Browse content similar to 18/05/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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This afternoon Conservative backbench MPs Caroline Spelman and | :00:19. | :00:22. | |
Philip Lee will move a motion to send a loyal address to thank the | :00:23. | :00:27. | |
Queen for her speech and it will be followed by responses from the | :00:28. | :00:30. | |
Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister. The debate will then | :00:31. | :00:36. | |
widened to include backbench MPs and will run until 10pm. It will be the | :00:37. | :00:40. | |
main business for the house to consider for the next few days. | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
Remember to join me for a round-up of the day in both Houses of | :00:45. | :00:48. | |
Parliament at 11pm tonight but first we start with the first reading of | :00:49. | :00:52. | |
the Outlawries Bill which allows the House of Commons to assert its right | :00:53. | :00:56. | |
to discuss matters of its own choosing before moving on to those | :00:57. | :00:58. | |
proposed by the government in the Queens speech. | :00:59. | :01:24. | |
The house has to make a statement at the beginning of each session about | :01:25. | :01:36. | |
the responsibilities of honourable members. I begin by reminding those | :01:37. | :01:42. | |
present to agree the code of conduct of the house and to display civility | :01:43. | :01:53. | |
and fairness. The house asserts that the privilege of freedom of speech, | :01:54. | :02:02. | |
it is there to assure that our constituents can be represented by | :02:03. | :02:09. | |
us without fear. It's an obligation of us all to that privilege | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
responsibly. It is enjoyed by members of Parliament in their work | :02:14. | :02:20. | |
in this house, as private individuals who are equal under the | :02:21. | :02:27. | |
law with those who we represent. In our proceedings every member should | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
be heard courteously, whatever their views. Parliament should be open to | :02:34. | :02:41. | |
those who it represents. We should seek to explain its work to those | :02:42. | :02:46. | |
who elect us and make them welcome here. The security of this building | :02:47. | :02:53. | |
and those who work and visit here depends upon all of us. We have a | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
duty to be vigilant and to assist those whose job it is to maintain | :02:59. | :03:06. | |
this place as a safe place to work. In this new session of Parliament I | :03:07. | :03:12. | |
will be adhering more closely to the convention of ministers taking up to | :03:13. | :03:20. | |
ten minutes when delivering an oral statement to the house. The official | :03:21. | :03:26. | |
opposition spokesperson may make a contribution of up to five minutes. | :03:27. | :03:32. | |
And the third party spokesperson maximum of two minutes. | :03:33. | :03:43. | |
For urgent questions the Minister may speak for up to three minutes, | :03:44. | :03:51. | |
the person asking the urgent question and the official | :03:52. | :03:55. | |
spokesperson where different maximum of two minutes each. And the third | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
party spokesperson maximum one minute. Members wishing to take part | :04:00. | :04:05. | |
in statements, urgent questions and the business question must be in the | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
chamber in accordance with very long established convention before they | :04:10. | :04:15. | |
begin and colleagues should not expect to be called to ask a | :04:16. | :04:19. | |
question if they are not in their place as the statement of urgent | :04:20. | :04:24. | |
question or business question begins. Before moving to the first | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
business I would like to express my best wishes for the 2000 1617 | :04:30. | :04:37. | |
session to all honourable members and all those who work here. | :04:38. | :04:46. | |
Outlawries Bill. I have to acquaint the house that this house has this | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
day attended Her Majesty in the house of Peers. And that Her Majesty | :04:51. | :04:56. | |
was pleased to make a most gracious speech from the throne to both | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
Houses of Parliament. Of which I have, for greater accuracy, obtained | :05:03. | :05:11. | |
a copy. I shall direct the terms of the speech be printed in the votes | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
and proceedings. Copies are already available in the vote office. Before | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
I call the mover and second of the address I can inform the house of | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
the proposed subjects for the remaining days of debate on the | :05:27. | :05:34. | |
loyal address. Thursday 19th may transport and local infrastructure. | :05:35. | :05:40. | |
Monday 23rd may defending public services. Tuesday 24th of May, | :05:41. | :05:48. | |
Europe, human rights and keeping people safe at home and abroad. | :05:49. | :05:57. | |
Wednesday 25th of May, education, skills, and training. Thursday 26th | :05:58. | :06:03. | |
of May, economy and work. I shall first call Mrs Caroline Spelman to | :06:04. | :06:12. | |
move and then doctor Philip Lee to second the address. Mrs Caroline | :06:13. | :06:20. | |
Spelman. I vote to move that the humble address be presented to Her | :06:21. | :06:25. | |
Majesty as followed, most gracious sovereign, we your Majesty 's masjid | :06:26. | :06:30. | |
bowl and loyal subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom and Great | :06:31. | :06:33. | |
Britain and Northern Ireland beg leave to offer our humble thanks to | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
your Majesty for the gracious speech which your Majesty has addressed to | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
both Houses of Parliament. It's an honour to be asked to propose the | :06:43. | :06:46. | |
Queens speech, especially in Her Majesty 's 90th year. When I was | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
asked to see the Chief Whip my first thought however was what have I | :06:53. | :06:58. | |
done? The relief in discovering it was for a good reason was followed | :06:59. | :07:02. | |
almost immediately by the how to do it well. So I looked carefully at | :07:03. | :07:08. | |
how the Right Honourable member for Chelmsford tackled it last year. I | :07:09. | :07:13. | |
know Mr Speaker that unfortunately he cannot be with us today as he has | :07:14. | :07:19. | |
to attend the funeral. But we all know no of his unswerving admiration | :07:20. | :07:24. | |
for Hillary Clinton. We have shared with him the anxieties of the | :07:25. | :07:29. | |
primaries. So I put all colleagues on alert that if you are standing | :07:30. | :07:35. | |
next to him when the news of the presidential election comes through | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
the prepared to provide moral support, whichever way it goes, but | :07:39. | :07:46. | |
especially should help learning trends -- especially should Hillary | :07:47. | :07:53. | |
Clinton be trumped. Can I stay to my constituents how grateful I am to | :07:54. | :07:57. | |
them for electing me to Parliament. I am always proud to represent them. | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
A lot has changed since my first day here 19 years ago. I was often the | :08:04. | :08:08. | |
only woman in meetings. I was one of very few women around a Cabinet | :08:09. | :08:13. | |
table with school aged children. This could prove awkward, such as | :08:14. | :08:17. | |
the Shadow Cabinet meeting interrupted by the news that one of | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
my sons had fallen off a drainpipe at school. In 1997 only 18% of MPs | :08:22. | :08:31. | |
were women. This has now risen to a total of almost 30%, not yet parity | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
but we are heading in the right direction. It has also been a great | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
privilege to help mentor newcomers and in return I have been especially | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
grateful for the mentoring of Baroness Shepherd down the years. | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
Now the chamber looks more like the electorate at large. Better | :08:49. | :08:57. | |
decisions are made. On all sides. Better decisions are made Mr Speaker | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
when those who make them are more diverse. For example when assessing | :09:03. | :09:05. | |
the priorities for public transport men rate reliability and cost is the | :09:06. | :09:12. | |
most important factors. But the women did something else first, | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
their personal safety. Put these perspectives together and a better | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
outcome is achieved. I hope by now the nearly new members are beginning | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
to make friends in all parties and discover that they can have allies | :09:25. | :09:30. | |
across the floor. The work of Parliament is often enhanced by the | :09:31. | :09:33. | |
friendships that transcend party lines. When I was party chairman the | :09:34. | :09:39. | |
Right Honourable member of Birkenhead asked me to organise a | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
debate with him on the subject of dying well as we each had a parent | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
with a poor experience of this in hospital. The whips did not bat an | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
eyelid. The only objection was to the title, diene was considered far | :09:53. | :09:58. | |
too controversial, we had to call it end of life care. I also work with | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
the right Honourable gentleman on the modern day slavery Bill as we | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
both served on the joint committee of both houses. If ever there was an | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
outstanding example of cross-party approach to tackling a terrible | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
injustice this is it. The Home Secretary deserves the credit for | :10:16. | :10:19. | |
securing a piece of landmark legislation which is a world first | :10:20. | :10:26. | |
in this area. The legal expertise of Baroness Butler-Sloss forced us all | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
to think very hard how to get this absolutely right. And I felt it was | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
my red letter day when the noble lady uttered those magic words to | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
me, I think the rate Honourable Lady has a point. I have been any | :10:41. | :10:47. | |
cross-party prayer Fellowship all the time I have been here which | :10:48. | :10:51. | |
consists of two consecutive sectors, two labour, one liberal and won the | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
Democratic Unionist. You could not do this better by proportional | :10:56. | :11:00. | |
representation if you tried. We met up with our families and my children | :11:01. | :11:04. | |
were initially perplexed by the fraternisation until I explained | :11:05. | :11:07. | |
that it is like with your friends support Aston Villa and you support | :11:08. | :11:11. | |
Coventry and you think he is misguided but you are still friends. | :11:12. | :11:20. | |
Mr Speaker, we will shortly face a big decision about our membership of | :11:21. | :11:23. | |
the EU and whichever way the vote goes we will need to ensure good | :11:24. | :11:26. | |
relations with our neighbours moving forward. So can I commend to the | :11:27. | :11:39. | |
house the recent concert by the Parliament choir in Paris to show | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
our solidarity with the people of brands after the terrorist attacks | :11:44. | :11:49. | |
last year. There are often opportunities for soft diplomacy and | :11:50. | :11:54. | |
we should take them. The member for Harwich and North Essex and I may | :11:55. | :11:57. | |
not see eye to eye on Europe but his rich baritone and my alto voice have | :11:58. | :12:05. | |
produced a delightful harmony. I welcome the clear references to the | :12:06. | :12:08. | |
life chances and gender in the gracious speech and I am pleased | :12:09. | :12:12. | |
this is to be a key theme in the year ahead. The Right Honourable | :12:13. | :12:16. | |
member for Chingford and Woodford Green pioneered this approach and | :12:17. | :12:20. | |
the new Secretary of State has the life experience and the ability to | :12:21. | :12:24. | |
drive it forward. My constituency has a council estate of almost | :12:25. | :12:28. | |
40,000 people. I have seen how the life chances of my constituents have | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
improved through the generation of housing and schools by Solihull | :12:33. | :12:44. | |
Council. I took a minister on our visit there recently and two tenants | :12:45. | :12:46. | |
emerged from one of our 37 refurbished tower Brock 's | :12:47. | :12:48. | |
expressing their delight that their energy bills had been half to as a | :12:49. | :12:51. | |
result of the new energy-saving features. The minister turned to me | :12:52. | :12:55. | |
and asked how much I paid them to say that. Buildings can be | :12:56. | :12:59. | |
regenerated but it's the life chances of the human beings within | :13:00. | :13:02. | |
them which makes the difference. I am delighted so many young people | :13:03. | :13:06. | |
are getting apprenticeships including many young women as | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
engineers in the great tradition of those women who built Spitfires in | :13:11. | :13:15. | |
the last world war. All of this is made possible because of the | :13:16. | :13:18. | |
Renaissance in manufacturing and economic recovery we have seen. | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
Parts of my constituency are rural and despite being at the very centre | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
of England and we have mobile and broadband, not spots. I am glad | :13:28. | :13:34. | |
effort is being made to juice the digital divide. With can I remind | :13:35. | :13:41. | |
the government of the offer of church buyers and towers to help | :13:42. | :13:45. | |
crack this problem. They may bring us closer to God but a proper signal | :13:46. | :13:51. | |
can feel like heaven on earth to those... Prison reform is well | :13:52. | :13:57. | |
overdue and we know that reoffending can beat a matter cut with the right | :13:58. | :14:03. | |
kind of help. The Justice Secretary and the Education Secretary know how | :14:04. | :14:07. | |
important it is to improve the life chances of schoolchildren as far too | :14:08. | :14:10. | |
many prison inmates are unable to read or write. I am glad the Justice | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
Secretary is using his reforming zeal to give prisoners a better | :14:16. | :14:18. | |
chance to turn our lives around. I have witnessed first hand how this | :14:19. | :14:23. | |
can be achieved. I set up a charity called welcome to track all drug and | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
alcohol abuse, to get people free of addiction and into work. We started | :14:29. | :14:32. | |
with one employee in a community hall and now employs over 20. We do | :14:33. | :14:38. | |
the trio is for the NHS in our borough of 200,000 people. Some of | :14:39. | :14:43. | |
the best advocates are our volunteers who have achieved this | :14:44. | :14:45. | |
themselves and are role models for others. Members on all side of the | :14:46. | :14:52. | |
house have sought to help the vulnerable. On entering politics it | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
was my personal resolution to speak for those who were unable to speak | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
for themselves. Few people in our country are more vulnerable than a | :15:02. | :15:05. | |
child leaving care. This state has not often proved a great parent and | :15:06. | :15:09. | |
knowing how hard it is to be a parent we should not be surprised. | :15:10. | :15:13. | |
But I take my hat off in particular to those who adopt. We need more | :15:14. | :15:18. | |
parents to come forward to foster and adopt so I welcome the | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
government 's intention to speed up adoption. This was the objective of | :15:23. | :15:25. | |
my Private members Bill on the subject but still Jordan can be left | :15:26. | :15:29. | |
to one in care and the damage can be irreparable. Let's keep it going | :15:30. | :15:35. | |
until I young adult is fully fledged, a team-mate be the notional | :15:36. | :15:40. | |
age of adulthood but based on my experience it takes a good few more | :15:41. | :15:44. | |
years of parental support before their wings can take life 's | :15:45. | :15:50. | |
turbulence. New measures are needed to prevent sections of society | :15:51. | :15:53. | |
filling a Lenny did but I appeal to the government not to take a hammer | :15:54. | :15:55. | |
to crack a nut. I have high expectations of the new | :15:56. | :16:07. | |
Mayor of London, who is not only an excellent cricketer as the Lords and | :16:08. | :16:10. | |
Commons cricket team will testify, uniquely well-placed to help. Good | :16:11. | :16:18. | |
luck, Sadiq. No pressure. Let me return to my theme of making friends | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
across the house. Over the years there has been a good few members | :16:23. | :16:26. | |
who I have sought to encourage after experiencing setbacks in their | :16:27. | :16:30. | |
parliamentary careers. My key piece of advice has been don't give up, | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
get stuck back in and fight for the causes you know and care about and | :16:35. | :16:37. | |
this house will ultimately respect you for it. Can I say here are | :16:38. | :16:41. | |
heartfelt thank you for the way the house has helped me rediscover the | :16:42. | :16:46. | |
fulfilment of being an elected member of this mother of all | :16:47. | :16:51. | |
parliaments. As long as you have the chance to make a difference, there | :16:52. | :16:55. | |
is no such thing as having had your day. We are elected to change things | :16:56. | :17:01. | |
for the better, to take up issues which confront us. So, seize the | :17:02. | :17:08. | |
day. I commend this notion to the house. Doctor Philip Lees. Thank | :17:09. | :17:21. | |
you, Mr Speaker. It is a privilege to second the great speech and I am | :17:22. | :17:25. | |
honoured to be following my right honourable friend, the member for | :17:26. | :17:29. | |
Meriden this afternoon. This is not the first time I have done so. | :17:30. | :17:33. | |
Because among her many achievements, one of her proudest must be that she | :17:34. | :17:37. | |
is captain of the Parliamentary ski team of which I am a junior member. | :17:38. | :17:43. | |
In that role she has responsibility for leading a team of large egos, | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
hidden talent, some with little sense of balance or direction, | :17:48. | :17:52. | |
navigating up peaks and down slippery slopes. I can't imagine | :17:53. | :17:57. | |
where she gained the experience, Mr Speaker. But such skills make her an | :17:58. | :18:03. | |
extremely valuable member of this chamber, and of her party. Mr | :18:04. | :18:09. | |
Speaker, I was surprised to have been given the privilege of | :18:10. | :18:12. | |
seconding the address this afternoon. I am not, for example, | :18:13. | :18:21. | |
the son of a bus strike. -- son of a bus driver. Although my father did | :18:22. | :18:28. | |
once dried milk float in my honourable friend's Whickham | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
constituency. But just as an aside, Mr Speaker, why is it always the | :18:34. | :18:37. | |
case that we have to wait for so long for these sons of bus drivers | :18:38. | :18:49. | |
and then two come along at once? Mr Speaker, it might be my education. I | :18:50. | :18:56. | |
am, like the Leader of the Opposition, an ex-grammar schoolboy. | :18:57. | :19:05. | |
And like him, I gather, I rather screwed up my A-levels. So perhaps | :19:06. | :19:13. | |
there is hope for me yet. Or it might be my extensive experience of | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
PR before entering politics. As the house knows, I am a practising | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
doctor. Unfortunately, Mr Speaker, in a medical context, PR does not | :19:23. | :19:29. | |
stand for public relations. But is shorthand for the type of | :19:30. | :19:32. | |
examination that involves putting on rubber gloves, applying gel, and | :19:33. | :19:42. | |
asking a man took off. -- asking a man to cough. If I may give my right | :19:43. | :19:57. | |
honourable friend, the Prime Minister, a bit of advice, Mr | :19:58. | :20:06. | |
Speaker, if, in the future, he finds himself speaking at a medical | :20:07. | :20:09. | |
professional dinner, under no circumstances should he tell the | :20:10. | :20:13. | |
audience that in his life before politics he was into PR, and that he | :20:14. | :20:18. | |
found the work very stimulating. Many of my predecessors in this role | :20:19. | :20:34. | |
has had a reputation for humour, and so I think it is courageous of the | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
PM to ask a doctor to second the greatest speech. As the house can | :20:40. | :20:43. | |
ready tell, medical humour is a famously acquired taste. And it | :20:44. | :20:47. | |
would be all too easy to share some of the stories which every doctor | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
has in the infinite supply. Many may not be appropriate for this place | :20:52. | :20:58. | |
and its refined audience. I can perhaps, though, report on the lady | :20:59. | :21:02. | |
who complained of, as she put it, a history of erotic bowels. I resisted | :21:03. | :21:10. | |
the temptation to ask whether her erotic symptoms were erratic in | :21:11. | :21:13. | |
nature. Or the elderly man who said his secret for looking so healthy | :21:14. | :21:18. | |
was to do Kama Sutra exercises every morning. Only to be corrected by his | :21:19. | :21:25. | |
wife," Gareth, I think you mean Tai Chi". If colleagues don't think I | :21:26. | :21:35. | |
delivered this speech very well today, just be grateful that we are | :21:36. | :21:40. | |
not holding this debate at the weekend, when I understand from some | :21:41. | :21:52. | |
that doctors don't perform as well. Mr Speaker, I had hoped that my | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
medical background would be an advantage in politics but I have | :21:59. | :22:01. | |
been disappointed. My first disappointment when I stood for the | :22:02. | :22:08. | |
Conservative Party's candidate in Gwent. I'm sure the honourable | :22:09. | :22:15. | |
member would agree that sporting a blue rose outside of Kwik Save takes | :22:16. | :22:21. | |
a certain type of character. Mostly delusional, perhaps even | :22:22. | :22:27. | |
masochistic. In fact the president of my constituency association was | :22:28. | :22:30. | |
elected to Woking Borough Council with more votes than I received. I | :22:31. | :22:39. | |
was however able to comfort myself with the fact that my modest 816 | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
votes nevertheless represented the biggest swing to the Conservative | :22:45. | :22:48. | |
Party of any candidate in Wales that night. In retrospect I should have | :22:49. | :22:55. | |
taken more note of the lady at the market who, when I asked why she | :22:56. | :23:00. | |
supported Labour, she replied "Don't you get complicated with me". | :23:01. | :23:17. | |
Mr Speaker, delivering this speech is of course really an honour for | :23:18. | :23:22. | |
the constituency of Bracknell, which I am privileged to represent. It is | :23:23. | :23:27. | |
a particular honour in this year of Her Majesty's 90th birthday. | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
Bracknell constituency has long-standing royal links. It is | :23:33. | :23:35. | |
proud to host the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which celebrated | :23:36. | :23:42. | |
its bicentenary in 2012, and has trained successive generations of | :23:43. | :23:45. | |
British, Commonwealth and international officers serving in | :23:46. | :23:49. | |
Her Majesty's army and elsewhere around the world. My constituents | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
also enjoy access to swing the forest, which is wonderfully | :23:55. | :23:59. | |
maintained by Crown Estates. With its vibrant economy and town centre | :24:00. | :24:02. | |
regeneration, Bracknell constituency has a very bright future. This is | :24:03. | :24:07. | |
the 63rd greatest speech that Her Majesty has given since Eric session | :24:08. | :24:12. | |
to the throne. On this occasion it is apt to look back to her first | :24:13. | :24:16. | |
gracious speech, and at the changes that there have been since. The | :24:17. | :24:22. | |
preservation of peace was the first emphasis in 1952. Our country was | :24:23. | :24:26. | |
still recovering from war. My right honourable friend, the member for | :24:27. | :24:29. | |
Mid Sussex's grandfather was Prime Minister. The nationalisation of | :24:30. | :24:35. | |
iron and steel was the subject of heated debate. Slums had to be | :24:36. | :24:39. | |
cleared and people housed. This led to the creation of new towns, of | :24:40. | :24:44. | |
which Bracknell was one. Communicable diseases such as | :24:45. | :24:46. | |
tuberculosis challenged our young health service. Abroad, closer union | :24:47. | :24:51. | |
is worth forcing to cement the ties on which peace depended. With the | :24:52. | :24:58. | |
United States of America, with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, | :24:59. | :25:01. | |
with the Commonwealth and with a recovering Europe. The vision of the | :25:02. | :25:06. | |
post-war political generation was a big vision. The country that would | :25:07. | :25:11. | |
never again suffer the insecurity and hardship experienced by those | :25:12. | :25:15. | |
who had to pick up arms and fight for our existence. Of every person | :25:16. | :25:22. | |
being able to get a chance in life. Of health, of education, of | :25:23. | :25:26. | |
employment. Of a society that is fair, just and free. In which | :25:27. | :25:31. | |
freedom is heartburn and because we value our country, our environment, | :25:32. | :25:37. | |
our world -- freedom is earned. In which rights are balanced by | :25:38. | :25:40. | |
responsibilities for each other and for ourselves. And most importantly | :25:41. | :25:46. | |
to prepare for the future. Variations of this vision have | :25:47. | :25:48. | |
guided successive governments ever since. With varying degrees of | :25:49. | :25:57. | |
success. The generation Her Majesty addressed in 1952 had fought for | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
this vision. Displayed a deep consciousness throughout our nation | :26:02. | :26:04. | |
that individual lives are fleeting. That we much take care of the world | :26:05. | :26:10. | |
we inherit, conserve, so we pass something better to our children. | :26:11. | :26:14. | |
That we achieve more by coming together with our neighbours, with | :26:15. | :26:18. | |
our friends, and with our former enemies, by respecting our riches | :26:19. | :26:24. | |
and each other. And that humanity is the vital bond, without which our | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
society, globally and nationally, our communities, our families will | :26:30. | :26:33. | |
disintegrate. Mr Speaker, on a personal level, I am humbled by the | :26:34. | :26:38. | |
experience of the wartime generation. My grandfather was under | :26:39. | :26:43. | |
fire at the age of 20 in the tail end of the Halifax bomber. I also | :26:44. | :26:50. | |
recall caring for and 89-year-old Polish patient who was short of | :26:51. | :26:53. | |
breath and experiencing angina. He had taken the time to put on a tie | :26:54. | :26:58. | |
and suit adorned with military ribbons. And he apologised for | :26:59. | :27:03. | |
taking up my time. I asked him about his military experience. He told me | :27:04. | :27:09. | |
that his village in eastern Poland had been overrun by the Soviets in | :27:10. | :27:14. | |
1939. He was deported to a Siberian work camp and, in his own words, | :27:15. | :27:19. | |
wore the same socks the two years. He was handed over to the British in | :27:20. | :27:25. | |
1942 in Baghdad, and fought with Montgomery's eighth Army across | :27:26. | :27:30. | |
North Africa, and up the spine of Italy via Monte Cassino. When | :27:31. | :27:35. | |
reflecting upon his heroic story, I humbly asked whether my generation | :27:36. | :27:40. | |
would display the same values, Mr Speaker, the same stoicism, the same | :27:41. | :27:44. | |
modesty, the same courage, the same respect for others. And I recall his | :27:45. | :27:52. | |
loyalty to his adopted country. Mr Speaker, the closest I have come to | :27:53. | :27:58. | |
fighting is as a doctor battling ageing, obesity, and the challenges | :27:59. | :28:01. | |
of cultural dislocation. In the course of Her Majesty's rain, life | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
expectancy has increased by a decade. The percentage of people | :28:06. | :28:10. | |
aged over 85 has grown by a factor of five. World's population has | :28:11. | :28:16. | |
virtually trebled. Our own has gone up by a third and the proportion of | :28:17. | :28:22. | |
our population I foreign earth has almost trebled, albeit from a low | :28:23. | :28:26. | |
base. It is clear that we must not only treat the symptoms of the | :28:27. | :28:29. | |
challenges that come with such marked change, but strive to cure | :28:30. | :28:35. | |
their causes. Which is why this government's commitment to improve | :28:36. | :28:37. | |
the life chances of those who have the misfortune to be born or raised | :28:38. | :28:41. | |
in circumstances over which they have no control is admirable and | :28:42. | :28:47. | |
right. Mr Speaker, the generation Her Majesty addresses today must | :28:48. | :28:51. | |
rediscover the values of the past to face an ever accelerating pace of | :28:52. | :28:55. | |
change. It is a world that is more connected, more conscious of its | :28:56. | :28:59. | |
differences, but also more conscious of what we have in common than ever | :29:00. | :29:06. | |
before. This time, Mr Speaker, we have the opportunity to rediscover | :29:07. | :29:09. | |
those values peacefully, and the important legislation outlined in | :29:10. | :29:14. | |
the greatest speech will enable us to do so. The challenge of | :29:15. | :29:18. | |
overcoming extremism without undermining our humanity is one that | :29:19. | :29:21. | |
deserves the support of the whole house. My right honourable and good | :29:22. | :29:25. | |
friend the Home Secretary knows that dealing with our society's failure | :29:26. | :29:29. | |
to integrate some communities will be integral. The space industry | :29:30. | :29:34. | |
receives the attention it deserves as one of Britain's most successful | :29:35. | :29:38. | |
industries with the power to inspire that is unmatched. I am sure all | :29:39. | :29:43. | |
members of the last Parliament recall I mentioned the UK space | :29:44. | :29:46. | |
industry in my maiden speech in 2010. And as British astronaut Tim | :29:47. | :29:58. | |
Peake was a graduate of Sandhurst I'm shamelessly going to claim him | :29:59. | :30:04. | |
as having been educated in my constituency. As such I am concerned | :30:05. | :30:08. | |
for his welfare, Mr Speaker. I know that Tim is due back from the | :30:09. | :30:12. | |
International Space Station just before the EU referendum vote. But | :30:13. | :30:17. | |
if he's slightly delayed and the country votes to leave in June, he | :30:18. | :30:20. | |
need not worry about getting home since the European Space Agency sits | :30:21. | :30:27. | |
outside the European Union. Seriously though, Mr Speaker, the | :30:28. | :30:30. | |
government's support of the space industry will help secure Britain | :30:31. | :30:35. | |
has a globally recognised centre for high-technology, whether we are | :30:36. | :30:37. | |
inside or outside the European Union. Finally, some honourable | :30:38. | :30:43. | |
members will know that I've kept my own counsel on June's big European | :30:44. | :30:47. | |
event, but the time is fast approaching when I feel I should | :30:48. | :30:51. | |
make my position clear. If only to deal with the alarming possibility | :30:52. | :30:56. | |
that, as time moves on, I and other honourable members who have taken a | :30:57. | :30:59. | |
similar approach will have to deal with the advances of two charming | :31:00. | :31:04. | |
men. One with blonde hair and one with spectacles approaching us in | :31:05. | :31:07. | |
the members lobby to ask when we are coming out. | :31:08. | :31:10. | |
LAUGHTER In my view I can see no good reason | :31:11. | :31:20. | |
we should exit. CHEERING At least not before the semifinals! | :31:21. | :31:31. | |
LAUGHTER And preferably not after the pain of | :31:32. | :31:37. | |
extra time and a penalty shoot out. Mr Speaker keeping up with change is | :31:38. | :31:42. | |
a tough enough job any government, Conservative governments don't just | :31:43. | :31:45. | |
want to keep up, they want to do better. That is why Mr Speaker I am | :31:46. | :31:49. | |
not only privilege to represent the good people of the Bracknell | :31:50. | :31:53. | |
constituency but proud to second this gracious speech. The question | :31:54. | :32:01. | |
is that a humble address be presented to Her Majesty as follows, | :32:02. | :32:08. | |
most gracious sovereign, we your Majesty 's most beautiful and loyal | :32:09. | :32:14. | |
subjects, the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and | :32:15. | :32:20. | |
Northern Ireland in Parliament assemble beg leave to offer our | :32:21. | :32:23. | |
humble thanks to your Majesty for the gracious speech which your | :32:24. | :32:28. | |
Majesty has addressed to both houses of Parliament. I call the Leader of | :32:29. | :32:35. | |
the Opposition, Mr Jeremy Corbyn. Thank you very much Mr Speaker, I am | :32:36. | :32:41. | |
pleased we have dispensed with the Outlawries Bill which will ensure we | :32:42. | :32:44. | |
have stability and freedom of speech in this chamber and I attended to | :32:45. | :32:49. | |
adhere by the civility part of it, it is up to others to decide on the | :32:50. | :32:53. | |
freedom of speech. Mr Speaker July will mark this into the of the | :32:54. | :32:58. | |
Battle of the Somme, an episode of frankly needless carnage and horror. | :32:59. | :33:06. | |
This week Mark the centenary of the agreement were Britain and France | :33:07. | :33:11. | |
divided up the Ottoman Empire into spheres of influence, arbitrarily | :33:12. | :33:13. | |
establishing borders which have been the cause of many conflicts ever | :33:14. | :33:18. | |
since. These events should remind us in the house of two things. Firstly | :33:19. | :33:23. | |
that decisions we take up consequences and it's our Armed | :33:24. | :33:28. | |
Forces that face the consequences of failed foreign and military policy. | :33:29. | :33:32. | |
Our duty to our Armed Forces is to avoid the political mistakes which | :33:33. | :33:35. | |
will lead them to being sent unnecessarily into harms way. As the | :33:36. | :33:40. | |
member for Bracknell pointed out, the effects of war go on for the | :33:41. | :33:43. | |
whole lifetime of those that have taken part in it. By tradition Mr | :33:44. | :33:49. | |
Speaker at the beginning of each parliamentary session we commemorate | :33:50. | :33:52. | |
members of the house who we have lost in the last year. In October we | :33:53. | :33:59. | |
lost Michael Meacher, he was as all who met him new at decent, | :34:00. | :34:03. | |
hard-working, passionate and very profound man. He represented his | :34:04. | :34:08. | |
constituency with diligence and distension for 45 years. He was a | :34:09. | :34:14. | |
blind environment minister and a lifelong campaigner against | :34:15. | :34:17. | |
injustice and poverty and a brilliant champion of the rights of | :34:18. | :34:22. | |
this house and Parliament. We remember Michael for all of those | :34:23. | :34:26. | |
things. Harry Harper sadly only had a sadly only had a few months to | :34:27. | :34:31. | |
serve this house, he represented his constituency and the concerns of the | :34:32. | :34:35. | |
steel industry in Sheffield with incredible diligence. My honourable | :34:36. | :34:41. | |
friend and the new member for Sheffield Brightside and | :34:42. | :34:43. | |
Hillsborough now represents that same constituency. As she told me at | :34:44. | :34:48. | |
his passing, we have admired the bravery and courage he showed in his | :34:49. | :34:53. | |
life which was formed during the miners strike and carried him | :34:54. | :34:57. | |
forward for the rest of his life. Harry and Michael were both | :34:58. | :35:02. | |
incredibly decent, honourable men, absolutely dedicated to serving | :35:03. | :35:05. | |
their communities and standing up for strong socialist principles, we | :35:06. | :35:11. | |
commemorate both of them. Mr Speaker, I would like to | :35:12. | :35:14. | |
congratulate the mover and second on the Queens speech, it's a job I've | :35:15. | :35:23. | |
never had to myself. LAUGHTER It's one of those powers of | :35:24. | :35:29. | |
patronage. Firstly, I want to congratulate the right Honourable | :35:30. | :35:33. | |
member for Meriden on her excellent speech which I attributed to the | :35:34. | :35:37. | |
excellent training she received early in her career. It is possible | :35:38. | :35:40. | |
that many members on her own side are unaware that Sister Spellman, or | :35:41. | :35:49. | |
comrades Spellman was, like me a full-time union official before | :35:50. | :35:58. | |
entering Parliament. LAUGHTER Because Mr Speaker while industrial | :35:59. | :36:07. | |
strife raged across the country, I was part of it, the Right Honourable | :36:08. | :36:14. | |
member... Wait, wait, wait. They are just too fast Mr Speaker. The Right | :36:15. | :36:19. | |
Honourable member was travelling the whole country defending sugar beet | :36:20. | :36:23. | |
workers from disreputable and exploitative bosses. At least that | :36:24. | :36:27. | |
is what I think the National Farmers Union was doing at that time. But | :36:28. | :36:33. | |
alas time changes their wings and the Right Honourable member and I | :36:34. | :36:36. | |
now sing from a slightly different hymn sheet. Talking of which, I | :36:37. | :36:42. | |
understand she has been a stalwart of the parliamentary choir for many | :36:43. | :36:47. | |
years. Perhaps she will find time to give me some singing lessons, giving | :36:48. | :36:51. | |
her background perhaps together we could sing the red flag as a duet. | :36:52. | :37:00. | |
The Right Honourable... We will sing from the widest team sheet, don't | :37:01. | :37:15. | |
you worry. The Right Honourable member has an excellent reputation | :37:16. | :37:18. | |
for her outstanding work in international development, both in | :37:19. | :37:23. | |
opposition and government. She steered her party, some might and | :37:24. | :37:27. | |
graciously say, kicking and screaming, into delivering the | :37:28. | :37:33. | |
pledge that 0.0 7% of our GDP would be spent on international aid. I pay | :37:34. | :37:36. | |
tribute to the way she championed the rights of women and young girls | :37:37. | :37:40. | |
in the developing world. She stood up for their needs, their rights and | :37:41. | :37:46. | |
ensured our aid budget did go correctly and proportionately to | :37:47. | :37:49. | |
helping women and young girls in the developing world and I thank her for | :37:50. | :37:52. | |
that. I think underneath it all she is a bit of a closet radical so we | :37:53. | :38:00. | |
will talk later. I have to say Mr Speaker after some research I can | :38:01. | :38:05. | |
exclusively reveal that the house the roots of her radicalism. Because | :38:06. | :38:15. | |
her constituency includes the town of dodge and the waters of storage | :38:16. | :38:21. | |
are very important. Long before the Right Honourable member was | :38:22. | :38:30. | |
elected... Her constituency was an nest of rebellion and it was led by | :38:31. | :38:38. | |
a local landowner, George Frederick months. A refugee, he was one of the | :38:39. | :38:47. | |
founders of the Birmingham political union. An organisation which was | :38:48. | :38:52. | |
pivotal to the introduction of the 1832 reform act and the union later | :38:53. | :38:56. | |
became part of the Chartist movement on which we trace the origins of | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
socialism in this country and the Labour Party and naturally I hugely | :39:02. | :39:05. | |
admire the Birmingham political union for what it's dead. -- what it | :39:06. | :39:13. | |
did mac. I am sure the whole house will join me in thanking her for her | :39:14. | :39:20. | |
speech today. I now turn Mr Speaker to the second of the loyal address, | :39:21. | :39:25. | |
the Honourable member for Bracknell. Before joining the house he worked | :39:26. | :39:31. | |
as a doctor. Today he is lancing the myth that doctors are bad | :39:32. | :39:36. | |
communicators. In his maiden speech the Honourable member said I am | :39:37. | :39:40. | |
often asked why I moved away from being a doctor to being a member of | :39:41. | :39:44. | |
Parliament. To my mind people who come here should want to make this | :39:45. | :39:49. | |
country a better place. Myself and Honourable members come from | :39:50. | :39:52. | |
opposite sides of the political spectrum but we are both sincere in | :39:53. | :39:56. | |
sharing the same goal, to make our country a better place for those who | :39:57. | :40:01. | |
live here. Researching the member 's career I thought I had uncovered | :40:02. | :40:04. | |
more evidence of the very deep fractures which exist within the | :40:05. | :40:14. | |
government today. I was informed that he was a leading member of an | :40:15. | :40:16. | |
organisation known as the grumblers. Further research indicated that this | :40:17. | :40:23. | |
was not another group of malcontents on the government backbenches, that | :40:24. | :40:28. | |
is already full. But a cricket club of which the Honourable member would | :40:29. | :40:31. | |
have us believe he is a leading light. I did not want to leave any | :40:32. | :40:36. | |
of this research and done so I approached the club to get a sense | :40:37. | :40:40. | |
of the character of the Honourable member before making today's speech. | :40:41. | :40:48. | |
Yeah, it's coming. Yeah, it's definitely coming. So I think the | :40:49. | :40:55. | |
whole house will be eternally grateful Mr Speaker to the words of | :40:56. | :41:01. | |
Mr Anton Joiner who is the chair man of the old grumblers Cricket club | :41:02. | :41:05. | |
for his very insightful and very helpful response to my request. He | :41:06. | :41:10. | |
wrote, and if I may quote the letter, I am sure the house will be | :41:11. | :41:15. | |
the better informed. "Dear Sir, we are glad you have established | :41:16. | :41:20. | |
contact with our team. We are desperately seeking recovery of | :41:21. | :41:23. | |
several seasons overdue match fees by our Honourable friend. Please | :41:24. | :41:35. | |
communicate our willingness to waive penalty interest in return for | :41:36. | :41:45. | |
prompt payment." It goes all "In an undistinguished and tragically all | :41:46. | :41:50. | |
too long career at the top order batsmen, the good doctor managed an | :41:51. | :41:57. | |
average of just 11.2 runs with the bat. However his efforts with the | :41:58. | :42:02. | |
ball yielded a solitary wicket, that of the wife of a French farmer | :42:03. | :42:12. | |
during a tour match in Brittany in 2008." The generosity of the man | :42:13. | :42:22. | |
knew no bounds and as a doctor he advised on many sporting injuries to | :42:23. | :42:27. | |
club players and the letter goes on to say "The misdiagnosis of many | :42:28. | :42:31. | |
lead to a string of unnecessary early retirements and an acute | :42:32. | :42:36. | |
player availability crisis from which the team has only recently | :42:37. | :42:44. | |
recovered. As captain of the old grumblers cricket club I rarely had | :42:45. | :42:47. | |
to handle as obstinate and disrupters of a character as the | :42:48. | :42:56. | |
doctor, who stubbornly refused to stand in any conventional field | :42:57. | :43:01. | |
placement and very openly demonstrated a disdain for team | :43:02. | :43:07. | |
sport, command structures and presumably this led him to the | :43:08. | :43:10. | |
logical career choice of Tory backbencher." And the letter | :43:11. | :43:22. | |
concludes "Please pass on my guards and the attached invoice." Mr | :43:23. | :43:29. | |
Speaker I very much hope the Honourable member is a good sport | :43:30. | :43:34. | |
because I understand he an equally distinguished rugby player but those | :43:35. | :43:38. | |
stories were beyond my research capabilities and must be saved for | :43:39. | :43:42. | |
another occasion. I thank him for his more acceptable exploits in the | :43:43. | :43:49. | |
house today. Mr Speaker, we in the opposition will judge the government | :43:50. | :43:53. | |
's legislative programme against three tests. Will it deliver a more | :43:54. | :44:00. | |
equal society? An economy which works for everyone? And society in | :44:01. | :44:05. | |
which there is opportunity for all? Sadly it appears that many of the | :44:06. | :44:09. | |
proposals in the Queens speech militate against those aims as have | :44:10. | :44:13. | |
the proposals in previous years. Still this government does not seem | :44:14. | :44:18. | |
to understand that cuts have their consequences. When you cut adult | :44:19. | :44:23. | |
social care it has an impact on National Health Service Accident and | :44:24. | :44:26. | |
Emergency departments. When you saddle young people with more debt | :44:27. | :44:30. | |
you impede the ability to buy a home or start a family. When you fail to | :44:31. | :44:33. | |
build housing and housing benefit then | :44:34. | :44:48. | |
homelessness and the number of families in temporary accommodation | :44:49. | :44:50. | |
increase. When you slash the budgets of local authorities then leisure | :44:51. | :44:52. | |
centres clothes, libraries close, children centres close. This | :44:53. | :45:01. | |
austerity is a political choice, not an economic is necessity. It's made | :45:02. | :45:09. | |
by the government with the wrong priorities and it is women who have | :45:10. | :45:14. | |
been hit hardest by these cuts. Over 80% of cuts for this portion of play | :45:15. | :45:19. | |
on women. As the women's budget group has pointed out all these cuts | :45:20. | :45:24. | |
mean that the opportunities for women are systematically reduced and | :45:25. | :45:28. | |
diminished within our society. This government is failing to deliver an | :45:29. | :45:33. | |
economy which meets the needs and aspirations of the people that sent | :45:34. | :45:37. | |
us here. I government that is consistently failing to meet its own | :45:38. | :45:42. | |
economic targets. They have failed on the deficit, the debt, | :45:43. | :45:45. | |
productivity, failed to rebalance the economy. Once again the Northern | :45:46. | :45:52. | |
powerhouse was announced, if only the rhetoric matched the reality. We | :45:53. | :45:59. | |
discovered in March that the Northern powerhouse has 97% of its | :46:00. | :46:06. | |
senior staff based here in London, and Northern powerhouse outsourced | :46:07. | :46:10. | |
to the capital. For all the Chancellor 's rhetoric there has | :46:11. | :46:15. | |
been systematic underinvestment in the north, only 1%, up 1% of the | :46:16. | :46:21. | |
government infrastructure pipeline currently in construction in the | :46:22. | :46:22. | |
north-east. Much could be said in a similar vein | :46:23. | :46:31. | |
on housing. The government claims to aspire to build a million new homes. | :46:32. | :46:36. | |
The reality, however, is that house-building has sunk to its | :46:37. | :46:42. | |
lowest level since the 1920s. And so out of touch are the benches | :46:43. | :46:48. | |
opposite, they think ?450,000 is what people can afford for a starter | :46:49. | :46:56. | |
home. And the announcement again today of Britain's's digital | :46:57. | :47:00. | |
infrastructure is welcome. Perhaps, and I hope it does, this time it | :47:01. | :47:05. | |
will become a reality. Perhaps the Chancellor, who sadly is not here | :47:06. | :47:08. | |
today, is a convert to our fiscal rules. A rational rule backed by | :47:09. | :47:14. | |
leading economists which allows for borrowing on capital spending. I | :47:15. | :47:20. | |
point out to the Prime Minister, whether on the northern powerhouse, | :47:21. | :47:24. | |
building homes, or investing in digital infrastructure, simply | :47:25. | :47:29. | |
saying things does not make them happen. It takes commitment to fund | :47:30. | :47:36. | |
them. Mr Speaker, this government is failing to deliver, even on its own | :47:37. | :47:40. | |
proposals. Though often that is for the better. The Prime Minister said | :47:41. | :47:46. | |
two weeks ago, we are going to have academies for all, and it will be in | :47:47. | :47:50. | |
the Queens speech. But just a fortnight later, there is no sign of | :47:51. | :47:58. | |
it. Parents, governors, pupils, teachers and head teachers will be | :47:59. | :48:02. | |
relieved to get final confirmation today that the wrong-headed | :48:03. | :48:09. | |
proposals to impose forced academies Ocean have finally been dumped. -- | :48:10. | :48:20. | |
acamadisation. They have been forced to back down on a number of issues. | :48:21. | :48:27. | |
On tax credits, on the Saudi police deal, on cuts to personal | :48:28. | :48:34. | |
independence payments for disabled people, on Freedom of Information, | :48:35. | :48:36. | |
on Sunday training, and on aspects of the trade union Bill and the | :48:37. | :48:40. | |
housing bill. To call it disarray would be generous but that's without | :48:41. | :48:44. | |
discussing the resultant black hole in the government's finances. But | :48:45. | :48:52. | |
perhaps, Mr Speaker, the most worrying proposal of all, is the | :48:53. | :48:58. | |
decision to try to seemed to redefine poverty and deprivation. | :48:59. | :49:02. | |
Apparently it's all about instability, addiction and debt. All | :49:03. | :49:09. | |
things you can blame on individuals, about which governments like | :49:10. | :49:16. | |
tomorrow lies. Well, no. No, Mr Speaker. It's about 1 million people | :49:17. | :49:20. | |
in our country using food banks. About record levels of in work | :49:21. | :49:26. | |
poverty. The fact that absolute child poverty, after housing costs, | :49:27. | :49:31. | |
is up by half a million. That poverty is up in disabled households | :49:32. | :49:36. | |
on the same basis. That homelessness has gone up every year since the | :49:37. | :49:41. | |
Prime Minister took office. And that last Christmas, Mr Speaker, 100,000 | :49:42. | :49:49. | |
children spent that Festival in temporary, insecure accommodation. | :49:50. | :49:55. | |
And the causes of this? Cuts to welfare benefits, cuts to ESA, the | :49:56. | :50:01. | |
bedroom tax, the benefit cut, wages being too low, jobs insecure and | :50:02. | :50:05. | |
housing, whether to rent or buy, being too expensive. Mr Speaker, you | :50:06. | :50:12. | |
don't tackle poverty by moving the goalposts. Poverty and inequality | :50:13. | :50:19. | |
are collective failures of our society as a whole, not individual | :50:20. | :50:32. | |
ones. On current form, Mr Speaker, much of what Her Majesty announced | :50:33. | :50:39. | |
today will not require her signature. And I very much hope the | :50:40. | :50:44. | |
government's proposals to date to consign it to ever deeper debt, | :50:45. | :50:50. | |
those seeking to learn, will be rejected. My hope is that there will | :50:51. | :50:55. | |
be a cross-party consensus on one element of the government's | :50:56. | :51:02. | |
proposals. The honourable member of all should stand what I am about to | :51:03. | :51:06. | |
say. That the proposal to repeal the Human Rights Act, brought in at the | :51:07. | :51:11. | |
very start of the last Labour government, has brought the European | :51:12. | :51:13. | |
Convention on human rights into British law, and thus empowering | :51:14. | :51:17. | |
British citizens and giving rights to everybody in our society. We will | :51:18. | :51:24. | |
defend our Human Rights Act as we defend the human rights of everyone | :51:25. | :51:29. | |
in this country, and indeed all those that benefit from the European | :51:30. | :51:33. | |
Convention on human rights. I understand, and it's quite bizarre, | :51:34. | :51:36. | |
that the Home Secretary is the driving force behind tearing up the | :51:37. | :51:41. | |
Human Rights Act, and leading the convention, which is strange, as she | :51:42. | :51:45. | |
has very strong European credentials. What it shows, Mr | :51:46. | :51:50. | |
Speaker, is whether you are actually in or out of the EU, the main | :51:51. | :51:53. | |
obstacle holding back the people of this country is not the EU but that | :51:54. | :51:59. | |
Conservative government. A Conservative government that is | :52:00. | :52:03. | |
displaying a very worrying authoritarian streak. The primacy of | :52:04. | :52:10. | |
this house, of the House of Commons, is not in doubt. We are committed to | :52:11. | :52:16. | |
replacing the House of Lords with a democratic chamber. But we will | :52:17. | :52:23. | |
scrutinise, sceptically, any proposals that seek to weaken the | :52:24. | :52:26. | |
ability to hold the government to account as the other place rightly | :52:27. | :52:30. | |
does. Democracy, Mr Speaker, requires accountability for | :52:31. | :52:35. | |
decisions that are made. The national health service is in record | :52:36. | :52:41. | |
deficit, yet there is no legislation in the Queen's speech to improve our | :52:42. | :52:47. | |
National Health Service. Perhaps the Prime Minister can belatedly adopt | :52:48. | :52:55. | |
the central medical principle: first, do no harm. Unfortunately | :52:56. | :52:58. | |
there is legislation pending which will affect the NHS. The decision | :52:59. | :53:02. | |
last year to cut nurses bursaries. Can the Prime Minister confirm this | :53:03. | :53:06. | |
decision will be put to the house and voted on in this chamber? It is | :53:07. | :53:11. | |
opposed by all the unions involved in the NHS and the Royal colleges | :53:12. | :53:18. | |
representing nurses and midwives. The move to dissuade people from | :53:19. | :53:24. | |
taking up nursing is all the more bizarre, Mr Speaker, coming as it | :53:25. | :53:28. | |
does at a time when the government is planning to train nurses to take | :53:29. | :53:32. | |
on more responsibilities from doctors. We welcome the government's | :53:33. | :53:40. | |
proposals to support driverless cars in our society. But can they address | :53:41. | :53:47. | |
the Secretary of State, who appears to be asleep at the wheel, in | :53:48. | :53:54. | |
control of the NHS? Mr Speaker, we've made it clear before that with | :53:55. | :53:58. | |
regard to the sugar tax, we will look favourably on proposals to | :53:59. | :54:06. | |
tackle childhood obesity. We welcome the government's U-turn on forced | :54:07. | :54:20. | |
acamedisation. As with schools -- academisation. As with schools, we | :54:21. | :54:24. | |
would like to see... Mr Speaker, I will continue with my speech if I | :54:25. | :54:29. | |
may. As with schools, we would like to see all ministers in good or even | :54:30. | :54:34. | |
outstanding. But they need the freedom to listen to the public and | :54:35. | :54:37. | |
the people who understand services best. So we look forward to | :54:38. | :54:43. | |
scrutinising the surviving proposals in the government's education Bill, | :54:44. | :54:47. | |
to ensure they are better thought through. Just as we have opposed the | :54:48. | :54:55. | |
increase in unqualified teachers in our classrooms, we hope that the | :54:56. | :55:03. | |
government will get to grips with the ?800 million being spent | :55:04. | :55:05. | |
annually on supply teachers. Because of the recruitment and retention | :55:06. | :55:14. | |
crisis in schools. With school budgets scheduled. Mr Speaker, we | :55:15. | :55:19. | |
just agreed to behave with civility in this chamber, some members have | :55:20. | :55:27. | |
very short memories. Point of order, Mr Jacob Rees Mogg. Point of order, | :55:28. | :55:36. | |
Mr Speaker, am I not right in thinking it is customary cursory for | :55:37. | :55:42. | |
people to give way in speeches that last over 20 minutes? The essence of | :55:43. | :55:50. | |
the Honourable gentleman's point was encapsulated in that first sentence. | :55:51. | :55:56. | |
Customary but it is not required. There is no obligation. Members may | :55:57. | :55:59. | |
want the right honourable gentleman to give way but he is not obliged to | :56:00. | :56:03. | |
do so and I gently say to the Honourable member for Winchester and | :56:04. | :56:07. | |
to the Honourable member for Sherwood, that they can have a go | :56:08. | :56:13. | |
but if the right honourable gentleman does not want to give way, | :56:14. | :56:18. | |
they will not advance their cause by shouting and that in itself is an | :56:19. | :56:22. | |
civil. Something the member for North East Somerset is never guilty | :56:23. | :56:30. | |
of. Mr Jeremy Corbyn. Thank you, Mr Speaker. School budgets are | :56:31. | :56:35. | |
scheduled to receive their biggest real terms cut since the 1970s. Mr | :56:36. | :56:43. | |
Speaker, education is actually quite important in our society. The | :56:44. | :56:48. | |
government can therefore ill afford to be spending so much on supply | :56:49. | :56:53. | |
teachers. We have to move away from agency Britain. So we will look at | :56:54. | :56:59. | |
the proposals for a national funding formula that would encourage the | :57:00. | :57:02. | |
government to look for example at the school meals and breakfast | :57:03. | :57:07. | |
policies that are being introduced in Labour Wales which help young | :57:08. | :57:12. | |
people in Wales. Mr Speaker, we welcome moves to speed up adoption. | :57:13. | :57:21. | |
That is in the interests of both children and those families | :57:22. | :57:25. | |
committed to adoption. But the priority has to always be the | :57:26. | :57:30. | |
welfare and safety of the child. But, Mr Speaker, at a time when | :57:31. | :57:34. | |
social services and children's services are being slashed, we have | :57:35. | :57:37. | |
to ask whether the funding will match the desire. We should also | :57:38. | :57:43. | |
put, and all of us I'm sure can agree on this, on record our thanks | :57:44. | :57:48. | |
to all those families that do foster, do adopt and do give | :57:49. | :57:51. | |
children the very best lives that they possibly can. They are heroes | :57:52. | :57:56. | |
within our society. Students today are more in debt than ever, and I | :57:57. | :58:00. | |
want to make it clear to the Prime Minister he will not get any support | :58:01. | :58:03. | |
from these benches on raising tuition fees. This government is | :58:04. | :58:10. | |
penalising students. Announcing the abolition of maintenance grants last | :58:11. | :58:13. | |
year and now announcing that fees will be raised even further. This is | :58:14. | :58:19. | |
a tax on learning, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer called it in 2003, | :58:20. | :58:23. | |
from a government backed cuts taxes on capital gains. What message does | :58:24. | :58:28. | |
that send about the economy they want to create? That wealth | :58:29. | :58:34. | |
generates more wealth with minimal tax? That effort and hard work plans | :58:35. | :58:39. | |
you in a lifetime of debt with no support while you are making that | :58:40. | :58:42. | |
effort? What an insult to the aspirations of young people wanting | :58:43. | :58:48. | |
an education. We are deeply concerned about the locations for a | :58:49. | :58:53. | |
free-market free for all in higher education. Mr Speaker, the | :58:54. | :58:59. | |
government has committed to more apprenticeships. We welcome that if | :59:00. | :59:03. | |
it means more high-quality apprenticeships. Also that those | :59:04. | :59:09. | |
apprenticeships, equally, inspire young people to become engineers, as | :59:10. | :59:16. | |
young men to become carers. It gives opportunities for every young person | :59:17. | :59:19. | |
in our society. But they should not be seen by any employer as a means | :59:20. | :59:24. | |
of circumventing paying a decent wage while offering little training. | :59:25. | :59:30. | |
We all hear far too many cases of that. We will scrutinise carefully | :59:31. | :59:37. | |
proposals to give prison governors more freedom. It seems the policies | :59:38. | :59:43. | |
of this government have been to give greater freedoms to prisoners. That | :59:44. | :59:48. | |
is the consequences of overcrowding prisons and cutting one third of | :59:49. | :59:53. | |
dedicated prison officer positions. We welcome the proposals to give | :59:54. | :59:59. | |
greater time for education and reform and to reduce reoffending | :00:00. | :00:02. | |
rates. When I was a member of the justice select committee I visited | :00:03. | :00:08. | |
young offender institutions in Denmark and Norway. Their approach, | :00:09. | :00:18. | |
Mr Speaker, works. The prison crisis is one that does not require | :00:19. | :00:21. | |
laughter to solve its problems. The approach they've adopted in those | :00:22. | :00:29. | |
two Scandinavian countries does require more funding and more staff, | :00:30. | :00:34. | |
but it does have a very good effect on reoffending rates. There is | :00:35. | :00:40. | |
equally a very urgent need to invest in the care for prisoners who suffer | :00:41. | :00:45. | |
from mental health conditions. The alarming rise in prison suicides in | :00:46. | :00:50. | |
recent years means that to prisoners every week are taking their lives in | :00:51. | :00:56. | |
our prisons. That is a truly horrifying statistic. It is only | :00:57. | :01:01. | |
part of the disarray in our prisons. Emergency services were called out. | :01:02. | :01:13. | |
Mr Speaker emergency services were called to 26,600 times for over 20 | :01:14. | :01:26. | |
minutes on average is two incidents in UK prisons last year, the tide of | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
violence in UK prisons is rising and has to be addressed, that is our | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
responsibility in this house to do so. Many more of our public services | :01:35. | :01:44. | |
are under threat... No. Many more of our public services are under | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
threat, the land Registry is threatened with privatisation and | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
move considered and then rejected in the last two parliaments. Those | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
governments lessened to the concerns of the public and expert opinion. I | :01:59. | :02:06. | |
hope and trust this government will consult and come to the same | :02:07. | :02:09. | |
conclusion rather than selling of the family silver, it will retain | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
the land Registry in public ownership and administration. We are | :02:14. | :02:21. | |
very clear... We are very clear that the BBC is national institution. But | :02:22. | :02:33. | |
its success is an anathema to this ideological government. Labour will | :02:34. | :02:37. | |
continue to stand up for the licence fee payer. We will fight any further | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
government attacks on the BBC and its independence. Whether it is the | :02:42. | :02:50. | |
NHS, good and outstanding schools, the East Coast Main line in public | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
operation or the BBC, the government just cannot stand the threat of a | :02:55. | :03:00. | |
good example of popular successful public services. We will stand up | :03:01. | :03:04. | |
for them against what this government is doing. On this side of | :03:05. | :03:11. | |
the house we have a long, we have long highlighted the injustice of | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
the unequal funding allocation to local authorities. I hope the | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
government Finance Bill will be an opportunity to address the | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
disgraceful situation in which the protest area is, mainly the inner | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
cities of this country, suffered by far the greatest cuts in their | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
expenditure. The cuts imposed on local authorities have a devastating | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
impact of services for both young and old. Just this week Oxbridge | :03:39. | :03:45. | |
Council, the Prime Minister favourite county council, despite | :03:46. | :03:49. | |
the protestations of some local residents and announced it was | :03:50. | :03:51. | |
closing half of its children centres. In the past five years 4.5 | :03:52. | :04:00. | |
billion has been cut from the adult social care budget. Taking away | :04:01. | :04:04. | |
dignity from elderly and disabled people. Again Mr Speaker, those | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
massive cuts in the adult social care budget mainly affects of them | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
Paul Best proportionately women in our society. We will scrutinise very | :04:15. | :04:24. | |
carefully the demolition of business rates -- devolution of business | :04:25. | :04:27. | |
rates which if not handled correctly has the potential to exacerbate | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
inequality between areas of this country. We have deeply unbalanced | :04:33. | :04:39. | |
economy and we will oppose plans which widen regional inequalities | :04:40. | :04:42. | |
rather than narrow them. On a positive note, we do wholeheartedly, | :04:43. | :04:51. | |
we do wholeheartedly welcome moves to devolve powers to re-regulate the | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
bus service. We will look to expand those provisions more widely. There | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
are whole areas of the country, particularly in the role Britain | :05:02. | :05:04. | |
which have no bus services at all and they should be provided with | :05:05. | :05:08. | |
them, particularly of those who don't have access to their own cars. | :05:09. | :05:17. | |
We are very sceptical about competition in the water industry. | :05:18. | :05:20. | |
It goes against much of the trend of the rest of Europe. For really super | :05:21. | :05:28. | |
lies Asian of water, giving water back to communities, I government | :05:29. | :05:34. | |
committed to devolution might consider that. But they want | :05:35. | :05:40. | |
competition, perhaps we can have competition in reservoirs, pumping | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
stations and mains pipes? You could even have three standpipes at every | :05:45. | :05:54. | |
corner. Imagine the vision of Tory Britain, Mr Speaker, I will not give | :05:55. | :06:05. | |
way. We have no objection... Mr Speaker... Order. I am well aware | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
there are members who want to intervene and that is perfectly | :06:11. | :06:14. | |
reasonable of them to want to intervene. Equally there is no | :06:15. | :06:18. | |
obligation on the Leader of the Opposition to give way. Border. | :06:19. | :06:25. | |
Somebody muttered from a sedentary position too long. The honourable | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
gentleman is entitled to his opinion. I am telling the house will | :06:30. | :06:36. | |
be factual position is, however uncomfortable. And that is that the | :06:37. | :06:39. | |
right Honourable gentleman is in order. What is not in order is for | :06:40. | :06:46. | |
people to shout and Barrick. In total violation of what has been set | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
out at the start of proceedings. I urge members who may be irritated to | :06:52. | :06:57. | |
behave with dignity. The Leader of the Opposition. Thank you Mr | :06:58. | :07:04. | |
Speaker, no, I will not give way. Mr Speaker, we have no objection to | :07:05. | :07:08. | |
reviewing the franchise with regards to overseas citizens but I do hope, | :07:09. | :07:13. | |
and I hope the government take this point seriously, that the government | :07:14. | :07:16. | |
will be minded not only to looking at those who have lived abroad for | :07:17. | :07:21. | |
several decades but also to look at 16 and 17-year-olds in this country. | :07:22. | :07:27. | |
Alden after marry and work and join the Army, rightly allowed to vote in | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
the Scottish referendum but not able to vote in our elections. There is | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
something perverse about the government in franchising people who | :07:38. | :07:41. | |
have not lived in Britain for years when its disenfranchised in hundreds | :07:42. | :07:45. | |
of thousands of British residents throughout individual voter | :07:46. | :07:49. | |
registration plan. That is why as part of the EU referendum campaign | :07:50. | :07:53. | |
many of us are spending a lot of time encouraging young people to | :07:54. | :07:56. | |
ensure they are registered to vote. It is the future at stake. Everyone | :07:57. | :08:02. | |
in this house Mr Speaker understands the risks posed by terrorism. This | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
city, London, had experienced it before as have other cities around | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
the world. We will of course support strong measures to give the police | :08:14. | :08:17. | |
and security the services and resources they need. But we will | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
also support checks and balances to ensure powers are used | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
appropriately. We would welcome any proposals from the government to | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
reform the prevent strategy and instead emphasised the value of | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
community led work to prevent young people being drawn into extremism in | :08:37. | :08:43. | |
any form. In foreign policy we must put our promotion of human rights at | :08:44. | :08:48. | |
the centre. We cannot continue to turn a blind eye and worse sell arms | :08:49. | :08:54. | |
to those countries that abuse human rights either within or beyond their | :08:55. | :08:59. | |
borders. I welcome the forthcoming visit of President Santos of | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
Colombia and look forward to meeting him to discuss human rights in what | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
is hopefully on its way to becoming a post-conflict society. This | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
government's legislative programme spoke of humanitarian challenges. We | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
are grateful to Lord dubs for taking on the challenge of making the | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
government more humanitarian. Just a few weeks previously Mr Speaker this | :09:24. | :09:28. | |
Prime Minister was rebelling to refugees fleeing persecution as a | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
bunch of migrants and a swarm. I have to say this, those words were | :09:34. | :09:37. | |
wrong and I hope the Prime Minister will think again about them and | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
recognise as everyone issued that refugees are simply human beings | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
just like any of us in this chamber who are trying to survive in a | :09:47. | :09:53. | |
dangerous and cruel world. We need to solve their problems with | :09:54. | :09:57. | |
humanity, not with that kind of language. All sides of the house Mr | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
Speaker will have been heartened by the increased turnout in the | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
elections for police and crime commissioners. We welcome any moves | :10:06. | :10:13. | |
which will give them the power to improve accountability of their | :10:14. | :10:17. | |
communities. Our police forces mostly do an excellent job. But Mr | :10:18. | :10:23. | |
Speaker the recent Hillsboro inquest and the results of it showed they | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
must never be above scrutiny to ensure they do their jobs properly. | :10:29. | :10:42. | |
We welcome any measures designed to properly tackle tax avoidance and | :10:43. | :10:52. | |
tax evasion. But this government 's record on this subject is one of | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
continuous failure. Just a month ago the Prime Minister welcomed in this | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
house EU proposals on country by country tax transparency. But on the | :11:04. | :11:11. | |
26th of April Conservative MEPs yet again voted against the same | :11:12. | :11:16. | |
proposal. Did they not get the memo? That same Prime Minister continues | :11:17. | :11:23. | |
to allow UK tax havens not to issue public registers of beneficial | :11:24. | :11:29. | |
ownership. And oppose wholesale the introduction of beneficial ownership | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
registers for offshore trusts. People expect companies that trade | :11:35. | :11:38. | |
in this country and people who live in this country to pay their tax in | :11:39. | :11:44. | |
this country. It funds our public services. Aggressive tax avoidance | :11:45. | :11:51. | |
and tax evasion are an attack on our NHS, on our schools, on key for the | :11:52. | :11:56. | |
elderly and disabled people, on Social Security and prevent poverty, | :11:57. | :12:02. | |
homelessness destitution. If anyone wants to deliver a more equal | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
society, an economy which works for anyone, and a society where there is | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
opportunity for all, it takes an active government to do it. Not the | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
driverless car heading in the wrong direction that we have in this | :12:19. | :12:19. | |
government at the present time. Should calm themselves, they have | :12:20. | :12:48. | |
got the moment they have been waiting for! The Prime Minister! | :12:49. | :12:57. | |
Thank you Mr Speaker. I think we have just witnessed a parliamentary | :12:58. | :13:02. | |
records of 41 minutes speech without a single intervention. I have been | :13:03. | :13:08. | |
taking part in these debates on the Queen 's speech for I think the last | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
ten years and I have never seen a minister or opposition leader refuse | :13:14. | :13:17. | |
a single, was there really no question from any Labour MP, did | :13:18. | :13:25. | |
anyone in the SMP have anything to say? I know the SNP have other | :13:26. | :13:30. | |
things on their mind! I think actually it's mostly the same thing | :13:31. | :13:33. | |
on their minds but not a single question! Mr Speaker this Queen 's | :13:34. | :13:40. | |
speech builds on strong foundations. The deficit cut by almost two thirds | :13:41. | :13:45. | |
as a share of GDP, the highest employment rate in our record and | :13:46. | :13:49. | |
our long-term economic plan means the economy is over 13% bigger than | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
the start of 2010. We have 900,000 more businesses, poverty is at its | :13:56. | :14:03. | |
lowest rate in three decades. Mr Speaker I am the first to say there | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
is far more to be done to entrench our strong economic performance. We | :14:09. | :14:14. | |
want more exports, higher productivity, we need better | :14:15. | :14:16. | |
infrastructure and that is why one of the key measures in the Queens | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
speech is for the first time I universal service obligation to | :14:21. | :14:24. | |
deliver broadband to every and every business in the country. With this | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
government economic security always comes first. This Queen 's speech | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
uses the strong economic foundations to make a series of bold choices | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
which will deliver opportunity for all at every stage of life. For | :14:38. | :14:43. | |
children we make the choice to rebalance the system in favour of | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
faster adoption so more children get a loving and stable home. Fortier | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
levers we choose to put them first for training and jobs so the most | :14:53. | :14:58. | |
disadvantaged get a better life for themselves. I will give way a lot! | :14:59. | :15:01. | |
CHEERING But I am going to make some | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
progress, I will deal with the proposers and second is and then I | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
am happy to give way a lot. I predict at least 500% more than my | :15:12. | :15:15. | |
principal opponent. For all our young people we offer them the | :15:16. | :15:20. | |
chance to do National Service, for school leavers we make the choice to | :15:21. | :15:27. | |
extend for low-income families we choose to offer new support to build | :15:28. | :15:30. | |
up their savings through the first ever helped to save scheme. For | :15:31. | :15:34. | |
those who want to get on the housing ladder we are choosing to build a | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
new home and we choose to deliver the biggest reform of our prison | :15:40. | :15:42. | |
system for a century, knocking down the old and outdated resins and | :15:43. | :15:45. | |
reforming education and rehabilitation of offenders. This | :15:46. | :15:53. | |
combines economic security with extending life chances for all. It | :15:54. | :16:00. | |
is the Queen 's speech of a progressive, one nation Conservative | :16:01. | :16:04. | |
government. Her Majesty 's greatest speech was buoyantly proposed by my | :16:05. | :16:07. | |
right honourable friend the member for Meriden. Her speech was powerful | :16:08. | :16:12. | |
and passionate and included some excellent advice. | :16:13. | :16:19. | |
As the leader said, a union background, too. In charge of sugar | :16:20. | :16:25. | |
beet for the National farmers union and a consultant on food and | :16:26. | :16:29. | |
biotechnology. You can imagine the shock in deaf awareness into | :16:30. | :16:34. | |
thousand ten they began to get the Secretary of State for agriculture | :16:35. | :16:37. | |
who knew what you was talking about. She stripped away unnecessary | :16:38. | :16:40. | |
burdens of bureaucracy for farmers. Cheap reduced first environment | :16:41. | :16:49. | |
White Paper for 30 years. She prepared two United Nations | :16:50. | :16:51. | |
agreement is taking huge steps forward to protect our environment. | :16:52. | :16:57. | |
Everyone in this house knows she is at deeply committed Christian. This | :16:58. | :17:01. | |
would have come in handy during her time in deaf when she had to deal | :17:02. | :17:03. | |
with floods, droughts, food shortages and even disease. Indeed | :17:04. | :17:09. | |
everything short of a plague of locusts, which I will be predicting | :17:10. | :17:20. | |
in my next speech on Europe. While chairing the Conservative Party, my | :17:21. | :17:22. | |
right honourable friend did a massive amount to encourage more | :17:23. | :17:26. | |
women to stand for Parliament and I am the first to say there is still | :17:27. | :17:29. | |
more to do but the change in the benches around me is a significant | :17:30. | :17:33. | |
tribute to her great efforts. She talked about her charity work and in | :17:34. | :17:36. | |
pursuit of these causes it does seem as though she is prepared to do | :17:37. | :17:41. | |
almost anything with almost anybody. During her time in this house she | :17:42. | :17:45. | |
has sung the flower duet with Sara Teva. She performed the joiner | :17:46. | :17:51. | |
monologues with Jerry Hall. And more recently she launched | :17:52. | :17:53. | |
environmentalists Europe with Stanley Johnson. I now need to set | :17:54. | :17:57. | |
her to work on other members of the family. Mr Speaker, her speech was | :17:58. | :18:00. | |
in the finest traditions of the house. The gracious speech was | :18:01. | :18:04. | |
brilliantly seconded by my honourable friend the member for | :18:05. | :18:09. | |
Bracknell. He was witty comedy with self-deprecating, he was thoughtful. | :18:10. | :18:13. | |
His description of his medical examinations and indeed his | :18:14. | :18:16. | |
explanation of the true nature of PR means that I will shortly be | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
recommending him for a role in the Whip's office where he presumably | :18:21. | :18:23. | |
could carry out a number of important pieces of work. He began, | :18:24. | :18:29. | |
as he said, his political life, canned and sing in Beaconsfield | :18:30. | :18:34. | |
where he was also the local GP. I'm sure he will welcome our record | :18:35. | :18:37. | |
spending on health and the progress we are making towards a seven-day | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
NHS. And I'm sure the quality of his speeches are just as good on Sunday | :18:42. | :18:45. | |
as the one we had today. We look forward to hearing more. Every time | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
he goes canvassing he is besieged not only with political problems but | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
the medical problems of his constituents, bringing a whole new | :18:54. | :18:57. | |
meaning to the concept of MP's surgery. He is also, I understand, | :18:58. | :19:02. | |
romantic supporter of lost causes. He told us in his own speech of | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
standing in Michael foot's old seat, he told us that he got 816 votes, | :19:07. | :19:13. | |
but he didn't tell us that at the time he had 1500 patients so it was | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
not that good result. It is now applied Camry marginal so things | :19:19. | :19:22. | |
have changed. He is also an ardent fan of Queens Park Rangers but we | :19:23. | :19:25. | |
won't say too much about that because at least one of my teams is | :19:26. | :19:28. | |
joining him in the championship next season. My honourable friend is a | :19:29. | :19:34. | |
passion or member of the England supporters club, he travelled with | :19:35. | :19:39. | |
the England team to Japan in 2002, Portugal in 2004, Germany in 2006 | :19:40. | :19:42. | |
and of course England lost on all those occasions. So the house will | :19:43. | :19:47. | |
be pleased to hear that we will be exercising our firm border controls | :19:48. | :19:50. | |
and not letting him anywhere near France this summer. My honourable | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
friend and I have both benefited from your decision to establish a | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
nursery on the parliamentary estate. We thank you for that, as do our | :19:59. | :20:03. | |
daughters. Mr Speaker, my honourable friend has made his own contribution | :20:04. | :20:07. | |
to this house which he referred to, not least in his role as | :20:08. | :20:10. | |
vice-chairman of the Parliamentary space committee, he told us about | :20:11. | :20:13. | |
his passion for this issue and indeed for Tim Peake, who we all | :20:14. | :20:18. | |
wish well. And of course the Madden Ellie modern transport Bill will | :20:19. | :20:21. | |
bring about something he has long compay and four, the first British | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
spaceport. This gives the opportunity for people to be sent | :20:27. | :20:29. | |
into orbit for prolonged periods, thousands of miles away from this | :20:30. | :20:35. | |
place. We may have different candidates for who should qualify | :20:36. | :20:37. | |
for this honour, but I'm grateful that we will both be supporting the | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
bill. He told us he is one of the few MPs who is not yet decided which | :20:43. | :20:46. | |
way he will vote in the EU referendum, he kept us guessing | :20:47. | :20:50. | |
today. But I know that he, like everybody else, particularly on | :20:51. | :20:53. | |
these benches, will welcome the fact that we are keeping our promise of | :20:54. | :20:57. | |
holding and in out EU referendum. Mr Speaker, his speech I thought a very | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
thoughtful speech, was also in the finest traditions of our house. Mr | :21:03. | :21:06. | |
Speaker, let me also joined the right Honourable member the Leader | :21:07. | :21:09. | |
of the Opposition in paying tribute to two great members of this house | :21:10. | :21:13. | |
who passed away over the last year. Harry Harper and was only in this | :21:14. | :21:17. | |
place a short time but quickly became a very popular member. He and | :21:18. | :21:21. | |
great admiration from all sides by the way he continued to carry out | :21:22. | :21:25. | |
his work throughout his treatment for cancer. His widow, the new | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
honourable member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough is | :21:30. | :21:31. | |
continuing his great work of standing up for the constituency he | :21:32. | :21:36. | |
loved so much. Michael Meacher represented his old constituents in | :21:37. | :21:39. | |
this place for a staggering 45 Years. He were sometimes known as | :21:40. | :21:45. | |
Tony Benn's vicar on earth. He was a passionate campaigner for equality | :21:46. | :21:49. | |
and climate change and this house is a poorer place without both of those | :21:50. | :21:51. | |
members and we miss them greatly. Let me welcome the Leader of the | :21:52. | :21:58. | |
Opposition to his first Queen 's speech debate. I wasn't entirely | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
sure whether he would turn up. He once described it as a ridiculous | :22:03. | :22:05. | |
18th-century performance. He has even suggested that the monarchy | :22:06. | :22:11. | |
call it a day when the Queen completes her reign. I have to say, | :22:12. | :22:15. | |
Mr Speaker, I think there's more chance of the Labour Party calling | :22:16. | :22:18. | |
it a day when he completes his reign, but there we are. I've been | :22:19. | :22:23. | |
doing my research is, too. It may come a little sooner than people | :22:24. | :22:26. | |
think. He recently placed an advert for a job in his office that said, | :22:27. | :22:32. | |
and I quote, fixed term contract for the period only that Jeremy Corbyn | :22:33. | :22:39. | |
is leader of the Labour Party, or until 31st of December 2016, | :22:40. | :22:43. | |
whichever is sooner. Is there something we are not being told? I | :22:44. | :22:49. | |
wondered the course, I thought maybe it was the long and training hours | :22:50. | :22:52. | |
having done this job, so in preparing for my speech I asked my | :22:53. | :22:55. | |
office to ring his office to find out. I promise I'm not making this | :22:56. | :22:59. | |
up, this is the answerphone message that we got. Thank you for calling | :23:00. | :23:05. | |
the office of Jeremy Corbyn, MP, Leader of the Opposition. Our phone | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
lines are open between the times of 2p and 4pm every weekday. I know he | :23:11. | :23:13. | |
wants a shorter working week, but there are limits. Presumably even | :23:14. | :23:20. | |
for him. There were rumours that at one point he would be challenged for | :23:21. | :23:23. | |
the leadership by the former chair of the public amounts Ellie accounts | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
committee. I was thrilled by the prospect of making jokes about | :23:29. | :23:30. | |
labour moving from Islington to Barking. I got the feeling after | :23:31. | :23:36. | |
today's performance that they will be moving to Barking without the | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
leadership contest but there we are. We do face an extraordinary | :23:41. | :23:46. | |
opposition team. The Shadow Business Secretary is anti-business, the | :23:47. | :23:49. | |
shadow city minister does not speak to the city, the Shadow farming | :23:50. | :23:52. | |
secretary who should be responsible for encouraging Britain's livestock | :23:53. | :23:57. | |
industry is actually a vegan. The shadow defence member does not | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
believe in defence. They are led by a proud Republican who now has to | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
call himself the leader of Her Majesty's opposition. I have to say, | :24:07. | :24:14. | |
Mr Speaker. If you were to propose, does he want me to give way? If you | :24:15. | :24:23. | |
were to propose this script for the thick of it, even with the | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
entreaties of my right honourable friend the cultural secretary about | :24:28. | :24:30. | |
the importance of diversity and innovation, the BBC would have to | :24:31. | :24:34. | |
reject the script as utterly far-fetched. I give way to the | :24:35. | :24:42. | |
honourable gentleman. Will the Prime Minister remind the house when | :24:43. | :24:45. | |
either he or the Secretary of State for business actually went to meet | :24:46. | :24:52. | |
Tata during the steel crisis when our own front bench including the | :24:53. | :24:56. | |
general secretary of the community went when no frontbencher was | :24:57. | :24:59. | |
available, indeed they were in Australia on holiday. Can the Prime | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
Minister remind us when he actually met with Tata? I was in Port Talbot | :25:05. | :25:11. | |
two weeks ago meeting with Tata. Look, let me give them a tip. It's | :25:12. | :25:15. | |
all right not intervening on your own leader but if you are going to | :25:16. | :25:19. | |
intervene on the other guy, try to think of a question they are going | :25:20. | :25:24. | |
to find difficult. To be fair to the Leader of the Opposition he made an | :25:25. | :25:27. | |
inspiring speech after the local elections. He said across England we | :25:28. | :25:32. | |
had predictions we would lose councils, we didn't, we hung on. | :25:33. | :25:36. | |
This will surely go down as one of the great rallying cries. Go back to | :25:37. | :25:41. | |
your constituencies and prepare to hang on. I have to say, to be fair | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
there are days I know it's acting how he feels. But Mr Speaker you can | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
say what you like about the right honourable gentleman but he has | :25:51. | :25:54. | |
never hidden his beliefs. While I may disagree with most of them he's | :25:55. | :25:57. | |
been totally consistent in his opposition to market economics, | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
choice of public services, and Britain maintaining strong defences. | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
I'm not surprised he opposes this Queen 's speech almost in its | :26:07. | :26:09. | |
entirety. But nobody can say the British people are not in offered a | :26:10. | :26:17. | |
choice. Mr Speaker we want to see true equality of opportunity in our | :26:18. | :26:21. | |
country. That is why we are reforming our schools, creating 3 | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
million apprenticeships, establishing new universities, | :26:27. | :26:28. | |
boosting entrepreneurship, cutting taxes for business, and creating a | :26:29. | :26:31. | |
dynamic economy in which people will make the most of their talents. But | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
if we really want to make a true difference to people's life chances, | :26:36. | :26:39. | |
we've got to go further in tackling the barriers to opportunities, | :26:40. | :26:43. | |
helping those who get left behind, helping those who are stuck in | :26:44. | :26:46. | |
poverty, helping those who grow up without the advantages of a strong | :26:47. | :26:50. | |
family. I give way to the honourable lady. I am grateful to be Prime | :26:51. | :26:54. | |
Minister for giving way. Could he explain why he is going back on his | :26:55. | :26:59. | |
promise to introduce a white paper for support for disabled people into | :27:00. | :27:04. | |
employment after he's cut ?1500 per year from sick and disabled people? | :27:05. | :27:08. | |
We are not going back on that promise. We want to do more to help | :27:09. | :27:11. | |
disabled people into work and what we've seen in the last year is well | :27:12. | :27:15. | |
over 100,000 disabled people get into work and we will continue with | :27:16. | :27:19. | |
that excellent work. But let me make this point, because if we really | :27:20. | :27:23. | |
want to help people's life chances, we need to help those who need the | :27:24. | :27:27. | |
help the most. That's why there is such an emphasis in this Queen 's | :27:28. | :27:31. | |
speech on adoption and care. When I became Prime Minister, some social | :27:32. | :27:33. | |
workers were refusing to place black, mixed race or Asian children | :27:34. | :27:38. | |
with white adoptive parents. I think that is profoundly wrong and we | :27:39. | :27:42. | |
change the law to prevent it. As a result of that change and the other | :27:43. | :27:52. | |
things we've done, adoption today is up by 72%, but there is still a lot | :27:53. | :27:55. | |
more to do in a system that still favours foster parents or distant | :27:56. | :27:58. | |
relatives, we chose to promote an option which would provide more | :27:59. | :28:00. | |
permanent and stable homes. To make sure our social workers get proper | :28:01. | :28:02. | |
training on the job, we are reforming training and raising | :28:03. | :28:04. | |
professional standards for every single social worker by 2020. And | :28:05. | :28:09. | |
while young people are in care, they already get the first choice of | :28:10. | :28:12. | |
which school they go to, we don't give them sufficient advantages when | :28:13. | :28:16. | |
they leave care and it's time that we did so. So in this Queen 's | :28:17. | :28:20. | |
speech we are saying to care leavers, you will get guaranteed | :28:21. | :28:23. | |
care entitlements to local services, funding for apprenticeships and | :28:24. | :28:26. | |
personal mentor up to the age of 25. All this will be included in our | :28:27. | :28:31. | |
care leavers government so that our most disadvantaged young people get | :28:32. | :28:34. | |
the opportunities they deserve. These are the choices of a | :28:35. | :28:38. | |
progressive, one nation Conservative government. I give way to my | :28:39. | :28:42. | |
honourable friend. I am grateful to the Prime Minister for giving way. | :28:43. | :28:45. | |
Can he assure the house that whatever your background, wherever | :28:46. | :28:49. | |
you were born, if you have aspiration, not only will you be | :28:50. | :28:52. | |
given the inspiration to succeed but the education to allow you to get to | :28:53. | :28:56. | |
where you want to get to? My honourable friend is absolutely | :28:57. | :29:00. | |
right. It's no good just talking about opportunity into 's of giving | :29:01. | :29:09. | |
people the on. We've got to unblock those who are stuck, whether they | :29:10. | :29:12. | |
are stuck in poverty or in troubled families or in care, or because they | :29:13. | :29:14. | |
can't get adopted or because they have mental health problems. That is | :29:15. | :29:16. | |
the modern agenda of this Conservative government. Yes, the | :29:17. | :29:19. | |
economic opportunities we have always talked about but let's | :29:20. | :29:22. | |
unblock the opportunities that have been blocked for too many in my | :29:23. | :29:27. | |
country. I will give way to the Scottish National party now they | :29:28. | :29:30. | |
have woken up. Further to the intervention from the honourable | :29:31. | :29:35. | |
member from Oldham East and Saddleworth, his last appearance at | :29:36. | :29:38. | |
the dispatch box the right honourable member for Chingford gave | :29:39. | :29:41. | |
me a commitment that the White Paper on health and work would be | :29:42. | :29:44. | |
published well before the summer, what has changed? Well, what's | :29:45. | :29:48. | |
changed is we are getting more disabled people into work. We want | :29:49. | :29:52. | |
to make more progress with that. We have a new Secretary of State for | :29:53. | :29:55. | |
Work and Pensions who is absolutely committed to continuing with that of | :29:56. | :29:58. | |
element and that is what you will see in the months to come. After a | :29:59. | :30:02. | |
strong family the greatest driver of opportunity is a good school. Under | :30:03. | :30:07. | |
the last Labour government and number of pupils studying core | :30:08. | :30:10. | |
academic subjects at GCSE halved. According to the OECD generation | :30:11. | :30:15. | |
educated under the government are among the least literate and | :30:16. | :30:18. | |
numerate in the developed world. This government is determined to | :30:19. | :30:22. | |
turn around that shameful legacy. Already we've got 1.4 million more | :30:23. | :30:26. | |
pupils taught in good or outstanding schools. The number studying the | :30:27. | :30:29. | |
core academic subjects at GCSE has gone up. There are more teachers | :30:30. | :30:33. | |
with degrees, more pupils studying maths, more pupils studying science, | :30:34. | :30:38. | |
and in this week's speech we will help to make that educational | :30:39. | :30:41. | |
excellence available to all in our country. A national funding formula | :30:42. | :30:46. | |
so schools get the money they need. Local authorities that aren't | :30:47. | :30:50. | |
delivering intervened on at once. Failing and coastal schools turned | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
into academies without delay. We should be clear about the choice we | :30:56. | :30:59. | |
are making. Rigour in standards, discipline in the classroom, | :31:00. | :31:03. | |
excellence in teaching, autonomy in schools, no tolerance of failure. | :31:04. | :31:07. | |
Again, this is the policy of a progressive, one nation Conservative | :31:08. | :31:07. | |
government. How is equal opportunity consistent | :31:08. | :31:18. | |
with lowering the best opportunities to their fees so instead of the | :31:19. | :31:23. | |
brightest getting access, the richest get access? I am coming on | :31:24. | :31:29. | |
to this point that what we have seen since the introduction of fees is | :31:30. | :31:33. | |
not only record numbers going to university but record numbers from | :31:34. | :31:39. | |
poorer backgrounds. So a real opportunity to offer school leavers | :31:40. | :31:43. | |
apprenticeships, the choice of a good university and a good job, and | :31:44. | :31:48. | |
our Queen's speech helps deliver on all three. We are providing funding | :31:49. | :31:53. | |
for apprenticeships, and capping numbers that universities or the one | :31:54. | :31:57. | |
who can get the benefit will get one, and now we are legislating to | :31:58. | :32:01. | |
make sure degrees are of high quality and new universities can be | :32:02. | :32:05. | |
established. None of this would be possible without the bold decision | :32:06. | :32:09. | |
to reform fees and it demonstrates that reform and value for money | :32:10. | :32:12. | |
don't hold back opportunities but help create them. I am sure the | :32:13. | :32:23. | |
Prime Minister that would agree that one of the best thing we can do | :32:24. | :32:26. | |
thorough children is to give them a university education and I welcome | :32:27. | :32:30. | |
that more universities will be enabled to be opened. I would love | :32:31. | :32:34. | |
one in Somerset but it is the best thing we can do for young people. I | :32:35. | :32:39. | |
will certainly look at what she says because all the evidence when we | :32:40. | :32:43. | |
look at economic growth and development is that having | :32:44. | :32:46. | |
universities of a high quality in all regions is a massive driver for | :32:47. | :32:53. | |
growth and retaining talent. I give way. He is being typically generous. | :32:54. | :33:06. | |
All the secondary schools in my constituency at academies, a process | :33:07. | :33:10. | |
begun by the Labour county council before it was booted out in 2009. In | :33:11. | :33:15. | |
welcoming the national funding formula that will help all schools | :33:16. | :33:20. | |
in Staffordshire, will my right honourable friend make sure the | :33:21. | :33:25. | |
academies in Tamworth are protected and another abolished as the Leader | :33:26. | :33:30. | |
of the Opposition would like? We are absolutely committed to academies | :33:31. | :33:33. | |
and the skills and we want to combine that autonomy with the | :33:34. | :33:35. | |
national funding formula and make sure all the money goes to the | :33:36. | :33:40. | |
school itself. All these reforms go together to drive change in our | :33:41. | :33:45. | |
education system. Turning to jobs, today's figures show unemployment | :33:46. | :33:50. | |
falling, employment rising and the record for the number of people in | :33:51. | :33:55. | |
work in our country. This builds on the record with further improvements | :33:56. | :33:59. | |
to infrastructure and measures to make Britain a world leader in the | :34:00. | :34:03. | |
Digital economy. We are determined to deliver an economy that is rich | :34:04. | :34:08. | |
in jobs and with the national living wage, nobody earning tax before the | :34:09. | :34:13. | |
?11,000, in work training and learning through life and all the | :34:14. | :34:18. | |
steps being taken to boost productivity, our ambition should be | :34:19. | :34:22. | |
to have Britain have the best trained, best paid workforce in | :34:23. | :34:30. | |
Europe. I apologise for being semicomatose during the speech by | :34:31. | :34:37. | |
the Leader of the Opposition. The Prime Minister mentions the economy | :34:38. | :34:42. | |
and productivity. Will he tell us why the worst productivity doesn't | :34:43. | :34:48. | |
appear in the Queen's Speech? Is it because this country's productivity | :34:49. | :34:52. | |
record is so appalling? It is because everything in the Queen's | :34:53. | :34:55. | |
Speech is about enhancing productivity. If we make these | :34:56. | :34:59. | |
investments and improve the transport system, all those things | :35:00. | :35:04. | |
will help to drive productivity which is absolutely vital to our | :35:05. | :35:09. | |
success. Opportunity for all also means continuing to make sure that | :35:10. | :35:12. | |
every part of concrete Cheers and rising prosperity so this Queen's | :35:13. | :35:18. | |
Speech we continue to support the development of a northern powerhouse | :35:19. | :35:23. | |
and Midlands engine. We want to have elected me hours and six of our | :35:24. | :35:26. | |
largest cities and with plans local authorities will have complete plans | :35:27. | :35:31. | |
for revenue raised from businesses and for the first time the decisions | :35:32. | :35:34. | |
they take to attract businesses to the area will help grow the economy | :35:35. | :35:39. | |
and benefit the bottom line. It is a huge change in our country. I am | :35:40. | :35:45. | |
most grateful to the Prime Minister and perhaps I can just say that in | :35:46. | :35:52. | |
the years 2000-2010, 300 and ?50 million was removed from the city of | :35:53. | :36:00. | |
Leeds for Crossrail. Since 2010 over half ?1 billion has been invested | :36:01. | :36:02. | |
showing we believe in the northern powerhouse. We can add the plans for | :36:03. | :36:13. | |
the M62 and HS2 and electrifying the Trans Pennine Railway. Believing an | :36:14. | :36:18. | |
opportunity means never writing in a one-off and for too long and our | :36:19. | :36:22. | |
country the young offenders institutions and presence have not | :36:23. | :36:26. | |
been working. They give the public the security of knowing that | :36:27. | :36:30. | |
offenders are locked in but they are not doing enough to turn round the | :36:31. | :36:34. | |
lives of people who will one day be let out. And our presence we will | :36:35. | :36:39. | |
apply the lessons learned and other public service reforms, publishing | :36:40. | :36:41. | |
results and getting the people who run the service is proper control | :36:42. | :36:46. | |
over them. Encouraging innovation and rewarding success and not | :36:47. | :36:50. | |
correlating persistent failure. -- tolerating. It's key serious about | :36:51. | :36:59. | |
prison reform because why have prison budgets been slashed at a | :37:00. | :37:05. | |
time that populations are going? And given 40,000 prisoners are currently | :37:06. | :37:08. | |
incarcerated for offences linked to drug use, isn't it time to review | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
our policy that treats drug addicts only as criminals and not people who | :37:13. | :37:16. | |
as well need our support? I really think we need to get away from the | :37:17. | :37:20. | |
idea that you will measure progress on public services by the amount of | :37:21. | :37:26. | |
money is spent. The aim is to try to do more with less and that is what | :37:27. | :37:29. | |
we have done with so many parts of the public sector. The point about | :37:30. | :37:32. | |
drugs is important but the first thing we have to ensure there is | :37:33. | :37:37. | |
that our prisons are drug-free and also free of legal highs with the | :37:38. | :37:43. | |
Leader of the House made such a powerful case this morning. I will | :37:44. | :37:46. | |
make progress but I promise I will be giving way a lot more. For | :37:47. | :37:51. | |
decades we have been cramming people into crumbling prisons built very | :37:52. | :37:54. | |
different age and many are now unfit for human habitation. These | :37:55. | :37:58. | |
buildings do not help rehabilitation and are rife with bullying and | :37:59. | :38:04. | |
violence. We have made ?1.3 billion worth of commitment to get rid of | :38:05. | :38:09. | |
ageing prisons and build nine new prisons with modern facilities. Bold | :38:10. | :38:14. | |
reform from a progressive one nation Conservative government. Could he | :38:15. | :38:22. | |
explain to the House wife figures for suicide in prison, attacks on | :38:23. | :38:27. | |
prison staff, and contraband have gone up? Could it be to do with the | :38:28. | :38:31. | |
fact there are 7000 fewer prison officers done in 2010? As we were | :38:32. | :38:36. | |
discussing, one of the reasons is the availability of legal highs and | :38:37. | :38:39. | |
we need to deal with that and deal with that in our presence. I don't | :38:40. | :38:45. | |
think it's right simply to lay this at the door. What we need is prisons | :38:46. | :38:51. | |
that are run well, prisons where the management and in control and | :38:52. | :38:53. | |
presence where we are able to turn round the lives of people who are | :38:54. | :38:57. | |
and it is all very well live at asking questions. They had 13 years | :38:58. | :39:02. | |
to reform prisons but it took a reforming Tory Government to put it | :39:03. | :39:08. | |
on the agenda! Mr Speaker, we cannot extend life chances unless we also | :39:09. | :39:12. | |
tackle the menace of extremism. In our country, there is still | :39:13. | :39:18. | |
discrimination we must fight, opportunities still block and glass | :39:19. | :39:22. | |
ceilings that need to be smashed. We should all be proud of the fact that | :39:23. | :39:25. | |
if you look around the world Britain is already one of the most | :39:26. | :39:30. | |
successful multiracial, multi-faith democracies anywhere. I will make | :39:31. | :39:33. | |
progress because I want to make this argument. Extremists hate this fact | :39:34. | :39:41. | |
because it challenges the whole worldview. The preachers who see the | :39:42. | :39:47. | |
Christians, Jews and news forms can live together. The people who said | :39:48. | :39:52. | |
women can travel more than a few miles beyond the cities where they | :39:53. | :39:57. | |
live. The activists who insist on segregation. The religious schools | :39:58. | :40:01. | |
who teach pupils not to mix with those of other backgrounds and who | :40:02. | :40:06. | |
sometimes teach Jews are the enemy. To people who say that pointing this | :40:07. | :40:11. | |
out is some hope intolerant or Islamophobic IC nonsense. It is not | :40:12. | :40:17. | |
liberalism to walk on by and pretend it isn't happening to pretend that | :40:18. | :40:21. | |
is part of another culture. Real liberalism means standing up liberal | :40:22. | :40:24. | |
values and that is what we need to do. Before I give way, I want to | :40:25. | :40:32. | |
make one last point. It is not the reserve of one party to make this | :40:33. | :40:36. | |
point, whether it is my honourable friend on this side of the House, | :40:37. | :40:41. | |
the honourable member for Birmingham opposite, I have heard powerful | :40:42. | :40:45. | |
speeches right across the House, so when it comes to our Queen's Speech | :40:46. | :40:50. | |
proposal for the Kent of extremism safeguarding bill, whether we are | :40:51. | :40:55. | |
disrupting the activity of extremists are protecting young | :40:56. | :40:58. | |
children in unregulated schools, I hope there will be all-party support | :40:59. | :41:01. | |
to tackle the poisonous ideology at the heart of the extremist threat. I | :41:02. | :41:09. | |
give way. It is very clear that one of the areas used by the jihadist is | :41:10. | :41:16. | |
to recruit British citizens, especially young citizens, is the | :41:17. | :41:20. | |
Internet. Does he not agree that more should be done and perhaps | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
enshrined in legislation to ensure that the Internet companies do much | :41:26. | :41:29. | |
more to take down these websites and to pursue those responsible for this | :41:30. | :41:36. | |
hate? I agree and it is fair to say more than 170,000 pages have been | :41:37. | :41:40. | |
taken down because of the work we have done with Internet companies. I | :41:41. | :41:44. | |
have great hope because the companies originally said they | :41:45. | :41:48. | |
couldn't work with us on tackling online child pornography and then | :41:49. | :41:51. | |
the dead and a huge amount of change has come from that. They are now | :41:52. | :41:54. | |
beginning to see that whether it is beheading videos or the rest of it | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
they need to act and demonstrate legal responsibilities, so I am | :42:00. | :42:03. | |
hugely hopeful that we are clear in this house about what needs to be | :42:04. | :42:06. | |
done and we work with Internet companies we can make progress. I | :42:07. | :42:15. | |
give way. He will know that David Anderson, his own review of | :42:16. | :42:17. | |
terrorist legislation, who has seen the proposed extremism bill has said | :42:18. | :42:24. | |
that it ran the risk of playing into the hands of those who seek to drive | :42:25. | :42:30. | |
people farther towards extremism and terrorism. Will the Prime Minister | :42:31. | :42:36. | |
listen to his adviser and not simply give a propaganda victory to those | :42:37. | :42:39. | |
who wish to do us harm? I will of course listen to everyone about this | :42:40. | :42:43. | |
bill but I will say to the leader of the Liberal party that it is our | :42:44. | :42:47. | |
liberal values in this country that are being stamped over by people | :42:48. | :42:51. | |
saying you cannot travel out of the city you live in, or you cannot mix | :42:52. | :42:57. | |
with Jews and Muslims. That is what is happening and it is no good | :42:58. | :43:02. | |
saying, as the Liberal Democrats sometimes do, let's just focus on | :43:03. | :43:06. | |
the violent extremists and everyone else's exercising their freedom of | :43:07. | :43:09. | |
speech. That is not good enough and we have to stand up and fight for | :43:10. | :43:17. | |
liberal values. I think the Prime Minister for giving way. Extremists | :43:18. | :43:20. | |
are adept at blooming and brainwashing young people. Does the | :43:21. | :43:25. | |
Prime Minister agreed that we should be even bolder in offering greater | :43:26. | :43:29. | |
support and encouragement to the brave Muslims in our communities | :43:30. | :43:32. | |
that seek to stand up and challenge the intolerance and hatred exported | :43:33. | :43:40. | |
by Daesh? My honourable friend is correct and | :43:41. | :43:45. | |
if we give in to the idea that spokespeople who are extremists but | :43:46. | :43:51. | |
not violent can some how represent their communities, we completely | :43:52. | :43:54. | |
disempower the moderate voices who want us to stand up for the liberal | :43:55. | :43:57. | |
values we should champion in this house. I give way. Can he have an | :43:58. | :44:08. | |
early meeting with the Mayor of London in which he can discuss the | :44:09. | :44:14. | |
issues of London and its security and how we combat extremism and | :44:15. | :44:18. | |
capital, and could he then the opportunity to apologise for the | :44:19. | :44:26. | |
comments of his candidate? Once again, let me congratulate the Mayor | :44:27. | :44:29. | |
of London and see how much I am looking forward to meeting with him | :44:30. | :44:31. | |
to discuss this issue because I think you can actually do a huge | :44:32. | :44:35. | |
amount working with the government and labour colleagues and Liberal | :44:36. | :44:39. | |
Democrats and others to pursue this agenda about standing up for the | :44:40. | :44:42. | |
liberal democratic values that we hold so dear. Let me say, I am not | :44:43. | :44:49. | |
going to take any lectures from labour about giving way. We are not | :44:50. | :44:56. | |
allowed to drop the bomb of hypocrisy in this house but for | :44:57. | :45:01. | |
heavens sake, have a go at your own front bench. The Prime Minister | :45:02. | :45:09. | |
didn't say this but members shouldn't shriek at the Prime | :45:10. | :45:12. | |
Minister or the opposition for that matter. If they want to intervene | :45:13. | :45:18. | |
they should do so with civility. I thank the Prime Minister for giving | :45:19. | :45:24. | |
way. On extremism, government efforts to tackle hate preachers who | :45:25. | :45:27. | |
poison under minds and destroyer communities has to be welcomed and I | :45:28. | :45:33. | |
applaud what the Prime Minister is doing in tackling nonviolent | :45:34. | :45:36. | |
extremism. Can the Prime Minister clarify how this bill will be fine | :45:37. | :45:39. | |
when an individual has crossed the threshold in terms of what is | :45:40. | :45:44. | |
acceptable and what is not, so that our enforcement agencies and | :45:45. | :45:46. | |
communities know when to take action? My honourable friend raises | :45:47. | :45:52. | |
the crucial point that will be the heart of the debate and expected to | :45:53. | :45:56. | |
be difficult, because we're trying to balance two things. Our profound | :45:57. | :46:00. | |
belief about free speech in this country but also the need to stand | :46:01. | :46:04. | |
up for the liberal democratic values I have spoken about. It is not good | :46:05. | :46:08. | |
enough to say this is too difficult therefore we shouldn't take any | :46:09. | :46:10. | |
action to try to stop the people who are the minds of particularly young | :46:11. | :46:16. | |
children, so let me make this point in particular about the importance | :46:17. | :46:21. | |
of being able to go on to unregulated education sectors and to | :46:22. | :46:23. | |
check whether extremism is being taught or promoted. | :46:24. | :46:29. | |
If that is happening, walking by on the other side and saying we have to | :46:30. | :46:35. | |
put up with it, that is not good enough and it has to change. In this | :46:36. | :46:40. | |
speech were using our economic strength to choose to invest in the | :46:41. | :46:44. | |
national security of our United Kingdom. We are legislating on the | :46:45. | :46:49. | |
police, intelligence powers, human rights. Meeting our Nato commitment | :46:50. | :46:56. | |
to spend 2% of our GDP on the fence. But this government will also make a | :46:57. | :47:02. | |
further choice to disarm unilaterally -- will make a further | :47:03. | :47:12. | |
choice. To disarm unit Jara -- unilaterally would be a mistake. We | :47:13. | :47:17. | |
will campaign to secure the future of Britain's nuclear deterrent. We | :47:18. | :47:22. | |
are building homes again since Labour's recession, with more than | :47:23. | :47:27. | |
700,000 more since 2010. We are creating jobs with 2 million more in | :47:28. | :47:31. | |
work. We are investing in the NHS with almost 10,000 more doctors, | :47:32. | :47:36. | |
10,000 more nurses on words than in 2010. We are building a greater | :47:37. | :47:42. | |
Britain again with a Sound economy, strong defences and an opportunity | :47:43. | :47:47. | |
for all. These are the actions of the Progressive Conservative | :47:48. | :47:49. | |
government and I commend this speech to the House. | :47:50. | :48:04. | |
Mr Angus Robertson. Sit down, you might learn something. Pathetic. | :48:05. | :48:19. | |
Bye-bye, Tories. Well done, Tories. Goodbye, Tories. Members leaving the | :48:20. | :48:26. | |
chamber, if they could do so quickly and quietly we will hear from Mr | :48:27. | :48:32. | |
Angus Robertson. May I begin by echoing the tributes from the Leader | :48:33. | :48:36. | |
of the Opposition and by the Prime Minister in making reference to | :48:37. | :48:40. | |
members who have passed away in the last year and can I also take the | :48:41. | :48:44. | |
opportunity, which has not happened yet, given that today is a day of | :48:45. | :48:47. | |
heightened security, to pay tribute to the great number of police and | :48:48. | :48:51. | |
Parliamentary staff working very hard, often behind-the-scenes, to | :48:52. | :48:55. | |
make sure that everybody in this place, also the ministers and the | :48:56. | :49:00. | |
general public, are safer. Mr Speaker, can I start by ensuring | :49:01. | :49:04. | |
everybody on all sides of the House that I have absolutely no intentions | :49:05. | :49:08. | |
of speaking for 41 minutes without taking any interventions and I think | :49:09. | :49:12. | |
it is appropriate to give other members of the House also the | :49:13. | :49:16. | |
opportunity to speak in the proceedings. But as is appropriate, | :49:17. | :49:22. | |
it is right to start by commending the movers and secondaries. May I | :49:23. | :49:27. | |
start by the right honourable member for Meriden. I would like to pay | :49:28. | :49:31. | |
tribute to a long-standing interest, in particular for European interests | :49:32. | :49:39. | |
that are close to her heart. We are both fellow German speakers and have | :49:40. | :49:42. | |
found ourselves at a number of European events and I look forward | :49:43. | :49:45. | |
to contributions over the next five weeks especially on the subject of | :49:46. | :49:50. | |
why it is important that we remain part of the European Union. The | :49:51. | :49:57. | |
second also has a significant interest in European issues and has | :49:58. | :50:08. | |
worked... Migrate uncle... The Member for Bracknell brings | :50:09. | :50:12. | |
considerable experience with him as a medical general practitioner and | :50:13. | :50:14. | |
has been prepared to make difficult decisions on issues in Parliament, | :50:15. | :50:19. | |
joining with the SNP, for example, and others, in voting against the | :50:20. | :50:25. | |
government's intervention in Syria. Mr Speaker, last year's Queen's | :50:26. | :50:29. | |
Speech followed immediately after the general election when in | :50:30. | :50:33. | |
Scotland the SNP won almost every single seat in the country. This | :50:34. | :50:37. | |
year's Queen's Speech follows shortly after the Scottish | :50:38. | :50:41. | |
Parliamentary elections where the SNP won an impressive majority of | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
constituencies across Scotland. And I would like to congratulate | :50:46. | :50:50. | |
everyone of all parties who was returned, and also those who ended | :50:51. | :50:53. | |
their Parliamentary public service at Holyrood at the election, such as | :50:54. | :50:57. | |
my colleague, the right honourable member for Gordon. On these benches | :50:58. | :51:02. | |
we are delighted by a clear mandate for Nicola Sturgeon as First | :51:03. | :51:05. | |
Minister, currently forming a government. I would like to take the | :51:06. | :51:10. | |
opportunity to thank Alex Neil and Richard Lochhead, the outgoing | :51:11. | :51:13. | |
secretaries. Richard has been the longest serving and most experienced | :51:14. | :51:17. | |
rural affairs and fisheries Minister anywhere in the European Union. And | :51:18. | :51:25. | |
given the circumstances of his wife's brave battle with cancer, I'm | :51:26. | :51:29. | |
sure members across the House will send their best wishes. The Queen's | :51:30. | :51:34. | |
Speech has clearly been drafted with the referendum campaign and our | :51:35. | :51:39. | |
impending decision looming larger and overshadowing proceedings. The | :51:40. | :51:44. | |
SNP will make positive steps over the next five weeks to make the case | :51:45. | :51:50. | |
for Scotland and the UK to remain in the world's largest financial union. | :51:51. | :52:03. | |
Much of the speech relates to England and Wales, and it is | :52:04. | :52:05. | |
understandable that this is an issue that needs to be tackled. The | :52:06. | :52:09. | |
Scottish Government has increased spending in modernising and | :52:10. | :52:15. | |
increasing expenditure above the border. We understand why colleagues | :52:16. | :52:25. | |
in the rest of the UK would wish to see and emulate those kind of | :52:26. | :52:29. | |
changes which we have been able to introduce in Scotland. There are | :52:30. | :52:32. | |
quite a number of other major pieces of legislation which in fact largely | :52:33. | :52:37. | |
on England and Wales. They related to education, adoption, reforms to | :52:38. | :52:42. | |
democratic processes, so when the premature talks of this being a one | :52:43. | :52:46. | |
nation Queen's Speech, we now which nation he is talking about. I know | :52:47. | :52:51. | |
it is not fashionable and sometimes in political discourse it is | :52:52. | :52:57. | |
unfashionable to point out things were you agree. I would like to | :52:58. | :53:00. | |
break that convention because I think it is important to acknowledge | :53:01. | :53:04. | |
that there is the need for legislation when measures are | :53:05. | :53:06. | |
brought forward with which you agree, and with the usual caveat of | :53:07. | :53:10. | |
not having seen the legislative proposals, I'm sure that my | :53:11. | :53:13. | |
colleagues and I would be interested in supporting those measures from | :53:14. | :53:17. | |
the Queen's Speech which are worthy of support. So we are especially | :53:18. | :53:22. | |
interested in the proposal relating to combating tax avoidance, and also | :53:23. | :53:26. | |
keeping up with rapid technological developments which will have | :53:27. | :53:30. | |
transformative economic and societal impacts, such as 100% broadband | :53:31. | :53:34. | |
access, which has already been committed to by the Scottish | :53:35. | :53:38. | |
Government as well as legislation on driverless cars and drones. Of the | :53:39. | :53:44. | |
SNP is the only major opposition party in the House of Commons that | :53:45. | :53:47. | |
has bothered to prepare an alternative to the Queen's Speech. I | :53:48. | :53:54. | |
think it behoves serious opposition parties, yes, to hold the government | :53:55. | :53:58. | |
to account but also to propose alternatives. The SNP alternatives | :53:59. | :54:04. | |
prioritise strong action on encouraging productivity and export | :54:05. | :54:09. | |
growth in the economy. In support of the most vulnerable through | :54:10. | :54:13. | |
progressive action, and delivering meaningful further devolution to | :54:14. | :54:17. | |
Scotland. At the top of our list of what we have proposed in advance of | :54:18. | :54:22. | |
the day's Queen's Speech is a need for an emergency summer budget. Why? | :54:23. | :54:25. | |
Because it would give the government an opportunity to put an end to | :54:26. | :54:33. | |
austerity. It could bring about an inclusive, Prost Perris economy in | :54:34. | :54:40. | |
line with vital public services. -- prosperous. It would oversee an | :54:41. | :54:49. | |
increased spending on public services by a modest 0.5% a year in | :54:50. | :54:57. | |
real terms between 2016, 2017 and 20 20. This will release over ?150 | :54:58. | :55:02. | |
billion over that period for investment of public services | :55:03. | :55:04. | |
whilst, and this will be important for members on the other side of the | :55:05. | :55:08. | |
House no doubt, ensuring that the public sector debt and borrowing | :55:09. | :55:11. | |
falls over at the current Parliament. It is a choice that the | :55:12. | :55:16. | |
government has two pursue this or not. We believe it should do so. The | :55:17. | :55:20. | |
budget would stimulate the GDP growth, support wage growth, and by | :55:21. | :55:27. | |
transforming productivity, it would act as a signal of confidence in our | :55:28. | :55:32. | |
economy. It would also do much in terms of an inclusive economy. The | :55:33. | :55:37. | |
modest increase in expenditure would stop the cutbacks which | :55:38. | :55:39. | |
disproportionately burden the disadvantaged groups. -- the most | :55:40. | :55:46. | |
disadvantaged groups. It would also, and this is important for all part | :55:47. | :55:51. | |
of the UK, supports trade and exports. The figures should be | :55:52. | :55:54. | |
worrying for all of us because they are moving in the wrong direction. | :55:55. | :55:58. | |
The UK is likely to fall short of its target to double exports to one | :55:59. | :56:04. | |
truly impose this decade by some ?300 billion, which is an enormous | :56:05. | :56:09. | |
shortfall. A summer budget could contain measures to stimulate the | :56:10. | :56:14. | |
type of investment needed to improve direct UK trade and export figures. | :56:15. | :56:20. | |
The government, it was to follow our proposals, could have proposed a | :56:21. | :56:23. | |
fair tax bill. Incidentally, because I know the Prime Minister is | :56:24. | :56:27. | |
listening, it is not too late for he and his officials in the box, should | :56:28. | :56:31. | |
be here a good suggestion, to take down notes and include it in their | :56:32. | :56:36. | |
legislation. I would encourage him and his colleagues to do so. Perhaps | :56:37. | :56:41. | |
a fair tax bill, a bill to simple either tax in the UK and deliver | :56:42. | :56:46. | |
greater tax transparency. How about a moratorium on the HMRC office | :56:47. | :56:51. | |
closures? So that there is a network of tax advice officers to support | :56:52. | :56:55. | |
local businesses in navigating the tax system. How about committing the | :56:56. | :57:00. | |
Treasury to establishing an independent commission to report | :57:01. | :57:03. | |
back in two years following a copper hands of consultation on the simple | :57:04. | :57:09. | |
location of the tax code. How about strengthening tax transparency by | :57:10. | :57:11. | |
guaranteeing that the beneficial ownership of companies and trusts is | :57:12. | :57:18. | |
made public? And on this point, I have listened over recent weeks to | :57:19. | :57:24. | |
the Prime Minister adopting it on and it is one that I would endorse, | :57:25. | :57:30. | |
of concern. And I have no reason to doubt his genuine tension in wanting | :57:31. | :57:35. | |
to deal with corruption and tax avoidance because it is a scourge. | :57:36. | :57:38. | |
It means that the government and ministers are unable to have the | :57:39. | :57:41. | |
resources at their disposal to support the public services on which | :57:42. | :57:45. | |
we depend. But I do not understand why it should be that if one were to | :57:46. | :57:50. | |
publish a list of beneficial owners, that that is something that is only | :57:51. | :57:54. | |
shared by prosecuting authorities. It seems to me that as much public | :57:55. | :57:59. | |
information that we can have on all forms of beneficial ownership would | :58:00. | :58:04. | |
be to the benefit of all. On the issue of Scotland and the | :58:05. | :58:08. | |
constitution, the Scotland act passed earlier this year was welcome | :58:09. | :58:14. | |
progress in Scotland's devolution journey. But members opposite will | :58:15. | :58:22. | |
not be surprised when I say it does not go nearly far enough. And that | :58:23. | :58:27. | |
is why, having been elected by the people of Scotland to raise these | :58:28. | :58:33. | |
points in the chamber, the SNP tabled 100 amendments during the | :58:34. | :58:36. | |
course of the Scotland Bill. Interesting to note that not a | :58:37. | :58:41. | |
single amendment was accepted by the UK Government. So the people sent to | :58:42. | :58:45. | |
parliament to represent the people of Scotland, elected on a manifesto, | :58:46. | :58:50. | |
presenting those amendments to this House, not one single amendment was | :58:51. | :58:59. | |
accepted by the government. Is it not the reality that this was a | :59:00. | :59:03. | |
Queen's Speech not for viewers in Scotland? So much so that the | :59:04. | :59:06. | |
Scottish Secretary was nowhere to be seen on the front bench during the | :59:07. | :59:09. | |
entire thing. Even my predecessor had more to say on Scotland. So | :59:10. | :59:14. | |
perhaps he could encourage the Prime Minister to tell us what the plans | :59:15. | :59:18. | |
he has two embolden our national parliament in Edinburgh. Of course | :59:19. | :59:23. | |
the Prime Minister had an opportunity and he still does. He | :59:24. | :59:26. | |
could intervene on me and outline the plans. But he is not wanting to | :59:27. | :59:33. | |
take the opportunity. That is fine. We have the right to take | :59:34. | :59:36. | |
interventions or not. He is happy to follow your guidance. The SNP's | :59:37. | :59:43. | |
alternative Queen's Speech would deliver a Scottish home rule... May | :59:44. | :59:47. | |
I make progress and then I will come back? The SNP's alternative Queen's | :59:48. | :59:51. | |
Speech would deliver a Scottish home rule Bill and the wording is quite | :59:52. | :59:56. | |
important. That would involve a strong package of powers to the | :59:57. | :59:59. | |
Scottish Parliament because home-rule, near federalism, that was | :00:00. | :00:04. | |
what was promised to the people of Scotland. My degree is in politics | :00:05. | :00:11. | |
and I have had a look at federal systems around the world. There are | :00:12. | :00:15. | |
a number of parties in this House that favour federalism but we do not | :00:16. | :00:18. | |
live in a federal state in the UK and there is nothing that has been | :00:19. | :00:21. | |
passed as part of the Scotland Bill that remotely comes close to near | :00:22. | :00:26. | |
federalism. So that is something that was not in the Queen's Speech | :00:27. | :00:29. | |
and it would have been good to see it. Perhaps the government might | :00:30. | :00:35. | |
think about it. One thing... I have my doubts. He says, looking at the | :00:36. | :00:50. | |
poor and should writers. Is the Scotland -- given me an happiness | :00:51. | :00:53. | |
about House of Lords on the Treasury bench, for the first time in a long | :00:54. | :00:59. | |
while, perhaps the time is even coming for the Conservative Party to | :01:00. | :01:01. | |
realise that there is a need for Parliamentary reform. Let's be | :01:02. | :01:08. | |
serious. We work in a parliament where the second chamber is not | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
elected by anyone. Let me say that again. The second chamber of the | :01:14. | :01:18. | |
parliament described as the mother of all Parliaments is made up of | :01:19. | :01:21. | |
people elected by nobody. This is the 21st century. Please let us get | :01:22. | :01:28. | |
on with replacing the House of Lords. I give way to the honourable | :01:29. | :01:30. | |
gentleman. The the honourable gentleman is | :01:31. | :01:39. | |
actually wrong because some members on the other place are elected. Lord | :01:40. | :01:45. | |
Thurso was recently elected by three members of the House of Lords! I | :01:46. | :01:54. | |
stand corrected. I still think that is totally unacceptable and I give | :01:55. | :02:02. | |
way. My late Honourable friend has raised that, is it not right that | :02:03. | :02:05. | |
the Prime Minister reforms this given the Prime Minister himself has | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
elected more members themselves than Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, and | :02:11. | :02:20. | |
John Major put together? I am delighted to be speaking today on | :02:21. | :02:25. | |
behalf of the parliamentary party in this place that has never nominated | :02:26. | :02:31. | |
a single person to the House of Lords, nor will we ever do so, | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
however if we wish to have a second chamber with the oversight | :02:37. | :02:38. | |
responsibilities that many people argue is necessary, why not have | :02:39. | :02:45. | |
chambermaid up of representatives of the nations and regions? This is the | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
21st century, why don't we get on with it? While we are doing that why | :02:51. | :02:56. | |
not look at electoral reform? The issue was raised by the Leader of | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
the Opposition who has clearly now rode in behind on the changes the | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
SNP proposed with the changes to the referendum and that like the | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
independence referendum. It proves that extending the vote is a | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
sensible move for a ban on 16 and 17-year-olds across the UK should be | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
fully enfranchised and while we're at it, this is the time to establish | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
an independent commission on proportional representation to look | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
at possible models for Westminster, and I say that as a political party | :03:28. | :03:33. | |
that frankly might do worse in terms of representation were we to have | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
proportional representation. It was our policy when we were | :03:40. | :03:42. | |
underrepresented and it is policy only represent almost every seat the | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
country, and in my speech last year I made the point and will say again, | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
the SNP does not represent everybody in Scotland and we are mindful of | :03:53. | :03:57. | |
that, and it is important for all of us as Democrats to make sure the | :03:58. | :04:00. | |
electoral systems we use properly reflect and make sure that every | :04:01. | :04:07. | |
strand of opinion that has support is reflected in Parliament and it | :04:08. | :04:10. | |
should be no different in this place. Happy to give way. I realise | :04:11. | :04:20. | |
the SNP members like to discard referendum results but we actually | :04:21. | :04:24. | |
had one in the last parliament on changing the Westminster voting | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
system and constituents voted 2-1 and the country voted overall to | :04:30. | :04:32. | |
keep first past the post, end of the matter. Right. I noticed the body | :04:33. | :04:42. | |
language was a bit hostile. A debate to be had about what form of | :04:43. | :04:51. | |
electoral system should be used. Some favour STV, others AMS, let's | :04:52. | :04:58. | |
just agree that surely first past the post has had its day. It is long | :04:59. | :05:07. | |
past its sell by date. Moving on, to issue is not in the Queen's Speech | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
but that should have been, I would like to move on to the area of | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
justice and home affairs because the UK Government approach to | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
immigration has been heavy-handed. It has been a one size fits all | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
approach that has only fuelled the misconceptions around migrants. The | :05:24. | :05:26. | |
government has had to be dragged kicking and screaming by public | :05:27. | :05:33. | |
opinion on issues such as unaccompanied children on the | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
European continent. We had to be reminded, the Prime Minister needed | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
to be reminded, about the UK's role in the 1930s and taking in | :05:43. | :05:45. | |
unaccompanied children from the European continent. I commend him | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
for thinking about the issue again and I hope those changes can be | :05:50. | :05:52. | |
brought about as quickly as possible so those children can arrive in the | :05:53. | :05:57. | |
UK as quickly as possible. I would reiterate what I said before, I hope | :05:58. | :06:02. | |
he does not see 3000 as the height of his ambition. I would also say | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
that putting the Human Rights Act endanger is of great concern to a | :06:08. | :06:13. | |
great number of us. I don't think it has a majority in the House of | :06:14. | :06:16. | |
Commons and we would be happy to work with members on both sides of | :06:17. | :06:18. | |
the House and we are happy to discuss how to do it. We will work | :06:19. | :06:27. | |
together to make sure that human rights are not undermined in the UK. | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
We will always seek to protect the transnational legislation that | :06:33. | :06:34. | |
underpins human rights in our country. The SNP's alternative | :06:35. | :06:40. | |
Queen's Speech would deliver a more measured approach to migration and | :06:41. | :06:42. | |
would reaffirm the importance of human rights. Why not a migration | :06:43. | :06:50. | |
bill, to ensure the UK maximises the benefits of migration and insures | :06:51. | :06:53. | |
people coming into the UK are treated with respect. Why does the | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
government not report annually on migration forecasts and produce a | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
strategy including plans for maximising the benefits of | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
migration? How about reversing changes to immigration laws that | :07:08. | :07:10. | |
prevent citizens living here with their partners and children from | :07:11. | :07:15. | |
overseas? That deprives businesses and public services of key staff and | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
prevents universities for competing for the best and brightest. Why not | :07:20. | :07:25. | |
adopt a strategy of providing integration opportunities from day | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
one? How about the introducing a post study work these are? All of | :07:31. | :07:33. | |
this could have been in the Queen's Speech but they is still time he | :07:34. | :07:41. | |
says looking at the Treasury bench. Wouldn't it be the case if we had | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
the post-work-study Visa that families like the one in my | :07:47. | :07:49. | |
constituency being forced out by this government would be able to | :07:50. | :07:52. | |
stay in the Highlands and make a valuable contribution to our | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
economy? My honourable friend, I noticed the Foreign Secretary | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
shaking his head, but let me tell the Foreign Secretary, please look | :08:03. | :08:08. | |
at this case. Have a look at this family, their qualifications. These | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
are the kind of people we need. Scotland's problem has never been | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
immigration but immigration and when people have come to our shores from | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
all kinds of countries they have contributed and I appeal to the | :08:23. | :08:25. | |
Prime Minister and the Home Office to look at this case in particular | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
and reverse the ruling. On the issue of human rights and enhancing | :08:32. | :08:37. | |
equality, what about preventing the revocation of the application of the | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
Human Rights Act of 1998 to any devolved nation without the express | :08:43. | :08:45. | |
consent of the parliament or assembly of that nation? How about | :08:46. | :08:51. | |
modernising the equalities act to strengthen the rights and liberties | :08:52. | :08:55. | |
of people across the UK? How about protecting the role of the European | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
Convention of human rights in the UK through entrenchment? We are in | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
favour of that and would welcome the government thinking likewise. That | :09:03. | :09:09. | |
is unfortunately unlikely. Moving on to social justice. This government | :09:10. | :09:13. | |
has orchestrated some truly devastating cuts that have destroyed | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
the safety net Social Security should provide and any others who | :09:19. | :09:21. | |
hold regular surgeries now this to be true. Instead of business as | :09:22. | :09:26. | |
usual the government should return to the drawing board on Social | :09:27. | :09:29. | |
Security and abandon their prosperity agenda. The cuts are | :09:30. | :09:35. | |
butcher at the very aspects of universal credit that might have | :09:36. | :09:38. | |
created what incentives and instead hammered low paid workers. The time | :09:39. | :09:44. | |
is up universal credit and the need to find a favour alternative for | :09:45. | :09:47. | |
children and low-income families and disabled people. I am sure my right | :09:48. | :09:54. | |
honourable friend would agree that the 4 million families set to lose | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
out because of cuts to work allowances will see the children and | :10:00. | :10:06. | |
those families' life chances be severely disadvantaged because of | :10:07. | :10:11. | |
those changes. My honourable lady has fought a good fight on the | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
subject and will continue to do that. The points you were making | :10:16. | :10:19. | |
were extremely powerful. Can I bring up the issue of pensions? The issues | :10:20. | :10:31. | |
brought up in this house, it is not a simple issue but it is one they | :10:32. | :10:38. | |
should look at and that relates to women affected by the rapid pace of | :10:39. | :10:51. | |
increase to the pension age. I think privately in government a little | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
appreciation there is an unfairness here. There's a similar impact and | :10:56. | :11:08. | |
any quality on Windows? This should be something that should be looked | :11:09. | :11:13. | |
at as part of universal pensions. We should have commission to | :11:14. | :11:20. | |
investigate any qualities. We should develop access to automatic | :11:21. | :11:23. | |
enrolment to incentivise pension saving, all of this matters | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
tremendously. Before concluding, I would like to bring up two issue is | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
also important, firstly on defence. The UK has suffered a squeeze in | :11:33. | :11:36. | |
many respects on conventional defence capabilities. Bases have | :11:37. | :11:42. | |
been closed including the end of flying operations from two out of | :11:43. | :11:47. | |
Scotland's the bases. Crucial capability gaps have been exposed | :11:48. | :11:52. | |
including the absence of a single maritime patrol aircraft. Not a | :11:53. | :11:59. | |
single one currently operational for the United Kingdom. The government | :12:00. | :12:03. | |
has committed to bridging this gap and I would encourage them to do | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
this as quickly as possible. To look at how the training of defence | :12:09. | :12:13. | |
personnel is: treated with the maritime fleet to make sure that the | :12:14. | :12:17. | |
best, I see the former Defence Secretary is thinking about this, | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
and it makes perfect sense to locate this. It is ludicrous that the | :12:23. | :12:29. | |
maritime state has been without maritime patrol aircraft for a year | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
after year. Another important defence issue for people in Scotland | :12:35. | :12:39. | |
relates to nuclear weapons and this Prime Minister and unfortunately too | :12:40. | :12:43. | |
many people on the Labour side, intends to vote for more than ?200 | :12:44. | :12:50. | |
billion, the lifetime cost, of a replacement system for the Trident | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
weapons of mass destruction. We on these benches will vote against but | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
how about a nuclear weapons consent Bill, which would require the UK | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
Government to seek the consent of the Scottish Parliament for the | :13:07. | :13:10. | |
Trident nuclear weapons system to be based in Scotland? How about | :13:11. | :13:15. | |
respecting the views of the people of Scotland on this subject? The | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
last point I would like to raise... I will give way. I thank my right | :13:21. | :13:27. | |
honourable friend. It is an issue of defence in as much as the workers on | :13:28. | :13:32. | |
the Clyde shipyard have been told 800 jobs are under threat because of | :13:33. | :13:35. | |
delays to the procurement system by the MOD? My honourable friend is a | :13:36. | :13:40. | |
doughty campaigner for his constituents and he makes his case | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
well. The Prime Minister is setting on the Treasury bench and I hope he | :13:45. | :13:47. | |
is also listening because it would be intolerable given what was | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
promised in 2014 in the run-up to the Scottish referendum that he | :13:52. | :13:56. | |
could go back. On foreign affairs I would like to return to something | :13:57. | :14:02. | |
that was said not that long ago, the UK should have, and that is an | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
ethical foreign policy. Mr Speaker, I am profoundly troubled by the way | :14:08. | :14:12. | |
in which the United Kingdom sells weapons that are used in armed | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
conflict, where people use those weapons, are trained by the UK | :14:18. | :14:24. | |
military in planes produced by the United Kingdom firing weapons made | :14:25. | :14:26. | |
in the United Kingdom and that the present time that is happening in | :14:27. | :14:31. | |
Saudi Arabia and in Yemen. The time has come to better regulate weapons | :14:32. | :14:35. | |
trading and this government should have brought forward a weapons | :14:36. | :14:40. | |
trading bill, but they haven't. We should end our existing arms deals | :14:41. | :14:43. | |
with Saudi Arabia following the example of our European neighbours. | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
We should have an ethical foreign policy and this government should | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
pursue an ethical foreign policy which they sadly have not. Mr | :14:53. | :14:58. | |
Speaker, I made a commitment I wouldn't attenuate the leader of the | :14:59. | :15:00. | |
Labour Party by speaking for 41 minutes and I am running the risk of | :15:01. | :15:06. | |
doing so. The right honourable gentleman will be expert in | :15:07. | :15:09. | |
mathematics but he has 30 minutes to spare! Thank you for the connection. | :15:10. | :15:16. | |
In that case I will be delighted to give way to the honourable | :15:17. | :15:19. | |
gentleman. I am grateful to the right honourable member has ever | :15:20. | :15:22. | |
very courteous in these matters. Before he concludes his speech, he | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
began by talking about some of the areas where he might agree with the | :15:27. | :15:31. | |
Prime Minister. Does he agree with the Prime Minister on the question | :15:32. | :15:37. | |
of extremism and indoctrination in our country? His party has a very | :15:38. | :15:42. | |
good record in opposing Daesh in everything they stand for and does | :15:43. | :15:45. | |
he agree that what the Prime Minister was saying was encapsulated | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
by the weight great philosopher Karl Popper and the paradox of tolerance | :15:51. | :15:53. | |
when he said he must tolerate all but the intolerant because if you | :15:54. | :15:57. | |
tolerate the intolerant the conditions for pollination disappear | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
and the pollen and go with them. Is there something he can reach across | :16:03. | :16:05. | |
the party divide and support the government on because it is very | :16:06. | :16:12. | |
important for them? There are things in politics about which there should | :16:13. | :16:15. | |
be no disagreement between mainstream political parties and I | :16:16. | :16:19. | |
would hope that the proposals the government brings forward, very much | :16:20. | :16:22. | |
in the spirit of what the honourable gentleman says, can garner the | :16:23. | :16:25. | |
maximum support. That is the reason why I raised the death of the Muslim | :16:26. | :16:35. | |
and Glasgow, I went to visit the community here in London. The oldest | :16:36. | :16:42. | |
mosque in London, and I are meeting with the British Jewish community | :16:43. | :16:45. | |
next week because it is not just about issues of intolerance towards | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
or between different parts of the Islamic community, it also impacts | :16:51. | :16:54. | |
on the Jewish community and sadly there are whole range of other forms | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
of intolerance for which we should have no tolerance and I would hope | :16:59. | :17:01. | |
the premise and his colleagues can bring forward something that can | :17:02. | :17:02. | |
come and support across the House. Although one of his honourable | :17:03. | :17:12. | |
friends sitting there and asked a very difficult question that we | :17:13. | :17:16. | |
would all grapple with, which is at what point does the radicalisation | :17:17. | :17:22. | |
of service becomes problematic that the law is tripped? There is also a | :17:23. | :17:28. | |
big challenge for all of us in this age of modern technology that there | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
are many examples known, and this is a matter of public record, people | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
becoming radicalised a very, very quickly. And we all know that our | :17:40. | :17:42. | |
security services are having to grapple with the dangers, as they | :17:43. | :17:48. | |
have and unfortunately in Belgium and France, with operations by | :17:49. | :17:54. | |
terrorist groups, the difference between Flash and bang being | :17:55. | :17:57. | |
extremely short. These are difficult questions for all of us and I hope | :17:58. | :18:01. | |
it is an area that we can find cross-party agreement. I would like | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
to conclude without reaching the 41 minute mark by saying that sadly I | :18:06. | :18:13. | |
think the Queen's Speech is anaemic, containing many preannounced | :18:14. | :18:15. | |
proposals for a carried over measures. There is a strong focus on | :18:16. | :18:18. | |
legislation for England and Wales which is of itself not a bad thing. | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
We wish our colleagues in England and Wales and the rest of the UK | :18:23. | :18:28. | |
success. But it does mean that it has crowded out of the alternatives, | :18:29. | :18:32. | |
many of which have been proposed by the SNP. I conclude. Surely what the | :18:33. | :18:42. | |
UK requires is strong action on encouraging productivity and export | :18:43. | :18:45. | |
growth in the economy. Surely what the UK requires is support for the | :18:46. | :18:49. | |
most vulnerable through progressive action and working pensions and | :18:50. | :18:54. | |
surely what Scotland requires is meaningful devolution that we were | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
promised. That is what the SNP's alternative Queen's Speech proposers | :19:01. | :19:09. | |
and I commend it to the House. Mr Speaker, it is a pleasure to follow | :19:10. | :19:13. | |
the rights honourable gentleman and to hear about his alternative | :19:14. | :19:16. | |
Queen's Speech. I was particularly interested in his proposal for a | :19:17. | :19:25. | |
real home rule Bill for Scotland. But what concerned me was that he | :19:26. | :19:34. | |
has made no reference to control by the Scottish people and Scottish | :19:35. | :19:37. | |
Parliament over their own fishing grounds, or control over their own | :19:38. | :19:45. | |
agricultural policy. Surely the logical position for those in | :19:46. | :19:49. | |
Scotland who want home rule is that they should want control over their | :19:50. | :19:52. | |
own fishing and agriculture, which can only be delivered to them by | :19:53. | :19:58. | |
putting leave on the 23rd of June. I was also very much with the | :19:59. | :20:00. | |
honourable gentleman on his concerns stressed about maritime patrol | :20:01. | :20:06. | |
aircraft, an issue I have raised on a number of occasions in this House | :20:07. | :20:09. | |
and that I do not think we have that satisfactory explanation of how we | :20:10. | :20:16. | |
are going to protect our borders against intruders, whether they be | :20:17. | :20:20. | |
people traffickers or drug smugglers or whatever. And I think it was a | :20:21. | :20:26. | |
great mistake of the government to disband the very effective maritime | :20:27. | :20:33. | |
patrol system operating in my constituency. But can I also | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
congratulate my honourable friend the Member for Meriden. It was great | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
to hear her say that she has dug into the idea of being a member of | :20:43. | :20:49. | |
the backbenchers. Don't give up the chance to make a difference, she | :20:50. | :20:54. | |
says. Seize the day. And indeed, Mr Speaker, that is exactly what I | :20:55. | :20:57. | |
intend to do on the 23rd of June. And at the heart of this gracious | :20:58. | :21:06. | |
speech is the statement, my ministers will uphold the | :21:07. | :21:12. | |
sovereignty of Parliament. In my humble submission, the only way in | :21:13. | :21:17. | |
which that can be delivered is by leaving the European union. Because | :21:18. | :21:25. | |
our very membership of the European Union undermines the sovereignty of | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
our Parliament and that is why my right honourable friend, the Lord | :21:31. | :21:36. | |
Chancellor, is so much in the Brexit campaign. Because he realises that | :21:37. | :21:41. | |
if we wish to retain sovereignty, to have control over our own laws, it | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
can only be truly done by leaving the European union. And my | :21:46. | :21:51. | |
honourable friend the Member for Bracknell, whom I congratulate on | :21:52. | :21:58. | |
his speech as well, he omitted to say that one of the great benefits | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
of the referendum has been that the government has been forced to come | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
to an accommodation with the British medical Association and the junior | :22:08. | :22:13. | |
doctors over weekend working, because the government is | :22:14. | :22:16. | |
understandably trying to clear the decks so there are no obstacles in | :22:17. | :22:21. | |
the way, in the run-up to the referendum. And I am delighted my | :22:22. | :22:25. | |
right honourable friend the Prime Minister is still on the front | :22:26. | :22:31. | |
bench. Can I congratulate him for the joke against himself about the | :22:32. | :22:34. | |
plague of locusts because I think that shows that he has taken on | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
board the very serious criticism that there was in a leader in the | :22:40. | :22:45. | |
Daily Telegraph, critical of my right honourable friend for the way | :22:46. | :22:50. | |
in which he had allowed what we might describe as his capacity for | :22:51. | :23:00. | |
invective to extend into the areas of suggesting, through exaggeration, | :23:01. | :23:03. | |
but basically the whole of our destiny was at stake in this | :23:04. | :23:08. | |
upcoming referendum. Because my right honourable friend, and this | :23:09. | :23:16. | |
time last year he was saying that he quite possibly envisaged a situation | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
in which we would actually be leaving the European Union at his | :23:22. | :23:25. | |
request. Because he was quite prepared to do that if he did not | :23:26. | :23:31. | |
get sufficient deals. He knows he went out to try to get a deal and he | :23:32. | :23:35. | |
thinks that was sufficient but it was in any event quite a marginal | :23:36. | :23:40. | |
situation. But some of the hyperbole coming from the people who want to | :23:41. | :23:47. | |
remain in the European Union, including my right honourable | :23:48. | :23:52. | |
friend, some of that hyperbole suggests that at no material time | :23:53. | :23:56. | |
could it have ever been in the interests of the people of the | :23:57. | :23:59. | |
United Kingdom to leave the European Union. That is manifestly absurd in | :24:00. | :24:02. | |
the light of the fact that my right honourable friend was telling his | :24:03. | :24:11. | |
colleagues that he would be quite prepared to recommend that we should | :24:12. | :24:15. | |
leave the European Union with all the consequences that would flow | :24:16. | :24:21. | |
from that. And I think that is still one of the big questions which | :24:22. | :24:24. | |
remains unanswered in this referendum campaign. If the Prime | :24:25. | :24:31. | |
Minister really thought it was that obvious that it would be doom and | :24:32. | :24:35. | |
disaster if we left the European Union, why did he ever have a | :24:36. | :24:39. | |
referendum or ever let it be thought that he might support the league | :24:40. | :24:49. | |
campaign? I think the government's credibility has been damaged by the | :24:50. | :24:52. | |
cavalier use of statistics and I think that misuse of statistics has | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
been designed to mislead the public in this referendum. And this time | :24:58. | :25:04. | |
last year I was arguing that there should be an independent audit of | :25:05. | :25:07. | |
the economic costs and benefits of the European Union. And I have a | :25:08. | :25:12. | |
Private Members' Bill and have had it in successive parliaments. I put | :25:13. | :25:19. | |
down a parliamentary question last June asking whether such an | :25:20. | :25:22. | |
independent audit would be brought forward and I did not get any | :25:23. | :25:27. | |
substantive reply from the Treasury. Yet now we are told that the cost of | :25:28. | :25:35. | |
leaving the European Union would be ?4300 per annum in terms of GDP per | :25:36. | :25:45. | |
household. And that rather good programme which the BBC is running | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
at the moment poured scorn on this statistic on Saturday when they said | :25:51. | :25:56. | |
that of course GDP per household is not the same as income per | :25:57. | :26:02. | |
household. In fact GDP per household is ?66,000 per annum. Wouldn't every | :26:03. | :26:08. | |
house love to have ?66,000 on average? It is not the same as | :26:09. | :26:14. | |
income per household. What was being suggested was that by the 30, this | :26:15. | :26:23. | |
amount of loss would have been incurred by every single household. | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
-- by 2030. And then I looked at the leaflet which is part of the | :26:29. | :26:33. | |
Electoral Commission brochure which is being circulated to every | :26:34. | :26:36. | |
household as part of the referendum campaign and I saw at the top of the | :26:37. | :26:44. | |
Remain campaign propaganda the assertion that it would cost ?91 | :26:45. | :26:51. | |
billion if we were to leave the European Union. And they quoted a | :26:52. | :26:56. | |
CPI figure for that. Mr Speaker, because I was speaking last night to | :26:57. | :27:03. | |
a group of accountants, I went and checked the origins of that figure | :27:04. | :27:10. | |
produced in the Remain leaflet. I found out that in March, | :27:11. | :27:16. | |
PricewaterhouseCoopers did a study at the behest of the CBI and it is | :27:17. | :27:24. | |
quite a substantial study, and it is called leaving the EU, implications | :27:25. | :27:33. | |
for the UK. And what it makes clear is that in 2030, the date chosen by | :27:34. | :27:38. | |
the Treasury for these eggs application is, -- these exceptions, | :27:39. | :27:51. | |
if we remain in the EU, real GDP will be 41% higher than it is at the | :27:52. | :27:55. | |
moment. What they say is that if we leave the European Union, real UK | :27:56. | :28:04. | |
GDP will be about 39% higher than it is at the moment. And a marginal | :28:05. | :28:09. | |
difference of about one or two back percent, 39% compared with 41%, in | :28:10. | :28:17. | |
2030, not tomorrow or the next day but 15 years out. So it is absurd | :28:18. | :28:22. | |
for this scaremongering fear creation tactic of the Remain | :28:23. | :28:31. | |
campaign to try to present to the people are totally different picture | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
which is in contrast with the data which the CBI themselves | :28:36. | :28:44. | |
commissioned from an international firm of accountants with | :28:45. | :28:48. | |
international repute. So it is against that background that I think | :28:49. | :28:53. | |
this speech has to be addressed, because the people are pretty | :28:54. | :28:57. | |
cynical and sceptical. They are pretty sceptical about the claims of | :28:58. | :29:01. | |
the government that if we remain in the European Union, we will be able | :29:02. | :29:05. | |
to retain control over our borders, implying that we have control at the | :29:06. | :29:10. | |
moment over who comes to our country and who leaves our country, which we | :29:11. | :29:15. | |
manifestly do not. Even if those people have got criminal | :29:16. | :29:18. | |
convictions, we cannot deport them or prevent them from coming because | :29:19. | :29:23. | |
of their human rights and the freedom of movement rules of the | :29:24. | :29:31. | |
European in. -- European Union. When we have assertions in this speech | :29:32. | :29:34. | |
that the government will do lots of wonderful things, it is going to | :29:35. | :29:40. | |
build another 1 million houses. We have to ask the question, if we are | :29:41. | :29:47. | |
short of houses, why are we contemplating having 3 million more | :29:48. | :29:52. | |
migrants from the European Union by the year 2030? And how are we going | :29:53. | :29:58. | |
to be able to deliver on our manifesto pledge to reduce net | :29:59. | :30:02. | |
migration to the tens of thousands when all the figures show that every | :30:03. | :30:06. | |
year we are getting more than 300,000 coming in from the European | :30:07. | :30:14. | |
Union. My challenge to my honourable friend and I would be happy to give | :30:15. | :30:17. | |
way to the Prime Minister if he chose to intervene, how are we going | :30:18. | :30:20. | |
to be able to deliver on that Solomon manifesto promise unless we | :30:21. | :30:25. | |
leave the European Union. I accept that when that promise was made, the | :30:26. | :30:30. | |
Prime Minister thought he was going to be able to get a better deal from | :30:31. | :30:34. | |
his counterparts in the European Union but having failed to secure | :30:35. | :30:37. | |
their deal, how does he think we are going to be able to meet that very | :30:38. | :30:46. | |
important manifesto promise? We talked in the Queens speech about | :30:47. | :30:50. | |
the need for more funding for schools, fairer funding. And as | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
somebody who represents a constituency in Dorset, I know how | :30:56. | :30:57. | |
unfair the current funding system is. But surely there is tremendous | :30:58. | :31:05. | |
pressure on our public services and this is caused by high levels of net | :31:06. | :31:12. | |
migration. And the same is true for infrastructure. Again, it is | :31:13. | :31:16. | |
referred to in the gracious speech that we are going to improve | :31:17. | :31:20. | |
infrastructure for businesses. But when my right honourable friend | :31:21. | :31:23. | |
visits a Dorset, as he does on many occasions, he will now that the | :31:24. | :31:28. | |
traffic conditions are dire. And that is because of the pressure of | :31:29. | :31:40. | |
population and traffic on the roads, meaning that there are high levels | :31:41. | :31:43. | |
of congestion feeding into pressure on the green belt. My constituents | :31:44. | :31:50. | |
really share the Conservative vision of the green belt being sacrosanct. | :31:51. | :31:53. | |
But the pressure on the erosion of the green belt from housing and | :31:54. | :31:59. | |
industrial development is very great at the moment. And there is nothing | :32:00. | :32:05. | |
in the address about fishing and agriculture which are two a very | :32:06. | :32:09. | |
important parts of the economy of the South West of England. | :32:10. | :32:15. | |
Mr Speaker, there's a lot in this address which is premised upon the | :32:16. | :32:23. | |
fact that we are going to leave the European Union after the vote on | :32:24. | :32:31. | |
23rd June, and I am grateful to the government for ensuring that is in | :32:32. | :32:37. | |
this address, because I have already referred to the issue of | :32:38. | :32:43. | |
sovereignty, but we... The only way we can improve the number and | :32:44. | :32:47. | |
quality of houses is to ensure that we don't have this incredible | :32:48. | :32:53. | |
pressure on our public services forced on us by uncontrolled | :32:54. | :33:01. | |
immigration. Can I just make a couple more points. It says further | :33:02. | :33:07. | |
powers will be default to directly elected mailers. Can I say to my | :33:08. | :33:14. | |
right honourable friend that in the is no appetite for directly elected | :33:15. | :33:24. | |
Mayors although there is an appetite for genuinely devolved powers, and I | :33:25. | :33:29. | |
think the government needs to start thinking about differentiating | :33:30. | :33:34. | |
between the large urban areas where elected Mayor may be appropriate and | :33:35. | :33:37. | |
the early years which are largely rural and nature, where there is no | :33:38. | :33:44. | |
appetite at all for directly elected Mayors. Can I also said that the | :33:45. | :33:48. | |
provision relating to powers governing local bus services are | :33:49. | :33:56. | |
rather vague. If the consequence of this is to unravel the legislation | :33:57. | :34:02. | |
passed in 1985 when I was a member of the standing committee on the | :34:03. | :34:06. | |
then buses Bill, which actually introduced choice and competition | :34:07. | :34:12. | |
into the bus services in this country, I will be extremely | :34:13. | :34:18. | |
concerned about it. My constituents are finding that the bus services | :34:19. | :34:24. | |
are becoming less frequent and that is a problem. They are prepared, | :34:25. | :34:29. | |
they tell me, to actually contribute something themselves, even if they | :34:30. | :34:35. | |
are pensioners. They are happy to contribute themselves towards the | :34:36. | :34:39. | |
cost of buses so they can beat in the service, because a free bus | :34:40. | :34:43. | |
passes no use if you have not a bus to use it on. I would hope we are | :34:44. | :34:48. | |
unable to have that looked at in the context of the buses Bill. The | :34:49. | :34:55. | |
result or considerable scepticism about the assertion that local | :34:56. | :35:00. | |
authorities will be allowed to detain business breaks. Does that | :35:01. | :35:03. | |
mean all the business rates raised in the local authority area will be | :35:04. | :35:08. | |
able to be detained by that local authority? The advice I have been | :35:09. | :35:13. | |
given is that it doesn't mean that. If you are in an area where there is | :35:14. | :35:16. | |
a high resource coming in from business rates, then they will be an | :35:17. | :35:22. | |
equalisation system to ensure that not all those business rates | :35:23. | :35:26. | |
actually accrue to the local people. I think that needs to be made clear. | :35:27. | :35:36. | |
Then the other provisions relating to our presence. The Leader of the | :35:37. | :35:42. | |
Opposition and I were both on the same visit from the Justice | :35:43. | :35:47. | |
committee in the last parliament to Denmark, to visit Danish presence. | :35:48. | :35:54. | |
One of the aspects of our visit to Danish presence was that the regime | :35:55. | :35:58. | |
is so liberal that the people who live in person receive a higher | :35:59. | :36:05. | |
income than they would receive if they were in their home countries in | :36:06. | :36:11. | |
Eastern Europe whence they have come in order to commit crimes in | :36:12. | :36:16. | |
Denmark. That is what you have when you have a very liberal prison | :36:17. | :36:20. | |
regime, absolutely no deterrent for people who come to the country from | :36:21. | :36:26. | |
another EU country, we wage levels are much lower, and if they come to | :36:27. | :36:32. | |
Denmark, the biggest UN Denmark about the number of burglaries being | :36:33. | :36:36. | |
committed by people from Eastern Europe, but there is no deterrent. | :36:37. | :36:43. | |
Even when incarcerated, the penalties they pay are low and the | :36:44. | :36:49. | |
income they get for working in a prison is greater than they would | :36:50. | :36:53. | |
get back all. That brings me onto what will be final point. We are | :36:54. | :37:02. | |
talking about the needs to get more resources into our present system | :37:03. | :37:07. | |
and reduce the pressure on a prison systems. Why can't we do more to | :37:08. | :37:14. | |
ensure that foreign offenders can be deported and are not filling up our | :37:15. | :37:19. | |
presence. We tried to do something like that with the negotiations in | :37:20. | :37:24. | |
the European Union but so far, we have failed. Mr Speaker, when one | :37:25. | :37:31. | |
looks at the small print in this gracious speech, one can see that | :37:32. | :37:38. | |
the busy lot which would actually be able to blossom and flourish when | :37:39. | :37:42. | |
the people vote to leave on 23rd June. Thank you. I hadn't intended | :37:43. | :37:56. | |
to get drawn on the issue of Europe but I first want to claim my firm | :37:57. | :38:01. | |
support for remaining in Europe, and to be clear about is for the | :38:02. | :38:05. | |
security of citizens, and I spent three years negotiating on home | :38:06. | :38:10. | |
affairs for the then Labour government, for security and safety | :38:11. | :38:13. | |
issues. It is my firm belief that if you are at the table you can make a | :38:14. | :38:16. | |
difference as we have done and continue to do, but if you are not, | :38:17. | :38:22. | |
you cannot influence, and if we vote out, the very next day we will be | :38:23. | :38:26. | |
out of all the discussions that are necessary. I also direct the | :38:27. | :38:29. | |
honourable gentleman to the work done by the National Audit Office at | :38:30. | :38:33. | |
the behest of the Public Accounts Committee to look at the costs. It | :38:34. | :38:41. | |
is near to the audit he was seeking. It shows clearly that the net cost | :38:42. | :38:47. | |
to the UK is the equivalent of 1.4% of total UK Government departmental | :38:48. | :38:51. | |
spending. I believe that is a small price to pay for the benefits of | :38:52. | :38:56. | |
being part of a wider community and the peace and security that brings. | :38:57. | :39:00. | |
If I may turn more generally to the gracious speech. I believe it is | :39:01. | :39:06. | |
rather short on detail and I hope to outline some of the issues that I | :39:07. | :39:09. | |
think ministers and departments should consider as the flesh out | :39:10. | :39:14. | |
their plans, as clearly it is headlines when Her Majesty reads the | :39:15. | :39:18. | |
speech out but I worry and having spent five years on a Public | :39:19. | :39:22. | |
Accounts Committee, very often, there's not much more behind the | :39:23. | :39:26. | |
headlines in the speech and I hope the government will heed our | :39:27. | :39:31. | |
concerns about policy planning. Too often we have seen policy built on | :39:32. | :39:36. | |
sand, a political pledge made in a press release without detail and | :39:37. | :39:40. | |
with that crucially cost and impact assessments. Let me turn to some of | :39:41. | :39:46. | |
the measures in the speech in particular. Broadband is an issue I | :39:47. | :39:51. | |
will come if finally the government gets it right as with this pledge to | :39:52. | :39:55. | |
have high-speed broadband universally across the country. I do | :39:56. | :40:01. | |
have a weary cynicism. We have heard all of it before. The Public | :40:02. | :40:04. | |
Accounts Committee has raised concerns about the use of taxpayer | :40:05. | :40:09. | |
money to fund rural broadband, where the low hanging fruit was taken | :40:10. | :40:13. | |
first, and many innovative technologies were priced out of the | :40:14. | :40:17. | |
market, and many areas up and down the country. It has been so | :40:18. | :40:22. | |
successful the government has had to include a game and the gracious | :40:23. | :40:26. | |
address and I will be watching closely as all the Public Accounts | :40:27. | :40:29. | |
Committee, both nationally and in my own constituency of Shoreditch, the | :40:30. | :40:34. | |
home of tech city and telecom roundabout, where they are asked | :40:35. | :40:37. | |
Dell significant problems with speed. So much so that businesses | :40:38. | :40:42. | |
relocate in order to get faster speeds particularly for uploading. | :40:43. | :40:46. | |
It is striking that the former editor of tech city news, the local | :40:47. | :40:53. | |
web news vehicle for that area, had to take the video he recorded each | :40:54. | :40:56. | |
week about the local news round-up to be uploaded at his home address | :40:57. | :41:01. | |
because his office didn't have the broad bandwidth to do it. It is them | :41:02. | :41:08. | |
important that as the government rules out it has to make sure | :41:09. | :41:12. | |
alternative providers get a look and so I welcome the access to land and | :41:13. | :41:15. | |
buildings that seems to be indicated in the publicity so far but we will | :41:16. | :41:18. | |
be watching it and no doubt looking at it more closely. Unsurprisingly | :41:19. | :41:26. | |
and well heralded the Queen's Speech included measures around devolution | :41:27. | :41:31. | |
and directly electing Mayors. As a member for the borough of Hackney | :41:32. | :41:35. | |
and London I fully recognise that I directly elected Mayor can be a good | :41:36. | :41:38. | |
thing and I pay tribute to my colleague who was first elected in | :41:39. | :41:45. | |
2002 as the directly elected Mayor and who has overseen stability and | :41:46. | :41:48. | |
good public service delivery in our borough. But in the rush to | :41:49. | :41:54. | |
devolution which is going very fast, it is vital that it is properly | :41:55. | :41:58. | |
thought through. We heard from the honourable gentleman for | :41:59. | :42:01. | |
Christchurch and I hear from others the concern in some areas about the | :42:02. | :42:06. | |
need for the directly elected Mayor. While I recognise that government as | :42:07. | :42:11. | |
it is the devolving power, money and responsible need to have somebody | :42:12. | :42:15. | |
responsible it may be that things work in different places and maybe | :42:16. | :42:19. | |
one size doesn't fit all. The question remains what powers exactly | :42:20. | :42:26. | |
we passed down? It was recently indicated that once Mayors are | :42:27. | :42:34. | |
elected with a manifesto negotiations may be reopened. How | :42:35. | :42:38. | |
will this devolution be properly funded? Google watch taxpayer money? | :42:39. | :42:47. | |
We know that in the boroughs of Kensington, Westminster Hammersmith | :42:48. | :42:49. | |
there was talk of a Public Accounts Committee. I am in favour of them as | :42:50. | :42:56. | |
you might understand but we know that in Oxfordshire the Prime | :42:57. | :42:59. | |
Minister's own county, when the council sought external orders for | :43:00. | :43:03. | |
its audit committee, they could only find one person. If the whole of | :43:04. | :43:09. | |
that borough with the talent pool there, they can only find one person | :43:10. | :43:14. | |
willing to be on the audit committee there is a concern. There was also a | :43:15. | :43:17. | |
concern about the sourcing and how we watched money being spent. The is | :43:18. | :43:20. | |
the issue of retention of business rates. In my own early LB stands to | :43:21. | :43:26. | |
potentially game quite a lot and there is an issue of concern about | :43:27. | :43:30. | |
the distribution to the areas where they are not the businesses that | :43:31. | :43:33. | |
could accrue those rates for the local taxpayer. Watching taxpayers' | :43:34. | :43:39. | |
money is the key thing and who decides what is right for | :43:40. | :43:43. | |
Manchester? When the Treasury has decided on the amount if they come | :43:44. | :43:46. | |
back and say they want more who will be the arbiter? We have lost the | :43:47. | :43:55. | |
audit commission. Those of us who sat on the pre-legislative scrutiny | :43:56. | :43:58. | |
warmth there was a lot being throwing out and we have real | :43:59. | :44:02. | |
concerns and will be returning to this very much as a committee. The | :44:03. | :44:06. | |
gracious speech also mentions mental health in the criminal justice | :44:07. | :44:12. | |
system. My own constituency hosts a medium security unit for those with | :44:13. | :44:16. | |
serious mental health issues. I have spoken in the past two patients in | :44:17. | :44:20. | |
that unit who fear going back to prison because of the lack of mental | :44:21. | :44:23. | |
health support in the mainstream Prison Service. I wish the | :44:24. | :44:28. | |
government will and its reformist to the Prison Service and I also | :44:29. | :44:32. | |
represent penal reform and I know they will want to see the succeed | :44:33. | :44:36. | |
and the devil is in the details and of course on the funding. We have | :44:37. | :44:41. | |
seen a 20% cut in the budget of which 80% of that 20 has been in | :44:42. | :44:45. | |
prisons and we know there a shortage prison officers. I watch that whips | :44:46. | :44:52. | |
caution. The northern powerhouse is mentioned again, something the | :44:53. | :44:55. | |
government heralds positively but which we know from our work on the | :44:56. | :44:59. | |
committee that the Department for business is planning to move its | :45:00. | :45:03. | |
policy team from Sheffield to that well-known northern powerhouse aka | :45:04. | :45:08. | |
Victoria Street S W one. That is to join the existing civil servants | :45:09. | :45:14. | |
working on the northern powerhouse already based in London. I may be a | :45:15. | :45:18. | |
London MP but I know when something doesn't make sense so it is vital | :45:19. | :45:21. | |
the government gets the best input from around the nations and regions | :45:22. | :45:27. | |
of the United Kingdom to make sure the policy isn't just London centric | :45:28. | :45:33. | |
and their getaway. I understand the points made but does she not | :45:34. | :45:36. | |
appreciate the whole point of devolution is to give more power | :45:37. | :45:41. | |
back into the combined authorities or to local partnerships and that is | :45:42. | :45:44. | |
what we are delivering, regardless of what happens to one policy or | :45:45. | :45:51. | |
strategy team. I think my point is that is a litmus test for how | :45:52. | :45:56. | |
seriously devolution is taken. Actually, what we seek frequently on | :45:57. | :46:02. | |
the committee is we ask, when they talk about devolving powers, how | :46:03. | :46:06. | |
many civil servants will move from Whitehall to the region? Maybe not | :46:07. | :46:10. | |
the same people but what percentage in total will shift, because if | :46:11. | :46:18. | |
Whitehall shifts, we should see a deduction potentially in the civil | :46:19. | :46:21. | |
service. If not we should see an explanation for why that is not the | :46:22. | :46:25. | |
case. I have seen some fuzzy thinking on that and we are watching | :46:26. | :46:26. | |
closely. The investigatory Powers Bill is | :46:27. | :46:34. | |
mentioned again as it did not make enough progress in the previous | :46:35. | :46:39. | |
parliament. I believe we need to keep up with technology to keep our | :46:40. | :46:42. | |
citizens safe so I support this bill in principle. But I sincerely hope | :46:43. | :46:49. | |
that the Home Secretary will listen to opposition calls on this side of | :46:50. | :46:54. | |
the House for appropriate government safeguards so that this legislation | :46:55. | :46:59. | |
can gain cross-party support. We must unite against terror and those | :47:00. | :47:03. | |
who wish our country ill. I think we could work together in that spirit | :47:04. | :47:06. | |
to make sure that this bill is the best piece of legislation could be. | :47:07. | :47:11. | |
I am talking about security and that brings me onto the issue tackling | :47:12. | :47:16. | |
extremism. I do not believe it is something that can be done from | :47:17. | :47:18. | |
Whitehall. It is important that Whitehall sets the framework for | :47:19. | :47:22. | |
doing that. The best way of doing this is the work at the grassroots | :47:23. | :47:27. | |
level. We are very prevent strategy in the past but we need to make sure | :47:28. | :47:30. | |
we work to deliver this this time. And we need to do that in a spirit | :47:31. | :47:34. | |
of unity. It has been shocking over the last weeks and months that | :47:35. | :47:38. | |
senior government ministers, even the Prime Minister himself, had been | :47:39. | :47:42. | |
casting aspersions on the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. It is beyond the | :47:43. | :47:45. | |
pale and unacceptable that someone in his position has been pilloried | :47:46. | :47:49. | |
in such a way when he is part of the solution and certainly nothing to do | :47:50. | :47:54. | |
with the problem. I hope that we can move forward in a spirit of greater | :47:55. | :47:58. | |
unity because we need to tackle that is part of our long-term strategy to | :47:59. | :48:02. | |
make our country secure. The main issues on which the dock about today | :48:03. | :48:10. | |
are around housing, health and education and I am concerned about | :48:11. | :48:14. | |
what is not included as much as what is included in the sketchy detail. | :48:15. | :48:20. | |
The government commits to building 1 million homes but let's replay what | :48:21. | :48:24. | |
happened in the last parliament. The government committed to releasing | :48:25. | :48:30. | |
public land to build new homes. But five years on, when the committee | :48:31. | :48:37. | |
looked at this, the government could not say how much the land had been | :48:38. | :48:41. | |
sold for and how many homes had been built on the land, and whether there | :48:42. | :48:44. | |
was any appreciable value for money for the taxpayer. You really could | :48:45. | :48:49. | |
not make it up. And the Public Accounts Committee remains concerned | :48:50. | :48:54. | |
about the pledge to release land for homes. It is interesting that there | :48:55. | :49:00. | |
is such a figure when we know that the number of homes built is not | :49:01. | :49:03. | |
something that ministers have considered that they should be | :49:04. | :49:07. | |
counting as an outcome. As one of my colleagues on the committee | :49:08. | :49:10. | |
describes it, none of our constituents want to live in a | :49:11. | :49:14. | |
potential home, they want to live in a real home. We should not just | :49:15. | :49:17. | |
count the homes being built, we should make sure they are the right | :49:18. | :49:21. | |
ones, which means allowing local authorities in their own areas to | :49:22. | :49:25. | |
determine what is necessary. The speech talks about tackling poverty | :49:26. | :49:30. | |
and the courses of that to give every child the best start in life. | :49:31. | :49:48. | |
Are presented which is at the top of child... -- I represent... The new | :49:49. | :49:55. | |
bill will make a damaging effect on my constituency, pulling the carpet | :49:56. | :50:04. | |
out from underneath my constituents. In my own borough, 700 right to buy | :50:05. | :50:11. | |
homes will... Mr Speaker, I do not begrudge people wanting to own their | :50:12. | :50:14. | |
own home or getting the opportunity to do that, but it must not be at | :50:15. | :50:22. | |
the expense of others. There is also pay to stay which was introduced to | :50:23. | :50:26. | |
push up rents for people on a household income of ?40,000 a year. | :50:27. | :50:31. | |
That might sound like not a lot of money to some members but in London | :50:32. | :50:35. | |
it does not stretch very far. In London, the average property price | :50:36. | :50:42. | |
is now ?691,969. It has gone up about ?7,000 since I last raced this | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
in the House three weeks ago. That is an 85% increase in the last six | :50:48. | :50:52. | |
years. Private rents as of February this year, the median for a | :50:53. | :50:58. | |
one-bedroom property is ?1399 per calendar month. To afford that, you | :50:59. | :51:03. | |
would require a gross household income of ?48,000. I do not know | :51:04. | :51:08. | |
where people are expected to pay and stay, where they are expected to go. | :51:09. | :51:12. | |
They cannot afford to buy their own home rent privately. That affects a | :51:13. | :51:16. | |
number of pensioners in my constituency and there are also | :51:17. | :51:20. | |
overcrowded households because adult children cannot leave, and they are | :51:21. | :51:27. | |
not necessarily paying for huge palaces but often overcrowded | :51:28. | :51:29. | |
situations. Under the housing bill, there is a proposal to replace homes | :51:30. | :51:38. | |
sold underwrite four by 141 but that is not necessarily like for like. | :51:39. | :51:41. | |
They could be a different size, in a different location or city, and on a | :51:42. | :51:46. | |
different tenure. Frankly, it is not good enough for the government to | :51:47. | :51:49. | |
sit back and allow this to happen. I hope the government will work with | :51:50. | :51:53. | |
Sadiq Khan to come up with at least a workaround for London, because it | :51:54. | :52:00. | |
will not work as it is. I am fed up with hearing government ministers | :52:01. | :52:03. | |
and the Prime Minister talking about starter homes being the solution. | :52:04. | :52:06. | |
Starter homes in my constituency would need to be -- would require a | :52:07. | :52:15. | |
household income of ?71,000 on average to be affordable. The | :52:16. | :52:19. | |
average household income is much lower. Government policies are | :52:20. | :52:24. | |
fuelling house prices but not solving the problem. If we underline | :52:25. | :52:32. | |
the crucial need to sort out housing in my borough, 11,000 people are on | :52:33. | :52:38. | |
the council housing register. In 2014, 1338 social rented homes were | :52:39. | :52:44. | |
allocated to people. People are waiting a very long time. And there | :52:45. | :52:49. | |
are 2286 households in temporary accommodation. My surgeries are the | :52:50. | :52:52. | |
busiest and worst they have ever been in the 20 years since I was | :52:53. | :52:56. | |
elected. I thought it could not get worse when I visited people 20 years | :52:57. | :53:01. | |
ago but it is even worse now is. People being relocated long way away | :53:02. | :53:05. | |
from schools and families and increasingly having no more security | :53:06. | :53:09. | |
and I do not know where people go. I speak for the private sector | :53:10. | :53:13. | |
individuals as well. I mean the people in good jobs, but not well | :53:14. | :53:17. | |
paid, people in their 40s who have rented privately all their lives, | :53:18. | :53:20. | |
suddenly now finding themselves priced out. They cannot or rent and | :53:21. | :53:25. | |
heaven forbid they are on any housing benefit, because if you are | :53:26. | :53:29. | |
on low income, you will require housing benefit. Where do those | :53:30. | :53:32. | |
people go? We are hollowing out London? The gracious speech could | :53:33. | :53:42. | |
have and should have included an outline of how the government will | :53:43. | :53:49. | |
work with London. There is a promise of a seven-day NHS in this speech | :53:50. | :53:55. | |
but in a series of reports, the committee has concluded that the | :53:56. | :54:00. | |
budget of the NHS is far too squeezed. It is like a balloon. If | :54:01. | :54:03. | |
you squeeze it in one place, the bulge go somewhere else. Acute | :54:04. | :54:09. | |
trusts are nearly bursting with three quarters in deficit. The | :54:10. | :54:12. | |
seven-day NHS is just not being costed. The NHS commissioners | :54:13. | :54:20. | |
providers had a deficit of ?471 million in 2014 and the Public | :54:21. | :54:23. | |
Accounts Committee concluded that there is not yet a convincing plan | :54:24. | :54:32. | |
for causing the efficiency gap. There are not enough GPs to meet | :54:33. | :54:38. | |
demand. That is not enough capacity to support decisions on general | :54:39. | :54:42. | |
practice. This is another conclusion from the Public Accounts Committee. | :54:43. | :54:54. | |
And targeted trusts are... There is a 9% shortfall in clinical staff | :54:55. | :55:00. | |
nationally and nurses and midwives and health care visitors have a | :55:01. | :55:04. | |
vacancy rate of over 7%. And we have seen the fiasco with the handling of | :55:05. | :55:09. | |
the junior doctors contracts. If the government is planning to legislate | :55:10. | :55:12. | |
on a seven-day NHS, it must do the maths. I think it is about time that | :55:13. | :55:17. | |
somebody gave the Health Secretary is a simple cartilage. It is pretty | :55:18. | :55:25. | |
basic. But we are seeing a squeeze in GP services, acute trusts | :55:26. | :55:30. | |
bursting until this week. Specialist services, any risk of increasing | :55:31. | :55:36. | |
their wishes are likely. Workforce planning is dire and there is an | :55:37. | :55:40. | |
over reliance on expensive agency staff and locums. The basic maths is | :55:41. | :55:44. | |
not being met and needs to be more done to make sure that this is | :55:45. | :55:54. | |
deliverable. Currently on the evidence, it is not planned or | :55:55. | :55:57. | |
funded or realistic. And the government must address of this | :55:58. | :56:01. | |
fundamental issue. I think there is cross-party support on all sides of | :56:02. | :56:06. | |
the House. It is something that we all treasure and love and we know | :56:07. | :56:09. | |
that when it is needed, it is there, but it will not be there if we | :56:10. | :56:13. | |
allowed this approach to continue. There has to be a better approach. | :56:14. | :56:20. | |
Education is mentioned in the Gracious Speech. My borough needs no | :56:21. | :56:23. | |
lessons in excellence when it comes to education. Thanks to decent | :56:24. | :56:28. | |
funding, committed teachers and head teachers and the vision of the | :56:29. | :56:33. | |
mayor, we have some of the rest schools in the country with a number | :56:34. | :56:36. | |
ranking in the top 1% nationally. When I was selected to run for the | :56:37. | :56:41. | |
seat 12 years ago, I was asked about whether I had thought about tuition | :56:42. | :56:45. | |
fees at universities. I pointed out that so many people -- so few pupils | :56:46. | :56:51. | |
in Hackney went to university that it was an academic question in my | :56:52. | :56:57. | |
borough. Now we see many more students going to university so it | :56:58. | :57:01. | |
has been a major success. But I worry. It is easy for the government | :57:02. | :57:05. | |
to talk about raising excellence but London is under threat. When the | :57:06. | :57:08. | |
government talks about the funding, it means reducing funding in London. | :57:09. | :57:15. | |
This is unjust, foolish and short-sighted. It risks putting back | :57:16. | :57:20. | |
the progress made by and for London's young people. Nationally | :57:21. | :57:24. | |
there are lessons to be learned from London but it must not be hammered | :57:25. | :57:28. | |
while we are trying to resolve issues in the rest of the country. | :57:29. | :57:33. | |
Mr Speaker, there is a lot to be looking at in this Queen's Speech | :57:34. | :57:36. | |
and we will be busy as a committee as we examine it. But I hope the | :57:37. | :57:39. | |
government learns lessons from its policies on housing in particular | :57:40. | :57:42. | |
and particularly on the funding of the health service, working out a | :57:43. | :57:46. | |
way of having a stable financial footing for these policies so that | :57:47. | :57:49. | |
they are actually come up when they are good they are deliverable and | :57:50. | :57:52. | |
when they are not, we have the chance to mend them not just through | :57:53. | :57:56. | |
secondary legislation but that we have primary legislation which is | :57:57. | :57:58. | |
debatable and amendable by this House and that the Lords is not so | :57:59. | :58:03. | |
muted under the government's last but one line in the Queen's Speech, | :58:04. | :58:07. | |
talking about the primacy of the House of Commons. It is vital that | :58:08. | :58:11. | |
the Lords' experts get their say to make sure that these policies are | :58:12. | :58:16. | |
better. It is now proud thing for the government to introduce policies | :58:17. | :58:19. | |
that increase inequality and deprivation and I fear that without | :58:20. | :58:23. | |
proper scrutiny and detail, that will be what will happen as a | :58:24. | :58:30. | |
result. It is a pleasure to follow the honourable lady for Hackney. I | :58:31. | :58:34. | |
may not agree with the conclusions he reached and the commentary on the | :58:35. | :58:39. | |
Queen's Speech but the manner with which she gave her speech, the | :58:40. | :58:43. | |
thoughtful way with which she approached the subjects she | :58:44. | :58:48. | |
discussed, is, if I may say so, a commendable way to debate the | :58:49. | :58:51. | |
Queen's Speech and particularly so from the opposition benches because | :58:52. | :58:53. | |
people tend to listen to you from the opposition benches when you | :58:54. | :58:59. | |
speak carefully, calmly and without hectoring, and she certainly was | :59:00. | :59:03. | |
listened to by me and I am grateful. I am also very happy to take the | :59:04. | :59:09. | |
opportunity to thank my right honourable friend, the Member for | :59:10. | :59:14. | |
Bracknell, for starting off our deliberations this afternoon with | :59:15. | :59:20. | |
first-class speeches. Both different in style but both hugely amusing and | :59:21. | :59:31. | |
insightful. And they are to be congratulated for what they have to | :59:32. | :59:41. | |
say. Like all Queen's Speech is, they can be something of a curates | :59:42. | :59:48. | |
egg. A bit of detail, that of aspiration and other measures laid | :59:49. | :59:57. | |
before you. And I don't suppose this Queen's Speech is an exception to | :59:58. | :00:01. | |
that rule. But I am keen to highlight three areas of the speech | :00:02. | :00:04. | |
which appeals to me and which I think will be of interest to the | :00:05. | :00:10. | |
country as a whole. It does not matter to me that the bills that I | :00:11. | :00:20. | |
want to concentrate on male may have a bearing on England and Wales. I | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
think the theory behind it and the public policy behind it should be of | :00:26. | :00:30. | |
interest across the United Kingdom. The first issue I want to deal with | :00:31. | :00:37. | |
is the anti-corruption Summit in London and the follow-on legislation | :00:38. | :00:44. | |
which will tackle money laundering and tax evasion. There is no | :00:45. | :00:51. | |
question that for too long the police and public policy | :00:52. | :00:54. | |
commentators have probably not given enough attention to white-collar | :00:55. | :00:58. | |
crime as it is sometimes called. Nobody dies, there is no blood and | :00:59. | :01:05. | |
guts, and there are not obvious victims in so many cases. But | :01:06. | :01:13. | |
nonetheless, these are serious crimes. If somebody went into a bank | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
fished on offshore gun and stole ?10 million, we would get exercise about | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
it. -- went into a bank with a sawn off shotgun. | :01:25. | :01:28. |