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Angela Rayner may be a seasoned hand at Deputy PMQs, but this is an extraordinary week. 

The government is facing down a full-blown rebellion on its plans to cut the welfare bill, with around one in four Labour MPs willing to back an amendment that would effectively kill it in its tracks.

One in four MPs. Less than a year into government.

Watch: The battle over benefit cuts

Today, Rayner confirmed the crunch vote will go ahead next Tuesday. 

But there are just days to save the bill and prove this is a government that can push through its agenda without being at the mercy of its own MPs.

Mel Stride, a former welfare secretary himself, standing in at DPMQs for the first time, asked if she is "just a little embarrassed?"

A fundamental question for Labour

The deputy PM has faced down several opponents at PMQs, from Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab to Chris Philp last week, and knows how to command the chamber and did so today, turning the question on to the Tories' economic record. 

But she also knows the government being defeated on a flagship policy this early on is more than just embarrassing. 

The welfare issue speaks to a fundamental question in the Labour Party. 

Is it a party, as the name suggests, that is about getting people to work, or about rolling out the state to help the most vulnerable. 

A bigger challenge to come

A darling of the Labour left, Rayner today had to publicly defend a bill the government estimates would put 250,000 people into poverty. 

Behind the scenes, we understand she is on board with the reforms and there were no hints otherwise today. 

The biggest challenge at DPMQs could have come from the benches behind her, but Labour MPs kept quiet on welfare. That doesn't mean there isn't trouble ahead, and persuading those 120+ MPs is the bigger challenge she and her cabinet colleagues face over the coming days. 

While his deputy was doing PMQs, Sir Keir Starmer has met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoganat the NATO summit at The Hague.

The prime minister, who stood next to Erdogan for a family photograph earlier, was accompanied by Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Defence Secretary John Healey and National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell.

Neither the prime minister nor the president spoke while media were in the room.

Wrapping up PMQs is former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

He asks about 86 people who were killed in Gaza by Israeli forces, and another 56 who were shot dead while queuing for food.

"Israel stands condemned for acts of genocide for war crimes for their occupation of Gaza and their activities in the West Bank," he says, and asks why Britain still supplies parts for F-25 jets used by Israel in Gaza.

He also asks if Angela Rayner will support his private member's bill, calling for an independent inquiry into UK policies on Israel and Gaza.

Rayner: Israel's recent conduct appalling

The deputy prime minister says Israel's recent action is "appalling and counter-productive".

She says the UK strongly opposes "the expansion of military operations" and the blocking of aid.

"It's a long-standing principle that genocide is determined by competent international courts and not for governments," she says.

Rayner adds the UK does not sell arms trades "directly to the IDF" that might breach international humanitarian law.

Daisy Cooper, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, is now asking about changes to the personal independent payments (PIP).

She says an expected Labour rebellion means the government might have to rely on the opposition to get their welfare cuts through.

'Welfare system is failing,' says Rayner

She asks for a "cast iron guarantee" that if the cuts are passed, not a single person will lose a penny until the carers' allowance scandal review is complete and recommendations implemented.

The review is looking at DWP attempts to claw back 拢251m from unpaid carers after many unwittingly went over the benefit earnings threshold.

Rayner says the government has taken steps on the carers' allowance scandal.

She goes on to say the "welfare system is failing people". 

Cooper said it was "disappointing" Rayner couldn't give a cast-iron guarantee, and if the welfare cuts go through the Lib Dems will pursue the matter.

Next, Mel Stride claims that Britain's businesses have "today been put on notice - tax rises are coming".

He asks Angela Rayner about projected council tax rises - despite Labour claiming they will not raise taxes on working people.

"Why she doesn't think council tax is paid by working people?"

Rayner responds that council tax rose "every single year" under the Tory government.

She accuses the Conservatives of putting taxes up and "ruining the British economy".

Tories 'left country in a mess'

Stride comes back, saying: "When you cut out the blather, isn't the reality that this Labour government has condemned us to higher taxes, more debt, fewer jobs" and increased inflation.

Yet Rayner tells us the plan is working, he says.

He asks whether she is embarrassed to be defending policies she doesn't agree with herself.

Rayner takes aim at the Tories again, saying they should be embarrassed "for the mess they left our country in".

Next, Mel Stride asks Angela Rayner if she will repeat Rachel Reeves' promise not to raise taxes at the next budget. 

The deputy prime minister makes no such commitment, and instead attacks the Tories on their record on welfare and tax rises. 

The Conservatives have said they will support Labour's welfare cuts only if they can make certain commitments, including getting people into work and not rising taxes. 

Rayner: I'll take no lectures from Tories

Stride said that "every respectable economist says tax rises are inevitable" and asks Rayner to "give business certainty now and repeat to the house the chancellor's promise not to raise taxes?"

Rayner says his question is "a bit rich"  as the Tories raised taxes to record highs, while the welfare bill "ballooned" under their leadership. 

She said she will "take no lectures" from the Conservatives, saying they have "no plan and no idea". 

Mel Stride is standing in for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch today, as deputy prime minister Angela Rayner takes the reins at PMQs.

He begins his round of questions, predictably, on welfare reforms - and a burgeoning rebellion in the Labour Party.

Stride says that rebels say that the welfare bill is "dangerously rushed" and "ill-thought through".

He asks Rayner to explain why she thinks she is right - while 122 of her colleagues are wrong.

Government risks humiliating defeat

The deputy prime minister says Labour won't "abandon millions of people trapped in the failing system left behind by him and his colleagues".

Stride comes back, accusing Rayner of being unable to defend her own government's policy.

But will the welfare vote on Tuesday go ahead?

"We will go ahead on Tuesday," Rayner says, setting up a parliamentary battle between the government and its own backbenchers.

Our political editor Beth Rigby has said defeat for Keir Starmer would be humiliating, given the huge majority he enjoys.

It's time for the deputies to take centre stage at PMQs today, as the prime minister spends time at a NATO summit in the Netherlands.

Angela Rayner stands in for her boss, and is up against the Tory shadow chancellor Mel Stride.

Surely there's only one topic in town for him to target: the Labour rebellion threatening to bring down the government's welfare reforms.

You can watch live at the top of this page, and we'll bring you any noteworthy updates throughout.

Keir Starmer is standing firm in the face of a growing Labour rebellion against his government's welfare reforms.

But what exactly are they?

Unveiled in March, Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall's major benefit crackdown was designed to save 拢5bn.

The package narrowed the eligibility criteria for disability benefits significantly, making it harder to qualify for the daily living allowance component of the personal independence payment (PIP).

PIP is money for people who have extra care needs or mobility needs as a result of a disability.

There was also news of a consultation on delaying access to the health top-up on universal credit until someone is 22, with the savings to be reinvested into work support and training opportunities.

And the Work Capability Assessment (WCA), which determines if a person is fit for work, will be scrapped in 2028, with financial support for people who are sick or disabled determined solely through the PIP assessment.

Other reforms included:

• Merging jobseeker's allowance and employment and support allowance
• Raising the standard universal credit allowance by 拢775 in 2029/30
• Introducing a "right to try" initiative so people who want to attempt to get back into work won't lose their benefits while they do

Our political editor Beth Rigby is in The Hague, where world leaders have gathered for a two-day NATO summit.

She explains that the meeting in the Netherlands is a really "consequential summit". 

"The prime minister has come here pledging to spend 5% of GDP on security and homeland security, on defence as well, by 2035," Beth says.

He comes with an announcement as well about the UK buying 12 F-25 jets with the ability to carry nuclear bombs, she explains.

"That is the most significant development to the UK's nuclear arsenal since the end of the Cold War."

Beth reiterates that the summit is "very significant".

"You've got a UK prime minister coming here saying I have to spend more on defence, warning about a threat to the UK, insisting that the NATO alliance has to bulk up.

"And you've got a US president arriving here and on the way over he said something that is very alarming to European allies and to the wider NATO alliance.

"He seemed to question the US's commitment to Article Five."

Donald Trump suggested the US could water down the commitment, she said.

"He said Article Five has a number of interpretations, and I'll spell out what I mean when I get to NATO." 

Article Five is the founding principle of the NATO alliance - the idea that an attack on one member is an attack on all.

"This will be very alarming to the UK government," Beth explains.

"When Keir Starmer went over to the White House back in February, one of the biggest wins that the UK government took from that was the fact that at the formal press conference, Donald Trump reiterated his commitment to Article Five.

"He did it publicly in that forum."

For Trump to now be questioning this is very consequential.