Browse content similar to 28/10/2015. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning folks - welcome to the Daily Politics. | :00:37. | :00:39. | |
David Cameron's off to Iceland later today to meet with his | :00:40. | :00:42. | |
He wants to talk about his renegotiation of Britain's | :00:43. | :00:48. | |
And according to this morning's papers he wants to warn voters that | :00:49. | :00:52. | |
life outside the EU is no land of milk and honey. | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
But before he leaves there's just the small matter | :00:58. | :01:03. | |
Jeremy Corbyn says he's not going to gloat over the Government's | :01:04. | :01:08. | |
defeat on tax credits, but might he just be tempted to mention it? | :01:09. | :01:11. | |
We'll bring you all the action live at noon. | :01:12. | :01:16. | |
The Lib Dem leader's just been to see the migrant crisis first-hand, | :01:17. | :01:19. | |
and Tim Farron's got his first question to the Prime Minister. | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
And we'll be talking to the MPs who represent what are said | :01:23. | :01:30. | |
to be the happiest place in the UK, and the most miserable. | :01:31. | :01:38. | |
All that in the next hour, and with us for the whole of the | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
programme today two MPs who are in the happiest place in Westminster. | :01:43. | :01:45. | |
No not the bar in the House of Lords after a hard night's work defying | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
I mean of course the Daily Politics studio, the Disneyland | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
It's the housing minister Brandon Lewis and the shadow minister | :01:54. | :02:02. | |
without portfolio, Jonathan Ashworth. | :02:03. | :02:10. | |
They wanted to give him a job but they didn't think what he could do. | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
First today let's talk about the Prime Minister, because | :02:15. | :02:16. | |
after PMQs he's off to Iceland for an annual conference with | :02:17. | :02:18. | |
And Downing Street says he's going to use | :02:19. | :02:25. | |
the occasion to directly address the alternatives to Britain remaining | :02:26. | :02:29. | |
in the EU ahead of the referendum on membership which is due to take | :02:30. | :02:32. | |
The official position of Mr Cameron, who is leading the renegotiation | :02:33. | :02:40. | |
with other EU members, is that he rules nothing out if fellow leaders | :02:41. | :02:44. | |
But today the Telegraph reports that he will warn voters that life | :02:45. | :02:49. | |
outside the EU would not be a "land of milk and honey". | :02:50. | :03:02. | |
He claims exit could cost the country hundreds | :03:03. | :03:03. | |
Number 10 has also released a series of statements including one | :03:04. | :03:07. | |
from the Norweigan prime minister urging Britain to reject their style | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
Norway is a member of the European Economic Area | :03:11. | :03:13. | |
Well this message was apparently aimed at those campaigning | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
for a British exit, so let's get some reaction now | :03:18. | :03:19. | |
from the Conservative MP Steve Baker from the Vote Leave campaign. | :03:20. | :03:26. | |
Steve Baker, the chairman or one of the members of your campaign group | :03:27. | :03:34. | |
says number ten appear to have dropped any semblance of neutrality. | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
Is that how you see it? I think the terms of debate are changing. As I | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
Javid said, you need to be prepared to walk away from negotiation and is | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
big coming less clear the prime in history 's ruling anything out. Is | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
he in panic mode? I think they are worried but not panicking. The | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
spokesman for the Vote Leave said Downing Street was in a panic. I | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
think there are a range of views but as a Conservative MP are loyal to | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
the Prime Minister at every possible subject I can be. I have a great | :04:06. | :04:13. | |
deal of faith in David Cameron. Downing Street sources say leaving | :04:14. | :04:17. | |
the EU, not necessarily a land of milk and honey. Would you prefer him | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
to say that staying in might not be either? I think it might be a good | :04:21. | :04:25. | |
idea if he said staying in might not be the land of milk and honey. I | :04:26. | :04:29. | |
hope he will ask Iceland if they will join the European year of -- EU | :04:30. | :04:38. | |
today. It is unlikely a country like Norway or Iceland would join the EU | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
like it is today. But we believe with the UK having an economy four | :04:43. | :04:50. | |
times as big as them, we can get a British option. Is he right to be | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
warning against the virtue is of the UK following the Norwegian model? | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
The Norwegian model has its downsides but not as bad as people | :05:01. | :05:05. | |
suggest. Estimates vary but some say Norway only has to adopt 10% of | :05:06. | :05:09. | |
European Union proposals. There is a conversation to be had about the | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
status of Norway, but nobody in our campaign is campaigning we adopt | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
that model or the Swiss one. We think, as our biggest exports of | :05:19. | :05:21. | |
European Union, we are in a strong and powerful position to negotiate | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
for a British deal. Even in Norway themselves they say it is not the | :05:26. | :05:30. | |
ideal option at all. You pay for all the regulations and you have no | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
says. They don't have no say. Think about the code that deals with | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
fish, based in Norway and the Norwegians chair it. They produce | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
the global rules which are handed down to the EU and the EU hands them | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
onto the way. The reality is that Norway, if they are influencing | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
those rules are a global level they have more instruments than if they | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
were represented by the EU in the same body. For many of us we believe | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
that Britain, the fifth largest economy in the world, is capable of | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
retraining its influence and power in world affairs and regulations, | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
leaving the European Union. Steve Baker, thank you. | :06:08. | :06:13. | |
Brandon Lewis, the Prime Minister says he rules nothing out when it | :06:14. | :06:16. | |
comes to Europe. So why is he ruling out the Norwegian option? I think he | :06:17. | :06:22. | |
has also been very clear about the concerns around staying in Europe as | :06:23. | :06:26. | |
it is. I think what David has said by the way through his consistent, | :06:27. | :06:29. | |
we need a renegotiation in the best interests of the country. There was | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
nothing in the briefing that came out of Downing Street warning of the | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
dangers of staying in? What the Prime Minister had said on numerous | :06:38. | :06:40. | |
occasions as we need to get that we negotiation. We don't want to be | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
part of where Europe is going. Why is he ruling out the Norwegian | :06:45. | :06:47. | |
model? I think he has had clearly all the way through we will look at | :06:48. | :06:51. | |
all options. He is looking at what is going on across Europe. It is | :06:52. | :06:58. | |
about getting the right deal, the right deal for Britain as Steve | :06:59. | :07:01. | |
said. I think we need to to bring that renegotiation board. Nobody | :07:02. | :07:03. | |
will consciously agree with the wrong deal, it may be the wrong deal | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
but nobody will consciously agree with that. The Prime Minister is | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
meant to be neutral until he doesn't renegotiation and then tells us we | :07:12. | :07:15. | |
can all make up our minds. Why is he pre-empting the debates, is the | :07:16. | :07:20. | |
beginning to panic? Not at all. The Prime Minister doesn't panic, he has | :07:21. | :07:23. | |
always delivered the right thing for this country, in Europe and on the | :07:24. | :07:26. | |
wider scale forced what we will see in the next few months as those | :07:27. | :07:29. | |
renegotiation is going forward. When we get to next year we will have the | :07:30. | :07:32. | |
opportunity to see exactly where we end up. And as you said, in 2017 | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
people will get a chance to have their say. What is wrong with a | :07:38. | :07:44. | |
variation of the Norwegian model? We will see what comes through with the | :07:45. | :07:47. | |
renegotiation is. What is wrong with that? We are being briefed by | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
Downing Street is not right. I'm asking you what is wrong with it? It | :07:52. | :07:55. | |
is about looking at what is the right deal for us. It might be we | :07:56. | :07:58. | |
can get a renegotiation that gives us what we want a staying part of | :07:59. | :08:04. | |
the European Union. Being part of the European Union is hugely | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
important, for tourism and energy. But we need to have on the right | :08:11. | :08:13. | |
terms. Let me try one more time, what would be wrong with a version | :08:14. | :08:17. | |
of the Norwegian model if we voted to come out of the EU? I think we | :08:18. | :08:23. | |
are a long way from voting to come out of the EU. The ultimate problem, | :08:24. | :08:26. | |
we have to know exactly what we are voting on. Until the renegotiation | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
is finished, we are in a hypothetical situation. I would | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
rather wait and let the Prime Minister to those renegotiation, | :08:36. | :08:38. | |
make a recommendation to the British public and we all have our say. When | :08:39. | :08:42. | |
will Jeremy Corbyn start campaigning to keep us in? We have a Labour | :08:43. | :08:47. | |
campaign to keep us in, led by Mr Johnson. When will Jeremy Corbyn get | :08:48. | :08:52. | |
involved? We have not heard him say much since he became leader? He has | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
endorsed Allan Johnson's campaign and said the Labour Party will be | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
campaigning to stay in the EU. It's his heart in it? The last time I was | :09:01. | :09:08. | |
on your programme I found out I was not even born in 1975. I wanted you | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
to remind our viewers of that. Jeremy Corbyn said we will campaign | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
as at the Labour Party to stay in the EU. Our campaign is led by Allan | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
Johnson. Labour MPs on the whole will campaign to stay in the EU. We | :09:24. | :09:28. | |
have a handful of MPs who are more sceptical, but the split in the | :09:29. | :09:31. | |
Labour Party are not in the scale of those in the Tory party. I'm sure | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
Jeremy will be campaigning alongside Mr Johnson and me and Hilary Benn | :09:37. | :09:39. | |
and other members of the Labour Party. You are sure of that? I | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
and other members of the Labour very, very confident of it. LAUGHTER | :09:44. | :09:49. | |
Have you got your fingers crossed? Not at all. I will be campaigning | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
with Jeremy on the streets. You can join us. | :09:54. | :09:58. | |
with Jeremy on the streets. You can Prime Minister to rule out the | :09:59. | :10:01. | |
Norwegian option? Because if he fails in the renegotiation. I know | :10:02. | :10:04. | |
we are not even contemplating it, fails in the renegotiation. I know | :10:05. | :10:08. | |
according to Tories, but he could fail in the renegotiation. If he | :10:09. | :10:11. | |
does and he can't get any changes, the Norwegian option, version of, | :10:12. | :10:17. | |
suited for Britain, would have to be on the table? I have to upfront say | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
we are talking about a Prime Minister who has succeeded for his | :10:23. | :10:25. | |
country in the negotiations he has done in Europe over the last few | :10:26. | :10:28. | |
years in the previous Coalition Government as well. He has a track | :10:29. | :10:30. | |
record that gives me confidence Government as well. He has a track | :10:31. | :10:33. | |
he will deliver for our country. The decision will be for the British | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
public not politicians. They will get a chance to have their say. | :10:38. | :10:39. | |
But before they were in coalition Thank you. | :10:40. | :10:46. | |
But before they were in coalition with the Conservatives the leader of | :10:47. | :10:50. | |
the Lib Dems used to get to put a couple of questions to the Prime | :10:51. | :10:53. | |
Minister every week at PMQ 's, not any more. Today will be the first | :10:54. | :10:57. | |
opportunity Tim Farron has had to ask a question of David Cameron. The | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
Lib Dem leader is just back from Lesbos in Greece where he has been | :11:02. | :11:04. | |
viewing the migrant crisis first-hand. He intends | :11:05. | :11:08. | |
viewing the migrant crisis question today to push the Prime | :11:09. | :11:11. | |
Minister on a proposal to accept refugees from Syria. And we can | :11:12. | :11:15. | |
speak to him now in the Central Lobby. Tim Farron, welcome to Daily | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
Politics. You want the government to commit to taking 3000 Syrian child | :11:21. | :11:24. | |
refugees. How did you get to that figure? The save the children | :11:25. | :11:29. | |
recommend the UK Government take 3000 unaccompanied children, some of | :11:30. | :11:33. | |
whom will be as young as six, who are currently refugees within | :11:34. | :11:36. | |
Europe. That sounds a very reasonable request. There are other | :11:37. | :11:39. | |
things I could ask the government to do, which I would love them to do to | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
play a fuller and better part in a more humane and leading part in | :11:45. | :11:47. | |
dealing with the refugee crisis. This is a manageable, clear figure | :11:48. | :11:50. | |
that Save The Children have come up with. It is worth bearing in mind | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
these are children who are incredibly fungible. 13,000 | :11:56. | :11:58. | |
unaccompanied children in Italy last. 400 of those we have no idea | :11:59. | :12:04. | |
where they are now. The threat to those young people from exploitation | :12:05. | :12:08. | |
and worse is extreme. The UK will be doing something of huge humanitarian | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
benefit and playing its part in the European team, if you like, if he | :12:14. | :12:19. | |
was to accept that Save The Children request. How many adult refugees do | :12:20. | :12:22. | |
you think the UK should take as a result of this crisis? I think the | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
figure on the table at the moment, the 20,000 the government under | :12:28. | :12:31. | |
great pressure have taken from the camps is one we need to keep | :12:32. | :12:34. | |
monitoring and check they are taking any or many so far. But I think one | :12:35. | :12:39. | |
of the things most shameful from my experience yesterday, was not a | :12:40. | :12:42. | |
single one of the families who I met yesterday, desperate but | :12:43. | :12:45. | |
inspirational people, will be able to provide peace and stability and a | :12:46. | :12:51. | |
home for them. You would like to take some from the mainland question | :12:52. | :12:58. | |
mark 12,000 individuals from within Europe. Which would be the UK opting | :12:59. | :13:05. | |
into the EU system. Every year? At the moment that is what we have on | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
the table. It won't go away if we put our head in the sand. This is a | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
growing problem. It is worth bearing in mind, we often hear phrases | :13:14. | :13:17. | |
bandied about by Ukip and conservatives saying Britain is only | :13:18. | :13:20. | |
a small island. Can I point out to them that Lesbos is about the same | :13:21. | :13:25. | |
size as the Isle of Skye. It is a very small island. It is taking | :13:26. | :13:31. | |
300,000 refugees, desperate people. 94% of those people are designated | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
as refugees independently verified. This is not a case of migrants | :13:36. | :13:38. | |
taking advantage of this system. This is people fleeing the war in | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
Syria and persecution and threaten the lives of them and their children | :13:44. | :13:46. | |
in other parts of the region. Britain is at the moment not being a | :13:47. | :13:51. | |
team player, not being the leader in humanitarian aid it has in years | :13:52. | :13:54. | |
past. It is about time we played up to our heritage as a country that | :13:55. | :13:58. | |
plays its part when you have crises like this. When the pictures we have | :13:59. | :14:09. | |
just seen were posted on your party's Facebook page, do you accept | :14:10. | :14:12. | |
there was a fair amount of criticism? Someone on your page | :14:13. | :14:14. | |
actually said they risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean and their | :14:15. | :14:16. | |
first taste of European culture is a Lib Dem MP using their woe for a | :14:17. | :14:19. | |
publicity stunt, is less a publicity stunt? That is nonsense. I was there | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
yesterday stood with other people from Save The Children and other | :14:24. | :14:27. | |
charities as one of the boats came in. I thought I could stand in my | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
jeans on my shirt and watch all lend a hand. I went and went at hand. | :14:32. | :14:35. | |
What about your reception today in the House of Commons? What you think | :14:36. | :14:40. | |
it will be like? Goodness knows. If I get a question today, I know I am | :14:41. | :14:46. | |
against 642 individuals who do not share my politics. I thought you | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
were guaranteed a question today? I do not think there is any certainty. | :14:51. | :14:55. | |
I am told I should get one today. The Liberal Democrats, it has with | :14:56. | :14:59. | |
the case, our job is to be on the side of the outsiders. We are an | :15:00. | :15:04. | |
outsider outside this place and inside this place. If I get a | :15:05. | :15:07. | |
question today I will press the Prime Minister to step up to the | :15:08. | :15:10. | |
mark and do the right thing by desperate people, doing the things | :15:11. | :15:13. | |
we would do for our children if we were faced with similar | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
circumstances. If I get the chance to ask, that is a kind of thing I | :15:18. | :15:20. | |
will be going for. I think we have the idea, we will be looking out for | :15:21. | :15:22. | |
you. According to the Daily Politics | :15:23. | :15:24. | |
calendar it's now day three of the constitutional crisis | :15:25. | :15:26. | |
following the Lords decision to vote down government plans to cut working | :15:27. | :15:29. | |
tax credits. The skies haven't fallen in, | :15:30. | :15:31. | |
although it has been raining rather But it has left the government | :15:32. | :15:33. | |
threatening to clip the wings of the unelected upper chamber, | :15:34. | :15:37. | |
and plenty of questions remain out how the handling of this flagship | :15:38. | :15:41. | |
policy went quite so badly wrong. Well to remind us | :15:42. | :15:46. | |
of the whole story, here's JoCo. In their election manifesto the | :15:47. | :15:54. | |
Conservatives said they would find The Government didn't make it clear | :15:55. | :16:02. | |
where they would find the savings, although appeared to rule | :16:03. | :16:06. | |
our cuts to tax credits paid to In his summer Budget the Chancellor | :16:07. | :16:09. | |
outlined ?4.5bn of cuts to Working Tax Credits - | :16:10. | :16:12. | |
benefits paid to people in work. He said | :16:13. | :16:15. | |
a new minimum wage increase and a higher tax allowance would mean most | :16:16. | :16:17. | |
families would not be worse off. But the Institute for Fiscal Studies | :16:18. | :16:25. | |
calculated that from next April 3 million families | :16:26. | :16:27. | |
would lose ?1,300 a year. A majority of MPs voted in favour | :16:28. | :16:30. | |
of the changes three times. But this week the House of Lords | :16:31. | :16:33. | |
defeated the government in two separate motions | :16:34. | :16:36. | |
and demanded a rethink. The Government accused peers | :16:37. | :16:39. | |
of over-reaching, saying the defeat raises | :16:40. | :16:41. | |
"clear constitutional issues". But the Chancellor has now said | :16:42. | :16:50. | |
there will be "transitional measures" to lessen the impact of | :16:51. | :16:52. | |
the changes, with the detail set out Meanwhile, the Government has asked | :16:53. | :16:55. | |
former cabinet minister Thomas Strathclyde to lead a review | :16:56. | :16:59. | |
of House of Lords conventions. Thank you, JoCo. You were warned by | :17:00. | :17:18. | |
every think-tank that knows about this, including Tory leaning think | :17:19. | :17:21. | |
tank 's, you were warned by a number of your own backbenchers, either Sun | :17:22. | :17:27. | |
newspaper, you were warned by the Mayor of London who was a | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
Conservative not to proceed with the way the Chancellor was planning. Yet | :17:32. | :17:35. | |
you did. You're now in a complete mess why? The reality is this two | :17:36. | :17:42. | |
different issues going on, the change in the way the economy works, | :17:43. | :17:45. | |
which is what House of Commons was voting on when we looked at tax | :17:46. | :17:49. | |
credits, higher wages, lower welfare, but separately, the second | :17:50. | :17:54. | |
issue is around an unelected chamber. I will come onto that. I | :17:55. | :17:58. | |
will come onto that. I'm talking about the substance of the issue not | :17:59. | :18:02. | |
the process or the constitution. That's what matters to people out | :18:03. | :18:07. | |
there who consider tax credits going. They are not high earners in | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
the first place. Why did you ignore all these warnings? We were very | :18:12. | :18:15. | |
clear and the Chancellor made his position very clear that we are | :18:16. | :18:17. | |
looking to move our economy to a new place which means we have to make | :18:18. | :18:20. | |
difficult decisions in this period of time to make sure we get to the | :18:21. | :18:24. | |
point where we have a higher wage economy, lower taxes. But you are | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
taking the tax credits away before the higher wages come through. And | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
even when they do, they do not compensate for the loss in the tax | :18:34. | :18:42. | |
credits. Everybody point that out, it was clear from the beginning you | :18:43. | :18:47. | |
were going to hit those at the lower end of the income scale. Let's take | :18:48. | :18:51. | |
the Institute for Fiscal Studies outline as a good example. It does | :18:52. | :18:54. | |
not look at the picture, does not account for not just the increase in | :18:55. | :18:58. | |
salaries coming through, the reduction feel duty, a real-time | :18:59. | :19:02. | |
reduction in council tax, but when you look at the entire economy, | :19:03. | :19:08. | |
actually it's a much better place. I'm sorry, that is just not true. | :19:09. | :19:13. | |
The House of Commons library research shows this, which takes | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
into account the rise in tax thresholds and the rise in what you | :19:19. | :19:21. | |
now called the National minimum wage. When you take that into | :19:22. | :19:25. | |
account, poorer families on tax credits, working families, are outed | :19:26. | :19:34. | |
by about ?1500 a year. For people like that, it is a tonne of money. | :19:35. | :19:39. | |
That is a lot of money but it does not take into account some of the | :19:40. | :19:41. | |
other changes in the economy in terms of the reduction of fuel,. You | :19:42. | :19:48. | |
don't control that. No, but as the wider picture for the economy. Are | :19:49. | :19:54. | |
you seriously telling me that poorer families... You don't control the | :19:55. | :20:02. | |
world tax. Are you seriously telling me that families, when you include | :20:03. | :20:07. | |
the tax credit changes, you include the rise in the minimum wage, in the | :20:08. | :20:13. | |
tax threshold, there still ?1500 worse off. I knew telling me the | :20:14. | :20:18. | |
fall in fuel prices will compensate for that? No, the figures you are | :20:19. | :20:23. | |
quoting to not take account of the entire economy. The tax picture of | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
what family or individual has in their life. At the moment, we're | :20:29. | :20:33. | |
looking at fuel duty as one example, council tax reducing in | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
real terms, people are seeing a different position to what some of | :20:39. | :20:44. | |
those... You know none of that comes near compensating the | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
those... You know none of that comes will lose most. Your own side is | :20:50. | :20:52. | |
telling you that. Your own think tank is telling you that. | :20:53. | :20:55. | |
telling you that. Your own think supporting media are telling you | :20:56. | :21:03. | |
that. And you will have to change, won't you? There are also people out | :21:04. | :21:10. | |
there as well won't you? There are also people out | :21:11. | :21:14. | |
rightly exactly as the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
done, that we need to change the economy. That is the third time you | :21:19. | :21:19. | |
have said that. economy. That is the third time you | :21:20. | :21:26. | |
also said clearly he will listen to what people say. | :21:27. | :21:31. | |
also said clearly he will listen to that now. This week. He will come | :21:32. | :21:33. | |
back in the Autumn Statement that now. This week. He will come | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
deal with transitions because we do need to move to that position where | :21:39. | :21:41. | |
deal with transitions because we do we have higher wages and lower | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
taxes. OK, that is the fourth time. Labour is obviously against this. | :21:46. | :21:51. | |
You are against it, voting against it, of course. Let me ask you. Does | :21:52. | :21:59. | |
Labour have any policy for welfare reform? Our position at the moment | :22:00. | :22:02. | |
if we are reform? Our position at the moment | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
It is the start of a parliament. The reform? Our position at the moment | :22:08. | :22:21. | |
canoe no policy? We do. We are opposing -- at the moment you have | :22:22. | :22:23. | |
no policy? In the welfare bill, we opposing -- at the moment you have | :22:24. | :22:28. | |
opposed for example the reduction in the benefit cap. | :22:29. | :22:33. | |
opposed for example the reduction in what you are against but what are | :22:34. | :22:36. | |
you in favour of bigger so favour that means you're against welfare | :22:37. | :22:41. | |
reform as seen by the Tories. Is it possible to have Labour inclined | :22:42. | :22:45. | |
welfare reforms and can you give is an indication of | :22:46. | :22:48. | |
welfare reforms and can you give is be? We won't have a fully developed | :22:49. | :22:49. | |
policy having just lost be? We won't have a fully developed | :22:50. | :22:54. | |
in May where we got hammered and we have 4.5 years until the next | :22:55. | :22:59. | |
election. Can you contribute to the debate with your idea? We will have | :23:00. | :23:05. | |
to look at where we are in four years' time, with Universal Credit | :23:06. | :23:11. | |
coming, the national living wage, which we do support. That would | :23:12. | :23:15. | |
change the welfare landscape the 2019-20, so we will have to look of | :23:16. | :23:20. | |
the impact of that. Let me come onto my second question. You are | :23:21. | :23:24. | |
committed, as I understand it, to balance the current budget, not the | :23:25. | :23:29. | |
overall budget, but the current budget. The cut in tax credits, | :23:30. | :23:33. | |
right or wrong, it is designed to contribute to the balancing of the | :23:34. | :23:39. | |
current budget, tax credits, the spending, not investment, if you are | :23:40. | :23:43. | |
against this, ?4.5 billion, where would you find it to continue with | :23:44. | :23:49. | |
the balancing of the current budget? We would have to make different | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
choices and ask ourselves, should we be increasing the inheritance tax | :23:55. | :23:58. | |
threshold to ?1 million. That is 1 billion. Yes, we have the lowest | :23:59. | :24:04. | |
corporation tax, do we need to reduce it down to 18p or 20p? That's | :24:05. | :24:09. | |
something we could look at. The last time I looked, you were in favour of | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
that. No, no, no, we have asked question about whether we should | :24:15. | :24:18. | |
reduce corporation tax down to 18p, so there are other options. . . It | :24:19. | :24:25. | |
isn't a 4.5 billion. Over a Parliament? Over a year. You need to | :24:26. | :24:34. | |
find it to balance it every, the current budget you're committed to | :24:35. | :24:36. | |
balancing. You could probably find money by making different choices on | :24:37. | :24:41. | |
what the Chancellor is making. I understand that. That's why I'm | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
interested in what he would do. You could take away pension tax relief | :24:47. | :24:50. | |
for those on higher rates. That's a possibility but not something we are | :24:51. | :24:53. | |
currently looking at. I thought you were having a debate. I'm just | :24:54. | :24:57. | |
trying to help you out. I'm throwing Latin. I've advised you to join the | :24:58. | :25:05. | |
Shadow cabinet I'm helping you the debate. I hope you come to a | :25:06. | :25:09. | |
National Forum and Parbat in. OK, I have got to stop it there. | :25:10. | :25:12. | |
The fluky beneficiary of a drastic elevation. | :25:13. | :25:16. | |
No, I'm not describing our two guests of the day. | :25:17. | :25:19. | |
I'm not even talking about me and JoCo. | :25:20. | :25:22. | |
No, these were the cruel words of the novelist Martin Amis, | :25:23. | :25:25. | |
describing the leader of her majesty's opposition Jeremy Corbyn. | :25:26. | :25:29. | |
In his not-at-all snobbish piece in a Sunday newspaper, | :25:30. | :25:33. | |
Oxford-educated Mr Amis noted that Mr Corbyn secured only two E-grade | :25:34. | :25:39. | |
A-levels before dropping out of his course at North London Polytechnic. | :25:40. | :25:49. | |
You can almost hear the smears as he wrote these words. | :25:50. | :25:55. | |
Well Jeremy, if you're watching as you wait to head into the | :25:56. | :25:58. | |
Commons chamber, we can't help get you that first in PPE from Oxford. | :25:59. | :26:01. | |
But we could help you prove you've got a sense of humour, | :26:02. | :26:04. | |
and all you need to do is enter to win a Daily Politics mug. | :26:05. | :26:07. | |
It's guaranteed to fend off criticism from New York-based | :26:08. | :26:09. | |
There's enough people with that exam from Oxford, I'm sure. | :26:10. | :26:23. | |
Yes, Jeremy we'll tell you how to enter in a minute, but first do you | :26:24. | :26:27. | |
MUSIC: Je t'aime by Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. | :26:28. | :26:43. | |
I, Charles, Prince of Wales, do become your liege man | :26:44. | :26:50. | |
MUSIC: Something In The Air by Thunderclap Newman. | :26:51. | :27:16. | |
MUSIC: Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival. | :27:17. | :27:25. | |
MUSIC: In The Year 2525 by Zager Evans. | :27:26. | :27:55. | |
To be in with a chance of winning a Daily Politics mug, send your | :27:56. | :27:58. | |
answer to our special quiz email address - that's [email protected]. | :27:59. | :28:02. | |
Entries must arrive by 12.30 today, and you can see the full terms | :28:03. | :28:05. | |
and conditions for Guess The Year on our website - | :28:06. | :28:08. | |
It's coming up to midday here - just take a look at Big Ben - | :28:09. | :28:17. | |
It's still working but maybe not for long if you read the papers. | :28:18. | :28:29. | |
Yes, Prime Minister's Questions is on its way. | :28:30. | :28:30. | |
And that's not all - James Landale is here. | :28:31. | :28:32. | |
What will Jeremy Corbyn, do you think, talk about in this PMQs? Al | :28:33. | :28:37. | |
be amazed if he does not go on tax credits. It's an open goal, fruitful | :28:38. | :28:42. | |
territory, and Labour thinks there's lots of questions to be asked. What | :28:43. | :28:46. | |
the Chancellor has done no say, I'm not going to tell you anything until | :28:47. | :28:50. | |
the Autumn Statement next month so there is one month where Labour can | :28:51. | :28:54. | |
put pressure, ask questions, seek reassurances about how the decision | :28:55. | :28:59. | |
will be made, what kind of accommodation to lessen the impact | :29:00. | :29:04. | |
of these cuts, so that's the territory I imagine he will be. Our | :29:05. | :29:08. | |
people speculating that David Cameron will talk about the | :29:09. | :29:12. | |
Norwegian option today to get a story running that he is now party | :29:13. | :29:18. | |
pre-in this referendum, already taking sides, ruling out things he | :29:19. | :29:22. | |
said he would not rule out to try to get the flak away from tax credits? | :29:23. | :29:27. | |
No, it's a broader position in the Government. It's a reflection of | :29:28. | :29:31. | |
number ten's doubts about the efficacy of the in campaign up and | :29:32. | :29:34. | |
want to get debates rolling. They are getting worried. Secondly, they | :29:35. | :29:40. | |
want to get the out debate focused where they wanted, namely what if, | :29:41. | :29:46. | |
what happens if the UK leaves the EU, what happens then? The doubt, | :29:47. | :29:50. | |
risk, uncertainty. The Government will be happy to spend the next year | :29:51. | :29:54. | |
and a half talking about Norway, Switzerland, any kind of complicated | :29:55. | :29:59. | |
mixture of countries, as long as the debate is in that territory whereas | :30:00. | :30:04. | |
the out campaign will be about cost and control, so that is what they | :30:05. | :30:09. | |
are trying to do. It means the Prime Minister steps off the fence, | :30:10. | :30:14. | |
doesn't it? Even before we have any idea what his renegotiation is going | :30:15. | :30:18. | |
to achieve, he is arguing we should not take this option. It is the | :30:19. | :30:24. | |
existing Prime Minister's position that he wants to remain in the EU | :30:25. | :30:30. | |
that is reformed, so I think it's a recognition of not putting it eggs | :30:31. | :30:33. | |
in one basket with renegotiation. You can't just say, we got to take | :30:34. | :30:37. | |
the benefit rules, change language when it comes to the EU. He's got to | :30:38. | :30:42. | |
make a broader argument about why he is in principle, from a broad point | :30:43. | :30:46. | |
of view, need a positive reason to be a member of the youth. I take it | :30:47. | :30:51. | |
they are worried the out campaign is gaining ground, the in campaign is | :30:52. | :30:58. | |
kind of not taking off? Yes, the launch of the other day was not seen | :30:59. | :31:02. | |
in Tory circles as being a great success. I think they feel they have | :31:03. | :31:06. | |
to get out there and make that argument. There are members of the | :31:07. | :31:10. | |
out campaign who have, shall we say, personal relations with number | :31:11. | :31:13. | |
ten would have not always been favourable? And they get under the | :31:14. | :31:17. | |
skin of some people at number ten said as a sense of pushing back | :31:18. | :31:21. | |
until bit against the outcome. Who could you be talking about? Will | :31:22. | :31:25. | |
Jeremy Corbyn continued to crowd sources questions? Who knows? Stop | :31:26. | :31:34. | |
smiling. Last week, I think his office felt it worked effectively to | :31:35. | :31:40. | |
use a punter question to reduce a subject and allow him to follow up | :31:41. | :31:44. | |
depending on what Mr Cameron said. It was more effective than trying to | :31:45. | :31:49. | |
bring the Prime Minister down. I think it's an effective tactic with | :31:50. | :31:54. | |
PMQs because it is difficult for the Prime Minister to get nasty and lose | :31:55. | :31:58. | |
his temper as he can do sometimes if he asks the question on behalf of | :31:59. | :32:01. | |
someone affected by this tax credit cuts. If the follow-ups people want | :32:02. | :32:07. | |
to hear, isn't it? Yes, and Jeremy followed up well. Lastly, the Prime | :32:08. | :32:12. | |
Minister said he was delighted by the tax credit cuts. What an own | :32:13. | :32:15. | |
goal on behalf of the Prime Minister. I bet he was kicking | :32:16. | :32:19. | |
himself for that. Let's go to the House of Commons for PMQs. | :32:20. | :32:29. | |
I know the whole house will wish to join me and paid tribute to Michael | :32:30. | :32:36. | |
Meacher. He died suddenly last week and we send our condolences to his | :32:37. | :32:40. | |
family and friends. Michael dedicated his life to public | :32:41. | :32:45. | |
service, diligently representing his constituents for a staggering 45 | :32:46. | :32:48. | |
years. He was a passionate advocate of the causes he believed in, | :32:49. | :32:51. | |
including the environment, and he was able to put these into practice | :32:52. | :32:58. | |
as a minister between 97-2003. This house and our politics are poorer | :32:59. | :33:01. | |
place without him and I know colleagues from all sides of this | :33:02. | :33:04. | |
chamber will remember him with affection and miss him greatly. Mr | :33:05. | :33:09. | |
Speaker, this morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and | :33:10. | :33:14. | |
others, and in addition to my duties in this house to have further | :33:15. | :33:18. | |
meetings today. Can I associate myself with the sympathies expressed | :33:19. | :33:25. | |
by the Prime Minister. Will my right honourable friend join me in | :33:26. | :33:28. | |
celebrating that one in ten of the world's tractors are built in | :33:29. | :33:38. | |
Basildon? Yanuyanutawa not an Airbus A380 flies without a part built in | :33:39. | :33:46. | |
Basildon. And it is attracting investment from well renowned | :33:47. | :33:48. | |
organisations such as the Royal Opera house. All of this is leading | :33:49. | :33:53. | |
to job creation and opportunity. Will he therefore do all he can to | :33:54. | :33:58. | |
ensure that Britain remains a great place to do business and prosper in | :33:59. | :34:00. | |
the? -- prosper in. Basildon has place to do business and prosper in | :34:01. | :34:10. | |
special place in my heart. I didn't know all those statistics, but it | :34:11. | :34:13. | |
now has an even more special place. I can to him that the long-term use | :34:14. | :34:22. | |
claimants is down by 24% of the last year. He spoke about what a great | :34:23. | :34:25. | |
place Britain is to do business. We are now six in the rankings in the | :34:26. | :34:30. | |
world for the best place to setup and to run a business. I know the | :34:31. | :34:35. | |
Leader of the Opposition, not least because his new spokesman is | :34:36. | :34:37. | |
apparently a great admirer of the Soviet Union, will be pleased to | :34:38. | :34:40. | |
start the day with tractor statistics. | :34:41. | :34:50. | |
Thank you, Mr by associating | :34:51. | :34:54. | |
Thank you, Mr remarks the Prime Minister made | :34:55. | :34:56. | |
about Michael Meacher? On behalf of the Labour Party, his constituents | :34:57. | :35:02. | |
and the much wider community, our condolences to his family. I spoke | :35:03. | :35:04. | |
to them last night and asked how condolences to his family. I spoke | :35:05. | :35:11. | |
and sent me a very nice message, which if I may, I will read out. | :35:12. | :35:15. | |
Quite brief but very poignant. They said, when I was young one of the | :35:16. | :35:20. | |
things he frequently said to me was that people went into politics | :35:21. | :35:24. | |
because their principles and they wanted to change things to make | :35:25. | :35:27. | |
things better, but in order to get into power they would often | :35:28. | :35:30. | |
compromise on their principles and that this could happen again and | :35:31. | :35:34. | |
again until, if they eventually did get into power, | :35:35. | :35:36. | |
again until, if they eventually did become so compromise that they would | :35:37. | :35:43. | |
do nothing with it. Michael was a decent, hard-working, passionate and | :35:44. | :35:48. | |
profound man. He represented he his constituency with diligence for 45 | :35:49. | :35:52. | |
years. He was a brilliant environment minister, as the Prime | :35:53. | :35:56. | |
Minister pointed out. He was totally committed to parliamentary democracy | :35:57. | :36:01. | |
and this Parliament, holding government or governments to account | :36:02. | :36:05. | |
and he was a lifelong campaigner against injustice and poverty. We've | :36:06. | :36:10. | |
remember Michael for all those things, we express our condolences | :36:11. | :36:12. | |
and express are some these to his family at this very difficult time. | :36:13. | :36:16. | |
His will be a hard act to follow, but we will do our best. | :36:17. | :36:22. | |
Mr Speaker, following the events on Monday evening, and the belated | :36:23. | :36:26. | |
acceptance from the Prime Minister of the result there, can he now | :36:27. | :36:31. | |
guaranteed to The House and wider country that nobody will be worse | :36:32. | :36:35. | |
off next year as a result of cuts to working tax credits? | :36:36. | :36:41. | |
What I can guarantee is we remain committed to the vision of a higher | :36:42. | :36:47. | |
pay, low tax, lower welfare economy. We believe the way to make | :36:48. | :36:52. | |
sure that everyone is better off is to keep growing our economy, keep | :36:53. | :36:57. | |
inflation low, keep cutting peoples taxes and introduce the national | :36:58. | :37:00. | |
living wage. As for changes, the Chancellor will set them out in the | :37:01. | :37:06. | |
Autumn Statement. I thank the Prime Minister for that, but the question | :37:07. | :37:10. | |
I was asking was quite simply this. Will he confirm, right now, that tax | :37:11. | :37:18. | |
credit cuts will not make anyone worse off in April next year? | :37:19. | :37:24. | |
What we want is for people to be better off because we are cutting | :37:25. | :37:28. | |
their taxes and increasing their paid, that he is going to have to be | :37:29. | :37:31. | |
a little patient, because although these changes passed the House of | :37:32. | :37:37. | |
Commons five times, with ever enlarging majorities, we will set | :37:38. | :37:41. | |
out our new proposals in the Autumn Statement and you will be able to | :37:42. | :37:44. | |
study them. Jeremy Corbyn. | :37:45. | :37:50. | |
Mr Speaker, this is the time when we asked questions of the Prime | :37:51. | :37:52. | |
Minister on behalf of the people of this country. Thank you. | :37:53. | :38:12. | |
Mr Speaker, if I may continue. People are very worried about what | :38:13. | :38:22. | |
is going to happen to them next April. So what exactly does the | :38:23. | :38:27. | |
Prime Minister mean, is considering it, there is an Autumn Statement | :38:28. | :38:31. | |
coming up? We thought he was committed to not cutting tax | :38:32. | :38:36. | |
credits. Is he going to cut tax credits or not, are people going to | :38:37. | :38:41. | |
be worse for next in April next year? You must know the answer. | :38:42. | :38:46. | |
First of all we set out in our election manifesto that we would | :38:47. | :38:49. | |
find ?12 billion of savings on welfare. Order, there is too much | :38:50. | :38:58. | |
noise in the chamber. Order! A bit of calm. The questions must be | :38:59. | :39:03. | |
heard, and the answers must be heard. The Prime Minister. | :39:04. | :39:07. | |
Thank you Mr Speaker. It is an important point because every penny | :39:08. | :39:10. | |
we don't save on welfare is savings we have to find in the education | :39:11. | :39:15. | |
budget or in the policing budgets, or in the health budget. The second | :39:16. | :39:19. | |
point I would make is the cause of what has happened on the other | :39:20. | :39:22. | |
place, of course we should have a debate about how to reform welfare | :39:23. | :39:27. | |
and how to reduce the cost of welfare. I am happy to have that | :39:28. | :39:30. | |
debate, but of course it is difficult to have that debate with | :39:31. | :39:34. | |
the honourable gentleman, because he has opposed everything all welfare | :39:35. | :39:38. | |
change that was made. He doesn't support the welfare cap. He doesn't | :39:39. | :39:42. | |
support the cap on housing benefit. He doesn't think that any change to | :39:43. | :39:46. | |
welfare is worthwhile. I have to say, if we want a strong economy and | :39:47. | :39:50. | |
we want growth, we want to get rid of our deficit, we want to secure | :39:51. | :39:54. | |
our country, we need to reform welfare. | :39:55. | :40:01. | |
What we are talking about our tax credits for people in work. The | :40:02. | :40:05. | |
Prime Minister knows that, he understands that. He has lost the | :40:06. | :40:08. | |
support of many people in this country that are actually quite | :40:09. | :40:12. | |
synthetic to his political project. Some of the papers who supported him | :40:13. | :40:16. | |
have come against on this. He did commit to ?12 billion worth of cuts | :40:17. | :40:20. | |
in the welfare budget repeatedly refused to say if tax credits would | :40:21. | :40:23. | |
be part of this. In fact he said they want. Can he now give us the | :40:24. | :40:28. | |
answer we are trying to get today? Answer the question. | :40:29. | :40:34. | |
The answer will be set out in the Autumn Statement when we set out our | :40:35. | :40:37. | |
proposals. I have to say to him, it has come to quite a strange set of | :40:38. | :40:43. | |
events when you have the House of Commons voting for something five | :40:44. | :40:48. | |
times, when there is absolutely no rebellion among conservative members | :40:49. | :40:52. | |
of parliament, or indeed amongst Conservative peers and the Labour | :40:53. | :40:56. | |
Party is left offending and depending on unelected peers in the | :40:57. | :41:02. | |
House of Lords. We British politics a new alliance. The unelected and | :41:03. | :41:05. | |
the unelectable. SHOUTING. Mr Speaker, it is very | :41:06. | :41:23. | |
interesting the Prime Minister still refuses to answer the fundamental | :41:24. | :41:28. | |
question. This is not a constitutional crisis, this is a | :41:29. | :41:33. | |
crisis for 3 million families in this country, for 3 million families | :41:34. | :41:38. | |
in this country who are very worried about what is going to happen next | :41:39. | :41:42. | |
April. Just before the last election, the former Chief Whip, now | :41:43. | :41:47. | |
Justice Secretary, said in answer to a question on the BBC world at one, | :41:48. | :41:52. | |
are you going to cut tax credits? The answer was, we are not going to | :41:53. | :41:59. | |
cut them. Why did he say that? What I said in the election is that | :42:00. | :42:04. | |
the basic level of child tax credits would stay the same. At ?2700 per | :42:05. | :42:10. | |
child it stays exactly the same. The point is this, if we want to get our | :42:11. | :42:14. | |
deficit down, if we want to secure our, me, if we want to keep on with | :42:15. | :42:18. | |
secure growth, we need to make savings on welfare. Even with his | :42:19. | :42:26. | |
deficit denying, borrow forever plan, presumably he has to make some | :42:27. | :42:30. | |
savings in public spending? If you don't save any money on welfare, you | :42:31. | :42:36. | |
end up cutting the NHS, you end up cutting even more deeply police | :42:37. | :42:41. | |
budgets. Those are the troops. One is he going to stop deficit denial, | :42:42. | :42:45. | |
get off the fence and tell us what he would do? | :42:46. | :42:57. | |
Mr Speaker... A moment ago, the answer is a need to be heard, the | :42:58. | :43:01. | |
questions need to be heard. The man is going to ask his question and it | :43:02. | :43:06. | |
will be heard. If it takes longer, so be it. | :43:07. | :43:12. | |
Thank you Mr Speaker. I've five times asked the Prime Minister today | :43:13. | :43:18. | |
whether or not people will be worse off if they receive working tax | :43:19. | :43:21. | |
credits next April? He still hasn't been able to answer me or indeed | :43:22. | :43:26. | |
many others. Can I put him a question I was sent... CHEERING | :43:27. | :43:36. | |
Mr Speaker, it might be very amusing to members said, but... | :43:37. | :43:52. | |
I was sent this question by Karen: Why is the Prime Minister punishing | :43:53. | :43:57. | |
working families? I work full time and earn their living wage within | :43:58. | :44:01. | |
the public sector. The tax credit cuts will push me | :44:02. | :44:04. | |
the public sector. The tax credit hardship. Can he give a cast-iron | :44:05. | :44:10. | |
guarantee to Karen and all the other families who are very worried what | :44:11. | :44:14. | |
guarantee to Karen and all the other is going to happen next April to | :44:15. | :44:15. | |
therein come, is going to happen next April to | :44:16. | :44:19. | |
make ends meet, could give them the answer today, I hope you will. I ask | :44:20. | :44:24. | |
him, for the sixth time, please give us an answer to a very | :44:25. | :44:26. | |
straightforward, very simple question. | :44:27. | :44:31. | |
What I would say to Karen is this, if she is on the living wage, | :44:32. | :44:35. | |
working in the public sector, next year in April she will benefit from | :44:36. | :44:40. | |
being able to earn ?11,000 before she pays any income tax at all. It | :44:41. | :44:46. | |
was around ?6,000 when I became Prime Minister forced up if she has | :44:47. | :44:50. | |
children, she will benefit from 30 hours of childcare every week. That | :44:51. | :44:55. | |
is something that has happened under this government. But above all, she | :44:56. | :44:58. | |
will benefit because we have a growing economy, because we have | :44:59. | :45:02. | |
zero inflation, because we have two million more people in work, because | :45:03. | :45:07. | |
we will train 3 million apprentices in this Parliament, and that is the | :45:08. | :45:11. | |
fact. The reason the Labour Party lost the last election is they were | :45:12. | :45:16. | |
completely un-trusted on the deficit, on debt and on a stable | :45:17. | :45:22. | |
economy. And since then the deficit deniers have taken over the Labour | :45:23. | :45:25. | |
Party. That is what happened. When you look at their plans, borrowing | :45:26. | :45:30. | |
for ever, printing money, hiking up taxes, it is working people like | :45:31. | :45:32. | |
Karen that will pay the price. taxes, it is working people like | :45:33. | :45:45. | |
2010. And this taxes, it is working people like | :45:46. | :45:47. | |
delivered the M6 taxes, it is working people like | :45:48. | :45:55. | |
in my area when it's completed. Does the Prime Minister agree with me | :45:56. | :45:58. | |
that the Conservatives are insuring Morecambe is back open for | :45:59. | :46:04. | |
business? I remember visiting his constituency and looking at the very | :46:05. | :46:07. | |
important roadworks that were being put in place which will up the port, | :46:08. | :46:10. | |
help when we bring in nuclear power station and the other | :46:11. | :46:16. | |
steps he wants to see, I can tell him the long-term youth claimant | :46:17. | :46:19. | |
count in him the long-term youth claimant | :46:20. | :46:22. | |
by 30% in the last year, him the long-term youth claimant | :46:23. | :46:28. | |
from our growing economy. Angus Robertson. We associate ourselves | :46:29. | :46:35. | |
with the condolences expressed by the and the Leader of the Opposition | :46:36. | :46:36. | |
about Michael. Last week I asked Prime Minister Erdogan tragic | :46:37. | :46:44. | |
circumstances of Mike O'Sullivan, from north London, a disabled man | :46:45. | :46:45. | |
who took from north London, a disabled man | :46:46. | :46:49. | |
assessment by the Department for Work and Pensions. We know 60 | :46:50. | :46:52. | |
investigations had taken place into suicide | :46:53. | :46:56. | |
investigations had taken place into of benefits, but the | :46:57. | :47:00. | |
investigations had taken place into not been published. The Prime | :47:01. | :47:00. | |
Minister said to me last not been published. The Prime | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
he would look very carefully at the specific question about publication. | :47:05. | :47:08. | |
Will he confirm when these findings will be published? I will write to | :47:09. | :47:13. | |
him about this but my memory from looking into this afterward is there | :47:14. | :47:18. | |
are very good reasons why we can't publish the specific report he talks | :47:19. | :47:23. | |
about because it has personal and medical data in it which would not | :47:24. | :47:27. | |
be appropriate for publication. If I got that wrong, I will write to him | :47:28. | :47:31. | |
but that's my clear memory of looking into his question after last | :47:32. | :47:36. | |
week. Tim Salter from Stourbridge in the West Midlands was 53 when he | :47:37. | :47:41. | |
took his life. The coroner ruled a major factor in his death was | :47:42. | :47:49. | |
greatly reduced living almost destitute. His sister said if of | :47:50. | :47:52. | |
honourable people who will be affected the worst. The DWP need to | :47:53. | :47:56. | |
publish these reviews. The Prime Minister says he is concerned about | :47:57. | :48:02. | |
the views of the families involved. The families say the findings should | :48:03. | :48:06. | |
be published. Really publish them? 3 million families will have their | :48:07. | :48:11. | |
child tax credit is cancelled. We knew the answer to these questions. | :48:12. | :48:18. | |
Let me correct on its last point. Under the proposals we put forward, | :48:19. | :48:22. | |
those people on the lowest levels of pay where protected because of a | :48:23. | :48:25. | |
national living wage and those people on the lowest incomes where | :48:26. | :48:29. | |
protected because we were protecting the basic award of a child tax | :48:30. | :48:37. | |
credit in 2007 and ?80. The other part of the question is a bit I've | :48:38. | :48:41. | |
already answered but I'll send them a letter if I got it wrong, they | :48:42. | :48:45. | |
were too many personal and medical details for that to be published. I | :48:46. | :48:49. | |
think they is an important consideration that in deciding | :48:50. | :48:56. | |
whether to publish something. I'd like to ask the Prime Minister about | :48:57. | :49:03. | |
Ruby, one of my youngest constituents, just one-month-old. | :49:04. | :49:06. | |
Why should she faced the prospect of spending their entire working life | :49:07. | :49:11. | |
paying off the debt would have been built up by this generation? I think | :49:12. | :49:19. | |
Ruby is right, when we became the Government, one in ?4 spent by the | :49:20. | :49:23. | |
Government was borrowed money. We had one of the biggest budget | :49:24. | :49:25. | |
deficit anywhere in the world and it's always easy for people to say | :49:26. | :49:31. | |
put off the difficult decisions, don't make any spending reductions, | :49:32. | :49:36. | |
but what they are doing is burdening future generations with debt. What I | :49:37. | :49:41. | |
would say to the Labour front bench, that is not generosity, that is | :49:42. | :49:56. | |
actually selfishness. I think the lady must have misheard but Mrs | :49:57. | :50:02. | |
Sharon Hodgson. We know about the broken promise about tax credits but | :50:03. | :50:07. | |
for the final nail in the coffin of compassionate Conservative there's | :50:08. | :50:10. | |
be hammered home everywhere to scrap universal infant free school meals | :50:11. | :50:14. | |
in the spending review, taking hot meals out of the mouths of innocent | :50:15. | :50:20. | |
name with infant children? Will he guarantee now not to scrap universal | :50:21. | :50:25. | |
infant pre-school meals slowly does not go down in history as David the | :50:26. | :50:35. | |
Denis Thatcher? I'm immensely proud it was part of the Government would | :50:36. | :50:40. | |
introduce this policy 13 years of a Labour Government and did they ever | :50:41. | :50:44. | |
do that? -- dinner snatcher. Do you remember the infant free school | :50:45. | :50:50. | |
meals, Labour Party? I'm proud of what we have done and we will be | :50:51. | :50:52. | |
keeping it. CHEERING | :50:53. | :51:03. | |
Thank you. Mr Speaker, my right honourable friend has demonstrated | :51:04. | :51:06. | |
considerable leadership in ensuring Britain is the second-largest donor | :51:07. | :51:11. | |
of aid in Syria. There is another crisis going on which the world is | :51:12. | :51:16. | |
largely forgetting. In Yemen is an ongoing war, 1.4 million people | :51:17. | :51:20. | |
forced to flee their homes, 3 million face starvation, half a | :51:21. | :51:24. | |
million children are at risk from malnutrition and the president of | :51:25. | :51:28. | |
the International Red Cross has said in Yemen, after five months, we're | :51:29. | :51:32. | |
in the same position as we are in Syria after five years. Please can | :51:33. | :51:38. | |
we do more? He's absolutely right to raise this and we have been involved | :51:39. | :51:41. | |
in trying to help the situation right from the start, as in Syria, a | :51:42. | :51:47. | |
major contributor in terms of humanitarian aid. We've made it | :51:48. | :51:50. | |
clear all parties should engage without conditions and in good faith | :51:51. | :51:55. | |
in peace talks to allow Yemen to move towards a sustainable peace and | :51:56. | :51:58. | |
that needs to be a piece based on the fact that all people in Yemen | :51:59. | :52:03. | |
needs proper representation by their Government. There are similarities | :52:04. | :52:06. | |
with Syria, which is having a Government on behalf of one part of | :52:07. | :52:09. | |
the country, never a sustainable solution. How dare anyone in this | :52:10. | :52:19. | |
House earning ?74,000 a year tell families their combined income of | :52:20. | :52:24. | |
?25,000 is too much and they need to give something back to balance the | :52:25. | :52:29. | |
economy? Did the Prime Minister accused the listener 's manifesto | :52:30. | :52:31. | |
because he knew he wouldn't be elected? -- refused to put this in | :52:32. | :52:39. | |
his manifesto. When I became Prime Minister, nine out of ten families | :52:40. | :52:43. | |
were getting tax credits, including MPs. That's how crazy the system we | :52:44. | :52:49. | |
inherited was. We would use that during the last Parliament, opposed | :52:50. | :52:55. | |
of course by Labour and the SNP, 26 out of ten families. Our proposals | :52:56. | :52:59. | |
would take that down to five out of ten families but these are not | :53:00. | :53:02. | |
proposals on their own but accompanied by a national living | :53:03. | :53:07. | |
wage, for first time. By allowing people to air and ?11,000 before | :53:08. | :53:11. | |
paying tax, for the first time, those sorts of measures will help | :53:12. | :53:14. | |
the thought of family she talks about. The Prime Minister spoke | :53:15. | :53:25. | |
about conference about the plight of young people in the care system. Can | :53:26. | :53:31. | |
he answer what the garment will do to improve the chances of these | :53:32. | :53:34. | |
young disadvantaged children and give them opportunities as they move | :53:35. | :53:40. | |
forward in their lives? The most important thing we can do is to | :53:41. | :53:45. | |
speed up the adoption system so more children get adopted. What we have | :53:46. | :53:49. | |
seen since I've been Prime Minister is an increase in adoptions but, | :53:50. | :53:54. | |
because of one or two judgments, it slipped backwards a bit and need to | :53:55. | :53:58. | |
work very hard to make sure more children get adopted. For those who | :53:59. | :54:01. | |
can't be adopted, we need to make sure our residential care homes are | :54:02. | :54:04. | |
doing the best possible job they can and that's why today I can announce | :54:05. | :54:08. | |
I've asked the former chief executive of Barnardos, an excellent | :54:09. | :54:13. | |
public servant, who I worked with at the Home Office, to conduct an | :54:14. | :54:17. | |
independent review of children's residential care reporting to the | :54:18. | :54:20. | |
Education Secretary at myself so we can take every step to give these | :54:21. | :54:27. | |
children the best start in life. Redundant steelworkers such as those | :54:28. | :54:34. | |
in Wrexham pay national insurance contributions and played by the | :54:35. | :54:39. | |
rules. Why then is this Government limiting mortgage interest support | :54:40. | :54:44. | |
for them in the future and making them pay twice, once through | :54:45. | :54:50. | |
national insurance and once through paying back a loan? Isn't that type | :54:51. | :54:56. | |
of action and irresponsible Government like his should not be | :54:57. | :55:00. | |
pursuing and isn't it an example of compassionate conservatism dying? He | :55:01. | :55:10. | |
refers to a temporary recession measure on mortgage payments which | :55:11. | :55:13. | |
was continued for five years but he does give me the opportunity to say, | :55:14. | :55:17. | |
as I promised I would last night, to update the House on what we're doing | :55:18. | :55:22. | |
to help the steel industry which is important to his constituency and, | :55:23. | :55:27. | |
on energy costs, we will refund the energy intensive industries for the | :55:28. | :55:31. | |
full amount of the policy costs they face as soon as we get the state | :55:32. | :55:36. | |
aided judgment from Brussels. I can confirm that payment will be made | :55:37. | :55:41. | |
immediately and throughout this Parliament, far more generous than | :55:42. | :55:44. | |
what has been proposed by the party opposite. Graham Evans. I have had | :55:45. | :55:55. | |
hundreds of e-mails from constituents regarding the Northern | :55:56. | :55:57. | |
Powerhouse and I have just chose one. John e-mailed me to say, not to | :55:58. | :56:04. | |
listen to lead of the opposition with his strategy of higher | :56:05. | :56:06. | |
spending, higher borrowing, debt, but instead to stick to the | :56:07. | :56:12. | |
long-term debt, but instead to stick to the | :56:13. | :56:19. | |
that does the Prime Minister agree debt, but instead to stick to the | :56:20. | :56:27. | |
with John? I do agree. He has demonstrated more sense in his | :56:28. | :56:31. | |
Melbourne leader the opposition did in his six questions. Not only have | :56:32. | :56:36. | |
we seen an economy growing, 2 million more people in work, | :56:37. | :56:40. | |
inflation that is low, living standards are rising, but actually, | :56:41. | :56:48. | |
680,000 fewer work less household and 480,000 fewer children in | :56:49. | :56:51. | |
workless households. If you want to measure the real difference is the | :56:52. | :56:55. | |
growth in the economy is making, think of those children and | :56:56. | :57:01. | |
households and the dignity of work. Last weekend was the first | :57:02. | :57:06. | |
anniversary of the death from cervical cancer of the girl aged 23. | :57:07. | :57:14. | |
In June 2013, she was concerned to ask for an early smear test was | :57:15. | :57:21. | |
refused because she was under 25. As has been highlighted, her family | :57:22. | :57:24. | |
have now written an open letter to the Prime Minister. Can I ask him | :57:25. | :57:30. | |
not to offer here a reflex repeat of the rationale for current screening | :57:31. | :57:35. | |
age policy, but to reflect on the questions raised about how this | :57:36. | :57:38. | |
translates into refusing smear tests to young women like this and to | :57:39. | :57:45. | |
consider the age related level since it was increased in 2004? He raises | :57:46. | :57:50. | |
an absolutely tragic case and our thoughts go to her family and | :57:51. | :57:54. | |
friends. He raises an important case because the UK National screening | :57:55. | :57:58. | |
committee set the age of 25 and my understanding is the reason for that | :57:59. | :58:01. | |
is not a resource is based decision, but because of the potential adverse | :58:02. | :58:07. | |
medical consequences of carrying out screening routinely below that age | :58:08. | :58:11. | |
that there would be a number potentially false positives because | :58:12. | :58:13. | |
of actually anatomical changes were to go on at that age full that | :58:14. | :58:17. | |
of actually anatomical changes were reason, not of resources decision. | :58:18. | :58:20. | |
It who fear they have a family history | :58:21. | :58:24. | |
and ask for a him on that specific issue. | :58:25. | :58:35. | |
Yesterday the EU said we can no longer have filters on the Internet | :58:36. | :58:39. | |
to protect our children from indecent images. I want to know what | :58:40. | :58:43. | |
the Prime Minister is going to do to make sure our children remain | :58:44. | :58:50. | |
protected. I think it's absolutely vitally important we enable parents | :58:51. | :58:55. | |
to have that protection for their children from this | :58:56. | :58:57. | |
to have that protection for their Internet. Like her, when I read my | :58:58. | :59:01. | |
daily main was morning, I spotted over | :59:02. | :59:02. | |
daily main was morning, I spotted so hard to put in place these | :59:03. | :59:09. | |
filters but I can reassure her because we actually secured an opt | :59:10. | :59:13. | |
out yesterday so we can keep our family friendly filters to protect | :59:14. | :59:18. | |
children and I can tell our House we will legislate to put our agreement | :59:19. | :59:21. | |
with Internet companies on this issue into the law of the land so | :59:22. | :59:29. | |
our children will be protected. Tim Farron. Mr Speaker, can I associate | :59:30. | :59:32. | |
myself with the Prime Minister 's early remarks about the late Michael | :59:33. | :59:38. | |
Meacher, a decent man, a good MP, and an extremely effective | :59:39. | :59:41. | |
Environment Secretary. Yesterday I visited the refugee camps on Lesbos | :59:42. | :59:46. | |
and there I met families that were inspirational, and desperate run | :59:47. | :59:51. | |
alongside at a charity workers I found there. I am ashamed we will | :59:52. | :59:56. | |
not offer at home to a single one of those averaging families. My ask the | :59:57. | :59:59. | |
Prime Minister this question? Will not offer at home to a single one of | :00:00. | :00:02. | |
those averaging families. My ask the Prime Minister this question? With | :00:03. | :00:04. | |
the aggrieved with the save the children plea that we take as a | :00:05. | :00:06. | |
country 3000 vulnerable and accompanied children some as young | :00:07. | :00:12. | |
as six? Let me again welcome him to his place for them it's good to see | :00:13. | :00:15. | |
such a high turnout of his MPs. LAUGHTER | :00:16. | :00:23. | |
. Let me answer him directly. We have taken a decision as a country | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
to take 20,000 refugees and we think it is better to take them from the | :00:29. | :00:32. | |
camps instead of taking them from inside Europe. I repeat again today | :00:33. | :00:38. | |
that we believe we will achieve 1000 refugees brought to Britain and | :00:39. | :00:44. | |
housed and clothes and fed before Christmas, specifically on his | :00:45. | :00:47. | |
question, though, about 3000 children and the proposal made by | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
save the children, I have looked at this very carefully and there are | :00:52. | :00:55. | |
other experts to point to the real danger of separating children from | :00:56. | :00:58. | |
their broader families and that's why to date we have not taken that | :00:59. | :01:10. | |
decision. As he begins his negotiations on our reformed | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
relationship with the European Union, in earnest, will my right | :01:15. | :01:18. | |
honourable friend confirmed to our partners and the British people that | :01:19. | :01:24. | |
no option is off the table, all British options will be considered, | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
including the option of a relationship such as that of Norway | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
if it's negotiable and within our interests? I can certainly confirm | :01:34. | :01:38. | |
to my honourable friend that no options are off the table and, as I | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
have been clear, if we don't get what we need in our green | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
negotiation, I will absolutely rule nothing out but important, as we | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
have this debate as a nation, we are very clear about the facts and | :01:52. | :01:54. | |
figures and the alternatives, because some people are arguing for | :01:55. | :01:59. | |
Britain to leave the EU, not all people, and have pointed to the | :02:00. | :02:03. | |
position of Norway saying it's a good outcome. I would guide very | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
strongly against that, Norway actually pays as much per head to | :02:08. | :02:13. | |
the EU as we do and take twice as many per head migrants as we do in | :02:14. | :02:18. | |
this country, but they have no seat at the table, no ability to | :02:19. | :02:22. | |
negotiate. I'm not arguing all those who want to leave the EU say they | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
want to follow the Norwegian pass, but some do, and I think it's | :02:27. | :02:30. | |
important in this debate we are absolutely clear about the | :02:31. | :02:32. | |
consequences of these different actions. Willa Prime Minister | :02:33. | :02:42. | |
congratulate my 17-year-old constituent on her 3800 named in | :02:43. | :02:48. | |
addition to get the exam board for the first time to accept women | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
composers on the syllabus. Will he tell us is he a feminist? If | :02:54. | :02:59. | |
feminism means that we should treat people equally, then, yes, | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
absolutely. And I'm proud of the fact I have got sitting around the | :03:05. | :03:09. | |
Cabinet table, a third of women on something we promised and something | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
we delivered. Can I congratulate her, above all, for her achievement | :03:15. | :03:23. | |
in terms of this eve petition. It sounds thoroughly worthwhile and her | :03:24. | :03:25. | |
constituent and have done a good job. Andrew Turner. The NHS England | :03:26. | :03:39. | |
knows that the Isle of Wight's clinical commissioning group is a | :03:40. | :03:44. | |
significant outlier in relation to its allocation targets. Can my right | :03:45. | :03:48. | |
honourable friend confirm that progress is being made to identify | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
the factors affecting the island? Really benefit from amendments to | :03:55. | :04:03. | |
the new CCG formula? What I can say to my honourable friend is its right | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
that assistance on allocations are made independent of Government and | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
not by Government and so that is how the formula is reached. I can also | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
tell him is an independent review of the funding formula underway and we | :04:17. | :04:18. | |
expect to see its recommendations later this year but these things | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
should be done in a fair and transparent way. The Prime Minister | :04:23. | :04:28. | |
will remember meeting my constituents, Neal Shepherd and | :04:29. | :04:34. | |
Sharon Wood, nine years ago this week. Neil took their children on | :04:35. | :04:41. | |
holiday to Corfu and the children tragically died of carbon monoxide | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
poisoning. The family's dearest wish is no other family suffers this | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
heartbreaking tragedy they have endured. Tomorrow in the EU | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
Parliament there will be a vote on a recommendation that the commissioner | :04:55. | :04:58. | |
brings forward legislation to improve carbon monoxide safety and | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
fire safety for tourism premises in the EU. Can I ask the Prime Minister | :05:03. | :05:08. | |
that is MPs supported and if that motion falls, will he instigate | :05:09. | :05:11. | |
legislation nationally in this country? First of all, I do remember | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
the meeting we had and the great bravery of the parents after their | :05:18. | :05:21. | |
terrible loss. Wanting to go on and campaign to make sure others did not | :05:22. | :05:25. | |
use children in the way they had. I will look carefully at what you said | :05:26. | :05:29. | |
about the European Parliament as for legislation in this country, we have | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
strict regulation on particular things about fire resistant | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
materials but I will look carefully at that too. Question 14, closed | :05:38. | :05:47. | |
questions. Prime Minister,... We said at a long-term plan for the | :05:48. | :05:49. | |
Midlands making its future engine for growth for the whole of the UK | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
and across Government we are working with business leaders and local | :05:55. | :05:56. | |
authorities to progress this ambition. I thank him for his | :05:57. | :06:03. | |
answer. The Northern Powerhouse will help millions but it's the West | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
Midlands which is the only region in the UK which has a trade balance | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
surplus with China and its Greater Birmingham which is the fastest rate | :06:14. | :06:19. | |
of private-sector job creation in the UK since 2010. So will the Prime | :06:20. | :06:25. | |
Minister now ensure, in the national interest, but the West Midlands | :06:26. | :06:28. | |
secures the best devolution deal possible? I think we have huge | :06:29. | :06:34. | |
potential here to secure massive devolution to the West Midlands | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
first ball I would say to everyone concerned they will be left out by | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
the Northern Powerhouse, I think the West Midlands is in a perfect place | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
to benefit both from the success and growth of London and of course a | :06:47. | :06:49. | |
rebalancing of our economy towards the North of England. In terms of | :06:50. | :06:52. | |
the West Midlands, we look forward to the West Midlands combined | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
authority coming forward with its plans and what I would say to these | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
areas contemplating devolution and devolution deals, the more you can | :07:03. | :07:05. | |
put on the table, the builder you can be with your vision, the bolder | :07:06. | :07:10. | |
response you would get Government. Can I tell a the Chancellor the | :07:11. | :07:16. | |
strong support of the parties, businesses across the West Midlands, | :07:17. | :07:20. | |
for a properly funded and significant devolution deal to | :07:21. | :07:24. | |
strengthen the economy, boost productivity and get the brown site | :07:25. | :07:28. | |
redeveloped to tackle congestion so we can transform the West Midlands | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
with more jobs, better skills, quick transport links and new homes? I'm | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
glad to hear from the honourable gentleman what an opportunity there | :07:38. | :07:40. | |
is in the West Midlands to work across party to get the very best | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
deal across all these authorities because, as I said, the more we can | :07:45. | :07:47. | |
get the local authorities to come together and work together, and put | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
their ambition and vision on the table, the better response they will | :07:53. | :07:55. | |
get from the Government. Simon Burns. | :07:56. | :08:03. | |
Does my right honourable friend agree with me that bullying in the | :08:04. | :08:10. | |
workplace is reprehensible? Can he tell me whether the Government is | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
planning any review of the legislation with a view to extending | :08:16. | :08:23. | |
it to this chamber? Given that my right honourable friend has been | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
called for a primaries as questions at 12:38pm, I would have thought any | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
hint of bullying was clearly overemphasise in every conceivable | :08:33. | :08:35. | |
way. He suffers no disadvantage and that's a good thing but bullying in | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
the workplace is a problem and we do need to make sure it is stamped out | :08:41. | :08:43. | |
and dealt with and that should apply in Parliament as elsewhere. Urgent | :08:44. | :08:47. | |
question. It started late today, PMQ 's. It | :08:48. | :09:06. | |
lasted almost 38 minutes, 37 minutes. Jeremy Corbyn today with | :09:07. | :09:16. | |
his strongest performance yet. Many thought it was his best outings so | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
far. He got away from crowd sourcing his questions until the last one. | :09:22. | :09:28. | |
The other five were on tax credits and particular on the issues, will | :09:29. | :09:29. | |
anybody lose out and particular on the issues, will | :09:30. | :09:36. | |
changes. That is the question he asked the Prime Minister again and | :09:37. | :09:38. | |
again. Quite clear the Prime | :09:39. | :09:48. | |
only ask generally, not specifically about | :09:49. | :09:55. | |
only ask generally, not specifically have ruled they are not | :09:56. | :09:56. | |
only ask generally, not specifically welfare and then | :09:57. | :09:59. | |
only ask generally, not specifically to commit suicide. Then we saw Tim | :10:00. | :10:07. | |
Farron asking questions about migrants after his trip to one of | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
the Greek islands. We will find out what our panel thought in a minute, | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
but firstly, what did you think? One viewer said however passionate | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
Jeremy Corbyn may feel about tax credits, does it show a singular | :10:22. | :10:24. | |
lack of imagination to credits, does it show a singular | :10:25. | :10:27. | |
question six times? Another says Jeremy Corbyn saying he was using | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
the same effective tactic Michael Howard did, making the Prime | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
the same effective tactic Michael Minister looking dodgy when he | :10:37. | :10:37. | |
avoids answering a straightforward and simple question especially when | :10:38. | :10:44. | |
ceremony are affected. Another said he is very good at ranting and | :10:45. | :10:50. | |
propaganda but unable to answer a civil question on tax credits. | :10:51. | :10:52. | |
Another says, politically this is the most important and exciting time | :10:53. | :10:59. | |
in a generation. Didn't feel that reflected. The EU, the House of | :11:00. | :11:05. | |
Lords and tax reform. As for tax credits, I hope some day would make | :11:06. | :11:07. | |
the argument it credits, I hope some day would make | :11:08. | :11:10. | |
behaviour rather than play the system. | :11:11. | :11:15. | |
behaviour rather than play the Thank you. We have got in the last | :11:16. | :11:19. | |
Wednesday of November not just the Autumn Statement but the | :11:20. | :11:19. | |
comprehensive spending Autumn Statement but the | :11:20. | :11:23. | |
lays out the plans of government spending over the next three | :11:24. | :11:28. | |
financial years to stop there must be great danger for George Osborne | :11:29. | :11:32. | |
now that this substantial statement, as important as the budget in many | :11:33. | :11:35. | |
ways, will be hijacked for his need to change tax credits? He will do | :11:36. | :11:40. | |
everything possible to make sure it's not, but clearly | :11:41. | :11:43. | |
everything possible to make sure be the dominant theme running up | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
until that moment. The problem may have is there is now a gap for | :11:48. | :11:50. | |
Labour to say what they are going to say, which we saw from the Leader of | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
the Opposition this morning. Clearly learning as he does all these Prime | :11:56. | :12:01. | |
Minister's Questions, asking the same question six times, sticking | :12:02. | :12:07. | |
with one issue, allowing himself a little bit of freedom to make his | :12:08. | :12:10. | |
own point. What I thought was interesting from the Prime Minister | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
is he is trying to develop a bit of a defence, which is not just wrap it | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
in the headlights, that saying, if these are choices, if you don't make | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
these cuts to welfare, if you stick to the spending plans as is, you | :12:25. | :12:27. | |
have to find the money from elsewhere, health, education and so | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
on. That is something the Tories and government want to develop as much | :12:33. | :12:36. | |
as they can, so they can say it is a choice. This is not just a free hit, | :12:37. | :12:41. | |
do you want to hurt working people not question that there are broader | :12:42. | :12:46. | |
implications. Is the chance left only with the option to tweak, take | :12:47. | :12:53. | |
away some of the rough edges? Or does he have time to do something | :12:54. | :12:55. | |
more radical restaurant there has been a lot of talk from the Adam | :12:56. | :13:02. | |
Smith Institute, to the Institute of economic affairs, about moving to a | :13:03. | :13:13. | |
negative income tax? That it would be simpler, fairer and concentrate | :13:14. | :13:17. | |
the money on the working poor. Is it too late for a fundamental change | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
like that? I would be surprised if it went down that route. People I | :13:22. | :13:24. | |
speak to, they are pretty sure they are know what they are going to do | :13:25. | :13:29. | |
but not telling us yet. I think there is enough flexibility already | :13:30. | :13:33. | |
built in the system to reduce the surplus target, extend the surplus | :13:34. | :13:37. | |
target, come up with another form of mitigation elsewhere, in terms of | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
May be looking at the National, the mixed thresholds. That is expensive | :13:44. | :13:50. | |
for the yes, very offensive, none of these things are cheap. That is the | :13:51. | :13:54. | |
point they will make. What I find interesting is, the point you | :13:55. | :13:58. | |
make... We're not just talking about tax credits, we're talking about an | :13:59. | :14:01. | |
extraordinary spending review that is coming up. I'm curious to see how | :14:02. | :14:06. | |
the government goes into that, making the broader argument for | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
saying look, they've done five years of low hanging fruit. The spending | :14:11. | :14:13. | |
cuts that are coming now are going to be tough, they are going to bite. | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
How do they get into that argument, making that defence of Saint from | :14:19. | :14:21. | |
the conservative viewpoint you have to make those cuts to secure the | :14:22. | :14:25. | |
economic future? At the moment there is still a certain amount of | :14:26. | :14:28. | |
uncertainty about whether to go for that argument in a full throated way | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
or if you should make an argument then the cuts are not as bad because | :14:34. | :14:36. | |
we will compensate for this, that and so on? The Prime Minister was | :14:37. | :14:43. | |
asked six times if anybody would lose out from the tax credit | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
changes. Six times he didn't answer that specific question. Why not? | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
I think it comes back to the conversation we had prior to | :14:53. | :14:58. | |
questions itself, which it is not a simple and straightforward | :14:59. | :15:00. | |
situation. You have to look at the wider picture, there are choices to | :15:01. | :15:04. | |
be made and it is how we change that. It is not straightforward | :15:05. | :15:09. | |
situation. We have to deal with that conjugated, difficult situation of | :15:10. | :15:12. | |
changing the economy. And looking how we look at welfare. That gets us | :15:13. | :15:20. | |
into a much stronger economic position in the medium term and long | :15:21. | :15:24. | |
term. The e-mail that was read out about the hey Rob will -- | :15:25. | :15:30. | |
behavioural change, is there something in that? If you look at | :15:31. | :15:33. | |
those figures where people would lose out, if they worked... Quite | :15:34. | :15:39. | |
often affects part-time workers. If they worked a couple of extra ours | :15:40. | :15:49. | |
on the new wage, that would compensate for the withdrawal of tax | :15:50. | :15:54. | |
credits. Is there something in that? The problem is it depends on your | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
individual circumstances. If you are a single earner on 15,000, if you | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
get a few extra hours, for every extra ?1 you earn you are losing | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
about 70p in your tax credits, so actually it doesn't... It is not | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
compensating for the hit. You are still losing out. If you are a | :16:13. | :16:17. | |
parent you would get more hours of free childcare. These are the | :16:18. | :16:21. | |
arguments put forward. That is a fair point, but my understanding | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
from the analysis is only 10% of tax credit recipients will benefit from | :16:27. | :16:29. | |
this expansion in childcare. The problem is, a bit like the question | :16:30. | :16:33. | |
you put to be very reasonably... George Osborne now has a problem. In | :16:34. | :16:37. | |
law, because of his fiscal charter, he has to hit a surplus in 2019. He | :16:38. | :16:43. | |
also has to find about seven - ten billions worth of tax cuts which the | :16:44. | :16:46. | |
Tories promised that the last election, which has not been scored | :16:47. | :16:51. | |
into the budget, the recent Redbook and he has to make a decision, is he | :16:52. | :16:55. | |
gone compensate everybody who is losing out? That is a loss of 4.5 | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
billion, or is he going to phase it in? I don't think he does know what | :17:01. | :17:04. | |
he is going to do. I don't think he can give a guarantee there will be | :17:05. | :17:08. | |
the losers. Whatever, people will lose out, I think. The truth is a | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
Prime Minister didn't answer the question because people are going to | :17:14. | :17:19. | |
decide? -- going to lose out, we're not sure how many, but there will be | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
losers. It seems to me that Chancellor is paying a longer game. | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
He knows there will be losers, they have done the sums, but because he | :17:29. | :17:31. | |
hopes of what will be favourable changes, with people working more, | :17:32. | :17:36. | |
doing more hours, they will get the national living wage, they will come | :17:37. | :17:40. | |
off an element of tax credits, that by 2020 it will be all over and we | :17:41. | :17:44. | |
won't be arguing about this by then, even though there were short-term | :17:45. | :17:47. | |
losers. That is clearly his strategy. Some people in the | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
government think they have the short-term tactics wrong, the timing | :17:52. | :17:54. | |
is wrong within that five-year period. What has happened is some of | :17:55. | :18:00. | |
the cuts are front-loaded and some of the compensatory elements come | :18:01. | :18:04. | |
into far down the line. It is very hard to argue when someone's tax | :18:05. | :18:07. | |
credits are going to be removed next April, to say there will be a ripple | :18:08. | :18:11. | |
effect. It is a very hard argument to make. I think that is where I | :18:12. | :18:15. | |
think people say the government should change the timing, but stick | :18:16. | :18:20. | |
to the argument. That is where the nerves are coming in? Yes. Thank | :18:21. | :18:21. | |
you, James. What should you do if you make a | :18:22. | :18:30. | |
mistake was mugged on up, move on and try not to do it again. That has | :18:31. | :18:33. | |
or has been mine and Andrew's approach. Although we never make | :18:34. | :18:45. | |
mistakes? That means they are not learning from their mistakes. Here | :18:46. | :18:46. | |
is the soapbox. The Comet was | :18:47. | :18:56. | |
the world's first jet airliner. But British pride soon turned to | :18:57. | :19:07. | |
horror when two De Haviland jets An extensive investigation showed | :19:08. | :19:10. | |
that the accident was a result of metal fatigue caused by the repeated | :19:11. | :19:16. | |
pressurisation of the cabin. This information was shared with | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
De Haviland's rivals Boeing In aviation, | :19:22. | :19:23. | |
lessons are learned all the time. Each aircraft is equipped with two | :19:24. | :19:33. | |
indestructible black boxes If there is an accident, | :19:34. | :19:35. | |
the boxes are excavated, the data analysed, and the system, | :19:36. | :19:41. | |
crucially, is adapted. And that means the same | :19:42. | :19:46. | |
mistakes don't happen again. Last year, the accident rate | :19:47. | :19:49. | |
for major airlines was one crash But compare this with healthcare, | :19:50. | :19:55. | |
where clinicians often spin and conceal mistakes because | :19:56. | :20:14. | |
of the fear of litigation And that's why preventable medical | :20:15. | :20:17. | |
error is one Failure is inevitable | :20:18. | :20:45. | |
in a complex world. Politicians, businessmen, | :20:46. | :20:48. | |
even scientists are going to get things wrong, but what are we going | :20:49. | :20:51. | |
to do with these mistakes? Do we spin them, do we shun them or | :20:52. | :20:55. | |
do we harness them After all, if we don't know where | :20:56. | :20:58. | |
we're going wrong, Is it really can parable, machines | :20:59. | :21:28. | |
and people, when you use your planes analogy with health care? | :21:29. | :21:30. | |
and people, when you use your planes I think is universal, you learning | :21:31. | :21:32. | |
from mistakes, fundamental I think is universal, you learning | :21:33. | :21:36. | |
beings learn and institutions learn. A good metaphor is marginal days, | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
which is how we credit so much success in our Olympians, winning by | :21:41. | :21:47. | |
crate into its component parts, and improving on various components 1%. | :21:48. | :21:50. | |
crate into its component parts, and Aerodynamics, the design of | :21:51. | :21:53. | |
crate into its component parts, and bike. Using antibacterial hand | :21:54. | :21:53. | |
gels, things sound small but Achaemenid | :21:54. | :22:00. | |
affect and equipment of continual improvement which can only happen if | :22:01. | :22:02. | |
you look improvement which can only happen if | :22:03. | :22:05. | |
assumptions rather than trying to defend yourself, that can be | :22:06. | :22:09. | |
revolutionary. I'd love to see it in hospitals, schools, and in politics. | :22:10. | :22:15. | |
revolutionary. I'd love to see it in Everyone has to agree what the | :22:16. | :22:17. | |
mistake is and whether it was a mistake. Isn't that the problem in | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
politics? And hospitals, because doctors try to spin the mistakes, | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
and say, instead of we have confessed to killing somebody | :22:27. | :22:27. | |
because our procedure was wrong, they blame it on the unusual | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
symptoms of the patient, complications. You don't think those | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
are valid sometimes, those arguments? No, because the | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
information is pushed a deep underground. One hospital in Seattle | :22:42. | :22:47. | |
adopted the marginal gains approach and are open and honest about their | :22:48. | :22:49. | |
mistakes. Somebody came in and are open and honest about their | :22:50. | :22:53. | |
not resuscitate wristband because the nurse was colour-blind, so they | :22:54. | :22:59. | |
added text to the wristband and change the ergonomics of the | :23:00. | :23:03. | |
equipment. The system adapted and there was a 74% reduction in | :23:04. | :23:07. | |
insurance liability premiums. there was a 74% reduction in | :23:08. | :23:10. | |
is a method which requires intellectual honesty and a | :23:11. | :23:17. | |
is a method which requires Those are quite clear examples in | :23:18. | :23:19. | |
aviation and health care but if we look at the umbrella over the top | :23:20. | :23:23. | |
which is politics, the political system we exist and are at the | :23:24. | :23:27. | |
moment, there will always be a difference of opinion as to what is | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
a mistake and what is an alternative way of doing things. So let's change | :23:33. | :23:38. | |
the idea of a mistake to a suboptimal outcome, all political | :23:39. | :23:40. | |
outcomes are sub optimal unless we have a confession which we don't. | :23:41. | :23:44. | |
International developer and, often decisions are made on how to help | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
the poorest in the world on the basis of narrative, glossy | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
magazines, great websites. So there was a scheme to improve education in | :23:54. | :23:59. | |
rural Kenya and they sent a lot of English-language textbooks which | :24:00. | :24:01. | |
sounded great, the material looked wonderful but a group of economists | :24:02. | :24:07. | |
went in and tested it and found the kids didn't speak in dish well | :24:08. | :24:10. | |
enough, so they tried something else. That outcome is an opportunity | :24:11. | :24:15. | |
to reimagine how you can improve those outcomes so they tried | :24:16. | :24:22. | |
deworming medication and the results were stellar. It improved | :24:23. | :24:28. | |
everything. Unless you become some after we can't improve. When have | :24:29. | :24:33. | |
politicians not learned from their mistakes? I wonder if George Osborne | :24:34. | :24:39. | |
has been sub optimal. What would your suggestion be it to improve | :24:40. | :24:47. | |
that outcome? I think there's a lot in this, you have got to fall down | :24:48. | :24:54. | |
in order to learn to get back up. There is something there. There's a | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
difference between what we privately will look at to make sure we have | :24:59. | :25:02. | |
the best outcomes and changing them compared to what you will publicly | :25:03. | :25:09. | |
be passing on and disagreeing on. A lot of the biggest arguments between | :25:10. | :25:13. | |
Jonathan and I will be whether somebody's made a mistake in the | :25:14. | :25:16. | |
first place. I think that's right but also politicians have got to | :25:17. | :25:20. | |
admit when they've made a mistake and part of our culture is jumping | :25:21. | :25:24. | |
on gas, you said something different. That prevents the culture | :25:25. | :25:34. | |
where you can be honest. Nick Clegg said he was sorry. John McDonnell | :25:35. | :25:37. | |
changed his mind. Those good things to do politically? A good analogy | :25:38. | :25:43. | |
here is economic sway economists, even the best in the world, that | :25:44. | :25:48. | |
they have to learn from the data which helps them to adapt and yet | :25:49. | :25:52. | |
it's the highest reputation economist measured by how often TV | :25:53. | :25:57. | |
studios make the worst predictions because when there is a predictive | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
error they use their creative and intellectual energy to spin that | :26:02. | :26:04. | |
data to defend their prior assumptions and that's why they | :26:05. | :26:07. | |
don't learn from their mistakes. That's what we need in politics, | :26:08. | :26:15. | |
people to adapt. Politicians always defending their assumptions. They | :26:16. | :26:18. | |
spin the sub optimal outcome and that a tragedy. Whoop about the next | :26:19. | :26:24. | |
economist which comes onto the programme. Who is that? Thank you. | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
Of course you are, you've been watching the Daily | :26:29. | :26:31. | |
But how satisfied you are with your life may also depend | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
on where you live, according to a report by a think-tank called | :26:36. | :26:37. | |
It found that the happiest place to live in the UK | :26:38. | :26:42. | |
was the Outer Hebrides, where residents have high levels | :26:43. | :26:44. | |
of life satisfaction despite having among the lowest average incomes. | :26:45. | :26:47. | |
The most miserable place was said to be the city of Wolverhamton | :26:48. | :26:53. | |
The most miserable place was said to be the city of Wolverhampton | :26:54. | :26:56. | |
in the West Midlands, where a lack of opportunity is said | :26:57. | :26:59. | |
Well we're joined now by two MPs who represent those areas, and I assume | :27:00. | :27:04. | |
are therefore the happiest and the unhappiest people in the Commons | :27:05. | :27:06. | |
Angus, why is your constituency part of the happiest place in Britain? I | :27:07. | :27:19. | |
think the scenery, the beautiful beaches, the way people get on with | :27:20. | :27:25. | |
each other. The general clubs, church groups, choirs, a number of | :27:26. | :27:28. | |
things. There's a high value on knowing each and having a laugh with | :27:29. | :27:34. | |
people. Why come to London, I will see 10,000 people and not know any | :27:35. | :27:40. | |
of them in a day. On the island I will know everybody and have a chat | :27:41. | :27:44. | |
and a laugh. It's generally very friendly. Emma, why is your place | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
the unhappiest? I totally reject the findings. You won't be surprised to | :27:49. | :27:55. | |
hear me say that. I'm not in the least bit miserable. Nor are the | :27:56. | :27:58. | |
people of Wolverhampton who tend to be very open, very friendly, very | :27:59. | :28:03. | |
welcoming to people who are visiting Wolverhampton full submit a great | :28:04. | :28:07. | |
thing is gunning for us. We've had a massive investment by Jaguar Land | :28:08. | :28:10. | |
Rover and a big factory on the outskirts of my constituency. | :28:11. | :28:14. | |
There's lots going on in Wolverhampton, for example, one of | :28:15. | :28:19. | |
the best civic halls, and dolled up OK, I will take your word for it. We | :28:20. | :28:27. | |
got to cut this short. PMQs overrun. My suggestion is you should twin the | :28:28. | :28:33. | |
two places. We have an SNP Government in the Hebrides which | :28:34. | :28:36. | |
makes a huge difference. OK we will have to go. | :28:37. | :28:38. | |
There's just time to put you out of your misery and give you | :28:39. | :28:41. | |
I'll be here at noon tomorrow with all the big | :28:42. | :28:56. | |
Jo's off gallivanting on the continent. | :28:57. | :28:59. |