The flow of the exchange was: Badenoch asked the Prime Minister "by how much the welfare bill has risen since he came to office." The Prime Minister's response did not provide a specific monetary figure for the increase. Instead, he pivoted to describing welfare reforms (balancing universal credit, introducing a "right to try," apprenticeship funding) and then attacked the Conservatives' record, saying the welfare bill "soared by £88 billion on their watch." Badenoch then said: "The Prime Minister does not seem to know the answer, so let me tell him: benefits alone have risen by £20 billion since he came to office." This claim — "The Prime Minister does not seem to know the answer" — is a subjective rhetorical characterization, not a verifiable factual assertion. It is Badenoch's interpretation of the PM's failure to state a specific figure for the welfare bill increase during the exchange. Whether Starmer "did not know" the answer or simply chose not to provide it (a common political tactic at the dispatch box) cannot be determined from public evidence. The claim rests on an inference about the Prime Minister's internal state of knowledge, which is not publicly observable. While we can confirm that the PM did not provide a specific numerical answer to the question asked, that is not the same as confirming he did not know the answer. Sources: Hansard, UK Parliament — Prime Minister debate, 3 June 2026 (https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2026-06-03/debates/0258B9EB-0744-4475-9B89-486CC9238A26/PrimeMinister); BBC News — "Badenoch accuses Starmer of 'giving up' on welfare reform" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgep3r9yg34o)