredictable local electionspublished at 11:30 British Summer Time 30 April

11:30 BST 30 April

Chris Mason
Political editor

Image source, EPA

If last year's general election was all consuming and everywhere, this year's local elections, in truth, are neither.

That is not to denigrate for a moment how much they matter in the places where they are happening, nor the extent to which they will mould the mood of national politics in their aftermath.

But the reality is there are not many contests this year, not least because some have been postponed because of an imminent shake-up in local government structures in some places.

So there is a very good chance you are reading this in a part of the country without any contests.

And there is a good chance too, given what I hear from the political parties, that your heart might not be pulsating in ecstasy - even if the community centre down the road is morphing into a polling station tomorrow.

I detect a curious paradox right now: anger confronts an expectation of widespread indifference.

• Read more of Chris Mason's local election preview

Image source, PA Media

Following today's PMQs, attention will be turning to Thursday's local elections across some parts of England. Voters in 23 councils are set to elect councillors and mayors.

The contested seats are:

• 14 county councils: Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire
• 8 unitary authorities: Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, County Durham, North Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Shropshire, West Northamptonshire and Wiltshire
• 1 metropolitan district: Doncaster

Council elections will also be taking place in the Isles of Scilly.

There will be six mayoral elections in the West of England, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, North Tyneside, Doncaster and – for the first time – in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire.

• The BBC has taken a look at everything else you need to know about the local elections

Thomas Mackintosh
Live reporter

We're nearing midday which, for political enthusiasts, means the latest instalment of Prime Minister's Questions is upon us.

Like most weeks, Keir Starmer will be gearing up to face Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and other MPs from across the House of Commons.

This is the final PMQs before Thursday's local elections - ahead of the polls opening, here's what you need to know.

Voters across parts of England will be casting their ballot for more than 1,600 local council seats, six regional mayors and a parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby.

Our team of writers and correspondents in London will be bringing you key updates and snap analysis.

You'll be able to follow along by pressing W, externalatch live, external at the top of this page when PMQs gets under way at 12:00 BST.