Today Keir Starmer chairs his last cabinet meeting and takes his final Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) at noon. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

Starmer's departure follows parliamentary tradition. At a final PMQs, even opponents tend to be polite and respectful. Starmer has likely studied how his predecessors handled this. Tony Blair's words on his last day in the Commons are worth quoting: "Some may belittle politics but we who are engaged in it know that it is where people stand tall. Although I know that it has many harsh contentions, it is still the arena that sets the heart beating a little faster. If it is, on occasions, the place of low skulduggery, it is more often the place for the pursuit of noble causes. I wish everyone, friend or foe, well. That is that. The end."

In his memoirs, Blair wrote about his final PMQs: "no point in my trying to advance things; no point in the opposition trying to criticise things." At that point he clearly hadn't met Kemi Badenoch, and it will be surprising if she can get through six questions without lashing out at least some of the time. The Tories wanted to use an opposition day debate today to force a vote on their call for the recess to be delayed so that Andy Burnham could address MPs before they all disappear for a six-week summer break. Yesterday, in an act of "low skulduggery" described by Blair, the government changed Commons business to stop that vote. A minister claimed it was vital for MPs to debate Iran instead. But it is hard not to conclude that No 10 just wanted to silence the Tories on this issue. Burnham is happy with the Commons recess starting tomorrow.

The papers are full of speculation about who will be doing what jobs in Burnham's cabinet when he announces it on Monday.

Today's schedule: - 10.30am: Zia Yusuf, Reform UK's home affairs spokesperson, holds a press conference. - 11.30am: Matt Brittin, the BBC director general, and Samir Shah, the BBC chair, give evidence to the Lords communications committee about BBC charter renewal. - 2pm: Bev Craig, Labour's candidate for Greater Manchester mayor, launches her manifesto. - Afternoon: Dan Jarvis, the defence secretary, is on a visit in Yorkshire.

For contact: comments are open between 10am and 3pm. Messages containing "Andrew" are easier to find. For urgent messages, use social media. Bluesky: @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. X: @AndrewSparrow.

Readers pointing out mistakes, even minor typos, are very helpful. Your questions are also interesting, but I cannot promise to reply to all.