Browse content similar to 27/06/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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The member for tooting. Thank you very much. | :00:00. | :00:10. | |
Order. Statement, the Prime Minister. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Web | :00:11. | :00:23. | |
promotion I would like to make a statement on the result of the EU | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
referendum. Last week saw one of the biggest democratic exercises in our | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
history, with over 33 million people from England, Scotland, Northern | :00:34. | :00:36. | |
Ireland, England, and Gibraltar having their say. We should be proud | :00:37. | :00:41. | |
is right that we do not just leave is right that we do not just leave | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
it to politicians but listen directly to the people. That is why | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
people voted for a referendum with a margin of 6-1. Let me welcome the | :00:53. | :00:59. | |
new member to her place. I would advise her to keep her mobile phone | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
on as she may be in the Shadow Cabinet by the end of the day. | :01:04. | :01:11. | |
I thought I was having a bad day. Let me set out for the House what | :01:12. | :01:30. | |
this book means, the steps we are taking to stabilise the UK economy, | :01:31. | :01:34. | |
the preparatory work for negotiation to leave the EU, our plans were in | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
gauging with the devolved administrations, and our next step | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
tomorrow's European Council. The British people had voted to leave | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
the European Union. It was not the result that I wanted or the outcome | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
that I think is best, but there can be no doubt about the result. I do | :01:52. | :02:03. | |
not take back what I said about the risks, it will be difficult and I | :02:04. | :02:05. | |
will be adjustments within the economy, complex constitutional | :02:06. | :02:07. | |
issues, and challenging renegotiation. I am clear that the | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
decision must be accepted and the process of implementing it in the | :02:12. | :02:17. | |
best possible wave must now begin. At the same time, we have a | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
fundamental responsibility to bring our country together. We have seen | :02:22. | :02:28. | |
community Centre, verbal abuse community Centre, verbal abuse | :02:29. | :02:30. | |
against individuals because they come from ethnic minorities. These | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
people have come here and contributed to our country. We will | :02:36. | :02:41. | |
not stand for hate crime or these attacks, they must be stamped out. | :02:42. | :02:47. | |
We can reassure European citizens living here and British people in | :02:48. | :02:50. | |
European countries that there will be no immediate changes in the | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
circumstances. There will not be any change in the way our people travel, | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
in the way our bits move, or the way our services are sold. The deal | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
renegotiated at the European Council in February will be discarded and a | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
new negotiation to leave the EU will begin under a new Prime Minister. | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
companies are considering their companies are considering their | :03:15. | :03:17. | |
investments and we know this will not be plain sailing. We should take | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
confidence from the fact that Britain is ready to confront what | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
the future holds from a position of strength. As a result of our | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
long-term plan, we have one of the strongest economies in the world. We | :03:32. | :03:38. | |
are well placed to face the challenges ahead. We have no, stable | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
inflation, the employment rate remains the highest it has ever | :03:44. | :03:49. | |
been, the budget deficit is over 11% of national income to be less then | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
3% this year is forecast. The financial system is more resilient | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
than it was six years ago, with capital requirements now ten times | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
higher than before the banking crisis. -- banking crisis. The | :04:05. | :04:09. | |
market may not have expected the result, but the Treasury and Bank of | :04:10. | :04:12. | |
England and other financial authorities have spent the last | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
month putting contingency plans in place. As a governor of the Bank of | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
England said on Friday, stress test showed that UK institutions have | :04:23. | :04:24. | |
enough capital liquidity to enough capital liquidity to | :04:25. | :04:27. | |
withstand this scenario more severe than the one the country faces. The | :04:28. | :04:33. | |
bank will make available to London ?50 billion is to support banks and | :04:34. | :04:39. | |
markets. In the coming days, the Treasury, the Bank of England, and | :04:40. | :04:42. | |
the financial authorities will continue to be in contact and they | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
have contingency plans in place and they will not hesitate to take | :04:48. | :04:52. | |
further measures if required. In terms of negotiating our exit from | :04:53. | :04:57. | |
the EU, the Cabinet met this morning and agreed to make a new EU unit in | :04:58. | :05:03. | |
Whitehall. This will bring up together -- this will bring together | :05:04. | :05:09. | |
various expertise. It is the most complex and important past that the | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
British civil service has undertaken in decades. It will sit at the heart | :05:14. | :05:18. | |
of Government and it will be staffed with the best from across our civil | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
service. It will report to the Cabinet on the outcome of the | :05:24. | :05:25. | |
referendum and will advise on transitional options and will | :05:26. | :05:32. | |
discuss our future relationships from outside the European Union. It | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
will be responsible for making sure the Prime Minister has the best | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
advice. I know that colleagues on all sides of the House will want to | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
contribute to how we prepare and execute the new negotiation to leave | :05:46. | :05:52. | |
the European Union. All views and representations will be listened to | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
exercise. He will play no part in exercise. He will play no part in | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
the leadership election. We must ensure that the interests of all | :06:02. | :06:05. | |
parts of our United Kingdom are protected and advance. As he | :06:06. | :06:08. | |
prepared for a new negotiation with the European Union we will involve | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
the Scottish, Welsh, Northern Ireland governments. We will also | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
consult Gibraltar, the overseas territories and all regional centres | :06:18. | :06:20. | |
of power, including the London assembly. I have spoken to the first | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
ministers of Scotland and Wales and the first and Deputy first from | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
Northern Ireland. We will be working intensively together in the coming | :06:31. | :06:36. | |
weeks to bring our devolved administrations into the process for | :06:37. | :06:39. | |
determining the decisions that need to be taken. While all these | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
decisions will have to wait for the arrival of the new Prime Minister, | :06:44. | :06:46. | |
there is work that can be started now. The British and Irish | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
governments will start to meet this week to work to the challenges | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
related to the common border area. Tomorrow I will attend the European | :06:55. | :06:59. | |
Council. I've spoken to Angela Merkel, President Holland and a | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
number of other leaders. We discussed the need to prepare for | :07:05. | :07:07. | |
negotiations and the fact that the British Government will not be | :07:08. | :07:11. | |
triggering Article 50 at this stage. Before we do that we will determine | :07:12. | :07:15. | |
the kind of relationship that the one with the EU and that is | :07:16. | :07:18. | |
something for the next Prime Minister and the Cabinet to decide. | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
presidents of the European Council presidents of the European Council | :07:24. | :07:26. | |
it clear again tomorrow. This is our it clear again tomorrow. This is our | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
sovereign decision and it will be for Britain to take it. Tomorrow is | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
also an opportunity to make the point that Britain is leading the | :07:37. | :07:39. | |
European Union but we will not turn our back on Europe or the rest of | :07:40. | :07:44. | |
the world. The nature of the relationship that we secured with | :07:45. | :07:47. | |
the EU will be determined by the next Government, but I think | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
everyone is agreed that we want the strongest possible economic links | :07:52. | :07:54. | |
with our European neighbours as well as with our friends in North | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
America, the Commonwealth, and India and China. I'm also sure that | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
whatever the precise nature of our relationship we will want to | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
continue with a great deal of our extensive security cooperation and | :08:08. | :08:10. | |
to do everything we can to influence decisions that will affect the | :08:11. | :08:13. | |
prosperity and safety of here at home. This negotiation will require | :08:14. | :08:19. | |
strong, determined and committed leadership and as I have said I | :08:20. | :08:22. | |
think the country requires a new Prime Minister and Cabinet to take | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
it in this direction. I have not taken this decision lightly but I am | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
convinced it is then the national interest. Believing he was not be | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
passed directly men did, I praise our strength is the country. As they | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
proceed with implementing this decision and facing the challenges | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
it will bring, I believe we should help fast in a vision of Britain | :08:45. | :08:48. | |
wants to be respected abroad, tolerate at home, engaged in the | :08:49. | :08:52. | |
world and working with our international partners to advance | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
this security and prosperity of our nation for generations to come. I | :08:58. | :09:00. | |
have thought for those every day of my political life and I will | :09:01. | :09:04. | |
continue doing so. I commend this statement to the House. Jeremy | :09:05. | :09:12. | |
Corbyn. Thank you Mr Speaker. Firstly I would like to thank the | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
British people for turning out to vote in the referendum in such high | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
numbers. The vote was a reflection of the significance of the issue. It | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
was a close vote on the back of a campaign that was too often divisive | :09:28. | :09:33. | |
and negative. These benches put forward a positive case to remain | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
part of the European Union and convinced more than two thirds of | :09:39. | :09:41. | |
our own supporters. The majority of people had voted to leave and we | :09:42. | :09:46. | |
have listened to and accepted what they have said. Many people feel | :09:47. | :09:52. | |
disenfranchised and panellist. Especially in parts of the country | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
that have been left behind for too long. Communities that have been let | :09:58. | :10:06. | |
down, not by the European Union but by Tory governments. Those | :10:07. | :10:14. | |
communities do not trust politicians to deliver because for too long they | :10:15. | :10:20. | |
have not. In this bed of more extreme cuts to local services, | :10:21. | :10:25. | |
which have hit the area is the hardest, this Government needs to | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
invest in bills communities. Many of those areas are very concerned, | :10:30. | :10:36. | |
deeply concerned about the security pledge to EU funding. Can the Prime | :10:37. | :10:41. | |
Minister give us any guarantees on those issues is that money is | :10:42. | :10:45. | |
desperately needed? Secondly, there is an issue of trust. The terror of | :10:46. | :10:52. | |
the referendum campaign was disheartening as half truths were | :10:53. | :10:57. | |
told. Many leave figures spent the weekend distancing themselves from | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
these, not least the boat to leave would hand the NHS an extra ?350 | :11:03. | :11:10. | |
million every week. It is shameful that politicians make claims they | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
knew to be false and promises they knew could not be delivered. Badly, | :11:15. | :11:21. | |
real concern exists about immigration but too much of the | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
discussion in the referendum campaign was divisive. -- Burghley. | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
In the days following the result, it appears there was a rise in racist | :11:33. | :11:39. | |
incidents, such as the attack on the Polish Centre in Hammersmith which | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
the Prime Minister referred to and many other incidents across the | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
country. I hope the Prime Minister and Home Secretary will take all the | :11:48. | :11:51. | |
action that they can to halt these attacks, to halt the racist | :11:52. | :11:54. | |
behaviour on the streets of the country. As political leaders, we | :11:55. | :12:03. | |
have a duty to keep our language and tone calm, especially at the events | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
of ten days ago. The country is divided and it will thank me those | :12:09. | :12:15. | |
in front of me or those behind for indulging in internal movements | :12:16. | :12:25. | |
within their parties at this time. Mr Speaker, we have... Mr Speaker, | :12:26. | :12:35. | |
we have serious matters to discuss in this House and in the country. I | :12:36. | :12:44. | |
want to accommodate as many as possible of those colleagues who | :12:45. | :12:51. | |
want to question the Prime Minister. People will be -- things will just | :12:52. | :12:54. | |
be flowed down if people keep interrupting. It appears that | :12:55. | :13:00. | |
neither wing of the Tory Government has an exit plan, which is why we | :13:01. | :13:04. | |
are insisting that the Labour Party be fully engaged in the negotiations | :13:05. | :13:10. | |
that lie ahead. We need the freedom to shape our economy for the future | :13:11. | :13:12. | |
and to protect social and employment and to protect social and employment | :13:13. | :13:18. | |
on trade, migration, environmental on trade, migration, environmental | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
understand the Prime Minister is understand the Prime Minister is | :13:24. | :13:25. | |
standing down in three months, but we cannot be paralysed until then. | :13:26. | :13:32. | |
The Prime ministers meet in the European Council tomorrow and I hope | :13:33. | :13:34. | |
he is meeting the European Council tomorrow and I hope he's going to | :13:35. | :13:37. | |
say that negotiations will begin so we know what is happening rather | :13:38. | :13:43. | |
than being delayed until October. We have a duty to act in the national | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
interest is the House and to make sure we get the best agreements for | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
our constituents. Will the Prime Minister confirmed that in the light | :13:52. | :13:55. | |
Chancellor will announce a Chancellor will announce a | :13:56. | :13:59. | |
suspension, worried termination, of his even more counter-productive | :14:00. | :14:07. | |
fiscal rule? The economy needs a clear plan for investment, | :14:08. | :14:10. | |
particularly in the communities that have been damaged by this Government | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
and has said such a strong message to us last week. Will he | :14:16. | :14:21. | |
specifically rule out tax rises or further cuts to public services that | :14:22. | :14:24. | |
were threatened in the pre-referendum period? I welcome his | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
assurances on the uncertainty felt by many European nationals working | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
in our economy, including the 52,000 who worked so well and help our | :14:35. | :14:38. | |
National Health Service to provide the service we need. It is welcome | :14:39. | :14:44. | |
that the Prime Minister is consulting with the devolved | :14:45. | :14:48. | |
administrations and I hope that the Mayor of London, a city from which | :14:49. | :14:53. | |
the implications are huge. We must act in the public interest and | :14:54. | :14:56. | |
support measures to reduce volatility. I welcome market | :14:57. | :15:00. | |
protections, but what about protection for people's jobs, wages | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
and pensions? Can the Prime Minister may clear plans in place. The | :15:06. | :15:09. | |
Chancellor 's book this morning to reassure the stock markets, although | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
they remain uncertain. -- the Chancellor spoke. We understand some | :15:15. | :15:17. | |
measures cannot be discussed in the House, but can you give this | :15:18. | :15:28. | |
And, may I say, Mr Speaker that I have many fundamental disagreements | :15:29. | :15:36. | |
with the policies of the poor Mr and his Government. Nevertheless, as he | :15:37. | :15:39. | |
announces the end of his Premiership, it is right to reflect | :15:40. | :15:44. | |
that he led a Government that delivered equal marriage against the | :15:45. | :15:47. | |
majority of his own MPs, and he was right to do so. I want to thank and | :15:48. | :15:51. | |
also for his response to the bloody Sunday enquiry, and how he reacted | :15:52. | :15:58. | |
to the tragic murder of Jo Cox. We thank him for a service and I'm sure | :15:59. | :16:02. | |
we will enjoy many more debate and disagreement while he continues as | :16:03. | :16:09. | |
Prime Minister. Let me agree with the Leader of the Opposition that it | :16:10. | :16:13. | |
was positive that turnout was so high. I also agree with him that we | :16:14. | :16:16. | |
do need to reach out to those people who have not entered from economic | :16:17. | :16:20. | |
growth and make sure they feel that their economic security is important | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
to us as well. But I do not agree with him that it is right to start | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
to refight the campaign all over again. All I know from my part is | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
that I feel I put everything I could into the campaign that I believed | :16:33. | :16:35. | |
in, head, heart and soul, and left nothing out, and I think that was | :16:36. | :16:40. | |
the right thing to do. Answering his questions on money, different areas | :16:41. | :16:43. | |
of the country get, until we leave the EU, none of those arrangements | :16:44. | :16:47. | |
change. What has been set out in the budget, payments and the rest of it, | :16:48. | :16:51. | |
all of those continued. As the negotiation begins properly for | :16:52. | :16:55. | |
leaving, obviously the next Government will want to set out what | :16:56. | :16:59. | |
arrangement it will put in place for farmers, local authorities, four | :17:00. | :17:05. | |
regions of our country. On intolerance and fighting | :17:06. | :17:07. | |
intolerance, I absolutely agree with him. We must dig all action we can | :17:08. | :17:10. | |
to stand aside. He asked about the Chancellor's fiscal rule and also | :17:11. | :17:16. | |
future plans. I would say, we have not worked so hard to get the Budget | :17:17. | :17:21. | |
deficit down to see that go to waste, we must continue to make sure | :17:22. | :17:25. | |
that we have a stoned strong economic plan in our country. For | :17:26. | :17:29. | |
the coming months it is my responsibility and the Chancellor's | :17:30. | :17:32. | |
responsibility, in time it will be the responsibility of a new | :17:33. | :17:35. | |
Government, and they will have to decide how to react if there are | :17:36. | :17:38. | |
economic goodies along the way. He asked if they could be private | :17:39. | :17:42. | |
meetings for members of the front bench with the Chancellor, as always | :17:43. | :17:47. | |
in these arrangements, if Shadow Cabinet members want those sorts of | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
briefings, they can have them. And can I finally thank him for his kind | :17:52. | :17:54. | |
remarks and the fact that he hopes will be debating with each other for | :17:55. | :17:57. | |
some weeks and possibly months to come? Mr Speaker, when we acquire | :17:58. | :18:11. | |
any Government that has decided what it means by leaving and draws up | :18:12. | :18:17. | |
some detailed policy instructions for the committee officials he has | :18:18. | :18:20. | |
set up, a great deal of detailed legislation covering a whole variety | :18:21. | :18:23. | |
of fields will start being submitted to this Parliament. Does my Right | :18:24. | :18:29. | |
Honourable Friend agree that we still have a Parliamentary | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
democracy, and it will be the duty of each member of Parliament to | :18:34. | :18:38. | |
judge each measure in the light of what each man and woman regards as | :18:39. | :18:42. | |
the national interest? And not to take broad guidance from a | :18:43. | :18:46. | |
plebiscite which has produced a small majority on a broad question | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
after a bad-tempered and ill informed debate? And would he agree | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
that we face months of uncertainty everywhere not careful... It is | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
willing not acceptable for people to make that level of noise. The Right | :19:03. | :19:05. | |
Honourable and learned gentleman will be hard, and every member of | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
this house will be heard. Lets accord the Right Honourable and | :19:10. | :19:12. | |
leather gentleman the respect which he is entitled. Thank you, Mr | :19:13. | :19:17. | |
Speaker. Would he agree there is a risk of uncertainty for a few | :19:18. | :19:20. | |
months, causing considerable difficulty, would he consider the | :19:21. | :19:26. | |
possible first step of joining the European economic area, which was | :19:27. | :19:31. | |
designed in the first place for countries like Norway and Iceland, | :19:32. | :19:35. | |
where the great bulk of politicians whist to join the European Union but | :19:36. | :19:39. | |
could not get past the ridiculous hurdle of a referendum in order to | :19:40. | :19:47. | |
get their? And that would at least could be negotiated, modifications, | :19:48. | :19:50. | |
changes, if anybody can decide what they want after we get there, but it | :19:51. | :19:53. | |
would give some reassuring order and stability to our economy, and might | :19:54. | :19:59. | |
begin to track a little investment and future prospects. Let me thank | :20:00. | :20:04. | |
my Right Honourable Friend for his remarks. My view is simple, this | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
house should not block the will of the British people to leave the | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
European Union. But of course we have now got a look at all the | :20:13. | :20:14. | |
detailed arrangements, and Parliament will clearly have a role | :20:15. | :20:17. | |
in that in making sure that we find the best way forward. That will | :20:18. | :20:22. | |
principally be the job for the next Government, but I do believe in | :20:23. | :20:25. | |
Parliamentary sovereignty and the sovereignty of this Parliament, and | :20:26. | :20:28. | |
a lot of detail will have to be discussed and debated. Decisions | :20:29. | :20:34. | |
like with not enjoying the EEA will have to be for a future Government. | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union. 62% of | :20:40. | :20:48. | |
voters cast their votes to remain in the EU, every single local | :20:49. | :20:53. | |
Government area in the country voted to remain in the EU. And in | :20:54. | :20:59. | |
Scotland, we voted to remain because it really matters that we are in the | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
single European market, because we value the free movement of people, | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
of goods and services, the cars are EU citizenship rights matter, as do | :21:09. | :21:11. | |
our legal safeguards for workers, for women, and for parents. In | :21:12. | :21:17. | |
Scotland, we voted to remain because we are a European nation. And it | :21:18. | :21:24. | |
really, really matters to us that we live in an outward looking country, | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
not a diminished Little Britain. In Scotland we are now being told Frost | :21:30. | :21:34. | |
Westminster that despite the majority against Leave, we will have | :21:35. | :21:38. | |
to do as we are told, we're going to be taken out of Europe against our | :21:39. | :21:44. | |
will. Let me tell this house and our friends across Europe, we have no | :21:45. | :21:50. | |
intention whatsoever of seeing Scotland taken out of Europe. That | :21:51. | :21:57. | |
would be totally, totally and practically unacceptable. We are a | :21:58. | :22:02. | |
European country and we will stay a European country. And if that means | :22:03. | :22:06. | |
we have to have an independence referendum to protect Scotland's | :22:07. | :22:13. | |
lace, then so be it. Thank goodness, Mr Speaker, that we have a Scottish | :22:14. | :22:17. | |
Government and the First Minister prepared to lead and seek to protect | :22:18. | :22:22. | |
Scotland's lace, and it is very, very welcome that this approach is | :22:23. | :22:25. | |
being supported by opposition political parties across the | :22:26. | :22:31. | |
Scottish Parliament. Meanwhile, Project fair has turned into project | :22:32. | :22:36. | |
farce. Apparently those who proposed we should leave Europe have no plan. | :22:37. | :22:42. | |
A senior Leave MP said, "There is no plan. The Leave campaign do not have | :22:43. | :22:49. | |
a post Brexit plan. Number ten should have had a plan." Meanwhile, | :22:50. | :22:56. | |
UK share places are so volatile that some stocks have temporarily been | :22:57. | :23:01. | |
suspended, and sterling has hit a 31 year low. Mr Speaker, on one thing I | :23:02. | :23:09. | |
hope we are all agreed. And that is that we take very serious note of | :23:10. | :23:16. | |
the very disturbing series of racist incidents directed against our | :23:17. | :23:21. | |
fellow citizens who happen to come from other European countries. I | :23:22. | :23:27. | |
hope that we all, on all sides, totally repudiate these despicable | :23:28. | :23:31. | |
acts, and encourage the police and prosecuting authorities to do all | :23:32. | :23:36. | |
that they can. Given the economic damage and uncertainty that has | :23:37. | :23:39. | |
currently been caused, may I ask the Prime Minister the following | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
financial questions? We welcome the actions of the governor of the Bank | :23:45. | :23:47. | |
of England to help provide certainty in difficult times. Can the Prime | :23:48. | :23:50. | |
Minister confirm that the governor has no plans presently change his | :23:51. | :23:57. | |
forward guidance on interest rates? The SNP will continue to support any | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
sensible measures to deliver stability and confidence in the UK | :24:02. | :24:05. | |
economy at this time. However, we want to be explicitly clear that | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
this will not be used to further deepen the programme of austerity. | :24:10. | :24:15. | |
In conclusion, the lack of leadership from Whitehall over the | :24:16. | :24:17. | |
past few days has been unprecedented. We recognise that any | :24:18. | :24:23. | |
further drift or vacuum simply exacerbates uncertainty. We know the | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
Prime Minister is planning to leave, and we wish him well, but can we | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
have an absolute assurance that his Government will finally start to | :24:32. | :24:35. | |
take a firm grip of the situation we all sadly find ourselves in? First, | :24:36. | :24:43. | |
what I say is that our focus should be to get the very best deal for the | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
United Kingdom outside the European Union, and that should be the very | :24:48. | :24:51. | |
best deal for Scotland as well. I absolutely agree with him about the | :24:52. | :24:55. | |
despicable acts of racism that have taken place, and let me reassure him | :24:56. | :24:59. | |
as well but we will take every step we can. He asked Western | :25:00. | :25:02. | |
specifically about interest rates, that is a matter for the governor of | :25:03. | :25:05. | |
Bank of England and the Monetary Policy Committee, and they set out | :25:06. | :25:07. | |
their abuse in advance of the referendum. He asked about budgets, | :25:08. | :25:11. | |
that is a matter for a future Government. But let me say this. | :25:12. | :25:14. | |
Cotton benefits from being into single market, the United Kingdom | :25:15. | :25:20. | |
and the European single market. -- Scotland benefits. In my view, the | :25:21. | :25:30. | |
best outcome is to try to both. May I first of all paid tribute to the | :25:31. | :25:37. | |
Prime Minister for the dignity with which he addressed the nation from | :25:38. | :25:43. | |
ten Downing St yesterday? Will my Right Honourable Friend take a | :25:44. | :25:50. | |
positive and simple message to the leaders of the other 27 member | :25:51. | :25:53. | |
states at the European Council tomorrow, namely that the voters of | :25:54. | :26:01. | |
the United Kingdom have demonstrated a value of that great principle, the | :26:02. | :26:06. | |
principle of democracy, in which people fought and died? Let me thank | :26:07. | :26:14. | |
my honourable friend. Of course when I go to the Council tomorrow I will | :26:15. | :26:18. | |
report directly on the result and the decision of the British people. | :26:19. | :26:21. | |
And no one should be in any doubt about that. But I think it is | :26:22. | :26:26. | |
important that we set off on this part of exciting from the European | :26:27. | :26:30. | |
Union, trying to build as much goodwill as possible on both sides. | :26:31. | :26:37. | |
Can I pay tribute to the Prime Minister following the announcement | :26:38. | :26:40. | |
of his resignation on Friday? We have not often agreed, but his | :26:41. | :26:44. | |
commitment to historic bipartisanship during the Coalition | :26:45. | :26:48. | |
Government and his energetic commitment to the Remain campaign | :26:49. | :26:51. | |
contrasts favourably to the tribalism of others. He has my | :26:52. | :26:58. | |
respect and my thanks. I also respect the outcome of the | :26:59. | :27:04. | |
referendum. But I still feel passionately that Britain's | :27:05. | :27:07. | |
interests are best served at the heart of Europe in the European | :27:08. | :27:12. | |
Union. I can accept defeat, but I will not give up. I have not changed | :27:13. | :27:21. | |
my beliefs. With the promises of the Leave campaign unravelling and no | :27:22. | :27:24. | |
leadership insured by the opposition, will the Prime Minister | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
confirm that free movement of people and access to the single market are | :27:29. | :27:31. | |
paramount to the economics ability of Britain? And will he launch an | :27:32. | :27:35. | |
investigation into the whereabouts of the members of Oxbridge Ansari? | :27:36. | :27:45. | |
-- Oxbridge Ansari. It is not up to me to ensure attendance in the | :27:46. | :27:48. | |
Chamber. I have many responsibilities, but that is not | :27:49. | :27:51. | |
one of them. Let me thank him for what he said about my leadership, | :27:52. | :27:54. | |
and say how much I enjoy the on the platform with him outside Birmingham | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
University which brought together himself, myself and Gordon Brown, in | :27:59. | :28:01. | |
a unique, but obviously unpersuasive trilogy. Although I have to say that | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
Gordon Brown and the Right Honourable member Dave fantastic | :28:08. | :28:11. | |
speeches. I think he is right that the decision we're going to have to | :28:12. | :28:14. | |
take, and it will be for the next Government, but how we get the best | :28:15. | :28:17. | |
possible access to the single market, that will be one of the | :28:18. | :28:20. | |
single most important decisions that the Government will take on, because | :28:21. | :28:24. | |
we must bear in mind the importance of safeguarding our economy, trade | :28:25. | :28:27. | |
links, and jobs. That'll be a very serious consideration. Much of the | :28:28. | :28:33. | |
distress expressed by those who voted Remain on Thursday has been | :28:34. | :28:36. | |
that they believe their country has turned its back on their values. | :28:37. | :28:39. | |
Does the Prime Minister agree that they can be reassured that the | :28:40. | :28:45. | |
tolerance, openness and Western liberal internationalism that we | :28:46. | :28:48. | |
supported within the European Union will continue to be the hallmark of | :28:49. | :28:52. | |
the United Kingdom as we seek a new role in the world? | :28:53. | :28:57. | |
I hope my honourable friend is right. I think that Britain is at | :28:58. | :29:03. | |
its strongest when we stand up for our values and work with others. We | :29:04. | :29:05. | |
will still be full members of Nato, will still be full members of Nato, | :29:06. | :29:11. | |
the Security Council, the G-7, Britain does best when we make our | :29:12. | :29:18. | |
voice heard to these organisations. -- heard through these | :29:19. | :29:24. | |
organisations. I never thought I read Steve the day when I wish | :29:25. | :29:28. | |
they'd Tory Prime Minister with win a vote, and last Thursday I did. I | :29:29. | :29:34. | |
think the country will pay a better price because he lost this one. | :29:35. | :29:38. | |
Leaving aside the constitutional turmoil, the economy's damage, and | :29:39. | :29:46. | |
the uncertainty, the leaders of the Brexit campaign have engendered an | :29:47. | :29:49. | |
atmosphere where some people believe it is open season now for racism. | :29:50. | :29:54. | |
Will the Prime Minister said clearly Will the Prime Minister said clearly | :29:55. | :29:57. | |
that when it comes to the difficulties of getting a job, the | :29:58. | :30:03. | |
problems when it comes to the difficulties of getting a job, | :30:04. | :30:09. | |
problems in the NHS, or housing, or schools, that is the responsibility | :30:10. | :30:13. | |
of his Government to sort out, not be fault of migrants from the EU or | :30:14. | :30:20. | |
anywhere else. Can I praise the right honourable lady for her | :30:21. | :30:23. | |
decision to cross party lines and appear with others on platforms to | :30:24. | :30:28. | |
make the arguments that she made persuasively. She is right that we | :30:29. | :30:33. | |
must be clear about our commitment to diversity and tolerance and our | :30:34. | :30:37. | |
intolerance of racism and hate crimes as we've seen in recent days. | :30:38. | :30:42. | |
I know that is the view of honourable members in this House | :30:43. | :30:46. | |
though matter what side of the House they were on. That message needs to | :30:47. | :30:53. | |
quite clearly. Does the Prime Minister recall that when we held | :30:54. | :30:58. | |
the boat in September last year on the EU referendum bill, not a single | :30:59. | :31:04. | |
Conservative and only one Labour Conservative and only one | :31:05. | :31:06. | |
member voted against it? Is it not a member voted against it? Is it not a | :31:07. | :31:14. | |
bit late now for people to talk about blocking the implementation of | :31:15. | :31:17. | |
the result just because they disagree with it and finally, as it | :31:18. | :31:23. | |
is good to end in a positive note, would he care to bring in the vote | :31:24. | :31:29. | |
for the Trident successor submarines before he leaves office? I think it | :31:30. | :31:37. | |
is clear when it comes to numbers he wants for submarines and one | :31:38. | :31:41. | |
referendum. He makes a good point. When the House voted on the | :31:42. | :31:45. | |
referendum it was by a margin of 6-1 to hold the referendum. We will have | :31:46. | :31:50. | |
a plan for all the other decisions that can be made during the | :31:51. | :31:54. | |
remainder of this parliamentary session and I hope that includes the | :31:55. | :31:58. | |
one that he mentions. I would like to add my thanks to the Prime | :31:59. | :32:05. | |
Minister for his service to the nation and his place in the | :32:06. | :32:09. | |
Coalition Government. Knowing that time we disagreed on many things | :32:10. | :32:13. | |
that I appreciated his ability and good humour, which is on display | :32:14. | :32:19. | |
today, and his ability to see politics from the perspective of | :32:20. | :32:23. | |
other people. I think those qualities ensure the stability that | :32:24. | :32:26. | |
was necessary as the country was recovering from the shocks of 2008 | :32:27. | :32:33. | |
and he should be thanked for that. I have heard a lot about democratic | :32:34. | :32:37. | |
ticket not be right as a matter of ticket not be right as a matter | :32:38. | :32:40. | |
democratic principle that only democratic principle that only | :32:41. | :32:44. | |
members of the Conservative Party constituting a tiny percentage of | :32:45. | :32:48. | |
the total electorate, should be the only people that have a say to elect | :32:49. | :32:53. | |
the new Prime Minister with new priorities different to those he got | :32:54. | :32:54. | |
elected last year. But he agree that elected last year. But he agree that | :32:55. | :32:59. | |
there should be an early general election? Let me thank him for his | :33:00. | :33:06. | |
kind words. We did work together successfully and I know that he paid | :33:07. | :33:14. | |
a large personal and political price for the support he offered to the | :33:15. | :33:19. | |
Government. What I would say about the leadership election that will | :33:20. | :33:23. | |
now take place is that all parties have rules for electing leaders. | :33:24. | :33:32. | |
Those rules will be followed. In the coalition agreement we agreed a | :33:33. | :33:37. | |
fixed term Parliament act which many of my colleagues have misgivings | :33:38. | :33:43. | |
about. I think it is a good measure. A new Prime Minister should take | :33:44. | :33:47. | |
office and it is for them to decide whether to build the terms of this | :33:48. | :33:56. | |
Parliament or do something else. My right honourable friend will know | :33:57. | :33:59. | |
that are larger and people my constituency who work in the service | :34:00. | :34:05. | |
They have seen jobs leave this They have seen jobs leave this | :34:06. | :34:09. | |
country this weekend and they are worried about their future. They | :34:10. | :34:18. | |
need to be a part of the single market and so does this country as | :34:19. | :34:22. | |
they currently have a ?20 billion surplus. Will my honourable friend | :34:23. | :34:28. | |
ensure that is given the highest priority in the national interest in | :34:29. | :34:32. | |
our negotiations? He makes an important point that let me stress | :34:33. | :34:37. | |
nothing changes in the UK's trading relations with Europe until we | :34:38. | :34:42. | |
actually leave the European Union. There is a period where service | :34:43. | :34:47. | |
companies will maintain that passport and one of the most | :34:48. | :34:50. | |
important tasks for the new Government will be to negotiate the | :34:51. | :34:53. | |
best possible arrangements with the single market. There is a strong | :34:54. | :34:59. | |
case for trying to remain in the single market, but that will be a | :35:00. | :35:00. | |
decision for the new Government. As the process of leaving the | :35:01. | :35:19. | |
European Union unfolds, we will continue to face a large number of | :35:20. | :35:24. | |
international challenges, climate change, the threat of terrorism, | :35:25. | :35:31. | |
among them. We risk seeing our voice in the world diminished. Does the | :35:32. | :35:35. | |
Prime Minister agree that in the negotiations every effort should be | :35:36. | :35:40. | |
made to ensure that we continue to have tactical cooperation with our | :35:41. | :35:44. | |
European allies so we can obtain the kind of influence in the world that | :35:45. | :35:48. | |
is so important to our prosperity and security? We agree on this issue | :35:49. | :35:52. | |
and we spent some time on the and we spent some time on the | :35:53. | :35:58. | |
campaign discussing it. I would say that it is important to use all of | :35:59. | :36:03. | |
these forums to maximise Britain's influence and they will have to find | :36:04. | :36:07. | |
a way under the new Government to work out how to work with the | :36:08. | :36:10. | |
European Union to get the maximum effect for the British stance on | :36:11. | :36:15. | |
climate change, Syria, and how we try to prevent refugees leaving | :36:16. | :36:21. | |
Libya. These will be issues for a future Government. I know from what | :36:22. | :36:24. | |
happened in the campaign that this is not about Britain's rack | :36:25. | :36:29. | |
withdrawal from the world or playing less of their role, we will need to | :36:30. | :36:36. | |
work out a way forward. I would like to add my voice to the tributes to | :36:37. | :36:40. | |
the Prime Minister from across the House. He has made Oxfordshire pride | :36:41. | :36:46. | |
and we will miss him. Will he take this opportunity to reassure the | :36:47. | :36:49. | |
science and innovation sector that the Government will fight to protect | :36:50. | :36:55. | |
access to Horizon 2020 funding and research collaborations and two | :36:56. | :36:58. | |
recruitments of the brightest and recruitments of the brightest and | :36:59. | :37:04. | |
best of EU researchers, who are essential to our knowledge economy | :37:05. | :37:08. | |
and deserve to know they will be a priority in ongoing negotiations. I | :37:09. | :37:12. | |
found my honourable friend for her kind remarks and it has been eight | :37:13. | :37:17. | |
pleasure to be her constituency neighbour and working together. How | :37:18. | :37:23. | |
we maintain advances in British science and the competitiveness of | :37:24. | :37:27. | |
our universities is one of the issues the EEE unit will look at. We | :37:28. | :37:32. | |
have done well in this part of the European Union. The new Government | :37:33. | :37:35. | |
will have to look the evidence for that and how to move forward. I | :37:36. | :37:40. | |
would like to commend the Prime Minister for the way he handled | :37:41. | :37:46. | |
Friday and his very diplomatic and kind speech today. I would ask him | :37:47. | :37:52. | |
to continue to show that leadership in the coming months to ensure that | :37:53. | :37:56. | |
some of the hysteria which has been around about what is called the | :37:57. | :38:00. | |
happened to the country is kept under control. Could I have skim to | :38:01. | :38:07. | |
condemn to Dave Bennett clearly those people -- chiasm to condemn | :38:08. | :38:14. | |
today those who are implying that those who voted to leave the | :38:15. | :38:21. | |
European Union are closeted racists? I have been on the opposite side to | :38:22. | :38:25. | |
the honourable lady in this debate but I know a discouraged to stand up | :38:26. | :38:30. | |
as she has. One of my first jobs in politics was as a researcher in her | :38:31. | :38:36. | |
constituency and if I had now and then she would be part of my | :38:37. | :38:40. | |
There are many people on both sides There are many people on both sides | :38:41. | :38:45. | |
of the debate who have strong views about tolerance and diversity and we | :38:46. | :38:47. | |
need to make sure that shines need to make sure that shines | :38:48. | :38:56. | |
through in the coming days. As the Prime Minister knows, I have not | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
always agreed with him on issues. He also knows I have also been very | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
supportive of him personally and I did not want him to make the | :39:07. | :39:10. | |
announcement he made last week. Having said that, does the Prime | :39:11. | :39:16. | |
Minister agree with me when I say we need to bring the country together. | :39:17. | :39:21. | |
Does he accept that the first part of that is that everyone has to | :39:22. | :39:24. | |
accept the results of the referendum, whether they like it or | :39:25. | :39:30. | |
not? The talk of a second referendum is for the birds. When he goes to | :39:31. | :39:34. | |
see his European counterparts will he passed on the message that what | :39:35. | :39:38. | |
the British people have said is that we are happy to continue with our | :39:39. | :39:42. | |
trading with the European Union but in return for that we are not | :39:43. | :39:48. | |
willing to accept free movement of people or contributing to the EU | :39:49. | :39:54. | |
budget? He is right that we must accept the result and Has and | :39:55. | :40:00. | |
everyone should. What has to happen now is translating that result into | :40:01. | :40:03. | |
action and choosing the right pathway to leave the European Union | :40:04. | :40:07. | |
and the correct relationship to have with it. That will take complex | :40:08. | :40:11. | |
decision-making and he has a clear view about what that should involve. | :40:12. | :40:17. | |
different decisions, but the different decisions, but the | :40:18. | :40:18. | |
decision must be accepted. Many of decision must be accepted. Many of | :40:19. | :40:25. | |
my constituents are European citizens and they are fearful of | :40:26. | :40:29. | |
their future. The Prime Minister has talked about a group of officials | :40:30. | :40:33. | |
set up to determine what Brexit will mean. Can you give any comfort to | :40:34. | :40:38. | |
these people or a timetable for when they will now how they can apply to | :40:39. | :40:47. | |
remain in the UK? There will be many people watching this with the same | :40:48. | :40:48. | |
question that the honourable lady question that the honourable lady | :40:49. | :40:54. | |
has Ascot. The cancer is that while we are members of the European Union | :40:55. | :40:58. | |
there is no change in the rights of circumstances of people coming to | :40:59. | :41:01. | |
live and work in Britain or Britain is going to work in other European | :41:02. | :41:07. | |
countries. -- or people from Britain going to work in. We want to protect | :41:08. | :41:14. | |
the rights of people who are already here. The clarification of this and | :41:15. | :41:18. | |
the rights of British people living in other parts of the European Union | :41:19. | :41:22. | |
will have to wait until the complex negotiations. Can I thank the Prime | :41:23. | :41:29. | |
Minister forgiving the British people the opportunity to vote on | :41:30. | :41:32. | |
decades and can I thank those who decades and can I thank those who | :41:33. | :41:37. | |
voted to leave for giving me a remarkable birthday present on | :41:38. | :41:38. | |
Friday. I also welcomed the Friday. I also welcomed the | :41:39. | :41:45. | |
establishment of the European unit. Does the Prime Minister planned to | :41:46. | :41:50. | |
publish a white paper? I do not think that will be possible. The new | :41:51. | :41:55. | |
unit will need to get up and running and go through the complex issues | :41:56. | :41:59. | |
that need to be sorted out, about agriculture payments, borders, the | :42:00. | :42:06. | |
situation in Northern Ireland, complex issues about which British | :42:07. | :42:09. | |
laws will need to be rewritten and all the rest of it. What I envisage | :42:10. | :42:15. | |
is a series of papers being worked through and discussed by the Cabinet | :42:16. | :42:18. | |
and being prepared for the new Government as it comes in. Given the | :42:19. | :42:29. | |
enormity of this decision and the repercussions of the negotiation | :42:30. | :42:34. | |
process, the arrangements he described some week. He is saying | :42:35. | :42:37. | |
that Members of Parliament should have an informal chat. He is leaving | :42:38. | :42:45. | |
a dangerous political vacuum. Can I urge him to look at broader | :42:46. | :42:51. | |
arrangements to build a wider consensus, including setting up a | :42:52. | :42:55. | |
joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament to look at wider | :42:56. | :42:59. | |
arrangements to involve voices from across the country in what the | :43:00. | :43:04. | |
negotiations about our future Britain alongside the EU should be. | :43:05. | :43:09. | |
Written fields divided now and we have a responsibility to build a new | :43:10. | :43:16. | |
consensus for the future. -- Britain feels very divided now. I do not | :43:17. | :43:22. | |
disagree but Parliament will want to consider how they can best produce | :43:23. | :43:28. | |
evidence and take research and interviews to add to this process. I | :43:29. | :43:33. | |
see the role of the Government to move from one situation, membership | :43:34. | :43:42. | |
of the EU, to another. We need to describe in an objective way for the | :43:43. | :43:46. | |
different outcomes look like and the advantages and disadvantages of | :43:47. | :43:50. | |
them. We know a trade deal like Canada, a situation like Norway, the | :43:51. | :43:56. | |
pros and cons of being in the single market, so people can see the | :43:57. | :44:00. | |
situation in each case. The House of situation in each case. The House of | :44:01. | :44:04. | |
Commons can play a part in that. And also Baker put it Right | :44:05. | :44:13. | |
Honourable Friend for giving the reddish people the chance to dig | :44:14. | :44:18. | |
this historic decision? Isles share his that Britain will continue to be | :44:19. | :44:22. | |
engaged with the rest of the world. I hope in a more positive fashion. | :44:23. | :44:27. | |
May I also expressed the view that I'm disappointed that my Right | :44:28. | :44:31. | |
Honourable Friend has decided to stand down, and I wonder if it is | :44:32. | :44:34. | |
difficult time he might not want to reconsider their decision? I say so | :44:35. | :44:40. | |
because he is a star at the dispatch box. And furthermore as he has | :44:41. | :44:43. | |
demonstrated today, he will rather miss it if he is not here to do it. | :44:44. | :44:49. | |
I'm sure there are many things I will miss, and statements that go on | :44:50. | :44:52. | |
for at least three hours are perhaps one of them. What on earth will I do | :44:53. | :45:01. | |
to fill my time? But the reason for my decision to remind us that the | :45:02. | :45:04. | |
country has made a very clear decision to go in a particular | :45:05. | :45:09. | |
direction, and I really do believe it needs someone, fresh leadership, | :45:10. | :45:12. | |
a fresh pair of eyes, committed to that path and to get to get right | :45:13. | :45:17. | |
for Britain, and I think that does require a change, and that is why | :45:18. | :45:20. | |
amid the decision I did, and I'm certainly not changing my mind. | :45:21. | :45:25. | |
Talking of which, at nine o'clock this morning the Right Honourable | :45:26. | :45:29. | |
member for Uxbridge welcomed the stabilisation of the pound. At | :45:30. | :45:35. | |
lunchtime, sterling fell to a 31 year low against the dollar. If you | :45:36. | :45:41. | |
break it, you own it. So who owns this particular adjustment? Is of a | :45:42. | :45:45. | |
Prime Minister who called the referendum, or the Right Honourable | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
member for Uxbridge exploited it? I will be very frank. The Government | :45:52. | :45:58. | |
was elected on a manifesto promise to hold a referendum. We have held a | :45:59. | :46:03. | |
referendum. The country has made its decision, and this Government is | :46:04. | :46:06. | |
responsible motorist setting out the steps we need to take and doing all | :46:07. | :46:09. | |
that is necessary to stabilise the economy. We took a choice to ask the | :46:10. | :46:14. | |
people was very big question is I believe in our Parliamentary | :46:15. | :46:17. | |
democracy. But when it comes to the very big decisions I believe it is | :46:18. | :46:21. | |
right to consult the people. This Government takes responsibilities. | :46:22. | :46:26. | |
In respecting with dignity the wishes of the electorate, does the | :46:27. | :46:32. | |
Prime Minister accent that he has an absolutely pivotal role to play in | :46:33. | :46:37. | |
encouraging all sides to come together and talk the country up. | :46:38. | :46:43. | |
Calm optimism is now required. We are a great country and we have a | :46:44. | :46:48. | |
very bright future ahead of us. I certainly believe we all have a | :46:49. | :46:52. | |
responsibility to bring the country together and make this new pathway | :46:53. | :46:55. | |
work as well as it does, but we have to do it from a position of realism. | :46:56. | :47:00. | |
We don't know exactly what some of the economic and other effects will | :47:01. | :47:03. | |
be, so we will have to take great caution and care in the coming days | :47:04. | :47:07. | |
and weeks to respond to that, as well as coming together to get the | :47:08. | :47:12. | |
best pathway for our country to leave this organisation. On Friday | :47:13. | :47:16. | |
the Leader of the Opposition suggested we should rush to invoke | :47:17. | :47:19. | |
article 50 real negotiations now. I disagree. I believe it would be | :47:20. | :47:27. | |
inside an order for our economy to ensure a stable transition to make | :47:28. | :47:31. | |
sure that Article 50 is not triggered until at least the New | :47:32. | :47:36. | |
Year. The triggering of Article 50 is a matter for the British | :47:37. | :47:38. | |
Government. It is important we establish that. What matters is that | :47:39. | :47:43. | |
we do as much work as possible to determine the best possible model | :47:44. | :47:47. | |
that we want to try and negotiate, and that must be a matter for the | :47:48. | :47:51. | |
new Prime Minister. And then he or she will make that decision to | :47:52. | :47:57. | |
trigger article 50. Boston in my constituency voted more than any | :47:58. | :48:00. | |
Other Place in the country to leave the European Union, and has seen -- | :48:01. | :48:07. | |
I'm keenly aware that those migrants are my constituents to. Does my | :48:08. | :48:12. | |
Prime Minister agree with me that we owe it to the will of those people | :48:13. | :48:17. | |
that live in my constituency to deliver on the promises to reform | :48:18. | :48:21. | |
immigration and increase spending on the NHS if we are to retain their | :48:22. | :48:28. | |
faith in This Place? What we must continue to do is enact our | :48:29. | :48:31. | |
manifesto promises, one of which was to set up an immigration impact | :48:32. | :48:36. | |
fund, and we need to set that up and establish it, hopefully on an | :48:37. | :48:40. | |
all-party basis. We should continue to deliver for the NHS as we | :48:41. | :48:43. | |
promised in our manifesto, and we have done so. But one of the key | :48:44. | :48:48. | |
issues in this negotiation is how to balance typical decisions about | :48:49. | :48:51. | |
access to the single market and better control of immigration, and | :48:52. | :48:55. | |
that will go to the heart of what the country needs to do. The Prime | :48:56. | :49:00. | |
Minister and I were on different sides of this argument, but when he | :49:01. | :49:04. | |
spoke on Friday he did so with his dignity, his principal and his | :49:05. | :49:09. | |
honour intact. I'm very grateful to the Prime Minister for indicating | :49:10. | :49:13. | |
that discussions will commence this week on the Common travel area, but | :49:14. | :49:17. | |
can I ask the Prime Minister to dismiss the notion that there could | :49:18. | :49:21. | |
be a border poll in Northern Ireland? To dismiss the notion that | :49:22. | :49:26. | |
devolved institutions can wield a veto on this process, and to resolve | :49:27. | :49:30. | |
it only with collective will to do what is in our national interest | :49:31. | :49:32. | |
will be maintained this United Kingdom? Can I thank him for his | :49:33. | :49:39. | |
kind remarks? I think he is right to say that we get the issues around | :49:40. | :49:44. | |
the Common travel area right. They are complex, and difficult, if | :49:45. | :49:47. | |
Northern Ireland is go to be the frontier between the kingdom outside | :49:48. | :49:50. | |
the European Union and the European Union. On the issue of border poll, | :49:51. | :49:57. | |
the rules for that I set out clearly in the Good Friday Agreement and I | :49:58. | :49:59. | |
don't believe they have been triggered. And in terms of the | :50:00. | :50:03. | |
decision to leave the EU, and how we do it, that is principally the | :50:04. | :50:09. | |
matter for this Westminster United Kingdom Parliament. The Prime | :50:10. | :50:16. | |
Minister has shown decency and courage that my predecessor, Harold | :50:17. | :50:20. | |
Macmillan, would have respected. I think Harold Macmillan would have | :50:21. | :50:22. | |
wept for the day that this has happened and the day that the Prime | :50:23. | :50:27. | |
Minister departs. Well he concedes that it is very clear legally that | :50:28. | :50:30. | |
article 50 is the only proper means of exiting from the European Union, | :50:31. | :50:35. | |
that any attempt to circumvent that will be wrong and will involve this | :50:36. | :50:39. | |
country any breach of its international obligations, which no | :50:40. | :50:42. | |
decent leader of this country should ever contemplate? Let me thank him | :50:43. | :50:47. | |
for his remarks. He is right that the only legal way set out in these | :50:48. | :50:51. | |
EU is by triggering Article 50, and that is clearly what our partners | :50:52. | :50:56. | |
want us to do, although, not all of them believe that we have to do it | :50:57. | :50:59. | |
immediately. And that is why think we have some time to examine the | :51:00. | :51:04. | |
right model we want to negotiate for, and then to pull the trigger. | :51:05. | :51:08. | |
But as I understand that it is the only legal way that the job can get | :51:09. | :51:16. | |
done. During the campaign we heard quite a lot of criticism about | :51:17. | :51:23. | |
politicians, elites and experts. And I ask the Prime Minister about a | :51:24. | :51:27. | |
promise made by the Leave side just this morning? The Honorourable | :51:28. | :51:32. | |
Member for Uxbridge has said he wants to maintain full access to the | :51:33. | :51:39. | |
single market. Can the Prime Minister name a country that has | :51:40. | :51:42. | |
full access to the single market but which does not also have to accept | :51:43. | :51:50. | |
free movement of people. I think the technical answer to his question is | :51:51. | :51:55. | |
that there isn't a country today that has full access to the single | :51:56. | :51:59. | |
market without contributing to the budget or accepting free movement of | :52:00. | :52:04. | |
people. But I think that where we should try to seek some cross-party | :52:05. | :52:08. | |
agreement here is that it is in all our interests whatever the eventual | :52:09. | :52:12. | |
decision to make sure that we are as close as possible economically to | :52:13. | :52:15. | |
our friends and partners in the European Union. That is obviously | :52:16. | :52:20. | |
going to have to be negotiated, and personally, my view is the closer | :52:21. | :52:29. | |
the better. As somebody of Polish origin, I'm very proud of the | :52:30. | :52:34. | |
contribution that the Polish have made this country, not just during | :52:35. | :52:39. | |
the Battle of Britain, where the Polish 303 Squadron was one of the | :52:40. | :52:44. | |
largest, but also in recent years. As chairman of the all-party group | :52:45. | :52:47. | |
for Paul and I invited a chairman of the Polish cultural Centre to the | :52:48. | :52:52. | |
House of Commons to show solidarity with them after that polling attack, | :52:53. | :52:56. | |
and I very much hope the Prime Minister will potentially us for | :52:57. | :53:00. | |
that meeting. Let me commend my Honourable Friend for his work with | :53:01. | :53:04. | |
the Polish community here in the UK and for furthering relations between | :53:05. | :53:08. | |
Britain and Poland. I spoke to the Woolwich Prime Minister this | :53:09. | :53:12. | |
afternoon to say how appalled I was about the terrible attacks have | :53:13. | :53:15. | |
taken place and to reassure her we are doing everything to protect | :53:16. | :53:19. | |
Polish citizens in our country. Poland is a country that is sad to | :53:20. | :53:22. | |
see Britain leave the European Union because where like-minded on some | :53:23. | :53:26. | |
any issues about open and enterprise and the Atlanticist nature of the | :53:27. | :53:29. | |
European Union, but we must make sure we work for the strongest | :53:30. | :53:32. | |
bilateral relationship between Poland and Britain in the years | :53:33. | :53:37. | |
ahead. Can I commend the Prime Minister on the way he has accepted | :53:38. | :53:43. | |
the verdict of a United Kingdom wide referendum? And I think the rest of | :53:44. | :53:46. | |
the house should accept that verdict the way he has. When it comes to | :53:47. | :53:50. | |
implementing it, could you tell the house whether he intends to replace | :53:51. | :53:53. | |
our Commissioner, and whether he intends to set up a special unit as | :53:54. | :53:59. | |
well? Let me congratulate the Honourable Lady for the role she | :54:00. | :54:04. | |
played in the campaign as a very key spokesman for that side of the | :54:05. | :54:08. | |
argument. Firstly let me a tribute to Lord Hill who worked incredibly | :54:09. | :54:14. | |
hard in the European Commission. I am sad to see him go. I think we | :54:15. | :54:18. | |
should try to seek a replacement, because the fact is we are full | :54:19. | :54:21. | |
member of this organisation, a contributing and paying member until | :54:22. | :54:24. | |
we leave, and therefore we should have a commissioner. I'm sure that | :54:25. | :54:31. | |
will be a challenge. As for the group in Brussels, it is ably led by | :54:32. | :54:36. | |
Sir Rogers, and I hope will remain in place and continue to give the | :54:37. | :54:39. | |
excellent advice he has two Ministers to date. Whilst the | :54:40. | :54:45. | |
Honourable Lady for a Vauxhall is right, I make no apology from the | :54:46. | :54:50. | |
side of the house to bring my Right Honourable Friend back to the topic | :54:51. | :54:56. | |
of what we have seen since Thursday. Where a tweet can be sent to a young | :54:57. | :55:02. | |
black woman in London which says" go home, we voted leave, time to make | :55:03. | :55:07. | |
written great again by getting rid of you blacks, Asians and | :55:08. | :55:12. | |
immigrants" and Jeannie appears to have been let out of the bottle. | :55:13. | :55:19. | |
Unintended by both sides of the campaign. Could I ask my Right | :55:20. | :55:22. | |
Honourable Friend to specific questions? First, that the police | :55:23. | :55:28. | |
and the prosecuting authorities have the resources to bring cases against | :55:29. | :55:35. | |
perpetrators of this while racism? And secondly, to use his good | :55:36. | :55:39. | |
offices with the leaderships of both of the referendum campaigns, to call | :55:40. | :55:44. | |
out this abuse for what it is, and to bring a stop to it now? My | :55:45. | :55:52. | |
honourable friend is absolutely right, this is hideous language that | :55:53. | :55:55. | |
we thought we had banished from our country, and it is important | :55:56. | :55:57. | |
everyone comes out and condemns this as strongly as possible. On his | :55:58. | :56:01. | |
specific questions, firstly the police do have resources because we | :56:02. | :56:04. | |
protected their budgets. They have the necessary laws as well to | :56:05. | :56:09. | |
prosecute hate crimes. An unusual both campaigns, as far as I'm | :56:10. | :56:12. | |
concerned these campaigns no longer exist. There is no one Government | :56:13. | :56:16. | |
with one view, which is we have to find the right path for the future. | :56:17. | :56:19. | |
I think the sooner we can do that, the better. I am proud to say | :56:20. | :56:27. | |
publicly that I voted for Britain to remain in the European Union. I'm | :56:28. | :56:33. | |
sure the premise to would too. But I'll so respect and recognise that | :56:34. | :56:36. | |
people across this house voted differently. All of us no need to | :56:37. | :56:41. | |
help those at the sharp end of this decision. Can he tell us | :56:42. | :56:46. | |
specifically what measures his Government will put in place for all | :56:47. | :56:50. | |
those small businesses who are now facing a loss or opposing contracts | :56:51. | :56:54. | |
as a result of a decision on Thursday? The Business Secretary has | :56:55. | :57:00. | |
been consulting with businesses throughout the campaign, but | :57:01. | :57:04. | |
obviously has stepped that up and is having a very large meeting with | :57:05. | :57:07. | |
businesses tomorrow. I will be doing that later in the week. The true | :57:08. | :57:12. | |
position is this, that as long as we are in this organisation, until we | :57:13. | :57:18. | |
exit, all the rules about trade, services, financial passports, | :57:19. | :57:21. | |
access to markets, none of those change. And what needs to happen | :57:22. | :57:26. | |
now, informed by the work of this EU unit is that we seek the very best | :57:27. | :57:30. | |
possible deal to make sure that businesses can still benefit from | :57:31. | :57:35. | |
access to European markets. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor | :57:36. | :57:39. | |
and the governor of the Bank of England have commendably acted | :57:40. | :57:42. | |
swiftly to restore calm to the markets and confidence in our | :57:43. | :57:47. | |
country and our economy. However, the Prime Minister knows there are | :57:48. | :57:51. | |
many people leading voters to believe that a second referendum is | :57:52. | :57:55. | |
possible and that it could be rerun on different rules. What with the | :57:56. | :58:00. | |
premise to say to those people who are encouraging others to believe | :58:01. | :58:05. | |
that that is a possibility? I think people will not be surprised to hear | :58:06. | :58:09. | |
that I am not planning a second referendum. We have to get on and | :58:10. | :58:15. | |
deliver it. And as we do so, we have to seek the best possible deal. And | :58:16. | :58:19. | |
we see this house should be involved with that process. | :58:20. | :58:24. | |
The scare stories about immigration that were spoken by people leading | :58:25. | :58:33. | |
the league campaign were frankly shameful. We do have a divided | :58:34. | :58:37. | |
country, divided between our cities and small towns for whom immigration | :58:38. | :58:42. | |
was the number one issue. Beyond the impact, which I support, but was | :58:43. | :58:47. | |
abolished some years ago, can the Prime Minister assure that we can | :58:48. | :58:52. | |
look more deeply into some of the pressures on our small town | :58:53. | :58:57. | |
immunities, the employment sectors, some of the abuses going on, the | :58:58. | :59:01. | |
increase on housing and rents. And can I gently say to the Prime | :59:02. | :59:05. | |
Minister, I am somewhat surprised in his statement that the new EU unit | :59:06. | :59:09. | |
in Whitehall does not include the hot Home Office? | :59:10. | :59:13. | |
First of all, on her last point, this new EU unit is going to be | :59:14. | :59:18. | |
working with every departments, because every department is affected | :59:19. | :59:22. | |
by this decision. They Home Office will be playing a leading role in | :59:23. | :59:26. | |
trying to work out what the options are for leaving the EU, but | :59:27. | :59:31. | |
maintaining levels of cooperation of crime, borders, information and | :59:32. | :59:34. | |
terrorism and all the rest of it. Very useful work can be done before | :59:35. | :59:38. | |
my successor takes office. I agree with horror that immigration was a | :59:39. | :59:42. | |
key issue in this election. I think we have to look as a country at what | :59:43. | :59:45. | |
more we can do to help people integrate into our country, to | :59:46. | :59:49. | |
examine the pressures on public services. I need a series of | :59:50. | :59:53. | |
suggestions about wealth changes which will now not be coming in, | :59:54. | :59:57. | |
which I am sad about. We need to find some alternatives to those, to | :59:58. | :00:02. | |
reassure people that we can have a good and fair and manage system for | :00:03. | :00:06. | |
immigration, but outside the EU and inside it. | :00:07. | :00:16. | |
All I would like to do today is like my bike Honourable friend, the Prime | :00:17. | :00:19. | |
Minister, for his years of service to the party and country. I hope if | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
the result had been the other way round, my side would have behaved | :00:25. | :00:27. | |
with the dignity and nobility that he has showing up. | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
Can I thank my honourable friend for his kind remarks, and the spirit in | :00:33. | :00:41. | |
which they were given. Thank you Mr Speaker. The Prime | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
Minister said that there is now a collective Government and Cabinet | :00:47. | :00:51. | |
responsibility. In that context, can I ask him, can he say on the heart | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
of the members of Surrey Heath and the member for Uxbridge that we will | :00:57. | :01:03. | |
have a vote in this House before article 50 is triggered? | :01:04. | :01:10. | |
On a technical issue, the member of Uxbridge is not a member of the | :01:11. | :01:18. | |
Government will stop to answer his question directly, I cannot get that | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
guaranteed. The decision for triggering Article 50 will be a | :01:23. | :01:30. | |
decision for the next Government. Not responsible for the member of | :01:31. | :01:34. | |
Uxbridge and South Ruislip. He's public wife wheezed he's not | :01:35. | :01:42. | |
responsible for hen! The Prime Minister must take great | :01:43. | :01:45. | |
credit for delivering the referendum, and great credit for the | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
way he campaigned, because undoubtedly the Remainer vote was | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
hired because of that. And also because of the way he has reacted | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
afterwards. Can I ask the Prime Minister, we were talking just now | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
about collective responsible take, will all his ministers now be behind | :02:03. | :02:05. | |
the Prime Minister in leaving the EU? And there is some talk today | :02:06. | :02:11. | |
that the exit of the Prime Minister will be earlier now, sometime around | :02:12. | :02:14. | |
the end of August. Could he comment on that as well? | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
On collective responsible thing, I meant what I said, it was suspended | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
for a period of this campaign, but it is now come back into place. | :02:25. | :02:28. | |
Embers of the Cabinet are of one of you, and that must be that we | :02:29. | :02:33. | |
deliver the country's will to leave the European Union. That decision | :02:34. | :02:36. | |
will be taken by the next prime Minster, however. There are all | :02:37. | :02:42. | |
sorts of bodies, the 22, the party board, who will make decisions. I am | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
your servants, I want to make sure we have stability and continuity in | :02:48. | :02:53. | |
the Government of this country, and we take the necessary steps to | :02:54. | :02:56. | |
stabilise things. I know the right thing to do is to hand over to a new | :02:57. | :03:00. | |
team and we don't take this issues forward. | :03:01. | :03:07. | |
Can I work in the emphasis the Prime Minister now puts on coming back | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
together as a community. There are people now living in fear in the way | :03:12. | :03:16. | |
the Honourable member of not Dorset describes, and is up to us to bit | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
decency back into our democracy. Can the Prime Minister now understand | :03:22. | :03:24. | |
the rage that many feel at what appeared to be mysteries talked | :03:25. | :03:29. | |
about the virtues are coming out of the European Union? Such as, for | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
example, an extra ?250 million per week for the National Health | :03:35. | :03:37. | |
Service? Can I press the Prime Minister on the answer he gave to my | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
right honourable friend? We are about to go on some of the most | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
dangerous waters this country has ever entered. It would be strange if | :03:47. | :03:51. | |
we carried on in this House as if business was going on as usual. | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
Transparency is the best guarantee against any more mysteries. Surely | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
this parliamentary arrangement must be strengthened to provide oversight | :04:01. | :04:07. | |
for the arrangements were leaving the European Union? | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
He's right, we need to get decency interact a mocha say, we must stand | :04:13. | :04:18. | |
against hatred and intolerance. We do not need to fight the referendum | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
campaign all over again. What Aggborough fret on what he said -- | :04:22. | :04:27. | |
what I will reflect on what he said is that we need to set out and | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
examine in an objective and fact -based way what are the alternative | :04:32. | :04:35. | |
models for leaving the European Union? What are the advantages and | :04:36. | :04:38. | |
disadvantages ayes I do believe this House is a big role. Whether it is a | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
new joint committee or existing select committees, I'm very happy to | :04:44. | :04:48. | |
receive advice and ideas from Honourable members. This House | :04:49. | :04:51. | |
should play it cool role in making sure we get that decision right. | :04:52. | :04:56. | |
The Prime Minister is absolutely writes about all of us who voted on | :04:57. | :05:01. | |
the Remain side must accept the results of the referendum and do our | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
best implemented as well as possible. And I said the man and | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
tone of his resignation speech and today is absolutely in keeping with | :05:11. | :05:15. | |
the unifying, one nation Tory style that he has implement it in his | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
career. In the wake of the referendum, there is a spirit of one | :05:21. | :05:26. | |
where young people felt let down by their parents and grandparents. With | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
my right honourable friend agree, that in the weeks ahead with the | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
current governments, the Government seizes all opportunities to reassure | :05:34. | :05:36. | |
young people that the opportunities and benefits which many of them see | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
in Europe. The available for them after the process of leaving the | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
European Union? I think my honourable friend makes | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
an important point. We must accept the results, that I think during | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
this process of debate, there will be many arguments for people who | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
want to look at for how we exit the EU and the Roissy Jibril had at the | :05:57. | :06:00. | |
end. What will it mean for young people and terms of travelling, | :06:01. | :06:06. | |
these oral questions. We are not now about theoretical alternatives to | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
membership, we're now talking actual alternatives. We need transparency | :06:13. | :06:15. | |
in the dates of people can make their voices heard. | :06:16. | :06:23. | |
I'm keen to accommodate colleagues, that there is a need for brevity. | :06:24. | :06:29. | |
I applaud the Prime Minister, now that leaving the European Union is | :06:30. | :06:37. | |
the policy of the Government, can the Prime Minister no guarantee that | :06:38. | :06:40. | |
some of the architects of the campaign will be involved? | :06:41. | :06:46. | |
The Government and the Cabinet includes many people who are | :06:47. | :06:50. | |
prominent in both campaigns. The campaigns are now over, however, | :06:51. | :06:53. | |
there is one Government, one Government policy. Let me take issue | :06:54. | :07:00. | |
about civil servants - they are impartial, hard-working, the best of | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
British. They do a fine job and will help us deliver this incredibly | :07:05. | :07:12. | |
important and difficult challenge. Whatever the final form of our exit | :07:13. | :07:16. | |
negotiations from the European Union take, it is clear to everyone that | :07:17. | :07:18. | |
we will need to strengthen our trading relationship with other | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
economies around the world. The Prime Minister is right to set up | :07:24. | :07:29. | |
this EU exit unit within the Cabinet Office, but what steps as he taking | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
to supercharge the business Department, so we can have a team of | :07:34. | :07:39. | |
officials to start taking such trade agreements? | :07:40. | :07:41. | |
That is the sort of issue we shall be looking at. In many cases we will | :07:42. | :07:47. | |
have to do is at our exit first before we can make those | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
arrangements. The Foreign Office can help with this, the trade envoys can | :07:53. | :07:55. | |
help, as can the business Department itself. | :07:56. | :08:01. | |
Can I say to the Prime Minister that I saw very closely the work he did | :08:02. | :08:06. | |
during the riots, I am very grateful for that. He will recognise that | :08:07. | :08:09. | |
some of my constituents are among the poorest in Britain. In these | :08:10. | :08:15. | |
very tough economic times, it is the poorest that will suffer. Does he | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
recognise that young people, or people and actually, many | :08:23. | :08:25. | |
middle-class people who voted to Remain want a plan, and that lies | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
behind the call for a second referendum on the detail? | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
As I have said, what I think needs to happen is that we need to set out | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
the options for a model of leaving. The next Government will take this | :08:43. | :08:44. | |
decisions, and the next Government will have to confront the issue that | :08:45. | :08:49. | |
he raises, of how to involve parliament in those decisions. But | :08:50. | :08:52. | |
that is good to be something for them, not for me. | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
An echo many comments that the Prime Minister has been a true | :08:59. | :09:01. | |
meadowsweet, not just for this country, but also the party. If it | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
wasn't for him, we should not have such a diverse field of Members of | :09:06. | :09:11. | |
Parliament behind him. Can I also say that, in my constituency, many | :09:12. | :09:17. | |
businesses are concerned that trade missions abroad will be put on hold. | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
Can we make sure in this period, while we are still in Europe, that | :09:23. | :09:27. | |
those missions planned before will continue? We must continue to work | :09:28. | :09:30. | |
for this country. I thank my honourable friend for her | :09:31. | :09:34. | |
kind remarks, I can certainly give the assurance that trade missions | :09:35. | :09:36. | |
will continue. If anything, they will be stepped up. | :09:37. | :09:42. | |
My dirty Prime Minister back to the resignation of the European | :09:43. | :09:45. | |
Commissioner? -- might I take the Prime Minister back. Might I | :09:46. | :09:49. | |
recommend he makes a replacement within weeks rather than months? | :09:50. | :09:54. | |
I omitted on is as fast as we can. The process on appointments include | :09:55. | :10:03. | |
hearings in the European Parliament. But as a full paying member, we're | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
entitled to a Commissioner. I wish to put on record my thanks to | :10:09. | :10:14. | |
the Prime Minister for the support he is given to BAE Systems, many of | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
whom the many women who are apprentices who work in my | :10:20. | :10:25. | |
constituency. The Prime Minister has visited that planned more often than | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
all his predecessors combined, such as the level have this dedication. | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
And as for his reassurance that the people who worked on the Typhoon | :10:34. | :10:42. | |
fighter that this Government will do everything it can to secure the | :10:43. | :10:45. | |
future is? I will continue to do everything I | :10:46. | :10:48. | |
can to support BAE Systems. I enjoyed watching a flyover over | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
Cleethorpes on Saturday, and I will continue to work as hard as I can to | :10:55. | :11:00. | |
secure orders abroad. The mayor for London has rightly | :11:01. | :11:03. | |
expressed his concerns about the consequences that Brexit will have | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
on the London economy, jobs and growth. That is clearly a concern | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
for the whole country. Given that the financial sector relies on | :11:13. | :11:15. | |
retaining passport and rights to the European markets, will the Roman | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
guarantee this will be a top priority for negotiations with the | :11:21. | :11:24. | |
EU? And does the primers to agree with the mayor for London that | :11:25. | :11:27. | |
London needs a seat at the table for the forthcoming negotiations with | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
the EU? As I said my statement, London | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
should be involved. Financial services are 7% of economy. Two | :11:39. | :11:41. | |
thirds of the geography outside London. Access to the single market | :11:42. | :11:46. | |
is vital, so I hope they will make their job Howard as we seek the | :11:47. | :11:51. | |
closest possible economic Roissy get we can with Europe. | :11:52. | :11:59. | |
We must position ourselves to make the most of opportunities in the | :12:00. | :12:07. | |
long term. Will my right honourable friend agree with me that we should | :12:08. | :12:11. | |
concentrate on a comment's strong fundamentals, and not talk our | :12:12. | :12:17. | |
economy and country down? My honourable friend is absolute | :12:18. | :12:19. | |
right, we must talk about strength is, and they continue to be right | :12:20. | :12:24. | |
and stop we must continue with the difficulties we face. | :12:25. | :12:32. | |
Thank you Mr Speaker. The Treasury Select Committee in his report into | :12:33. | :12:35. | |
our membership of the new European Union looked at the short run of | :12:36. | :12:41. | |
risks and volatility, much of that is now manifesting itself with the | :12:42. | :12:45. | |
shortfall in sterling and the volatility of the stock exchange and | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
with element bond yield at an all-time low. What actions are the | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
Government taking now to protect British jobs, growth and living | :12:54. | :12:57. | |
standards? The honourable lady is right, the | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
Treasury Secretary did look at this and wonder volatility, we have seen | :13:02. | :13:05. | |
that volatility. We've seen that in the Bank of England and treasurer | :13:06. | :13:08. | |
reaction, as well as the volatility, we have to look at at the dangers of | :13:09. | :13:12. | |
uncertainty. The Government stands ready to help in any way can. But | :13:13. | :13:18. | |
this is reassuring business at all relationships will continue while | :13:19. | :13:23. | |
we're in negotiations. There be big challenges ahead. | :13:24. | :13:29. | |
The honourable member has started bombing, I think we should hear him. | :13:30. | :13:30. | |
Mr Dominic Greene. Whilst we must accept the referendum | :13:31. | :13:40. | |
decision, is it not the case that the problem we run is that in the | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
course of the campaign statements have been made by those advocating | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
road leave that were firstly false, and secondly, in many cases, | :13:50. | :13:53. | |
unfulfilled or? Isn't one of the things that came out so clearly from | :13:54. | :13:58. | |
this referendum campaign the increasing disconnect between the | :13:59. | :14:03. | |
public and those of us in this house who are in authority, as they would | :14:04. | :14:09. | |
see it. What can we do and what should we be doing to restore the | :14:10. | :14:14. | |
trust? I have to say to my Right Honourable Friend, who has behaved | :14:15. | :14:17. | |
impeccably on this matter, and I would like to pay thanks for as long | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
service to this country that if we do not restore the trust, it seems | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
to me that the role of this house is fatally undermined. Has he spoken | :14:27. | :14:38. | |
for his charm as well? No. I thank my Honourable Friend for his | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
remarks. One of the concerns the road this referendum is that people | :14:43. | :14:48. | |
are disaffected with politicians and politics but also expert opinion as | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
well. What we need to do is recognise that we're moving from a | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
situation we have today and a number of hypothetical situations, to real | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
choices. That is where this house and the Government and all the rest | :15:02. | :15:04. | |
can come into their own by setting out in a very cool and neutral way | :15:05. | :15:08. | |
what these alternatives are what the costs and benefits are, and then | :15:09. | :15:11. | |
perhaps we can restore some of the trust. This morning the Chancellor | :15:12. | :15:18. | |
said that action to address the impact of the referendum on our | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
economy and public finances won't be taken until the autumn. At a time of | :15:23. | :15:29. | |
such risk and uncertainty, and with continuing weaknesses in our | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
economy, I find that staggering. Will the Prime Minister reconsider | :15:34. | :15:36. | |
this decision and bring forward a proper plan? Particularly to secure | :15:37. | :15:45. | |
the investment that our economy will need to whether the incoming storm. | :15:46. | :15:51. | |
I would say to the Honourable Lady that the Chancellor was referring to | :15:52. | :15:54. | |
the idea of there being fiscal measures that might be necessary if | :15:55. | :15:59. | |
the economic impacts of leaving are as bad as some of the independent | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
forecasters suggested. It was the idea of some form of budget he was | :16:05. | :16:08. | |
referring to. The Government stands ready with the Bank of England and | :16:09. | :16:11. | |
others to take necessary measures to help create stability in markets | :16:12. | :16:18. | |
that might be necessary. Can I warmly thank my Right Honourable | :16:19. | :16:21. | |
Friend for his statement today? I have long hoped for this day ever | :16:22. | :16:24. | |
since I stood right here in first move the motion that there should be | :16:25. | :16:29. | |
a referendum on Ireland Bishop of the European Union bag on the 24th | :16:30. | :16:36. | |
of October in 2011. Can I ask my Right Honourable Friend, what does | :16:37. | :16:39. | |
he think it says about the nature of the European Union that several | :16:40. | :16:43. | |
member countries reportedly want to punish the UK simply because a | :16:44. | :16:49. | |
majority of people had the temerity to vote to leave it? Let me | :16:50. | :16:55. | |
congratulate my Honourable Friend on his long campaign. I would say to | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
him that I think when we look at the reaction of the European Union to | :17:01. | :17:05. | |
these events we should be very careful not to entirely take it | :17:06. | :17:09. | |
through the filter of media outlets that want only to see one reaction. | :17:10. | :17:14. | |
What I am sensing from the conversations I have had with the | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
Germans, the French, the polished, the Italians and others, is that | :17:19. | :17:23. | |
they are genuinely sad to see the United Kingdom girl, they genuinely | :17:24. | :17:25. | |
want to have a good and strong relationship with us when we leave, | :17:26. | :17:30. | |
but obviously they like us have to think of their own interests just as | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
we have giving of our own interests. The fact that the 27 member states | :17:36. | :17:41. | |
are meeting without the kingdom, we should not see that as surprising. | :17:42. | :17:47. | |
That would happen where we are not to leave, they will fight for their | :17:48. | :17:50. | |
interest. What we have to try and do is try to convince them and try to | :17:51. | :17:56. | |
maintain inner selves good and open and strong relations with them so | :17:57. | :17:59. | |
that actually this becomes a dialogue leading to a mutually | :18:00. | :18:02. | |
beneficial result rather than a war of words or something worse but then | :18:03. | :18:14. | |
leads to a painful divorce. The response to my Honourable Friend was | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
simply woeful. Scotland overwhelmingly voted to remain | :18:20. | :18:24. | |
within the European Union, 62%, every local authority in Scotland. | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
We value our EU membership, we are European nation. What does he know | :18:29. | :18:32. | |
say to the people of Scotland who believe that we should remain within | :18:33. | :18:36. | |
the European Union. What do we do now? What we do now is make sure we | :18:37. | :18:43. | |
get the very best outcome from this negotiation so it is good for the | :18:44. | :18:46. | |
United Kingdom and good for Scotland. It is all very well him | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
waving his finger, but that is actually what matters most to the | :18:52. | :18:58. | |
people of Scotland. Can I pay tribute to my Right Honourable | :18:59. | :19:01. | |
Friend for his leadership over many years and thank him for that? | :19:02. | :19:06. | |
Carlisle so pay tribute to the German Chancellor for her measured | :19:07. | :19:09. | |
and wise words over the weekend? Which I believe has set a good town | :19:10. | :19:15. | |
for the negotiations. Can I ask my honourable friend what measures have | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
been taken to ensure we strengthen bilateral relations right now | :19:21. | :19:24. | |
between us and all other 27 members of the European Union now that we | :19:25. | :19:28. | |
will not beginning with them through the filter of the European Union in | :19:29. | :19:32. | |
future? Let me thank him for his remarks. One of the great roles of | :19:33. | :19:36. | |
the Foreign Office going forward is to concentrate on those bilateral | :19:37. | :19:41. | |
relations even as we conduct this complicated and difficult | :19:42. | :19:44. | |
negotiation. We have embassies in every single European country, we | :19:45. | :19:47. | |
have strong bilateral relations will stop I was the first British prime | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
Minster to visit some of the further flung parts of the European Union, | :19:54. | :19:57. | |
and in whatever capacity I will do whatever I can to keep those | :19:58. | :19:59. | |
provisions strong because that will help in negotiations for our future | :20:00. | :20:06. | |
in Europe. I picked up a leaflet this morning in my London flat which | :20:07. | :20:12. | |
was an official leaflet of the Leave campaign which said that the NHS | :20:13. | :20:16. | |
could get an extra ?350 million per week as a result of a vote to leave. | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
Can the Prime Minister tell us when the NHS can expect to receive that | :20:22. | :20:30. | |
money? I think... Obviously until we leave the European Union we will | :20:31. | :20:33. | |
continue with our contributions to the European Union, and at that | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
moment my successor will have to explain where the money is going. | :20:38. | :20:48. | |
Thank you. The City of London boasts some of the best global lawyers | :20:49. | :20:51. | |
anywhere in the world. Can I urge the Prime Minister that he speak to | :20:52. | :20:56. | |
the Law Society of Scotland, the losses idea of Northern Ireland and | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
the of England and Wales to ensure that we get the very best British | :21:02. | :21:04. | |
lawyers who will undertake part of the negotiation team's effort? He | :21:05. | :21:10. | |
makes an important point. When I talk about this EU unit, which will | :21:11. | :21:13. | |
have the best and brightest in the civil service, it is important | :21:14. | :21:16. | |
because the best and brightest from the private sector, without lawyers, | :21:17. | :21:20. | |
financial experts are trade experts. We want all this expertise to come | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
forward in what will be a massive national endeavour. I understand why | :21:25. | :21:30. | |
there are courteous prefaces to many questions, and I think that is | :21:31. | :21:33. | |
appreciated in the house. But now it would be useful if we could just | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
have single, short supplementary questions, because the Prime | :21:39. | :21:40. | |
Minister is giving a replace sink replies. In short, sitting to | :21:41. | :21:47. | |
question. Does the Prime Minister think reciprocating a collapse in | :21:48. | :21:51. | |
the value of sterling, a fall in the value of our equities and a | :21:52. | :21:54. | |
suspension of trading and our banks amounts to Britain taking back | :21:55. | :22:01. | |
control? I think I have said there are financial consequences that we | :22:02. | :22:04. | |
need to manage in the days and weeks ahead. Further to the question of my | :22:05. | :22:13. | |
friend from Beaconsfield, does he accept that there was a very clear | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
perspective is sold to the electorate voted to leave which | :22:19. | :22:22. | |
included an explicit promise to end on skilled migration from the | :22:23. | :22:26. | |
European Union? This was explicit, this was what they voted for. Does | :22:27. | :22:31. | |
he believe that can be delivered? I think one of the greatest challenges | :22:32. | :22:34. | |
will be negotiating the best possible access to the single market | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
and balancing the issue of the best management and control of migration. | :22:40. | :22:43. | |
That will be a decision for the future Prime Minister. It will be | :22:44. | :22:46. | |
one of the most important that he or she and the Cabinet will have to | :22:47. | :22:54. | |
take. 78% of voters in my constituency voted to remain. In no | :22:55. | :22:59. | |
small part due to the contribution the EU makes both to higher | :23:00. | :23:02. | |
education and a large financial services sector in Edinburgh. What | :23:03. | :23:06. | |
is the Prime Minister doing to reassure my constituents and | :23:07. | :23:09. | |
constituents all over this country of the uncertainty that he has | :23:10. | :23:12. | |
created by calling this referendum in the period up to the article 50 | :23:13. | :23:17. | |
being introduced to this house, after the article 50, and beyond | :23:18. | :23:21. | |
Brexit? Because there is uncertainty, and they're worried | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
about jobs and future livelihoods. Firstly we have to respect the | :23:27. | :23:29. | |
outcome of the referendum. It is right not to trigger Article 50 | :23:30. | :23:33. | |
because that starts a process that within two years has to result in an | :23:34. | :23:37. | |
accident, and it might be an unmanaged except if it started to | :23:38. | :23:41. | |
soon. To people working in financial services, including the 100,000 that | :23:42. | :23:43. | |
working in financial services, including the 100,000 at work in | :23:44. | :23:45. | |
Edinburgh and Glasgow, an important part of our economy, went to work as | :23:46. | :23:48. | |
hard as we can, and including Aberdeen, Aberdeen asset management, | :23:49. | :23:54. | |
to give them a plug. We have to do everything we can to get the pot the | :23:55. | :23:59. | |
best possible access to the single market. In addition to the work that | :24:00. | :24:09. | |
the unit of the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster will be doing to | :24:10. | :24:12. | |
look outwards into the European Union and our relation with that, | :24:13. | :24:18. | |
but he also look at the preservation of the United Kingdom? Yes. | :24:19. | :24:31. | |
Splendid. Like many others across this house I have been saddened and | :24:32. | :24:36. | |
deeply distressed to hear of some terrible racist and xenophobic | :24:37. | :24:39. | |
incidents recently. In fact, during the course of this debate I've been | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
sent a message to see a young lady in my constituency has been told to | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
go home. This is her home, and she is very welcome here. Will the Prime | :24:48. | :24:51. | |
Minister therefore agree to reconvene and Arjun meeting of a | :24:52. | :24:54. | |
cross-party commission to look at race hate crimes and how we can | :24:55. | :24:58. | |
eradicate this cancer from our society? She's absolutely right in | :24:59. | :25:03. | |
the point she makes, and as for the organisation she mentions, I will | :25:04. | :25:07. | |
look into it. One of the greatest achievements of this Prime Minister | :25:08. | :25:09. | |
has to make the job of eliminating youth unemployment no longer an | :25:10. | :25:14. | |
impossible dream but an achievable mission. While I agree that might | :25:15. | :25:18. | |
have become more challenging, like him I agree we must accept the | :25:19. | :25:21. | |
outcome of the referendum. Would he agree that who've is his successor, | :25:22. | :25:27. | |
he or she should ensure that the opportunities and life chances for | :25:28. | :25:30. | |
young people are the heart of their mission? Whatever route we take | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
through this difficult pathway of access to the single market and | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
control of migration, one of the best ways to control migration is to | :25:41. | :25:42. | |
increase the apprenticeships and opportunities to our own young | :25:43. | :25:46. | |
people in our own country to fulfil the jobs that our economy is | :25:47. | :25:52. | |
creating. Key industries in my constituency, notably agriculture | :25:53. | :25:55. | |
and fish processing, face very challenging times because they rely | :25:56. | :25:59. | |
on European market access and also depend quite heavily on migrant | :26:00. | :26:04. | |
workers to meet labour shortages. The Scottish Government is already | :26:05. | :26:07. | |
meeting with stakeholders in an attempt to steer through these | :26:08. | :26:10. | |
turbulent times. But what is the Government doing to shore up | :26:11. | :26:15. | |
confidence in these sectors? And can the Prime Minister give us any | :26:16. | :26:17. | |
indication when he will be in a position to indicate what the status | :26:18. | :26:25. | |
of EU workers will be? In terms of reaching out to businesses in | :26:26. | :26:27. | |
different sectors, the Business Secretary will do that, he is | :26:28. | :26:31. | |
holding a large meeting tomorrow with businesses. I will do the same | :26:32. | :26:34. | |
later in the week. I'm happy to look at some of the interests she | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
mentions. In terms of the answer I gave on the rights of EU workers, | :26:39. | :26:42. | |
they continue until we leave this organisation, and if I have heard | :26:43. | :26:46. | |
correctly what those who want us to leave have said, that the rights of | :26:47. | :26:49. | |
those already here, students and workers, will be protected. I also | :26:50. | :26:56. | |
pay tribute to the premised, but does he agree with me that in | :26:57. | :26:58. | |
negotiating the excellent it is absolutely crucial that each of the | :26:59. | :27:03. | |
nations of the kingdom are formally represented? Yes, it is important | :27:04. | :27:10. | |
that the negotiation and negotiating mandate is drawn up with the | :27:11. | :27:13. | |
involvement of all those constituent parts of the UK. Thank you. Can the | :27:14. | :27:25. | |
Prime Minister tell us what justification is the Leader of the | :27:26. | :27:28. | |
House and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland have given him for | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
claiming that should we leave the European Union there will be ?350 | :27:33. | :27:41. | |
million a week to spend on the NHS? I don't want to re-fight the | :27:42. | :27:44. | |
campaign. Obviously there was a disagreement about whether with a | :27:45. | :27:49. | |
smaller economy we would have less money or other by leaving the EU | :27:50. | :27:52. | |
would have more money. We are now putting that to the test, and the | :27:53. | :27:55. | |
results will be clear for all to see. I am pleased to hear that the | :27:56. | :28:03. | |
unit is being set up, can the Prime Minister I sure that resources will | :28:04. | :28:06. | |
not be diverted from the life chances agenda which he has been so | :28:07. | :28:10. | |
instrumental in any end, and which mean so much to the people of | :28:11. | :28:12. | |
Portsmouth? And that he will continue with good pace. I can | :28:13. | :28:18. | |
certainly give that assurance. The key European issues will be from the | :28:19. | :28:23. | |
Foreign Office, Treasury and Cabinet Office, and the agenda she talks | :28:24. | :28:26. | |
about is very important in the weeks ahead. | :28:27. | :28:33. | |
Given it the disdain shown by many leading Leave campaigners for EU | :28:34. | :28:41. | |
environmental protections, can the Prime Minister tell me what stance | :28:42. | :28:45. | |
will now be taken as the European Union looks at the fitness of the | :28:46. | :28:50. | |
nature directors? And will we still be lamenting the EU circular economy | :28:51. | :28:54. | |
package? We remain full members of the EU and | :28:55. | :28:59. | |
must meet our obligations as full members of the EU, including the | :29:00. | :29:03. | |
existing directors that we have. I think that's important. Obviously | :29:04. | :29:06. | |
those matters will then be matters for a future Government. In the | :29:07. | :29:10. | |
meantime, we carry on obeying the rules set out. | :29:11. | :29:16. | |
There is another group of people who are hurting since the result of the | :29:17. | :29:24. | |
referendum on Thursday. And that's the elderly, who had been told time | :29:25. | :29:28. | |
and time again that they have let down Britain and let down the use of | :29:29. | :29:34. | |
this country. But the Prime Minister confirm that the elderly are valued | :29:35. | :29:38. | |
in this country? That the voices of equal merit to young people, and | :29:39. | :29:43. | |
that we value them greatly? Of course my honourable friend is | :29:44. | :29:47. | |
right. The key thing in any referendum is that every vote is | :29:48. | :29:49. | |
worth the same. Single sentence questions. | :29:50. | :29:57. | |
The overwhelming majority of my constituents and indeed Scotland | :29:58. | :30:00. | |
voted to remain in the European Union, does the Prime Minister | :30:01. | :30:03. | |
agreed that it would be a democratic outrage if you know to be stripped | :30:04. | :30:08. | |
European citizenship? What I want is the best possible | :30:09. | :30:11. | |
outcome for the United Kingdom, and there for the best possible outcome | :30:12. | :30:15. | |
for Scotland, that is what matters the most. | :30:16. | :30:20. | |
I joined colleagues in speaking out against racism and hatred. I | :30:21. | :30:24. | |
actually voted for 16 and 17-year-olds to have a vote in the | :30:25. | :30:28. | |
referendum, but worlds have the utmost respect for people of all | :30:29. | :30:33. | |
ages who voted, whether they are the elderly pensioners, many whom served | :30:34. | :30:40. | |
our nation in years of peril. I congratulate my honourable friend | :30:41. | :30:43. | |
in speaking out on racism, we must all continue to do that. | :30:44. | :30:50. | |
Once the Government agrees the terms of the negotiation, is that not the | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
time that this House should make a judgment on whether the terms of the | :30:56. | :30:58. | |
negotiation match up to the promises made by the Leave campaign? This | :30:59. | :31:02. | |
House should make that judgment before it goes forward. | :31:03. | :31:07. | |
This House is sovereign, and under the reforms that the Coalition | :31:08. | :31:10. | |
Government put through, this House has all sorts of opportunities to | :31:11. | :31:15. | |
take an issue and vote on it. That happens more often then it hurt when | :31:16. | :31:19. | |
I first became a Member of Parliament. The House must accept | :31:20. | :31:24. | |
the world of the country. The next Government is going to to bring | :31:25. | :31:26. | |
forward its proposals and Article 50 and the rest of it, they will be | :31:27. | :31:30. | |
discussions between the Government and the House on how that goes | :31:31. | :31:35. | |
ahead. Would the Prime Minister agree that | :31:36. | :31:39. | |
it makes little sense for us to be trade balance between could trade | :31:40. | :31:47. | |
barriers between ourselves and the majority of trade markets? | :31:48. | :31:53. | |
Scotland benefits from two single markets, and I'm keen to keep it in | :31:54. | :31:56. | |
one and close as possible to the other. | :31:57. | :32:01. | |
If the Prime Minister can't guarantee today that there's Clinton | :32:02. | :32:06. | |
?50 million for the NHS, and all the other promises made -- 300 ?50 | :32:07. | :32:16. | |
million, what does that say about politics? | :32:17. | :32:21. | |
I don't propose to refight the campaign. The point is this, that | :32:22. | :32:30. | |
either what will happen now is that the two side had different | :32:31. | :32:33. | |
arguments, one was that if the economy reduced in size there would | :32:34. | :32:37. | |
be lower tax receipts and less money available, the other side said there | :32:38. | :32:40. | |
be more money because we're leaving the EU. As we are now leaving the | :32:41. | :32:45. | |
EU, we will be able to test which of us answers is correct. | :32:46. | :32:51. | |
What success as the Prime Minister made for preliminary negotiations | :32:52. | :32:57. | |
before triggering Article 50? The assessment that I have made is | :32:58. | :33:02. | |
that it is a national, sovereign decision to trigger Article 50, so I | :33:03. | :33:05. | |
think that's right for this Government to prepare the ground and | :33:06. | :33:08. | |
the next Government to choose the model it things is the right one to | :33:09. | :33:12. | |
pursue. To hold some discussions and then to trigger the Article 50 | :33:13. | :33:17. | |
process, which, just the House fully understands, is a two-year limit | :33:18. | :33:19. | |
that can only be extended by a unanimous vote of all other 27 | :33:20. | :33:25. | |
members. June that two-year period, if you don't have a arrangement, it | :33:26. | :33:31. | |
moves on to World Trade Organisation rules. I think it is vital we get | :33:32. | :33:40. | |
the best deal for our country. Mr Speaker, thousands of my | :33:41. | :33:44. | |
Edinburgh South West constituents are employed in Edinburgh's | :33:45. | :33:48. | |
financial sector, which is the second-biggest in the UK. Can the | :33:49. | :33:51. | |
Prime Minister give me his assurance that the UK Government will work of | :33:52. | :33:55. | |
the Scottish Government to ensure that constituents's jobs don't face | :33:56. | :33:59. | |
a similar threat to those of the people in the City of London, where | :34:00. | :34:04. | |
it is estimated that up to 70,000 jobs will move abroad in the next 12 | :34:05. | :34:06. | |
months? I can certainly give that insurance, | :34:07. | :34:11. | |
this is an important industry for our country. There are jobs in | :34:12. | :34:15. | |
Bristol and Bournemouth that are as valuable as the jobs among them, I | :34:16. | :34:18. | |
want to keep as many of them as possible. | :34:19. | :34:28. | |
One of my councillors told me -- was taught this weekend, get out of this | :34:29. | :34:33. | |
country. Another was told, I cannot wait to send you and the anti-white | :34:34. | :34:37. | |
garbage that you stand for to the third World dons who belong to. What | :34:38. | :34:42. | |
the Prime Minister send out an unequivocal message from this House | :34:43. | :34:47. | |
that if you indulge in and stoke fear, you generate hate? | :34:48. | :34:52. | |
I would add to that, you not only generate hate, you commit a crime | :34:53. | :35:01. | |
and should be prosecuted. With a volatile currency, the are | :35:02. | :35:06. | |
fears that petrol prices could rise sharply if sterling falls faster | :35:07. | :35:09. | |
than the oil price. These views are been heightened by the Chancellor's | :35:10. | :35:13. | |
threats, prerendered, of a punishment budget. The Prime | :35:14. | :35:19. | |
Minister issue motorists that they will not enforce F hike on fuel | :35:20. | :35:26. | |
duty? What I said at the time is that | :35:27. | :35:30. | |
nobody wants to have an extra budget or any difficult measures for taxes | :35:31. | :35:38. | |
or spending. Any Government has two reactor the economic circumstances | :35:39. | :35:41. | |
it faces. Let up the circumstances aren't as bad as the experts | :35:42. | :35:47. | |
predicted. Over the next five years, the | :35:48. | :35:52. | |
northeast was due to receive ?726 million in a EU funding. But the | :35:53. | :35:56. | |
Prime Minister give some much-needed reassurance to the regions currently | :35:57. | :36:01. | |
relying on hundreds of millions of pounds of EU funding that they will | :36:02. | :36:05. | |
still receive the same amount from Whitehall? | :36:06. | :36:10. | |
I can't give that reassurance today, obviously, but we heard Jerry the | :36:11. | :36:13. | |
campaign, those arguing that we should leave, we will do everything | :36:14. | :36:18. | |
we can to help disadvantaged areas of the country, farmers and the rest | :36:19. | :36:23. | |
of it, with the best situation we can. I'm sure that is what will | :36:24. | :36:27. | |
happen. There has been no mention of Wales | :36:28. | :36:31. | |
yet in this debate, we have been speaking for one hour 38 minutes. | :36:32. | :36:35. | |
What the Prime Minister agreed to speak out for our future prosperity | :36:36. | :36:39. | |
and commit as best he can to Wales' place in the European Economic Area? | :36:40. | :36:47. | |
I mentioned Wales and my statements, I have spoken to the First Minister, | :36:48. | :36:51. | |
and I appeared on a platform with Carwyn Jones and the member that | :36:52. | :36:57. | |
just spoke. That's real, brilliant as it was, was not enough to | :36:58. | :36:59. | |
convince the people of Wales to remain in. It is important that we | :37:00. | :37:04. | |
make sure Welsh voice is heard loud and clear. Wales has had a lot of | :37:05. | :37:10. | |
important investment because we are in the single market. I would say it | :37:11. | :37:15. | |
is worth making sure the voice is heard. | :37:16. | :37:21. | |
As well as jobs in the ceramic industry, many of my constituents | :37:22. | :37:24. | |
rely on the logistics sector, and all of us, all of our constituencies | :37:25. | :37:33. | |
need the logistics centre. Given the fears of what is happening in Calais | :37:34. | :37:37. | |
to the hauliers coming across, what reassurances can the Prime Minister | :37:38. | :37:39. | |
give to the haulage industry that what is happening in Calais will | :37:40. | :37:44. | |
stay there and not happen in Folkestone or Dover? | :37:45. | :37:48. | |
We supported the treaty establishing has the border in Calais. We will do | :37:49. | :37:52. | |
everything we can to make sure the French state their side the bargain. | :37:53. | :37:59. | |
The Prime Minister will no doubt have seen the First Minister move | :38:00. | :38:02. | |
quickly to reassure EU nationals living and working in Scotland that | :38:03. | :38:09. | |
they are welcome and valued. In the Highlands, we need EU citizens. They | :38:10. | :38:12. | |
are not only essential to our economy, they are friends and | :38:13. | :38:14. | |
neighbours. Order. I'm not prepared to have | :38:15. | :38:22. | |
these speeches. That is a speech, what I want is a one sentence | :38:23. | :38:26. | |
question. There is an years gesticulating at me, the honourable | :38:27. | :38:29. | |
gentleman has to do what he has been asked today. One sentence please. | :38:30. | :38:37. | |
The Prime Minister said in a statement they would be no immediate | :38:38. | :38:41. | |
changes in their circumstances. Given that Scotland voted so heavily | :38:42. | :38:48. | |
to stay in the use, EU... This is a decision that will have to | :38:49. | :38:53. | |
be made by the new Government as it negotiates its position outside the | :38:54. | :38:56. | |
European Union. I would very much hope that the rights and allowances | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
given to European Union citizens here and now working, studying and | :39:02. | :39:09. | |
contributing will continue. I wonder if the Prime Minister | :39:10. | :39:13. | |
regret not giving 16 and 17-year-olds the chance to have a | :39:14. | :39:17. | |
say in the future of this country? I have always believed that a team | :39:18. | :39:21. | |
is the right age to have that vote, and I have always voted accordingly. | :39:22. | :39:29. | |
This is a Government that Scotland did not elect. We had a referendum | :39:30. | :39:33. | |
that Scotland did not once, and Scotland is being taken out of your | :39:34. | :39:36. | |
act against our will. It is the Prime Minister agreed that there has | :39:37. | :39:40. | |
been a fundamental change in circumstances from September 2014? | :39:41. | :39:46. | |
What I say is that we need to focus on now getting the best of the | :39:47. | :39:49. | |
United Kingdom and getting the best eel for Scotland. It's worth | :39:50. | :39:54. | |
looking, actually, at the Daily Record poll today which indicates | :39:55. | :39:58. | |
that it is not the case necessarily that Scotland is looking for a | :39:59. | :40:02. | |
second referendum. Just because she doesn't like what you read is, | :40:03. | :40:08. | |
doesn't mean she should not read it. The Prime Minister keeps saying that | :40:09. | :40:11. | |
our economic fundamentals are strong, but are membership of the | :40:12. | :40:15. | |
you're was one of those economic fundamentals. And as Camp Nou to | :40:16. | :40:20. | |
speak to the Chancellor - has now fled this House - to set up a cancer | :40:21. | :40:28. | |
to the planned Brexit negotiation to increase spending to the north? | :40:29. | :40:33. | |
The Chancellor sat through a lot of this statement and the responses. He | :40:34. | :40:37. | |
made a very clear statement this morning. The guarantee I can give | :40:38. | :40:41. | |
her is that he and I will remain in our post until the new Government | :40:42. | :40:44. | |
arrives and if there is action we need to take, if there are | :40:45. | :40:48. | |
reassurances we need to give, we will do all we can to make sure our | :40:49. | :40:55. | |
economy continues to succeed. European citizens in my constituency | :40:56. | :41:01. | |
are worried about the messages and lack of clarity given by the Leave | :41:02. | :41:06. | |
campaign. Does the Prime Minister realise how little reassurance this | :41:07. | :41:10. | |
brings? The only reason I'm saying no | :41:11. | :41:14. | |
immediate changes is because I'm trying to accurately reflect the | :41:15. | :41:17. | |
legal situation which is this - people are free at the moment to | :41:18. | :41:21. | |
come and live and work in the United Kingdom. Let me just repeat that if | :41:22. | :41:26. | |
they come here and cannot support themselves, we can ask them to | :41:27. | :41:29. | |
leave, that is important, that has been the case was some time. But | :41:30. | :41:34. | |
songs were members of the European Union, that continues. The point at | :41:35. | :41:37. | |
which we go, a Government will have to make a decision about what to | :41:38. | :41:41. | |
negotiate with the rest of Europe about the rights of Europeans to | :41:42. | :41:44. | |
come and live and work here. There will be visas or work permits or | :41:45. | :41:49. | |
what have you, and then there will be consequences, potentially, for a | :41:50. | :41:53. | |
British citizen is going to live and work in Europe. You have the | :41:54. | :41:58. | |
opportunity to camp tribute to all of these discussions. I must react | :41:59. | :42:05. | |
appropriately from this dispatch box. Or can say is that as long as | :42:06. | :42:08. | |
you remain in the European Union we will continue to contribute. 04 from | :42:09. | :42:13. | |
those campaigning to leave is that those rights will continue after | :42:14. | :42:17. | |
have left. Does the Prime Minister except that | :42:18. | :42:23. | |
maintaining very strong UK participation in Europe-wide | :42:24. | :42:25. | |
scientific research collaboration needs to be an important strand of | :42:26. | :42:28. | |
the work that he describes going forward? | :42:29. | :42:32. | |
I very much agree with the right honourable gentleman. It is an area | :42:33. | :42:35. | |
we have got more out of Europe than we put in, and weekly want to | :42:36. | :42:40. | |
safeguard that for the future. Does the Prime Minister agree with | :42:41. | :42:45. | |
me at 55% of people in Scotland voted against independence was | :42:46. | :42:49. | |
another to keep Scotland in the union, then 63% of them voting to | :42:50. | :42:53. | |
remain member of the EU should be enough to keep Scotland in the EU? | :42:54. | :42:58. | |
You can make the Congress points, which is that Scotland had voted to | :42:59. | :43:01. | |
leave the United Kingdom, it would have left the European Union | :43:02. | :43:08. | |
already. Thank you. Some discussion in June | :43:09. | :43:15. | |
this statement revolved around the response of members of this House to | :43:16. | :43:20. | |
the decision of last week. Can I suggest to him that throughout my | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
experience of 24 years in this House, I have regarded my own | :43:25. | :43:29. | |
responsibility to look people of my constituency who voted two to 14 | :43:30. | :43:35. | |
remaining in European Union. But I will oppose any measures that come | :43:36. | :43:38. | |
before this House that will seek to undermine them. | :43:39. | :43:44. | |
Members have devoted the see fit. My sense is that it would be wrong to | :43:45. | :43:49. | |
do this regard will of the British people, but clearly in the future, | :43:50. | :43:53. | |
this house will be confronted about all sorts of different decisions | :43:54. | :43:56. | |
about the nature of a relationship with Europe and the rules and | :43:57. | :43:58. | |
regulations, and the house will have its say. Can I ask the Prime | :43:59. | :44:05. | |
Minister that if mechanisms were to emerge as yet unseen which would | :44:06. | :44:09. | |
allow Scotland to remain in the European Union passed allowing | :44:10. | :44:13. | |
England and Wales to leave, would he facilitate such an approach would he | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
prefer to feel the appetite of the Scottish people for their own | :44:18. | :44:23. | |
self-government? Obviously I want Scotland to stay inside the United | :44:24. | :44:27. | |
Kingdom, and it is a United Kingdom decision to leave the European | :44:28. | :44:29. | |
Union, and so what we should focus on is the best deal for the United | :44:30. | :44:33. | |
Kingdom, the best deal for Scotland. That is the question, it is not | :44:34. | :44:37. | |
could be a referendum but should there be a referendum? Does the | :44:38. | :44:43. | |
Prime Minister agree that one of the more positive things he could do in | :44:44. | :44:47. | |
the time left to him will be to ensure that this house has the | :44:48. | :44:52. | |
opportunity to vote before the summer recess, not just on the | :44:53. | :44:56. | |
Trident successor programme but on the building of the third runway at | :44:57. | :45:01. | |
Heathrow? There are a number of decisions that we are going to have | :45:02. | :45:06. | |
to look at in the light of the new circumstances with which we are | :45:07. | :45:10. | |
faced. I will do that over the coming days. I want to make sure | :45:11. | :45:14. | |
this parliament is still debating, discussing and deciding important | :45:15. | :45:18. | |
issues, and I will set out in the days to come but I think those | :45:19. | :45:23. | |
important issues should be. Is it not the case that this is the | :45:24. | :45:26. | |
biggest foreign policy disaster for a Conservative Prime Minister since | :45:27. | :45:34. | |
Suez? But specifically on the Scottish question cometh the | :45:35. | :45:36. | |
Scottish parliament backed by the Scottish people calls for a | :45:37. | :45:38. | |
referendum on Scotland's independence in Europe, will you | :45:39. | :45:41. | |
leave a note for the next by Minister to say, you must accede to | :45:42. | :45:45. | |
the wishes of the Scottish people and allow that referendum? The point | :45:46. | :45:51. | |
I would make is not could there be a second referendum but should there | :45:52. | :45:54. | |
be a second referendum? And I don't believe there should be. That is the | :45:55. | :45:58. | |
point I would make, and if you look at the daily record poll today it is | :45:59. | :46:01. | |
not clear that the Scottish people want a second referendum. Like me, | :46:02. | :46:04. | |
they want to focus on getting the best relationship for the United | :46:05. | :46:09. | |
Kingdom with Europe. Let's try and keep all the single markets | :46:10. | :46:17. | |
together. Thank you, Mr Speaker. At the weekend I received an e-mail | :46:18. | :46:20. | |
from a teacher in my constituency saying that children from ethnic | :46:21. | :46:23. | |
minority and EU heritage background were crying and telling me they were | :46:24. | :46:26. | |
going to have to leave. Other children told them their parents | :46:27. | :46:32. | |
were proud and it was great. The teacher said they reassured all the | :46:33. | :46:35. | |
children and talked about the fact that everyone here would be able to | :46:36. | :46:39. | |
stay, but that our community was afraid. Could the prime Minster tell | :46:40. | :46:42. | |
the house what guidance is given to teachers and headteachers? I'm sure | :46:43. | :46:45. | |
that my school was not the only one affected. What I would say to the | :46:46. | :46:50. | |
Honourable Lady is that we should be very proud of our diversity in this | :46:51. | :46:53. | |
country, the welcome we have given to immigrants and refugees coming to | :46:54. | :46:57. | |
our country, and we're proud the contribution they make. That message | :46:58. | :47:01. | |
list quite loud and clear. Just because we are leaving the youth it | :47:02. | :47:04. | |
will not make us a less tolerant, less diverse nation. That needs to | :47:05. | :47:08. | |
quote loud and clear from all of us, whatever side of the debate, | :47:09. | :47:11. | |
whatever we felt about the campaign at some of the posters in it. During | :47:12. | :47:18. | |
the independence referendum Scottish people were told of the no to | :47:19. | :47:20. | |
preserve their place within the European Union. Will the Prime | :47:21. | :47:24. | |
Minister now give Scotland an apology for this false promise? At | :47:25. | :47:29. | |
Scotland voted to leave the United Kingdom it would have been out of | :47:30. | :47:36. | |
the European Union. I don't know... I... You don't need many | :47:37. | :47:44. | |
conversations with the Spanish by Minister to the difficult it would | :47:45. | :47:50. | |
be to get back in. I'm a regular traveller between Northern Ireland | :47:51. | :47:56. | |
and the Republic. I never thought I would see that broader goal, I weep | :47:57. | :47:59. | |
at the thought of advertising. It beggars belief that the Secretary of | :48:00. | :48:03. | |
State for Northern Ireland remains in that post. Can the Prime Minister | :48:04. | :48:06. | |
tell us what discussions he has had with the Taoiseach since Friday? I | :48:07. | :48:12. | |
have spoken to the Taoiseach and I will see him again tomorrow, and | :48:13. | :48:15. | |
he's taking an incredibly constructive and helpful approach. | :48:16. | :48:19. | |
He is very sad that Britain has decided to leave the European Union, | :48:20. | :48:23. | |
but the relationship between Britain and the republic is I think stronger | :48:24. | :48:25. | |
than it has been for many years. What we have to do is sit down with | :48:26. | :48:31. | |
officials in Northern Ireland, and in the Republic, and worked out what | :48:32. | :48:34. | |
is the best way of conserving and keeping all the parts of the Common | :48:35. | :48:38. | |
travel area that have been so beneficial, and how can we do that | :48:39. | :48:42. | |
in a world in which we are not in the EU? It will be difficult, but we | :48:43. | :48:47. | |
have to find a way through. I feel to see how a Prime Minister who is | :48:48. | :48:50. | |
working his notice can guarantee the continued involvement in devolved | :48:51. | :48:54. | |
administrations over a two-year period, but can the Prime Minister | :48:55. | :48:58. | |
confirm that the Scottish Government's initial involvement | :48:59. | :49:00. | |
they will be able to represent the will of Scotland which are staying | :49:01. | :49:04. | |
in Europe for Scotland? Cabinet agreed this morning that there | :49:05. | :49:07. | |
should be the greatest possible involvement of Scotland, Wales, the | :49:08. | :49:11. | |
Government in Northern Ireland in drawing up and understanding all the | :49:12. | :49:14. | |
challenges that we need to meet in this big session. The level of lies, | :49:15. | :49:20. | |
malice, exaggerations in both campaigns degraded the level of | :49:21. | :49:25. | |
public discourse to a state where Nolan would believe politicians in | :49:26. | :49:30. | |
the future. Is this not a threat to the whole status of politics and | :49:31. | :49:37. | |
democracy? I don't actually agree with that. I think the turnout | :49:38. | :49:40. | |
showed that people took this referendum campaign very seriously. | :49:41. | :49:46. | |
The complex negotiations prior to triggering Article 50 will shape the | :49:47. | :49:51. | |
future of Britain. Would it not be right in the cold light of day for | :49:52. | :49:54. | |
the British public to have a referendum on the facts in front of | :49:55. | :49:59. | |
them, that future that they can then see and be able to remain at home in | :50:00. | :50:06. | |
Europe if they so wish? We had a referendum on a very important | :50:07. | :50:12. | |
principle question about in or out. What needs to happen now is | :50:13. | :50:16. | |
different models of out need to be properly examined. Parliament should | :50:17. | :50:19. | |
debate them. That Government should make a decision, that is what should | :50:20. | :50:26. | |
happen. Why doesn't the Prime Minister just commit to match the | :50:27. | :50:31. | |
money for Wales, the north-east and all the other places that presently | :50:32. | :50:35. | |
receive EU funding? He has made a lot of commitments already today, so | :50:36. | :50:39. | |
he could certainly do that. I will do a deal with him. If he does, I | :50:40. | :50:43. | |
will make a contribution to building a statue of him somewhere in Wales. | :50:44. | :50:50. | |
I'm so glad that my resignation set of such a generally action, | :50:51. | :50:54. | |
including the honourable gentleman. It has been like filling a leaky | :50:55. | :50:57. | |
bucket, or you pour in, the faster you have to go. I have forgotten | :50:58. | :51:03. | |
what the question was. The money! Obviously it is the point at which | :51:04. | :51:06. | |
Britain leaves the European Union that a future Government will have | :51:07. | :51:11. | |
to make the decision how to match the money for Cornwall, Wales, | :51:12. | :51:15. | |
farming. That is not a commitment I can get now. I very much hope that a | :51:16. | :51:19. | |
future Government will be able to, but it will depend on economic | :51:20. | :51:22. | |
circumstances and the decision at the time. The constituency are | :51:23. | :51:28. | |
present posted by Wessex 27% to remain calm and in Scotland it was | :51:29. | :51:38. | |
62%. -- six to 7% can he understand Scotland position about being | :51:39. | :51:45. | |
dragged out against their will? My constituency voted to remain in | :51:46. | :51:52. | |
United Kingdom, but we are a United Kingdom and we take this decision on | :51:53. | :51:57. | |
a United Kingdom basis. There are over 1.5 million 16-17 -year-olds in | :51:58. | :52:01. | |
the UK, and the referendum was won or lost depending on your point of | :52:02. | :52:05. | |
view by 1.5 million votes. As the Prime Minister still have no regrets | :52:06. | :52:09. | |
about allowing 16 and 17-year-olds essay in their future? I'm sorry, | :52:10. | :52:14. | |
but I don't think it would be right to change my mind about an issue | :52:15. | :52:17. | |
simply because it would have helped my side in the debate. Quite, you at | :52:18. | :52:27. | |
the back. That is why I stuck to the view I have taken all along that 18 | :52:28. | :52:31. | |
is the right age, and I often find going around secondary schools in | :52:32. | :52:36. | |
the country and in my constituency, very often find when you ask sixth | :52:37. | :52:39. | |
formers, there is quite strong support, sometimes majority support, | :52:40. | :52:46. | |
but keeping it at 18. How does the Prime Minister's devilish and | :52:47. | :52:51. | |
respect agenda like to the constituents of Glazunov who voted | :52:52. | :52:54. | |
to remain? And what is the message to one of my constituents whose | :52:55. | :52:58. | |
parents live in Spain and who are increasingly concerned about the | :52:59. | :53:00. | |
impact this what will happen their health care? What I would say, | :53:01. | :53:05. | |
respectfully, is that we had a vote on Scotland remaining in the United | :53:06. | :53:09. | |
Kingdom, and we had the Edinburgh agreement that said that the results | :53:10. | :53:14. | |
should be respected. That meant that Scotland was part of United Kingdom, | :53:15. | :53:17. | |
the outer kingdom has now had a vote on its militia but the European | :53:18. | :53:23. | |
Union, and that is how we do things. 7000 people are employed in the | :53:24. | :53:27. | |
ceramics industry in the city of Stoke-on-Trent. 50% of their traders | :53:28. | :53:33. | |
to the European Union, and their employers are incredibly concerned | :53:34. | :53:37. | |
about the future. What reassurances can he get that the industry is safe | :53:38. | :53:42. | |
outside of the European Union? I think the ceramics industry is a | :53:43. | :53:44. | |
classic example of one needs to make his voice heard, and I will make | :53:45. | :53:49. | |
sure this happens, and that we get a good negotiation. If at the end of | :53:50. | :53:51. | |
two years Britain were to come out of the European Union without an | :53:52. | :53:54. | |
adequate deal, we could be facing quite large tariffs on, for | :53:55. | :53:59. | |
instance, ceramics. It is a very good argument about why we need to | :54:00. | :54:03. | |
think this through carefully, then trigger article 50, and make sure | :54:04. | :54:07. | |
during that process we protect those industries' access to those markets. | :54:08. | :54:13. | |
Earlier he described the financial and economic action to Brexit as an | :54:14. | :54:17. | |
adjustment. I presume that was a euphemism. Does he believe that | :54:18. | :54:21. | |
trillions of pounds being wiped off the share value of global companies, | :54:22. | :54:25. | |
the pound at a 31 year low of the threat of tens of thousands of jobs | :54:26. | :54:28. | |
moving to the continent is just an adjustment? The reason I use the | :54:29. | :54:35. | |
word adjustment is this, there are short-term financial effects, and we | :54:36. | :54:39. | |
have seen that. My worry is there will be longer-term uncertainty | :54:40. | :54:42. | |
affects. The adjustment I'm talking about is that people and businesses | :54:43. | :54:46. | |
will be concerned about the access of the UK to crucial markets, and | :54:47. | :54:50. | |
therefore there might be a more fundamental adjustment. What we need | :54:51. | :54:54. | |
to do now, the decision has been taken to leave, is that we make sure | :54:55. | :54:58. | |
we get the best possible access to the markets to the judgment is a | :54:59. | :55:04. | |
small as possible. Could I ask the Prime Minister what reassurances you | :55:05. | :55:08. | |
will give to businesses in my constituency and also the future of | :55:09. | :55:10. | |
regeneration projects that were funded through the EU and the jobs | :55:11. | :55:15. | |
that are rolling to those projects? What I can say is that the budget | :55:16. | :55:20. | |
money is set out from 2014 - 2020, and all that money, while where | :55:21. | :55:23. | |
members of the EU, will continue to be spent. And the crucial decision | :55:24. | :55:28. | |
will be for the next Government at the point of departure, which could | :55:29. | :55:33. | |
be 2017, 2018, 2019, or later, at that height to give reassurances to | :55:34. | :55:38. | |
him or his constituents about how that European money might be | :55:39. | :55:41. | |
replaced with something else. If everybody is to get in, the | :55:42. | :55:45. | |
questions must be shorter, otherwise they just will not get in. Very | :55:46. | :55:50. | |
short questions. Does he agree that there are profound lessons to be | :55:51. | :55:53. | |
loud at that dispatch box and the one opposite about how we listen to | :55:54. | :55:56. | |
and responsibly address the perfectly legitimate concerns that | :55:57. | :56:01. | |
good, decent, working-class people have about things like I'm skilled | :56:02. | :56:07. | |
immigration? And also the consequent self-evident alienation they feel | :56:08. | :56:09. | |
about their current political leadership? Immigration was a key | :56:10. | :56:16. | |
issue in this election, I was hoping that welfare restrictions I had | :56:17. | :56:18. | |
negotiated would help to address that. Because people feel a very | :56:19. | :56:22. | |
clear sense in this country that you should not have something for | :56:23. | :56:24. | |
nothing. People should pay end before they take out. Clearly that | :56:25. | :56:28. | |
was not enough to reassure people stop and also I think there has been | :56:29. | :56:33. | |
a lot of immigration from outside the EU over many, many years, and | :56:34. | :56:36. | |
people want to see the system brought under better control and | :56:37. | :56:39. | |
management. That is what needs to happen and we need to have a | :56:40. | :56:42. | |
rational debate about it. The result of common ground between the two | :56:43. | :56:45. | |
parties about it, and that is what we should get on with. He said a | :56:46. | :56:52. | |
leave what was like putting a bomb under the economy. Is that part of | :56:53. | :56:56. | |
his long-term economic plan? I thought the economy would be better | :56:57. | :56:59. | |
off if we had stayed, the British people made a different decision, | :57:00. | :57:02. | |
now we need to do your best to make sure we safeguard the economy in the | :57:03. | :57:06. | |
new reality. In the last debate we had on the EU the Foreign Secretary | :57:07. | :57:10. | |
said the problem for the UK was that we had no experience trade forgot | :57:11. | :57:15. | |
heaters left in the civil servants. -- trade negotiators. What is the | :57:16. | :57:20. | |
Government doing to train up people to be able to negotiate on trade | :57:21. | :57:23. | |
deals? We will increase our capacity in that vital area. Earlier this | :57:24. | :57:29. | |
year you give me on my commute to the great honour of commemorating | :57:30. | :57:34. | |
the Clydebank floods in your own home. And since that period in 1941 | :57:35. | :57:38. | |
but Nato and will begin the EU has delivered both military and economic | :57:39. | :57:42. | |
peace and prosperity for Europe. Does the British Government led by | :57:43. | :57:45. | |
this prime Minster not agree with my community that he has delivered us | :57:46. | :57:50. | |
from peace into unparalleled chaos? What this Government has delivered | :57:51. | :57:55. | |
for Scotland is actually record rates of employment growth and | :57:56. | :57:57. | |
business growth as part of a successful economy. The people of | :57:58. | :58:01. | |
United Kingdom have decided to take a different path with respect to | :58:02. | :58:04. | |
Europe, we must do all we can to continue to safeguard the economies | :58:05. | :58:06. | |
of all countries of the United Kingdom. As anyone that has played | :58:07. | :58:12. | |
an active role in the Remain campaign will know, for a huge | :58:13. | :58:17. | |
number of people who voted Leave, immigration was their top concern, | :58:18. | :58:19. | |
and they believe that this degree negotiation would lead to them | :58:20. | :58:25. | |
ending free movement. I regret that, but does he believe that those | :58:26. | :58:29. | |
people that now try to airbrush that out when they inherit this situation | :58:30. | :58:30. | |
will end in tears? As I have said I think one of the | :58:31. | :58:39. | |
most difficult decision for a future Government is how to balance access | :58:40. | :58:42. | |
to the single market, the best we can get, with decisions about | :58:43. | :58:46. | |
immigration. I don't know what exact answer can be found. The answer I | :58:47. | :58:51. | |
found was welfare reform, which was bold and brave, because axing meant | :58:52. | :58:54. | |
reducing welfare payments to newly arrived migrants, changes that now | :58:55. | :59:01. | |
will not go ahead, so that will continue for a couple of years. But | :59:02. | :59:06. | |
we have to find a solution to that problem. We want access to the | :59:07. | :59:12. | |
single market, but we have to do better when it comes to immigration. | :59:13. | :59:16. | |
In response to repeated questions from this pensions, the Prime | :59:17. | :59:23. | |
Minister has wanted to reduce one of the most ancient and proud nations | :59:24. | :59:27. | |
in this world to the status of an England County. Can I suggest we | :59:28. | :59:35. | |
continue to do that, there should be no Scotland Office? | :59:36. | :59:39. | |
I do not intend to do that, Scotland is a proud part of the United | :59:40. | :59:46. | |
Kingdom, and I would continue to congratulate all that Scotland | :59:47. | :59:50. | |
brings to the UK. All I want to point out is that when you make a UK | :59:51. | :59:53. | |
wide decision, not everyone gets what they want. | :59:54. | :59:58. | |
Order. When the Prime Minister addresses this House contents of | :59:59. | :00:02. | |
late and attends all of our questions, years at entitled to a | :00:03. | :00:07. | |
courteous hearing and not being heckled. | :00:08. | :00:16. | |
I commend the Leader of the Opposition on his condemnation of | :00:17. | :00:19. | |
the race attack on eight constituent of mine yesterday. He was one of the | :00:20. | :00:26. | |
same generation of polls who fought for this country in the Battle of | :00:27. | :00:32. | |
Britain. What the Prime Minister expressed his solidarity with the | :00:33. | :00:35. | |
Polish community and all our migrant communities who are now feeling | :00:36. | :00:37. | |
under threat? I am very happy to do with that. As | :00:38. | :00:44. | |
someone who lived in that constituency previously and mothers | :00:45. | :00:49. | |
brother centres -- parlour centres well, I go past but Polish War | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
Memorial, and say to the polish people you meet a great contribution | :00:56. | :00:58. | |
to our country, these attacks are hateful. | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
Young people across the UK voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU. | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
And as the Prime Minister what specifically he will do to reassure | :01:08. | :01:10. | |
and support young people that they will have opportunities to live, | :01:11. | :01:18. | |
work and thrives across the EU? Those opportunities are not yet been | :01:19. | :01:22. | |
taken away. I would urge young people to make a voice hard, so when | :01:23. | :01:26. | |
we go into negotiation, we try to get the very best arrangements for | :01:27. | :01:30. | |
people's ability to study and get work. | :01:31. | :01:36. | |
Our great research institutions rely heavily on funding from the European | :01:37. | :01:41. | |
Union. The Prime Minister suggest nothing changes immediately, but for | :01:42. | :01:44. | |
a research is the threat of immediate and real. Can you tell the | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
House would support he will to help them this uncertain times? | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
What I can add to what I have said before is that all contracts will be | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
honoured. So the British Yunis university has won a contract, that | :01:59. | :02:05. | |
contract will be honoured. The issue is post-leaving how we will | :02:06. | :02:12. | |
safeguard those opportunities. The Prime Minister has rightly | :02:13. | :02:15. | |
condemned the worrying wave of post-Brexit racism. Willie | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
absolutely commit to the prevent strategy and indeed funding | :02:20. | :02:29. | |
generally to stamp out xenophobia? I think we should continue with the | :02:30. | :02:33. | |
Prevent strategy. I'm happy to look at anything that will strengthen our | :02:34. | :02:42. | |
stance on hate crimes. The two were promised at | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
continuation of subsidies and support. What reassurance can the | :02:47. | :02:50. | |
Prime Minister given that this will continue to be the case? | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
I will say what I said you in the campaign, as far as I'm concerned, I | :02:55. | :02:58. | |
want a living, working countryside where we continue to support our | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
farmers. That was guaranteed as part of the EU out until 2020. What is | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
the to happen now is those foreign payments will continue until we | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
leave, at that point a new Government will have to make a | :03:12. | :03:18. | |
decision. -- farm payments. Our countryside is as it is because it | :03:19. | :03:22. | |
is farmed, long may that continue to be the case. | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
The devastated citizens are unimpressed by party leaders who | :03:27. | :03:31. | |
simply say that they did their best in this campaign. Will he take the | :03:32. | :03:34. | |
opportunity at the end of this long session to say sorry for what he has | :03:35. | :03:37. | |
done? What I would say is that I made a | :03:38. | :03:45. | |
pledge of holding a renegotiation and a referendum, and I kept that | :03:46. | :03:48. | |
I'd about renegotiation and referendum. I'm sure we've got | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
lessons to learn. I will I will say is that I threw absolutely | :03:55. | :03:57. | |
everything into that campaign. I believed head, heart and soul in | :03:58. | :04:02. | |
what I was saying, the merits of my case. I did everything to get it | :04:03. | :04:08. | |
across. But if you lose, you have to accept the verdict of the British | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
people. In my part, except that means you also have to accept that | :04:14. | :04:16. | |
someone else should take leadership of this great country. I am proud of | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
the action I took and fought as hard as I did. | :04:22. | :04:29. | |
48% of the country wake up sick at heart and angry everyday. Now, large | :04:30. | :04:36. | |
numbers of people outside voted for Brexit are also waking up sick and | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
angry when they find that they were lied to about money for the NHS and | :04:42. | :04:45. | |
immigration. How does the Prime Minister hope to build unity in this | :04:46. | :04:51. | |
country with a Government that may well include people who misled the | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
British public in this vote and referendum? | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
As I say, we now have to come back as one Government which has accepted | :05:00. | :05:04. | |
the will of the British people to leave the European Union. We have to | :05:05. | :05:07. | |
find the best way for our country as we do that. That should be the | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
focus. There is no point in refighting the campaign, we have had | :05:12. | :05:14. | |
that, now we should make the best case for a country that we can. | :05:15. | :05:20. | |
Can I take this opportunity to thank the Prime Minister for attending the | :05:21. | :05:23. | |
National Armed Forces event in Cleethorpes on Saturday. It was very | :05:24. | :05:27. | |
appreciative, especially after the events of the previous 48 hours. I | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
particularly appreciated by the forces, both past and present. To | :05:34. | :05:37. | |
return to the subject matter, although the Prime Minister has | :05:38. | :05:41. | |
already clearly stated there is, perhaps it is appropriate at the end | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
if you could reaffirm something which my constituents have nagging | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
doubts over, whether the Government will deliver Brexit? And he | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
reaffirmed that will happen? I thank him for those one work and | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
that he and the people Cleethorpes kidney on Saturday. I've heard | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
something about hiding away after the referendum, I was there on stage | :06:04. | :06:06. | |
on Armed Forces Day, representing our great Armed Forces in front of | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
an enormous clout in Cleethorpes with a brilliant display and a very | :06:12. | :06:15. | |
good fly past, much past and all the rest. But I say to my honourable | :06:16. | :06:24. | |
friend is that we will ever have a renegotiation, these things did | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
happen, we available other people, we are a democracy, that is what we | :06:30. | :06:32. | |
will do. I thank all colleagues, but critical | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
of the 110 backbenchers who question the Prime Minister. And hats I can | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
congratulate the Prime Minister for the enormous dignity, grace and good | :06:42. | :06:45. | |
humour that he has displayed this afternoon in attending, in detail | :06:46. | :06:51. | |
and at length, to our enquiries. I say, I hope behalf of the whole | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
House, something we don't set off enough - and Q. -- thank you. Point | :06:56. | :07:04. | |
of order. In this House we fight passionately | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
for the rights of British citizens, but Mr Speaker, leaving the EU | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
impacts directly on UK citizens in the EU and in the UK, who is right | :07:15. | :07:18. | |
we have heard from the Prime Minister are secure, but only in the | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
short term. Mr Speaker, do you believe the procedures in this House | :07:23. | :07:25. | |
are fit for purpose when it comes to issuing the Government represents | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
the interests and assures the security of EU citizens in the UK | :07:31. | :07:34. | |
and UK citizens in the EU effectively? | :07:35. | :07:40. | |
I must say to the Right Honourable gentleman, forgive me, I don't think | :07:41. | :07:42. | |
there is a matter contained within that purported point of order that | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
relate to the procedures of the House for the protection of the | :07:49. | :07:54. | |
interests of the European Union citizens. Notwithstanding the | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
expression of unrivalled solemnity on the face of a former deputy | :07:59. | :08:04. | |
leader of this House as he put that point of order to me, I am still | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
struggling to come to terms with the notion that it is a point of order, | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
rather than a point of perfectly legitimate and understandable | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
concern, frustration and anxiety. In so far but it is the latter, the | :08:23. | :08:27. | |
right honourable gentleman is sufficiently experienced and | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
accomplished parliamentarian to find several opportunities further to | :08:31. | :08:34. | |
expand on his concerns in the days and weeks that lie ahead. Point of | :08:35. | :08:46. | |
order, Mr peat washer. Can the legislative programme be | :08:47. | :08:50. | |
reviewed following the dramatic decision made last week? | :08:51. | :08:58. | |
Ask him again. As a courtesy, I should hear the | :08:59. | :09:01. | |
right honourable gentleman once more, but I'm not sure the point | :09:02. | :09:04. | |
will improve with repetition. But we can try! I do beg the gentleman's | :09:05. | :09:09. | |
pardon as I was hearing from someone else at the time. Can we hear it | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
again? I'm sure it is not in dishes. Have you been approached by the | :09:16. | :09:20. | |
Leader of the House to have an urgent review over the legislative | :09:21. | :09:24. | |
programme given the dramatic decision taken last week? | :09:25. | :09:29. | |
The answer to that is no. There will be the opportunity of dozens | :09:30. | :09:37. | |
questions on Thursday -- business questions on Thursday. An occasion | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
in which the honourable gentleman is very familiar, but have I had any | :09:42. | :09:48. | |
indication of the business statements before then, or an | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
intended revisiting of the business of the House, or of the legislative | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
programme? The answer is no. Point of order, Mr Ian Blackford. | :09:58. | :10:06. | |
It has been brought to my attention that a debate in which I attended | :10:07. | :10:12. | |
and spoke on the 24th of June, 2015, on the subject of broadband in | :10:13. | :10:15. | |
Westminster Hall, in my notes I should an indication was to declare | :10:16. | :10:21. | |
I financial interests, I sadly failed to do so in a debate. I | :10:22. | :10:25. | |
wanted to take the opportunity today to Gregory put and apologise to the | :10:26. | :10:28. | |
House for the error in not doing so on the 24th of June last year. | :10:29. | :10:34. | |
We are very grateful to the honourable gentleman forgiven me | :10:35. | :10:36. | |
notice he wished to raise this matter. I also appreciate the fact | :10:37. | :10:43. | |
that he has now, although somewhat belatedly, put the record straight. | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
Let me say thank you to him on the principle, better late than never. | :10:49. | :10:50. | |
Thank you. Point of order. | :10:51. | :10:56. | |
This morning the Chancellor indicated two contrary views - one | :10:57. | :11:02. | |
that we face in the days of the media they had a great turbulence, | :11:03. | :11:05. | |
and secondly that he was going to postpone the urgency budget until | :11:06. | :11:09. | |
after the Tory leadership crisis was resolved. -- emergency budget. Much | :11:10. | :11:17. | |
we face an crisis will have an impact on the Government's finances, | :11:18. | :11:21. | |
should we not have greater clarity before we undertake the scrutiny of | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
this finance bill? That is what I was asking! | :11:28. | :11:33. | |
The matters which the honourable gentleman wishes to treat are | :11:34. | :11:37. | |
contained within the Bill, he may well have a perfectly good | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
opportunity to air his concerns undertake scrutiny today. I would | :11:42. | :11:47. | |
just say to him - I am very grateful to him for giving me notice of this | :11:48. | :11:50. | |
point of order - it is perfectly clear the Government intends to | :11:51. | :11:55. | |
proceed with the committee stage of the Finance Bill today, and and they | :11:56. | :12:03. | |
will be in accordance with the agenda. I must say, that although | :12:04. | :12:10. | |
the new member is an accomplished person with much life experience, | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
while... LAUGHTER | :12:15. | :12:20. | |
I meant by that he has a personal the world, a cerebral individual. | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
While debate must be focused on the amendments selected, I have no doubt | :12:26. | :12:28. | |
that the honourable gentleman will find ways to weave into his | :12:29. | :12:34. | |
contribution some reference to the general concerns that he has just | :12:35. | :12:38. | |
ventilated. I'm sure the honourable gentleman will find his own | :12:39. | :12:41. | |
salvation, I have every confidence in him. He should have every | :12:42. | :12:45. | |
confidence in himself. We'll leave it there for now, if there are no | :12:46. | :12:49. | |
further points of order, I think we will proceed, and I call the | :12:50. | :12:57. | |
minister - I thank all colleagues - I call the most to call motion | :12:58. | :13:02. | |
number one. Thank you. The question is as on the order paper. As many as | :13:03. | :13:05. | |
are of the opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, "no". I think the eye | :13:06. | :13:14. | |
Mike we're have it. As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To the | :13:15. | :13:24. | |
contrary, "no". The ayes bit. The client will now proceed to read the | :13:25. | :13:26. | |
orders of the day. Finance Bill. We begin. Government | :13:27. | :14:05. | |
amendment to 22 the clause seven, which which will take the other | :14:06. | :14:09. | |
amendments, clusters, schedules and new quotas listed on the paper. | :14:10. | :14:21. | |
Thank you. It is a great pleasure Dee pleasure to move these causes. | :14:22. | :14:34. | |
If I may say at the beginning, as I mentioned to the speaker earlier and | :14:35. | :14:38. | |
you will have noted that somewhat incapacitated with a back strain. I | :14:39. | :14:44. | |
will be taking interventions today, but if I may, with your permission, | :14:45. | :14:52. | |
I will remain standing during those interventions. Bobbing up and down | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
would be a little discomforting. If I may have your permission. Please, | :14:57. | :15:06. | |
don't sit down. I would like to say that if you had not made that point, | :15:07. | :15:09. | |
I was going to offer my permission having once been in the dreadful | :15:10. | :15:14. | |
position of standing there on crutches with a broken leg. Whereas | :15:15. | :15:21. | |
it is possible to stand still, going up and down is exceedingly difficult | :15:22. | :15:24. | |
and I am sure that the whole house has every sympathy for the Minister. | :15:25. | :15:32. | |
I'm sure the House will concur in giving permission to remain on his | :15:33. | :15:37. | |
feet. Thank you. I am grateful for those remarks. The measures that I | :15:38. | :15:42. | |
will outline today in the simple clear and fair tax treatment of | :15:43. | :15:46. | |
employment income and benefits. They strengthen the incentives to choose | :15:47. | :15:51. | |
the cleanest cars and vans and ensure that those who have used | :15:52. | :15:55. | |
artificial arrangements to avoid paying tax pay their fair share. | :15:56. | :16:00. | |
Given the number of clauses selected for the debates, I would like to | :16:01. | :16:05. | |
briefly set out how I will speak on them today. I will firstly discuss | :16:06. | :16:16. | |
clauses eight two 11. I will then outline clause seven and then | :16:17. | :16:24. | |
clauses 12 up until 17. And finally I will outline clause 18. Let me | :16:25. | :16:34. | |
first turn the clause eight, which will increase the appropriate | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
percentage for conventionally fuelled cars by three points by | :16:39. | :16:46. | |
2019. It will also widen the tax advantage of ultralow emission cars | :16:47. | :16:52. | |
over the conventionally fuelled cars compared to previously announced | :16:53. | :16:56. | |
plans. As a result of these changes, in 2019 a basic rate taxpayer | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
driving a ultralow emission company car will be ?113 better off. Close | :17:02. | :17:09. | |
nine makes a minor technical update to ensure the legislation works as | :17:10. | :17:17. | |
intended. This update applies to a small number of rare company cars. | :17:18. | :17:24. | |
It is estimated that exposure to nitrogen dioxide is linked with | :17:25. | :17:30. | |
23,500 deaths annually in the UK, costing approximately ?13.3 billion. | :17:31. | :17:37. | |
As announced at the statement and 2015, clause ten retains that diesel | :17:38. | :17:48. | |
company cars until 2020, 20 21. This will support the UK's transition | :17:49. | :17:53. | |
from diesel cars to cleaner, zero Archer emission cars. As a result of | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
this change, a basic rate taxpayer with an ultralow emission car will | :17:59. | :18:06. | |
save money in 2017 when compared to an employee with an average diesel | :18:07. | :18:13. | |
company car. Clause 11 retains the van benefit charge for deal emission | :18:14. | :18:19. | |
bands at 20% of the rate paid by conventionally fuelled fans for 2016 | :18:20. | :18:27. | |
to 26 17. Rather than increasing to 40% and 60% as currently planned. | :18:28. | :18:32. | |
This means a basic rate taxpayer driving a zero emission band will | :18:33. | :18:41. | |
save ?126 in 2017 and ?128 in 2018. These two clauses will incentivise | :18:42. | :18:46. | |
business employees to take up the cleanest cars and vans and will help | :18:47. | :18:50. | |
ensure the market for these new technologies becomes established in | :18:51. | :18:55. | |
the UK and support the UK carbon emissions and air quality targets. | :18:56. | :18:59. | |
If I made, in anticipation of what we would hear from the opposition, | :19:00. | :19:05. | |
let me turn to amendments to and three. These amendments would | :19:06. | :19:11. | |
require the exception of diesel cars from paying the supplement if the | :19:12. | :19:14. | |
have the same supplements as petrol cars. I appreciate that we want to | :19:15. | :19:21. | |
incentivise people to purchase the cleanest cars. These amendments will | :19:22. | :19:25. | |
only serve to introduce confusion. They are not linked to the wider | :19:26. | :19:30. | |
regulatory programme to achieve the latest air standards. Even when cars | :19:31. | :19:36. | |
are driven on our roads. Clause ten retains the supplement until 2021 | :19:37. | :19:43. | |
when these new standards will be mandatory for all new cars. This | :19:44. | :19:47. | |
approach is transparent and easy to understand and will give consumers | :19:48. | :19:52. | |
confidence that all new diesel cars are in parable to petrol. Our | :19:53. | :19:55. | |
approach incentivise is people to purchase the cleanest cars and in | :19:56. | :20:02. | |
anticipation of what will be said later, I do hope that the party | :20:03. | :20:06. | |
opposite would press these amendments, let me now turn to the | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
clauses in the session which clarify and so provide the tax treatment of | :20:12. | :20:14. | |
income on certain benefits and insure certain benefits in the tax | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
system. Clause seven will clarify how the cash equivalent of certain | :20:20. | :20:24. | |
tax benefits are a calculator. The ensure that fair bargain does not | :20:25. | :20:31. | |
apply to those benefits with the level of computing the value of the | :20:32. | :20:36. | |
benefit is set out in statute. The Government has made some minor | :20:37. | :20:45. | |
technical changes set out amendments 22 to 26, which ensure the | :20:46. | :20:48. | |
legislation is maintained. All income from an employed or | :20:49. | :20:56. | |
previously employed sports person will be taxable, but we are aware | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
that careers in sport can be short. We have also introduced an exemption | :21:02. | :21:05. | |
for the first ?100,000 or income received from a sporting testimonial | :21:06. | :21:09. | |
that is not contractual or customary. The Government believes | :21:10. | :21:13. | |
that this is a fair compromise and the vast majority of employed sports | :21:14. | :21:16. | |
persons who have testimonials will not be impacted. Clause 13 | :21:17. | :21:23. | |
introduces a statutory exemption for certain benefits costing up to ?50 | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
that employers provide to their employees. This also provided tax | :21:29. | :21:32. | |
treatment of these benefits and reduce the administrative burden for | :21:33. | :21:37. | |
employers. To insure that the exemption is not misused a ?300 | :21:38. | :21:41. | |
annual cap will apply in certain circumstances. This is a sensible | :21:42. | :21:45. | |
and simple five measure which will reduce burdens on employers. Turning | :21:46. | :21:59. | |
to clause 14 it will ensure that no business can have a tax advantage | :22:00. | :22:04. | |
from claiming abroad. It is Mr Bush sensible that people are not able to | :22:05. | :22:10. | |
claim tax relief on the cost of ordinary commuting. Individuals who | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
are engaged through intermediaries such as umbrella companies and their | :22:16. | :22:19. | |
employers can get to benefit from this relief of the cost of commuting | :22:20. | :22:26. | |
from home to work, simply because of the way they are engaged to work. | :22:27. | :22:33. | |
Just on that point, the Secretary of State looked at the fact that this | :22:34. | :22:37. | |
will have disproportionate impact on rural communities where travel is | :22:38. | :22:41. | |
much more expensive and sometimes an overnight stay is necessary when | :22:42. | :22:47. | |
undertaking these roles? I will talk about clause 14 a little bit more, | :22:48. | :22:51. | |
but I do believe this is a matter of fairness and in the case of the vast | :22:52. | :22:56. | |
majority of people, home to work costs don't have tax relief applied | :22:57. | :23:03. | |
to it. I think it is right that we apply the same rules across the | :23:04. | :23:09. | |
board here and there just because an arrangement is made through an | :23:10. | :23:16. | |
umbrella company or another form of intermediaries, that we see a | :23:17. | :23:22. | |
difference in treatment. The clause will put these workers on the same | :23:23. | :23:25. | |
terms as everybody else. This underpins the Government's | :23:26. | :23:31. | |
commitment to ensure the tax is fair and treats all individual doing same | :23:32. | :23:37. | |
thing in the same way. I the semi-Minister balls argument, I do. | :23:38. | :23:40. | |
But this is offering a disincentive to many people who have chosen to go | :23:41. | :23:47. | |
down the self-employed route. Does he not share the concerns that we | :23:48. | :23:52. | |
and others have that this may act as a disincentive to entrepreneurship | :23:53. | :23:55. | |
with being a contractor or self-employed being the first step | :23:56. | :23:57. | |
to forming another business and employing other people? I understand | :23:58. | :24:03. | |
where the honourable gentleman is coming from, but I don't share these | :24:04. | :24:07. | |
concerns. It doesn't seem to me that it is justifiable that simply by | :24:08. | :24:17. | |
arranging a fares in a particular way through an intermediary that | :24:18. | :24:20. | |
somebody benefits from tax relief for travel to work costs. Anyway | :24:21. | :24:29. | |
that someone else doesn't. As much as I, as I think all sides do, | :24:30. | :24:36. | |
recognise that it is important that we have an entrepreneurial economy | :24:37. | :24:39. | |
and the importance of the self-employed within our economy. It | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
doesn't seem to me that there is a strong case for saying that the | :24:44. | :24:48. | |
difference in treatment in terms of tax relief should apply. That is why | :24:49. | :24:51. | |
we have come forward with the measures that we have. In recent | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
years there has been a substantial increase in the number of workers | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
who aged through an employment intermediary. While many employment | :25:02. | :25:05. | |
intermediaries play a legitimate role in the labour market, | :25:06. | :25:08. | |
increasingly some of their market themselves at least in part on the | :25:09. | :25:12. | |
basis that they allow individuals and businesses to maximise their | :25:13. | :25:15. | |
income through claiming tax relief on home to work travel expenses. The | :25:16. | :25:22. | |
increase on the use of intermediaries now means large | :25:23. | :25:29. | |
numbers of individuals are claiming tax relief. With this change we | :25:30. | :25:34. | |
estimate that the service will save the general taxpayer over ?150 | :25:35. | :25:41. | |
million this year and over ?600 million by 2019 to 2020. This change | :25:42. | :25:51. | |
will ensure fairness for all individuals and businesses | :25:52. | :25:53. | |
regardless of the structure workers are employed through. I suppose in | :25:54. | :26:04. | |
this context, let me just say, in terms of Government amendment 27, we | :26:05. | :26:09. | |
have introduced an amendment, a technical amendment, to correct a | :26:10. | :26:15. | |
point in the original draft. In terms of new clauses one and three, | :26:16. | :26:23. | |
if I may anticipate arguments that the SNP in a moment, both new | :26:24. | :26:27. | |
clauses would require the Chancellor to publish a report on the impact on | :26:28. | :26:33. | |
workers who provide services on intermediaries for tax purposes | :26:34. | :26:38. | |
within six months of the passing of this Bill. These reviews would be | :26:39. | :26:42. | |
completely unnecessary. Robbie those who provide their services through | :26:43. | :26:45. | |
intermediaries are tax is either employed or self-employed. Some | :26:46. | :26:50. | |
others operate as owner directors of their own companies. The tax | :26:51. | :26:55. | |
treatment of the income and the expenses of these individuals would | :26:56. | :26:58. | |
depend on their employment status for tax purposes. The ATF carried | :26:59. | :27:05. | |
out a review which considered the employment status and taxation of | :27:06. | :27:10. | |
individuals working through intermediaries. The Government | :27:11. | :27:21. | |
committed to a further six more. My recently the Government has received | :27:22. | :27:28. | |
the recommendations which includes the continued developed desire of | :27:29. | :27:34. | |
taxation for small businesses December five tax affairs at a news | :27:35. | :27:40. | |
simple business model that would protect the assets of the | :27:41. | :27:44. | |
self-employed. Following these recommendations, the Government has | :27:45. | :27:47. | |
now formed a cross Government working group on employment status. | :27:48. | :27:51. | |
This group will examine the advantages and challenges of an | :27:52. | :27:55. | |
agreed employment and the balls and statutory employment test. Given the | :27:56. | :28:02. | |
volume and range of the work that has been done in this area recently | :28:03. | :28:05. | |
an additional review I would argue is unnecessary and I therefore urge | :28:06. | :28:08. | |
members to We understand the effort the | :28:09. | :28:20. | |
Government are making, but given we suggested this will save the | :28:21. | :28:25. | |
taxpayer, or to put it another way, cost these individuals, ?600 million | :28:26. | :28:30. | |
over the lifetime of this Government, will he at least be | :28:31. | :28:34. | |
prepared to concede that should the tax yields go automatically - that | :28:35. | :28:39. | |
is to say taking yet more of the self-employed and contracting | :28:40. | :28:41. | |
community - he might want to revisit the decision he is taken today? | :28:42. | :28:46. | |
I don't think the Government will be persuaded by that, I would have to | :28:47. | :28:53. | |
say. Because when that to be the case, that would suggest that the | :28:54. | :29:00. | |
use of tax relief in the circumstances was even more | :29:01. | :29:03. | |
widespread than we had anticipated. And there for the problem we face in | :29:04. | :29:09. | |
terms of the fundamental unfairness... Make no criticism of | :29:10. | :29:12. | |
those making use of intermediaries in the circumstances. They are | :29:13. | :29:17. | |
making use of the law as it currently stands. I do think it is | :29:18. | :29:23. | |
unfair that essentially two people performing essentially identical | :29:24. | :29:27. | |
roles, one is able to gain an element of tax relief and the other | :29:28. | :29:32. | |
isn't, simply because of the way they have structured their | :29:33. | :29:35. | |
arrangements. I do believe the approach we have taken in this | :29:36. | :29:41. | |
clause is the right one. Clause 15 makes changes to allow for the | :29:42. | :29:46. | |
extension of voluntary payroll link to include cash and credit tokens. | :29:47. | :29:53. | |
This will allow businesses to benefit from changes to HMRC, and a | :29:54. | :30:01. | |
system to employers. Changes to schedule three make a number of | :30:02. | :30:06. | |
changes clarifying the rules for finance securities and options. | :30:07. | :30:13. | |
These options are normally used by companies to provide a return | :30:14. | :30:16. | |
incentives to their employees. Remuneration in the form of shares | :30:17. | :30:21. | |
would be generally liable to income tax contributions. However, if they | :30:22. | :30:26. | |
are rewarded under one of the four types of employee share schemes, | :30:27. | :30:33. | |
these are exempt from contributions. Share programmes are greatly valued | :30:34. | :30:39. | |
by employees and companies, the Government wants to make sure these | :30:40. | :30:43. | |
arrangements are simple and clear as possible. To that end, close 14 | :30:44. | :30:49. | |
build towards the Government's response to employee share schemes | :30:50. | :30:54. | |
by simplifying and clarifying this area of tax legislation. In | :30:55. | :31:03. | |
addition, clause 17 but in no doubt these arrangements, given the | :31:04. | :31:05. | |
uncertainty in the current law legislation. The trading activities | :31:06. | :31:15. | |
required to receive tax advantages of an enterprise management | :31:16. | :31:18. | |
incentive scheme will continue to apply where the company is | :31:19. | :31:22. | |
controlled by an employees ownership trust. Again, if I may anticipate | :31:23. | :31:29. | |
what we are to hear in future, before I move onto clause 18, will | :31:30. | :31:34. | |
briefly address amendment at hundred and 18 in clause ten, which relates | :31:35. | :31:43. | |
to clause 16. Amendment at hundred and 80 refers to the withdrawal of | :31:44. | :31:49. | |
HMRC by its check service, and associated impacts on employee share | :31:50. | :31:54. | |
ownership schemes. This is unnecessary. HMRC continues to | :31:55. | :31:57. | |
operate a service for employee shareholder status, and the tax | :31:58. | :32:02. | |
advantage scheme is most relevant to small and medium enterprises. HMRC | :32:03. | :32:06. | |
has only withdrawn evaluation takes for income tax in PAYE, these are | :32:07. | :32:13. | |
not part of these recognised employee membership schemes. There | :32:14. | :32:18. | |
are recommendations from less than 0.05% of the SME population. In the | :32:19. | :32:27. | |
vast majority of cases, these originals were acceptable. As such | :32:28. | :32:31. | |
the service as little value and providing a valuable for money for | :32:32. | :32:36. | |
the taxpayer. There are four I hope the House will reject amendment 180. | :32:37. | :32:45. | |
New clause ten proposes that within six bonds of the passing of this | :32:46. | :32:49. | |
act, the Chancellor should publish a report for the value of money | :32:50. | :32:53. | |
provided by each employee share scheme. And HMRC commissioned report | :32:54. | :33:01. | |
considered the effect of tax advantage employee share schemes on | :33:02. | :33:06. | |
productivity. This is publicly available. Due to the difficulty of | :33:07. | :33:09. | |
drawing conclusive outcomes from such studies, in 2012, the office of | :33:10. | :33:16. | |
tax application recommended that it would not be a good use of taxpayer | :33:17. | :33:20. | |
money to produce further reports on the links between share ownership | :33:21. | :33:25. | |
and productivity. However, as with all release, the Government will | :33:26. | :33:28. | |
continue to keep these schemes under review, and will continue to publish | :33:29. | :33:33. | |
regular statistics on the estimated take-up and costs of scheme. For | :33:34. | :33:39. | |
these reasons, I would urge members to reject new clause ten. Now let's | :33:40. | :33:45. | |
make include my opening remarks by addressing clause 18. This | :33:46. | :33:50. | |
Government wants to ensure that companies and individuals have used, | :33:51. | :33:53. | |
or continue to use artificial arrangements to disguise their | :33:54. | :33:58. | |
income pay their fair share. These schemes involve income being | :33:59. | :34:01. | |
funnelled through a third party, with the money off and then being | :34:02. | :34:05. | |
given to the individual in the form of a loan, which has never been | :34:06. | :34:11. | |
repaid. In 2011, the Coalition Government successfully introduced | :34:12. | :34:16. | |
new legislation to tackle schemes in years at the time. Many of those who | :34:17. | :34:20. | |
use these games before 2011 has still not settled. In addition, the | :34:21. | :34:23. | |
tax avoidance industry has been selling new schemes which are even | :34:24. | :34:29. | |
or artificial and contrived. At budget 2016, this Government | :34:30. | :34:32. | |
announced changes to address these issues, and clause 18 as the first | :34:33. | :34:39. | |
part of that package. Clause 18 addresses one type of the schemes by | :34:40. | :34:42. | |
addressing a relief in the current rules which those schemes exploit. | :34:43. | :34:49. | |
There is a tax avoidance motive. It also withdraws a transitional relief | :34:50. | :34:52. | |
from three minor technical clarifications to the current rules | :34:53. | :34:56. | |
to ensure they work as Parliament intends. These reforms make it clear | :34:57. | :35:00. | |
that everyone must pay their fair share. I will not take up any more | :35:01. | :35:07. | |
time for the moment. I'd therefore move that was in 17- 18, schedules | :35:08. | :35:16. | |
two- three, and others stand as part of the Bill. | :35:17. | :35:19. | |
The question is that the amendment be made. | :35:20. | :35:25. | |
A pleasure to appear before you, Sun Roger. I want to give a preview on | :35:26. | :35:36. | |
where I'm going on some of these. I will do the numerically. | :35:37. | :35:42. | |
On clause seven, I do want to probe a little bit on clauses eight, nine, | :35:43. | :35:48. | |
ten and 11 which are to do with vehicles. We support those clauses, | :35:49. | :35:58. | |
but that are two amendments which I would say, sir Roger, although the | :35:59. | :36:10. | |
Minister indicated... If the Government, in spite of myself time, | :36:11. | :36:19. | |
maintains that petition, I will be seeking to continue that. In the | :36:20. | :36:24. | |
vehicle ones we broadly support the amendments two and three. In terms | :36:25. | :36:33. | |
of clauses 12, 13, we broadly support those. In terms of clause | :36:34. | :36:38. | |
14, travelling expenses for workers, we broadly supported, but I do wish | :36:39. | :36:45. | |
to probe the Government on that. On clause 15, we broadly support that. | :36:46. | :36:50. | |
Clause 16, employee share schemes, I want to run that around the block to | :36:51. | :36:55. | |
get a greater indication, because there is a number of employee share | :36:56. | :37:00. | |
option schemes under various guises. I think it's arguably getting a | :37:01. | :37:05. | |
little out of control. Again, the opposition broadly supports clauses | :37:06. | :37:12. | |
17 and 18. Starting with clause seven, this is on the taxable | :37:13. | :37:20. | |
benefits, and it amends 2003 legislation to clarify the concept | :37:21. | :37:24. | |
of a fairer bargain. This is, as I understand that, and I'm not an | :37:25. | :37:30. | |
accountant, it provides an employer some form of benefit in kind which, | :37:31. | :37:34. | |
in some circumstances, is provided at a cost to the employee, and in | :37:35. | :37:40. | |
some circumstances isn't, where those benefits or goods and services | :37:41. | :37:45. | |
are provided at a cost, the revenue wishes to know whether that caused | :37:46. | :37:50. | |
benefits provided is below market rates or not. And clause seven goes | :37:51. | :37:58. | |
to that issue. But it appears to cover bands and cars as well as | :37:59. | :38:03. | |
other things, and we will be looking at other causes to deal with plans | :38:04. | :38:11. | |
and cars. I will say to the Minister, I will try to avoid a | :38:12. | :38:14. | |
situation where he feels he needs to intervene at this stage am because | :38:15. | :38:18. | |
of his back. I have suffered with a bad back decades, I have every | :38:19. | :38:29. | |
sympathy. I trust that he will be able to explain and differentiate | :38:30. | :38:33. | |
for those of us who are not accountant how vans and cars come to | :38:34. | :38:37. | |
the benefit in kind provisions under clause seven. I understand how | :38:38. | :38:40. | |
becoming an subsequent quarters, having for many years had a company | :38:41. | :38:44. | |
car with two different employers will stop I am broadly familiar with | :38:45. | :38:48. | |
that territory, but not clause seven. I wonder if the Minister, in | :38:49. | :38:56. | |
terms of clause seven, to which the Government amendments as well, to | :38:57. | :38:59. | |
what extent the Treasury has found there has been in misuse of the | :39:00. | :39:03. | |
original rules, necessary seating the clarifications which come in | :39:04. | :39:09. | |
subsequent clauses. -- necessitating clarifications. My lodestar in these | :39:10. | :39:20. | |
matters referred to "Uncertainty". I hope the Minister will say what that | :39:21. | :39:25. | |
uncertainty is, so we could be clearer. Moving on to the new tier | :39:26. | :39:33. | |
matters for the official opposition on cars and vehicles and so on. -- | :39:34. | :39:41. | |
new tier matters. We are all aware that the use of the tax regime to | :39:42. | :39:45. | |
encourage certain Hagar and discourage other behaviour is well | :39:46. | :39:52. | |
known to have an effect when it comes to the purchase and use of | :39:53. | :39:57. | |
vehicles. Unlike in some other areas, with the tax reliefs are not | :39:58. | :40:03. | |
so clear to their effectiveness and others. I'm looking around the | :40:04. | :40:08. | |
House, and there aren't many members who will remember it, but I remember | :40:09. | :40:12. | |
and supported the campaign for lead-free air. Campaign for | :40:13. | :40:20. | |
lead-free petrol, I should say. In the bad old days, lead was added to | :40:21. | :40:25. | |
petrol as a mechanism for increasing its octane rating, are there for it | :40:26. | :40:30. | |
increased the power output of the petrol, as it were. To produce | :40:31. | :40:36. | |
petrol which did not have led in it, cost more. And in their four, when | :40:37. | :40:43. | |
initially the excise regime was the same, for leaded and unleaded, | :40:44. | :40:49. | |
unleaded cost more. The then Conservative Government, under some | :40:50. | :40:54. | |
rasher for the campaign for lead-free petrol and others, wisely | :40:55. | :40:58. | |
change the excise regime, so that unleaded actual cost less, and the | :40:59. | :41:08. | |
switch was made for many, many motorists within a period of about | :41:09. | :41:13. | |
two years. That was using excise at Weavers to change use in the change | :41:14. | :41:20. | |
of vehicles. We also seen in recent years the explosion in the United | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
Kingdom of the purchase and use of diesel vehicles. Started, I have to | :41:26. | :41:32. | |
say, by a Labour Government which was trying to cut CO2 emissions, | :41:33. | :41:41. | |
because Martha mile, diesel at lower CO2. -- mile for mile. And that | :41:42. | :41:47. | |
succeeded. But it was always a contradictory policy, because there | :41:48. | :41:53. | |
was also, for a benefit in kind and company car traders, a 3% loading by | :41:54. | :42:00. | |
more tax payable for those who had a diesel- powered company car, and | :42:01. | :42:05. | |
contradiction to a petrol- powered company car. So clause eight | :42:06. | :42:14. | |
increases quite markedly the percentage of the purchase price | :42:15. | :42:21. | |
which is then counted as taxable income for somebody who is provided | :42:22. | :42:25. | |
a company car. For example, for low emission gurgles -- vehicles, for | :42:26. | :42:34. | |
those with a CO2 grams protocol matter, - I hope that we leave the | :42:35. | :42:42. | |
European Union we will not revert to Imperial measures - for those | :42:43. | :42:51. | |
vehicles it goes from 19% to 22%. It goes up under 3% every time under | :42:52. | :42:55. | |
clause eight. The Government has announced every two years. I will | :42:56. | :43:01. | |
return to this in the future. Broadly, that looks to us, like a | :43:02. | :43:06. | |
tax raising measure. Nothing wrong with raising taxes, HMRC is about | :43:07. | :43:15. | |
raising taxes, so the Government has sufficient income to provide the | :43:16. | :43:18. | |
services which are constituents wish. I hope the Minister will be | :43:19. | :43:23. | |
able to give an estimate of how much he thinks the increase in those | :43:24. | :43:31. | |
bandings, the percentage of those bandings and clause eight, how much | :43:32. | :43:35. | |
that will bring into the Exchequer, and whether he believes that it will | :43:36. | :43:41. | |
have any effect - positive or negative - on the types of vehicles | :43:42. | :43:47. | |
purchased, given that most people, I think, would agree that the vehicle | :43:48. | :43:56. | |
purchased with lower CO2 emissions purple matter is generally less | :43:57. | :44:00. | |
dirty and more socially acceptable than a vehicle with higher CO2 | :44:01. | :44:03. | |
emissions per kilometre. In terms of clause nine, this as I | :44:04. | :44:21. | |
understand it is in parts a correction of problems in the | :44:22. | :44:26. | |
Finance act 2015. Though I confess that I'm not sure if it was the | :44:27. | :44:29. | |
second Finance act of that year, because I think there were two. | :44:30. | :44:37. | |
Clause nine is correcting that. For vehicles which cannot emit CO2. For | :44:38. | :44:42. | |
most of those that would probably mean a electric vehicles, although | :44:43. | :44:46. | |
there may be other types, but those are the most common. Because it is a | :44:47. | :44:52. | |
correction, there will not be the two-year lead in that the Government | :44:53. | :44:55. | |
generally wishes to have so that manufacturers can plan and | :44:56. | :45:00. | |
purchasing managers for fleet operations and so one can plan. | :45:01. | :45:04. | |
Because it is correcting now, which is unfortunate. Can the Government | :45:05. | :45:08. | |
tells a little bit about that and how that will correct? And extra | :45:09. | :45:14. | |
nation on how that error arose would be helpful. I think it is because | :45:15. | :45:22. | |
provisions were overlooked and omitted. Clause ten gets us onto the | :45:23. | :45:34. | |
much meatier issue to do with diesel cars. This clause is diesel car is | :45:35. | :45:43. | |
appropriate percentages. There was as I referred to earlier and I think | :45:44. | :45:50. | |
it was always the case, a 3% in addition to be paid as a benefit in | :45:51. | :45:54. | |
kind as asthma for those who had diesel powered company car is as | :45:55. | :46:02. | |
opposed to petrol powered ones. The Government had and I'm not perhaps | :46:03. | :46:12. | |
sure why, promised or enacted abolishing the 3% loading. And | :46:13. | :46:21. | |
closed ten abolishes the abolition. So the 3% loading continues. On | :46:22. | :46:27. | |
these benches, that seems overall a good thing to do. Given the | :46:28. | :46:35. | |
increasing evidence which is emerging as to the deleterious | :46:36. | :46:39. | |
effects, particularly caused by diesel vehicles, not just diesel | :46:40. | :46:45. | |
cars of course. But many, many commercial vehicles, of course | :46:46. | :46:49. | |
diesel and due to the size and weight of them tend to get fire a | :46:50. | :46:55. | |
few miles to the gallon. That is a particular problem in certain parts | :46:56. | :46:58. | |
of the country. I shall get onto that. In terms of the quality. In | :46:59. | :47:07. | |
terms of the number of vehicles which this will affect, the library | :47:08. | :47:11. | |
has been very helpful and I'm here as always most grateful to my | :47:12. | :47:17. | |
excellent research, image and Watson who has done a huge amount of work | :47:18. | :47:22. | |
on this. A great deal of help from the library as well. The latest | :47:23. | :47:26. | |
figures that the library defined as I understand it, any mistakes I make | :47:27. | :47:32. | |
are mine, not the library or the re-searchers. As I understand it the | :47:33. | :47:37. | |
latest figures that they could find was that there were about 313,000 | :47:38. | :47:43. | |
company clients replaced each year. Those figures go back to 2012 and | :47:44. | :47:51. | |
2013. That is around 14% of total new car sales. That is a | :47:52. | :47:55. | |
considerable drop. If you look at the United Kingdom 30 years ago it | :47:56. | :48:02. | |
was nearer 50%. Because of the taxation on company vehicles, that | :48:03. | :48:05. | |
has lessened that proportion. Diesel cars as we now know are particularly | :48:06. | :48:20. | |
noxious. And there are in fact standards which came in for a new | :48:21. | :48:23. | |
type approvals from September 2014 and all new cars from September 2015 | :48:24. | :48:33. | |
have to be, when sold in the United Kingdom, compliant with Euro sex. | :48:34. | :48:38. | |
Alas a subsequent Government decides to change that. Regardless of the | :48:39. | :48:44. | |
United Kingdom using the European Union, one words presumed that would | :48:45. | :48:51. | |
continue to apply in this country. Even if there were a Euro seven to | :48:52. | :48:57. | |
be introduced post-Brexit I would suggest that the United Kingdom | :48:58. | :49:01. | |
would comply with that. I manufacturers would have to in order | :49:02. | :49:04. | |
to sell any continental market. At the moment the standards are set out | :49:05. | :49:14. | |
in terms of grounds per column at. I confess that I don't understand all | :49:15. | :49:19. | |
the science. The metrics are the same for petrol and diesel. The | :49:20. | :49:25. | |
targets that the vehicles have to reach are somewhat different. The 3% | :49:26. | :49:32. | |
surcharge, deluding which the Government wishes to retain and we | :49:33. | :49:38. | |
support, will discourage somewhat fleet managers from allowing company | :49:39. | :49:43. | |
cars to be diesel. Even though they will get more miles to the gallon. | :49:44. | :49:49. | |
The Minister and think and he can perhaps correct me, referred to | :49:50. | :49:57. | |
23,500 deaths per year, which is estimated, nobody knows for sure. | :49:58. | :50:01. | |
These things are estimates, but the minister is very helpfully nodding. | :50:02. | :50:07. | |
Those 23,500 premature deaths brought about by low air quality in | :50:08. | :50:10. | |
the United Kingdom is a shocking, shocking figure. Given from memory | :50:11. | :50:17. | |
that the number of road traffic collision fatalities is on the order | :50:18. | :50:24. | |
of 2750. I stand be corrected, but it is that order of magnitude. That | :50:25. | :50:29. | |
is the 10th of the air quality premature deaths. It appears that | :50:30. | :50:34. | |
United Kingdom has quite rightly invested huge amounts in passive and | :50:35. | :50:41. | |
at the safety to cut down on the number of road traffic collisions | :50:42. | :50:44. | |
and in terms of the severity there of. But in terms of air quality, | :50:45. | :50:51. | |
well still a member of the European Union we have been in breach of the | :50:52. | :50:54. | |
European Union legislation. In this case the European union does make | :50:55. | :51:00. | |
rules to the United Kingdom. We're been in breach of those air quality | :51:01. | :51:08. | |
standards for years, for years. The world health organisation has | :51:09. | :51:11. | |
ambient air quality guidelines with which I am sure the Minister is | :51:12. | :51:16. | |
intimately familiar and his ministerial colleagues. These are | :51:17. | :51:25. | |
based on micrograms per cubic metre. There are two ways of measuring | :51:26. | :51:30. | |
that. One is the annual mean and one in the 24-hour mean which I refer | :51:31. | :51:36. | |
peaks. There are two broad categories of the particles which | :51:37. | :51:41. | |
are of particular concern, one is particles of less than ten in | :51:42. | :51:52. | |
diameter and one is PM 2.5. The smile. Those fine particles, less | :51:53. | :51:58. | |
than 2.5 are considered by many to be much more damaging to health than | :51:59. | :52:06. | |
PM ten particles. They are found in dust, dirt, suit and liquid | :52:07. | :52:13. | |
droplets. Without detaining the hazard very great length, there is a | :52:14. | :52:20. | |
large the British cities in England and Wales and Scotland, I don't as | :52:21. | :52:28. | |
she have any figures for Northern Ireland, there is a large number | :52:29. | :52:32. | |
where the air quality consistently reaches those WHO guidelines in | :52:33. | :52:41. | |
terms of the annual mean. For example, the annual mean I commend | :52:42. | :52:47. | |
the shoe in 4pm 2.5, that of the smaller ones, is less than ten | :52:48. | :52:51. | |
micrograms per cubic metre as an annual mean. In Birmingham, just | :52:52. | :52:55. | |
down the road from my constituency in Wolverhampton, it is 14, well | :52:56. | :53:02. | |
above that ten. In Leeds it is 50 and in London it is 50. In | :53:03. | :53:08. | |
Stoke-on-Trent it is 14. In Glasgow, I'm afraid it at 16, well above that | :53:09. | :53:17. | |
time. This is bad, bad news. London has a shocking record, frankly. I | :53:18. | :53:25. | |
have to say the former Mayor of London, now the honourable member | :53:26. | :53:28. | |
for Oxbridge bears responsibility in this regard for not having done | :53:29. | :53:38. | |
enough. In 2016, January, London reach the annual air quality limit | :53:39. | :53:44. | |
in eight days. So if you think of it as annual allowance, London used up | :53:45. | :53:54. | |
its annual allowance and more within eight days of the start of the year. | :53:55. | :54:00. | |
That is where under EU rules sites are only her road to breach the | :54:01. | :54:04. | |
hourly limits of 200 micrograms of nitrous dioxide per cubic metre of | :54:05. | :54:11. | |
air 18 times in a year. These guidelines, call them what you well, | :54:12. | :54:15. | |
I think they're actually legislating from the European Union, they do | :54:16. | :54:19. | |
allow for a certain peaks and certain exceptional circumstances | :54:20. | :54:23. | |
and so on, but having 18 exceptional circumstances in eight days means | :54:24. | :54:31. | |
that for the City of London those are not exceptional circumstances, | :54:32. | :54:34. | |
the everyday circumstances. On that period, on average more than twice a | :54:35. | :54:40. | |
day. The health in pact that we talked about, the 23,500 annual | :54:41. | :54:47. | |
deaths estimated, premature deaths, there are huge financial costs as | :54:48. | :54:51. | |
well. The loss of lives is the key indicator anything for all | :54:52. | :54:54. | |
honourable members around the House, but the costs are higher estimated | :54:55. | :54:59. | |
between ?15 billion a year for the United Kingdom, that is an Scottish | :55:00. | :55:04. | |
Government sources. When the Royal College of physicians and | :55:05. | :55:06. | |
paediatrics and Child health report of their this year, the estimated | :55:07. | :55:15. | |
?20 billion per year. It now is estimate that England's air and | :55:16. | :55:21. | |
water is posing a risk to their ecosystem. It is costing farmers as | :55:22. | :55:26. | |
well, because of ground levels and reduce by nitrogen oxide the acting | :55:27. | :55:33. | |
with other atmospheric pollutants to lessen crop yields. This is a huge | :55:34. | :55:43. | |
problem. Amendments to and three seek to address that in a small way. | :55:44. | :55:52. | |
The deal with company cars, not all cards and they basically say to | :55:53. | :55:59. | |
encourage Manufacturer 's that if a diesel engine meets the same level | :56:00. | :56:12. | |
of Euro, as a petrol engine, then the same tax regime shall apply to | :56:13. | :56:18. | |
that diesel engine vehicle as would apply to a petrol engine vehicle. | :56:19. | :56:23. | |
Those dozens and dozens of Honourable members who were paying | :56:24. | :56:27. | |
attention earlier will remember that Ira third to this using the same | :56:28. | :56:31. | |
measurement yardsticks, but different points on those yardsticks | :56:32. | :56:37. | |
apply to diesel or petrol. So for carbon monoxide it is one for petrol | :56:38. | :56:41. | |
and five diesel. Furniture is oxide is as zero point six and 0.84 | :56:42. | :56:52. | |
diesel. That is as I understand it small particles and that is where | :56:53. | :57:00. | |
they come from. It is a very small step, but a symbolic one for the | :57:01. | :57:07. | |
Government to take towards lessening the appalling and arguably under EU | :57:08. | :57:15. | |
rules are air quality in the 38 cities in the United Kingdom which | :57:16. | :57:20. | |
are in breach of the world health organisation recommended levels. And | :57:21. | :57:32. | |
ten UK cities are in breach of the PM ten world half organisation | :57:33. | :57:36. | |
guidelines. This is literally killing people. I would urge the | :57:37. | :57:39. | |
Government to rethink on this measure. It is not going to | :57:40. | :57:42. | |
transform air quality if the Government asset amendments to and | :57:43. | :57:48. | |
three. It is important that the Government takes it seriously. I | :57:49. | :57:55. | |
have to say to the ministers opposite, the move the manic mood | :57:56. | :58:02. | |
music from this Government has not been that they have taken our | :58:03. | :58:07. | |
quality from vehicle emissions very seriously and because vehicles can | :58:08. | :58:11. | |
be bought in one part of the United Kingdom and driven in another, we're | :58:12. | :58:18. | |
still a United Kingdom, this requires measures at the Westminster | :58:19. | :58:22. | |
level whatever the Scottish Parliament by the Welsh assembly | :58:23. | :58:26. | |
might wish to do to improve air quality. Principally it has to be | :58:27. | :58:32. | |
done at the national level and unless one were to be incredibly | :58:33. | :58:37. | |
Draconian the weight of this is through a Finance Bill, rather than | :58:38. | :58:39. | |
through some Moving on to clause 11, which is | :58:40. | :58:50. | |
calf equivalently benefits to vans, I hope the Minister can, in summing | :58:51. | :58:57. | |
up, indicate what the Government's... Where the Government | :58:58. | :59:01. | |
is going with vans here in clause 11. Because, as I read it, and I may | :59:02. | :59:09. | |
have misunderstood it, where it seems to be going is to discourage | :59:10. | :59:15. | |
people from buying electric vans. If I've understood it correctly, that | :59:16. | :59:22. | |
seems a bit odd. And the moment, the charge for zero emission bands is | :59:23. | :59:28. | |
20% of the benefit in kind which would apply to vans which admit CO2. | :59:29. | :59:35. | |
The Government is then, under clause 11, as I understand it, going | :59:36. | :59:43. | |
gradually to abolish that the differential so that the 20% becomes | :59:44. | :59:50. | |
40%, becomes 60%, becomes 90%, becomes 100% by 2023. So someone | :59:51. | :59:59. | |
buying a van, scientist and it's, in 2023, who is thinking about the | :00:00. | :00:04. | |
benefit in kind on themselves, is going to say, the electric van, I | :00:05. | :00:08. | |
have to pay as much benefit in kind as I do for petrol or diesel. That | :00:09. | :00:16. | |
seems an odd way to be going in benefit and taxation for vehicles. | :00:17. | :00:21. | |
Perhaps the Minister could explain either that I have misunderstood | :00:22. | :00:25. | |
that, or the Government's thinking in going in what many of us witty, | :00:26. | :00:29. | |
in terms of the environment, as the wrong direction. -- many of us would | :00:30. | :00:38. | |
say. Moving on to clause 12 on the sporting testimonial payments, as | :00:39. | :00:44. | |
the Minister said, careers in sport can be short. I'm afraid that is the | :00:45. | :00:50. | |
case and politics as well, sometimes, as I have experienced. | :00:51. | :01:00. | |
What would be helpful is if, as the Chartered Institute of Taxation, who | :01:01. | :01:07. | |
I thank for their help, points out, that the clarification from the | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
Government about the ?100,000 upon which tax is not payable, if that's | :01:14. | :01:22. | |
income from a testimonial, that that situation pertains when the | :01:23. | :01:26. | |
testimonial is neither contractual law customary. To those of us who | :01:27. | :01:32. | |
are lawyers, then contractual is very straightforward. Customary, a | :01:33. | :01:39. | |
bit woolly. It is the kind of worried that lawyers and accountants | :01:40. | :01:43. | |
like, because you make money charging people to interpret it for | :01:44. | :01:50. | |
them. So as I understand it, and again I may be wrong, I can't see | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
customary defined on the face of the Bill. And I would urge the Minister | :01:55. | :02:02. | |
to have another look at that. Can he also, either today or later, try to | :02:03. | :02:07. | |
get us indication how much revenue has been missed by the Exchequer in | :02:08. | :02:13. | |
the last five years from testimonials which are contractual | :02:14. | :02:17. | |
or customary, in which case one would expect them to be liable to | :02:18. | :02:24. | |
income tax. And, as I say, but customary on the face of the Bill. | :02:25. | :02:32. | |
Moving on swiftly to clause 13, this refers to reward for services, | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
extension for trivial benefits of either by employers. The CIO T has | :02:38. | :02:45. | |
suggested it would be useful to all of us at the Minister, if not on the | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
face of the legislation, when replying today, could clarify the | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
difference between a reward for services and a reward for particular | :02:55. | :03:02. | |
services. Because the ear to the very, very similar will stop HMRC | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
must think there is a difference. Perhaps you could clarify that. I'm | :03:10. | :03:14. | |
clause 14, the travel expenses for workers provided by intermediaries, | :03:15. | :03:20. | |
this is a difficult area I think for all of us, because it brings in the | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
issues of equality between those who are workers, but not the surly | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
employees, and those who are employees, for knows who are not | :03:30. | :03:34. | |
familiar with the terrain - there are people who are workers for tax | :03:35. | :03:37. | |
purposes, and indeed for minimum wage purposes, but they are not | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
employees. This is an attempt by successive governments to stop | :03:43. | :03:48. | |
people, employers, the factor employers, getting around the law by | :03:49. | :03:54. | |
using devices which lessen the amount of tax payable. Of course, | :03:55. | :04:01. | |
the overnight costs and travel costs of workers who are employed by | :04:02. | :04:06. | |
various organisations, difficult to clamp down on, because people are | :04:07. | :04:12. | |
very inventive to what they do. But if one thinks of those who are | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
working on a building site as skilled workers, walking miles from | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
home, it is common for those to be engaged through an agency or be | :04:22. | :04:24. | |
self-employed, and for them, if through an agency, to have their | :04:25. | :04:31. | |
travel experiences paid week by week, because they could be hundreds | :04:32. | :04:36. | |
of miles from home. Clause 14 is an attempt to clarify and clamped down | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
on what the Government sees as misuse of this. Or if not misuse, a | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
lack of equality between what one might call true employees and | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
non-employee workers who are subject to this kind of arrangement. I | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
declare an interest as a member of the Unite trade union, of which I am | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
proud to be a member. And is a member of the trade union Congress, | :05:01. | :05:07. | |
another is the trade union for construction, which is strong in | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
Scotland but also across Britain. They believe that the Government's | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
estimate of how many workers will be affected by these changes is that | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
grows underestimation. They estimate that some of their members in the | :05:23. | :05:29. | |
construction trade, being employed by an umbrella company, because of | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
these changes to income tax and national insurance - things which | :05:34. | :05:41. | |
would not previously assessable to income tax in terms of travel and | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
accommodation - that some of their members could be over ?3300 a year | :05:45. | :05:52. | |
worse off. I have met with another association who made some proposals | :05:53. | :05:55. | |
that I wrote to the Minister about, who replied helpfully on two | :05:56. | :06:02. | |
occasions - which I thought was very good of him, because I did write on | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
two occasions - I think that the Government still ought to have | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
another look at it. Three proposals were made about a radius allowance, | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
so that your main address would have to be a certain distance further | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
from the place of work than the average commutes, which is | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
apparently 16.5 miles per day. They also suggest a 24 month rule, the | :06:28. | :06:33. | |
yardstick by which employment position is regarded as temporary or | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
not. And this, which would hurt some people, I suppose, removing food and | :06:38. | :06:43. | |
drink from the subsistence expenses, which we did must play some time | :06:44. | :06:46. | |
ago, when food and drink was removed from what used to be caught the ACA, | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
the additional costs Alliance. Quite rightly that was removed. The | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
Government should look at that. In terms of amendments to this, I think | :06:58. | :07:03. | |
it is new clause one and three, new clause three in the name of the | :07:04. | :07:06. | |
Scottish National Party, and new clause in my name and those of my | :07:07. | :07:11. | |
honourable friends, it will not surprise members to note that I | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
prefer new clause three rather than new clause one, the reason for that | :07:15. | :07:20. | |
is that while both clauses call for a review and assessment by the | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
Chancellor of the Exchequer on this whole area of the tax system, the | :07:27. | :07:29. | |
new clause three also includes within it umbrella companies, which | :07:30. | :07:34. | |
is arguably a growing goblin, or a growing | :07:35. | :09:03. | |
In a written parliamentary reply on April this year, the noble lord | :09:04. | :09:16. | |
Gatley replied, basically saying that the Government didn't know. | :09:17. | :09:21. | |
Because it's all a bit contributed to work out. I appreciate that, but | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
I say this in the context of the National Audit Office, which found | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
there were something like 1200 measures which should be called tax | :09:32. | :09:39. | |
reviews, on which... Whether they had an effect on behaviour which | :09:40. | :09:50. | |
they were designed to do. Whether these of measures had any effect on | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
productivity is at best unclear, the Government can afford to look into | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
that more. Terms of clause 17 on securities options, related to that | :10:00. | :10:07. | |
is new clause ten. I begged a clause ten rustlers to value for money, I | :10:08. | :10:12. | |
should have regard to that there. New clause ten is calling, because | :10:13. | :10:18. | |
of the uncertainty to the efficacy or on fries are such thing, for the | :10:19. | :10:27. | |
Chancellor of the Exchequer I hope the Minister will accept new clause | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
ten. Rather than saying we keep these things under review, which | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
they do, and that is good, I think a significant report in this area | :10:38. | :10:41. | |
would be good. In terms of securities options, again, it is | :10:42. | :10:44. | |
unclear what effect some of these have, but broadly we welcome them. | :10:45. | :10:52. | |
Clause 18, unemployment benefit provided through third parties, I | :10:53. | :10:55. | |
think most less is fairly technical stuff, doesn't mean we shouldn't | :10:56. | :10:58. | |
scrutinise it, but I understand there is going to be consultation on | :10:59. | :11:02. | |
this, perhaps the Minister could provide a little more detail on | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
that. And that the minister might address lower paid individuals and | :11:08. | :11:13. | |
smaller businesses, some who feel that these proposals are | :11:14. | :11:19. | |
retrospective, because they refer to pre-2011 arrangements. Of course, we | :11:20. | :11:25. | |
are always wary in this House of retrospective T. | :11:26. | :11:36. | |
I rise to speak to amendments 180, to speak to move new clause one, and | :11:37. | :11:44. | |
to indicate support to the opposition on amendment two. If I | :11:45. | :11:47. | |
start with amendment two, I think the honourable member for | :11:48. | :11:53. | |
Wolverhampton South West has been giving us his reasoning with such | :11:54. | :11:57. | |
typical eloquence that I have nothing of any substance to add to | :11:58. | :12:01. | |
his remarks, other than to say that we shall be supporting the amendment | :12:02. | :12:08. | |
when he it is pressed to the vote. Prior to the onset of this debate, a | :12:09. | :12:16. | |
short time ago, I raised a point of order with the Speaker, who | :12:17. | :12:19. | |
encouraged me to say a few remarks in my opening here. So I hope you | :12:20. | :12:25. | |
will indulge me for about 30 seconds to indicate that we have had an | :12:26. | :12:31. | |
extraordinary and historic statement from the Prime Minister. However, in | :12:32. | :12:38. | |
terms of the economy and Government finances, it has helped me later | :12:39. | :12:42. | |
clarified that there is no clarity. -- merely to clarify. We face great | :12:43. | :12:50. | |
challenges that will be relevant to much that is in this Bill, yet we | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
don't know the detail of what the ministers, what the Treasury, plan | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
to actually do, and how it will affect some of the issues within | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
this Bill. I am particularly concerned about some of the issues | :13:06. | :13:08. | |
we are addressing within these amendments, as it will affect small | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
business people in my constituency, and small business people in | :13:14. | :13:19. | |
different legal guises throughout the whole of the UK. I mentioned | :13:20. | :13:26. | |
that I ministers questions, just prior to the referendum, two of my | :13:27. | :13:35. | |
constituents who run small businesses who are of German descent | :13:36. | :13:40. | |
have now left the country, such as their feelings of the way in which | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
the immigration debate has been handled. | :13:45. | :13:54. | |
had been hoping to engage in share ownership schemes. I know that at | :13:55. | :14:02. | |
least one of them has been engaged as an intermediary who would've been | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
affected by this. So when I make remarks about the amendment of the | :14:08. | :14:11. | |
new clause, although this would apply to many people, I had in my | :14:12. | :14:16. | |
mind a particular concern to those people in our society to want to | :14:17. | :14:23. | |
make a contribution to productivity and feeling disadvantaged because of | :14:24. | :14:28. | |
the wider ramifications of Brexit. In terms of speaking to our | :14:29. | :14:33. | |
amendment 180 on the impact of the abandonment of HMI Roussillon at | :14:34. | :14:39. | |
those valuation check services for small and medium-sized enterprises, | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
I'm aware of the Minister giving his words of comfort when he opened his | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
address feeling that this is not really a matter of such significance | :14:48. | :14:53. | |
it was a pearly use the service and therefore it is of little confidence | :14:54. | :14:58. | |
that this is being abandoned or has been abandoned in the last few weeks | :14:59. | :15:09. | |
by HMI C. Would he accept that first of all given the reduction on the | :15:10. | :15:13. | |
number of people employed by them and secondly the dissatisfaction | :15:14. | :15:17. | |
faction level sometimes at the service given it is understandable | :15:18. | :15:24. | |
that many businesses would return to professional they employ themselves | :15:25. | :15:31. | |
rather than rely on the HM RSC. Angry entirely. I would point out | :15:32. | :15:36. | |
that some of the smallest enterprises that might wander in | :15:37. | :15:40. | |
gauge in areas such as recruiting their first or second employee and | :15:41. | :15:44. | |
engaging some type of share ownership, they are not in the a | :15:45. | :15:48. | |
situation to be able to go out to a professional community and the 1000 | :15:49. | :15:54. | |
?30,000 to get the type of valuation service that may be needed. That was | :15:55. | :16:06. | |
provided at no cost by them. Organisations based in University | :16:07. | :16:08. | |
College in London had indicated that they are aware of a number of cases | :16:09. | :16:14. | |
where small businesses are being discouraged from engaging in small | :16:15. | :16:20. | |
scale share ownership schemes precisely because the assistance | :16:21. | :16:24. | |
they were once afforded has been removed. If the demand was so small, | :16:25. | :16:30. | |
quite clearly there were some people who needed to be involved and the | :16:31. | :16:34. | |
costs could not have been greeted the Government. So do abandon the | :16:35. | :16:37. | |
service when some people may be looking towards expanding the amount | :16:38. | :16:42. | |
of share ownership schemes and society seems to me somewhat | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
perverse. If we move on to the new clause one, which reasons that defy | :16:48. | :16:52. | |
all understanding, the honourable member for Wolverhampton South West | :16:53. | :16:57. | |
but was not dramatically superior to his new clause three, no doubt he | :16:58. | :17:03. | |
will attempt to explain and convince me of that a little later. With a | :17:04. | :17:10. | |
view of taxes provided the services through intermediaries. We believe | :17:11. | :17:14. | |
this has a particular impact on Scotland. I think it was the | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
Honourable member himself that indicated that on average people | :17:19. | :17:23. | |
have a travel to work return journey of around 16 miles. 16.7 miles. Try | :17:24. | :17:29. | |
telling that to people who live on the Isle of Skye and to have to | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
commute to places like Fort William or Inverness. Try telling that to | :17:35. | :17:40. | |
people who have two hop islands to move from one place to the other. | :17:41. | :17:46. | |
Try telling that to some of the health workers employed in these | :17:47. | :17:48. | |
matters who are servicing islands and who need to travel on ferries to | :17:49. | :17:55. | |
stay overnight and the like they are not in a situation that is also | :17:56. | :17:59. | |
close to the average 16 miles to travel to work. There was recently | :18:00. | :18:07. | |
an article in the Times educational supplement pointing out the negative | :18:08. | :18:12. | |
impact this is likely to have on many aspects of the education sector | :18:13. | :18:19. | |
that rely on people on particular types of contracts and who don't | :18:20. | :18:22. | |
enjoy the benefits of full-time employment. Of course, the Minister | :18:23. | :18:30. | |
has argued very calmly, as he always does, about this simply being a | :18:31. | :18:36. | |
matter of making sure there is a level playing field. If the minister | :18:37. | :18:40. | |
wanted to make sure there was a level playing field, he would be | :18:41. | :18:44. | |
ensuring that these workers and intermediaries benefit from sickness | :18:45. | :18:52. | |
pay, benefit from holiday pay, benefit from many of the other | :18:53. | :18:56. | |
benefits of full-time employment. The fact is that they don't. They | :18:57. | :19:02. | |
don't have those same benefits, they cannot be compared with somebody in | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
the additional forms of employment. Indeed what I suspect as part of the | :19:07. | :19:10. | |
problem here for the Government is that they have a misunderstanding of | :19:11. | :19:13. | |
the needs of the modern labour market. It is no longer the case | :19:14. | :19:19. | |
that we only had people employed in very traditional ways or have people | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
who are entirely self-employed in the way in which it is traditionally | :19:25. | :19:30. | |
understood. There are many ways in which flexibilities in the labour | :19:31. | :19:34. | |
market have been developing over the last ten or 20 years. Many of these | :19:35. | :19:43. | |
flexibilities play to and unable local economies that as those in | :19:44. | :19:48. | |
rural areas whether in Scotland or Northern Ireland or in specialist | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
sectors such as the oil and gas sector who need to import very | :19:53. | :19:56. | |
specialist services. These people might be based not just in Scotland, | :19:57. | :20:01. | |
but might be based down here near London and having to fly to provide | :20:02. | :20:06. | |
their services. Is going to have a potential impacts that has not been | :20:07. | :20:15. | |
thought through by the Government. Would he agree with you cat who says | :20:16. | :20:23. | |
that if possible, such workers should be directly employs. They | :20:24. | :20:31. | |
have agreements to get employment rates for the Olympics and so on. | :20:32. | :20:36. | |
There is a place for specialist work on oil rigs or whatever who will not | :20:37. | :20:44. | |
be permanently employed through an intermediary, but the opening | :20:45. | :20:47. | |
position should be to try to have direct employment so that people get | :20:48. | :20:52. | |
the feel benefit of rights. I very much agree with the Honourable | :20:53. | :20:55. | |
member that there will be those among this community where it would | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
be better if they were able to achieve traditional forms of | :21:00. | :21:02. | |
employment, but what I would say to him and respect is that it is not | :21:03. | :21:08. | |
the situation for the in excess of 1 million people in the United Kingdom | :21:09. | :21:14. | |
who fall into this category. Sir Roger, I think that despite the warm | :21:15. | :21:19. | |
words of the Minister, it will be our intention to move new clause | :21:20. | :21:27. | |
one. This is a matter of some importance to the communities and | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
the economy of Scotland. I have simply been indicating that we are | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
speaking to amendment 180 zoo we do not intend to press that to a vote, | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
but we will also be supporting the opposition in their amendment, too. | :21:43. | :21:54. | |
First of all, the Honourable members speaking for the fashionable | :21:55. | :22:03. | |
nationalists is absolutely right in that excessive governments have | :22:04. | :22:09. | |
understaffed the HM C. They have consistently argued that they are | :22:10. | :22:12. | |
going to make it more efficient. I remember when I was elected to this | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
house I went to my local VAT office and they said that if we employ more | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
staff then every member of staff collect is five times their own | :22:21. | :22:25. | |
salary. Being a logical person I would be Chancellor of the Exchequer | :22:26. | :22:27. | |
and suggested this was a good idea to employ more staff and collect | :22:28. | :22:30. | |
more revenue for the Government. I got a letter back from a civil | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
servant suggesting that they were going to save money by cutting | :22:35. | :22:38. | |
staff. It was so irrational, it was just nonsense. That kind of nonsense | :22:39. | :22:45. | |
has continued ever since. Reducing the number of offices and making it | :22:46. | :22:50. | |
more remote and so on, I was not terribly impressed with the idea of | :22:51. | :22:56. | |
having a benefits distributing service. It should be to tax | :22:57. | :23:04. | |
credits. I was not the only one I said it was uneasy about that | :23:05. | :23:08. | |
change. I want to talk about the new clause three and support my | :23:09. | :23:10. | |
honourable friend of the front bench about tax treatment of workers | :23:11. | :23:16. | |
through intermediaries. It has long occurred to me that in cheese, | :23:17. | :23:23. | |
private agencies make lots of money out of public pose and the people | :23:24. | :23:26. | |
they are employing. I think it could be overcome if we issued a | :23:27. | :23:34. | |
substantial public ownership programme for agencies. Particularly | :23:35. | :23:36. | |
when we're talking about the public sector. Nurses, if we had a local | :23:37. | :23:43. | |
authority or a National Health Service agency so that the money | :23:44. | :23:49. | |
went either into the pockets of the people employed by the agency was | :23:50. | :23:54. | |
saved in public spending by the health service, everyone would | :23:55. | :23:57. | |
benefit. The people who would lose of course would be the private | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
sector who would not make profits out of employing people in this way. | :24:02. | :24:07. | |
In that way serving and taxation could be properly regulated and it | :24:08. | :24:12. | |
would be no cheating or tax fiddles, because it would be within the | :24:13. | :24:15. | |
publicly accountable public sector. This could also be extended. I am | :24:16. | :24:22. | |
grateful to my honourable friend forgiving way. I have sympathy is | :24:23. | :24:26. | |
with him on organisations such as agencies which deal with supply | :24:27. | :24:29. | |
teachers, which you will remember of growth from its background in | :24:30. | :24:34. | |
education. Commonly to be done by the local education authority before | :24:35. | :24:36. | |
sadly the Labour Government change that. The local education of birdies | :24:37. | :24:42. | |
were battered by its current Government and its predecessor. In | :24:43. | :24:47. | |
certain areas such as construction or oil rigs which have been | :24:48. | :24:51. | |
mentioned today, there is a role for these specialist agencies and that | :24:52. | :25:01. | |
would be bad to look at nationalising those or have them run | :25:02. | :25:04. | |
by national Government bodies as he appeared to be suggesting. I would | :25:05. | :25:13. | |
like to, it is not that everything in the past was bad, some people say | :25:14. | :25:19. | |
we can't go back to the past. We have had a succession of governments | :25:20. | :25:22. | |
have gone back to the 19th century in the way they run the economy and | :25:23. | :25:26. | |
neoliberalism was invented them. Since then we have managed economies | :25:27. | :25:30. | |
which have worked fro well but that has been thrown away and we have | :25:31. | :25:33. | |
gone back to the 19th century. Some things in the past we could go back | :25:34. | :25:36. | |
to which might actually improve things. I suggest that public | :25:37. | :25:39. | |
agencies for temporary staff would be a very good thing, I might even | :25:40. | :25:45. | |
debate with him that this could be employed in the private sector as | :25:46. | :25:50. | |
well, because at least the staff involved would be properly | :25:51. | :25:55. | |
protected. The companies that employ them would know they are not being | :25:56. | :26:03. | |
ripped off. The taxpayers and recipients, the Treasury, with no it | :26:04. | :26:06. | |
is getting a feared deal by collecting its proper taxes. We did | :26:07. | :26:11. | |
a properly organised trade unions making sure we are properly paid and | :26:12. | :26:15. | |
we could go back to a world of active social democracy, which I | :26:16. | :26:19. | |
think would be a splendid thing. My honourable friend, I am pushing him | :26:20. | :26:25. | |
to fire. I do supporters amendment. Yes, of course. I had to say, I am | :26:26. | :26:32. | |
in favour of the world active social democracy but I'm not sure my | :26:33. | :26:35. | |
definition is the same as his if he is seriously suggesting that the | :26:36. | :26:41. | |
construction agencies should be run by some kind of state body. That is | :26:42. | :26:48. | |
a step too far them. I would also say to my honourable friend, caution | :26:49. | :26:54. | |
him, having gotten his way last Thursday he is pushing his luck on | :26:55. | :27:01. | |
this somewhat Stalin like approach. You are suggesting it is like | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
Stalin, but we are documenting words were rehab democratically elected | :27:07. | :27:09. | |
governments. After the Second World War we had Labour Government did | :27:10. | :27:12. | |
wonderful things, I would not call them like Stalin. They were | :27:13. | :27:19. | |
sometimes defeated in this house. Being like Stalin is not the right | :27:20. | :27:24. | |
description. A bigger role for the public sector in regulating | :27:25. | :27:26. | |
employment and making sure that people are properly paid, securely | :27:27. | :27:31. | |
employed even when they are temporary staff and that taxes are | :27:32. | :27:36. | |
properly paid and private sector agencies don't rip off both the | :27:37. | :27:40. | |
public person and the plays. I will leave that with my honourable | :27:41. | :27:43. | |
friend. Hopefully at some point in the future he will bring | :27:44. | :27:50. | |
I just want to speak briefly. I just want to speak about the review of | :27:51. | :28:01. | |
income tax for workers employed through intermediaries. A couple of | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
points, we're asking for the review to come back. I understand the | :28:08. | :28:10. | |
Government's point is that they feel this is sensible for the majority of | :28:11. | :28:15. | |
workers, and for the majority of people. What we are raising is the | :28:16. | :28:20. | |
unintended consequences on specific issues and areas that it is going to | :28:21. | :28:25. | |
be a major problem. We have for a dimension that rural communities | :28:26. | :28:28. | |
will be disproportionately affected by this, but by geography. There are | :28:29. | :28:34. | |
further away, it is what has gotten people to make cheap traveller | :28:35. | :28:41. | |
Leachman is or find recently priced overnight accommodation. -- travel | :28:42. | :28:46. | |
arrangements. Another thing is that if you have a specialist contractor, | :28:47. | :28:50. | |
we do not want them to not choose to go to in the community because it is | :28:51. | :28:55. | |
going to disproportionally cost them money, that means these committees | :28:56. | :28:58. | |
will lose out and stop they were not have the ability to get whatever | :28:59. | :29:01. | |
needs done in that community because the contractor will go somewhere | :29:02. | :29:08. | |
where it is cheaper. Particular, as we mentioned, this is an issue in | :29:09. | :29:10. | |
the oil industry and whiskey industries. You may have specialist | :29:11. | :29:16. | |
contractors that need to go to rural locations, we do not want there to | :29:17. | :29:20. | |
be disproportionately affected. One of the big issues were rural | :29:21. | :29:24. | |
communities is that, with the Brexit scenario, they are going to be | :29:25. | :29:28. | |
missing out on European funding as it is. We do not want them to be | :29:29. | :29:32. | |
further negatively impacted by this. So we're asking for a review on | :29:33. | :29:38. | |
this. I understand there have been reviews made before and predictions | :29:39. | :29:41. | |
that the main - we all know from last week that predictions can be | :29:42. | :29:45. | |
wrong - we do not know how this will work in practice. The Government | :29:46. | :29:50. | |
knows how much will cost, but they do not know the impact on workers' | :29:51. | :29:55. | |
behaviour. So it as the Government to look at this and in a few months | :29:56. | :30:01. | |
come back and see evidence have a negative effect on rural | :30:02. | :30:07. | |
communities. Would also ask that the reduction on net income for people | :30:08. | :30:10. | |
disproportionately affects those on lower incomes, so this is quite a | :30:11. | :30:14. | |
regressive measure in terms of that. I wondered any review has brought | :30:15. | :30:19. | |
back anything, and if there is anything to come back if that could | :30:20. | :30:23. | |
be looked at as well, whether or not those contractors doing lower paid | :30:24. | :30:28. | |
jobs are less likely to choose to go to rural communities on that basis? | :30:29. | :30:33. | |
I am grateful to her. Some of those lower paid companies may be working | :30:34. | :30:38. | |
for umbrella companies, that is the difference in writing between new | :30:39. | :30:46. | |
clause three clause one. In terms of the clause tabled by her honourable | :30:47. | :30:56. | |
friends, dishy envisage within that concepts, different types of workers | :30:57. | :31:00. | |
-- does she envisage within the concept, different types of umbrella | :31:01. | :31:06. | |
company is being part of that? When we said different types of | :31:07. | :31:10. | |
work, we met all of those who are going to be impacted by this change | :31:11. | :31:14. | |
in taxation measures. I will wrap up now, thank you very much. | :31:15. | :31:21. | |
Minister? Thank you, Sir Roger, I am grateful | :31:22. | :31:27. | |
for the points made over the course of the debate. I will not repeat all | :31:28. | :31:32. | |
the points made in my opening remarks, but will try to address the | :31:33. | :31:35. | |
particular questions raised in the course of our debate will stop as we | :31:36. | :31:40. | |
have had plenty of questions. I should begin by saying how pleased I | :31:41. | :31:45. | |
was to see the member for Wolverhampton South West join us. | :31:46. | :31:47. | |
You never know these days who will be there. But given the very | :31:48. | :31:54. | |
considerable work that he clearly put into his speech, and not | :31:55. | :31:58. | |
forgetting the very considerable work put in by Imogen Watson, I | :31:59. | :32:03. | |
think it would have been a great pity were he not had been on the | :32:04. | :32:07. | |
front bench in a position to ask those questions. I'm delighted to | :32:08. | :32:12. | |
see him as were happily give way. I wouldn't have missed it for the | :32:13. | :32:16. | |
world. The links that people will go to to | :32:17. | :32:22. | |
avoid attending a PLP meeting are clearly very considerable. Let me | :32:23. | :32:31. | |
address the lengths that the honourable member went to. I will | :32:32. | :32:35. | |
try to address other points raised and this debate. I will run through | :32:36. | :32:43. | |
an clause order, attempt to do so. We start with clause seven, where | :32:44. | :32:49. | |
the question was asked to what extent that have been problems with | :32:50. | :32:53. | |
uncertainty to tax law addressed by tax seven. There has been some | :32:54. | :32:59. | |
uncertainty about the application of the current tax law and reflect of | :33:00. | :33:07. | |
their provision by advisers. The matter has been put beyond doubt. It | :33:08. | :33:12. | |
will give employers certainty about where and when their bargaining | :33:13. | :33:17. | |
should be applied to benefits in kind. These issues have recently | :33:18. | :33:21. | |
been rehearsed by the Court of Appeal. The honourable gentleman | :33:22. | :33:24. | |
raised particular issues as to why there were special revision for cars | :33:25. | :33:30. | |
and vans. Company cars and vans are a particularly valuable benefit. | :33:31. | :33:35. | |
Does the code specify how to calculate the benefit? It is as | :33:36. | :33:41. | |
though consequence that it is particularly valuable that we have | :33:42. | :33:46. | |
got the provisions that we have. I'll give way. | :33:47. | :33:52. | |
There may be a bit of doing and throwing on this for clarification. | :33:53. | :33:57. | |
This may well be my ignorance. Is this to do with the sale of a car as | :33:58. | :34:04. | |
opposed to one supplied as a benefit in kind, the classic seals wrecked's | :34:05. | :34:11. | |
company car. It supports talking about a different scenario for | :34:12. | :34:16. | |
undervaluing, or is a difference? It is not talking about that, and I | :34:17. | :34:23. | |
hope to provide some clarity. In terms of clause eight, in terms of | :34:24. | :34:31. | |
the issue of the question put, why is the Government imposing tax | :34:32. | :34:37. | |
increases on drivers of low emission cars, the company car tax system | :34:38. | :34:41. | |
encourages people to choose the most fuel-efficient cars, while ensuring | :34:42. | :34:45. | |
the benefit is fairly taxed. It is fair that all company car users, | :34:46. | :34:49. | |
including those on zero and low-carbon cars make a fair | :34:50. | :34:54. | |
conservation to the public finances. The tax differentiation between low | :34:55. | :34:59. | |
emission and conventionally fuelled cars will be lowered in 2019 and | :35:00. | :35:06. | |
2020, compared to previous plans announced at budget 2013. I could, | :35:07. | :35:12. | |
if you so wish, provide examples of that. Let me also address the issues | :35:13. | :35:21. | |
as to why the Government is increasing rates of conventionally | :35:22. | :35:26. | |
fuelled cars by 3% after years of two percentage point increases? The | :35:27. | :35:32. | |
question is also ask about the impact on the type of cars | :35:33. | :35:38. | |
purchased. These increases ensured that the taxation of company cars | :35:39. | :35:41. | |
continues to reflect changes in emissions technology. The rate | :35:42. | :35:47. | |
increased, together with the extra incentive of these vehicles promotes | :35:48. | :35:54. | |
the move to cleanest cars. In 2013 there were many ultralow emission | :35:55. | :36:01. | |
vehicles in the company car fleet. In 2015, the Rover 8000 supporting | :36:02. | :36:11. | |
this approach. -- over 8000. Revenue has been broadly maintained in real | :36:12. | :36:16. | |
terms in the face of continued improvements in Newcastle | :36:17. | :36:18. | |
efficiencies. This will support the move towards cleaner and lower | :36:19. | :36:30. | |
emission cars. In respect of clause 11, certainly... . | :36:31. | :36:37. | |
I wonder, I think I asked before, and he may not have the figure to | :36:38. | :36:41. | |
hand, in terms of the measures include an clause eight, can the | :36:42. | :36:45. | |
Minister give us an estimate of how much he thinks these changes will | :36:46. | :36:49. | |
raise, given that for each of the four bands, the percentages are | :36:50. | :36:55. | |
going up by 3%? I will... If I may, I will write to | :36:56. | :37:03. | |
the honourable gentleman and provide ten with those details. In terms of | :37:04. | :37:12. | |
clause 11, the Government will review the van benefit charge for | :37:13. | :37:18. | |
zero emission vans again in light of market elements in 2018. This clause | :37:19. | :37:24. | |
is keeping the level at 20%, not increasing it as planned. The review | :37:25. | :37:28. | |
carers before any further increase the odd 20%. I hope that is helpful | :37:29. | :37:35. | |
to him. In terms of what will be the impact on zero emission advance | :37:36. | :37:41. | |
sales, while extending the ban benefit -- van benefit to include | :37:42. | :37:48. | |
the uptake in new vehicle technologies, the Government | :37:49. | :37:50. | |
announces a scheme for zero emission vans and the van grant which else | :37:51. | :37:55. | |
with the upfront cost of buying a new low emission vehicle that will | :37:56. | :38:00. | |
also help to ridges barriers in the uptake of these technologies. | :38:01. | :38:04. | |
Hopefully this will increase the sales of these fans and the | :38:05. | :38:10. | |
manufacture of green vehicle technologies in the UK, consistent | :38:11. | :38:14. | |
with the Government's bands to encourage growth in these areas. The | :38:15. | :38:20. | |
point was raised by the honourable member about EU air quality | :38:21. | :38:26. | |
requirements, and whether there is more that we should be doing. | :38:27. | :38:30. | |
Government is committed to improving air quality and complying with legal | :38:31. | :38:38. | |
obligations. Last September, Defra published the Government's plans to | :38:39. | :38:42. | |
achieve these aims. The most polluting diesel vehicles will be | :38:43. | :38:48. | |
discouraged from entering the centres of many English cities. The | :38:49. | :38:52. | |
Mayor of London has responsibilities and his own plans for reductions. | :38:53. | :39:00. | |
And the honourable member's amendment, while I accept as | :39:01. | :39:05. | |
well-intentioned, but no current vehicles will because, and we are | :39:06. | :39:09. | |
pursuing these aims for effectively elsewhere. I will give way. | :39:10. | :39:16. | |
It may be that I missed it, and I apologise if I did. I understood he | :39:17. | :39:21. | |
was referring to stuff going through Defra and so on that an milestone | :39:22. | :39:30. | |
would be 2020. I have to say to the Minister, if I understood correctly, | :39:31. | :39:34. | |
2020 seems an awfully long way away, given that we should have been | :39:35. | :39:39. | |
complying with this error quality staff in something like 2011 or | :39:40. | :39:45. | |
2012. -- air quality stuff. It does seem to be kicking the can down the | :39:46. | :39:48. | |
road while literally tens of thousands of people are dying | :39:49. | :39:51. | |
prematurely. That's worrying. I can understand | :39:52. | :39:57. | |
why the honourable gentleman raises that point, what's, particular given | :39:58. | :40:02. | |
the amendment in front of us here, no vehicles would currently be | :40:03. | :40:11. | |
caused, and it is a question of finding the most effective means to | :40:12. | :40:15. | |
do this. Last December, Defra published the Government's plans to | :40:16. | :40:21. | |
achieve these aims. Yes, there is further work that needs to be done, | :40:22. | :40:27. | |
and I accept that. We need to setup a realistic, achievable target. By | :40:28. | :40:33. | |
2020, the most polluting diesel vehicles will be discouraged from | :40:34. | :40:37. | |
entering a number of cities. I will give way, but I am keen to make some | :40:38. | :40:42. | |
progress, because a number of points had been arranged. | :40:43. | :40:47. | |
When he says no vehicles are caught, my understanding of what he means by | :40:48. | :40:51. | |
that, is that there are no vehicles currently manufactured that if this | :40:52. | :40:55. | |
measure is adamant it would be able to take advantage of that. He's | :40:56. | :41:02. | |
nodding, that's helpful. So is the purpose of the amendment to drive | :41:03. | :41:06. | |
the market? I appreciate that is the intention | :41:07. | :41:09. | |
behind that, and he would be the first except that would require some | :41:10. | :41:16. | |
time for that to take effect. But there are other measures elsewhere | :41:17. | :41:19. | |
that the Government is taking which I believe achieve those objectives | :41:20. | :41:25. | |
more effectively. Just turning to... I give way. | :41:26. | :41:33. | |
There is a well way scheme being proposed to build around way line | :41:34. | :41:37. | |
which will take 5 million lorry journeys off roads every year and | :41:38. | :41:43. | |
transform the emissions that are currently, particularly in towns. -- | :41:44. | :41:50. | |
Railway journeys. Will the Government look seriously at this | :41:51. | :41:54. | |
scheme, is it a positive way forward? | :41:55. | :41:57. | |
What I would say is that this Government is committed to a very | :41:58. | :42:03. | |
substantial investment in our Railways. The biggest rail building | :42:04. | :42:08. | |
programme, I think, since Victorian times. As a Government we have great | :42:09. | :42:16. | |
ambitions they are. We intend to spend ?16 billion on transport | :42:17. | :42:18. | |
infrastructure in the course of this Parliament. Turning to sporting | :42:19. | :42:23. | |
testimonials, the point was raised about the definition of customary. | :42:24. | :42:36. | |
Just issue of the honourable member, HMRC is engaged in creating guidance | :42:37. | :42:40. | |
on these issues, including the definition of customary. He is as | :42:41. | :42:46. | |
about the numbers involved in testimonials that fall within the | :42:47. | :42:51. | |
contractual customary awful outside that. Employers have not had to | :42:52. | :42:58. | |
report that two HMRC, it is worth writing out that contractual | :42:59. | :43:10. | |
payments are required as... Returning to clause 14, there are a | :43:11. | :43:14. | |
number of points raised on this. First point was raised that this | :43:15. | :43:23. | |
would change disadvantage rural communities? Rural communities which | :43:24. | :43:26. | |
are contracted directly cannot claim travel and subsistence on their | :43:27. | :43:33. | |
ordinary commute. This would equalise the tax treatment of | :43:34. | :43:36. | |
employers are employed through intermediaries will stop this is a | :43:37. | :43:39. | |
balance in our tax system, ensuring it is fair. It is a long-standing | :43:40. | :43:43. | |
vegetable of the tax system that tax relief is not allowable for the | :43:44. | :43:47. | |
expense of Audrey commuting, travelling from home to a permanent | :43:48. | :43:49. | |
workplace, a point made earlier. more it would be suitable for travel | :43:50. | :44:10. | |
and affect growth, we are businesses need to come from some distance | :44:11. | :44:17. | |
away, the government expects businesses to pay workers enough to | :44:18. | :44:28. | |
not need this subsidy. Businesses meeting a wage which will not | :44:29. | :44:31. | |
require assistance from the government. When we see the DBE is | :44:32. | :44:46. | |
about the likes of supply teachers, this does put supply teachers on | :44:47. | :44:53. | |
intermediary on the same level as those contracted through an agency | :44:54. | :44:58. | |
contract. Supply teachers are not engaged in this way would not | :44:59. | :45:04. | |
receive tax relief on the travel, as it is regular home to work travel. | :45:05. | :45:12. | |
Prior to the last general election, we were told we would stop umbrella | :45:13. | :45:21. | |
companies exploiting tax relief. That is exactly what this change | :45:22. | :45:28. | |
does. I hope the measures we are putting in place will have | :45:29. | :45:36. | |
cross-party support. Can one point come at the point raised by his | :45:37. | :45:43. | |
colleague, his colleague from Aberdeen North, about the effect on | :45:44. | :45:47. | |
the oil industry. Employees with the permanent workplace at an offshore | :45:48. | :45:59. | |
oil or gas sitting, are already given a sessional additional | :46:00. | :46:05. | |
assistance for travel. These will not affect the exemption. The only | :46:06. | :46:16. | |
time I had to operate through an umbrella company was when it was at | :46:17. | :46:23. | |
the requirement of the government because of the contract I had. Will | :46:24. | :46:28. | |
wriggle through every department to ensure that they no longer contract | :46:29. | :46:36. | |
out in this way. It is the case that that is a lot of work which has been | :46:37. | :46:40. | |
done in recent years to ensure that the government are not involved in a | :46:41. | :46:48. | |
way in which the tax bill is driven down in a way which is not the | :46:49. | :46:53. | |
intention of government or Parliament. Can I come to clauses | :46:54. | :47:07. | |
Clauses16 and 17. The government believes the impact of these | :47:08. | :47:13. | |
services would be negligible. It is worth pointing out that the | :47:14. | :47:22. | |
valuation services not been withdrawn for the employment | :47:23. | :47:26. | |
ownership scheme, company sheer option plans, sheer incentive plans | :47:27. | :47:38. | |
and the employee shareholder status. I know this begs the question raised | :47:39. | :47:43. | |
by the member for Wolverhampton south why we have so many different | :47:44. | :47:49. | |
schemes. Each of them as a specific policy objective, reflected in | :47:50. | :47:56. | |
qualifying conditions. These schemes are greatly valued by both employers | :47:57. | :48:01. | |
and employees and we believe they can have a positive impact on | :48:02. | :48:12. | |
productivity. Sir Roger, can I turn to the issue of clause 18, finally. | :48:13. | :48:25. | |
This is retrospective ledge legislation. It is overly complex. | :48:26. | :48:32. | |
The changes introduced here are relatively straightforward. The more | :48:33. | :48:38. | |
complex proposals in the next budget will be legislated in the Finance | :48:39. | :48:46. | |
Bill in 2017. We will consult over the financial detail during the | :48:47. | :48:50. | |
summer. One of the main purposes of the consultation will be to ensure | :48:51. | :48:56. | |
that innocent arrangements are not affected. With regard to this being | :48:57. | :49:05. | |
retrospective, the government expects those who avoid tax to pay | :49:06. | :49:10. | |
the fear sheer. Following the consultation I have just mentioned, | :49:11. | :49:19. | |
the public and tax practitioners will be able to comment on the | :49:20. | :49:24. | |
consultation. I would make the point that normal hard-working people do | :49:25. | :49:33. | |
pay the taxes and they are paid and a salary. It is not right that | :49:34. | :49:37. | |
people should use these schemes to essentially receive the numeration | :49:38. | :49:44. | |
without paying tax. All of the affected scheme users will have a | :49:45. | :49:49. | |
duty to either repay the loans are paid tax on them. This is in | :49:50. | :49:54. | |
addition to previous settlement options which closed last year. I | :49:55. | :49:59. | |
hope these point of clarification or helpful to the house. I hope, | :50:00. | :50:05. | |
therefore, that the government clauses and amendments can be | :50:06. | :50:09. | |
supported. I urge Honourable members putting forward their own clauses or | :50:10. | :50:16. | |
amendments. I would hope to withdraw them, but I urge my honourable | :50:17. | :50:23. | |
friends to participate. The question is as common amendment 20 to be | :50:24. | :50:34. | |
made. As many of those say aye. The aye have it. The question is that | :50:35. | :50:42. | |
the amendment be made. Those of that opinion aye see. The ayes have it. | :50:43. | :51:02. | |
To move amendment number two. To move formally. Amendment to be made. | :51:03. | :51:14. | |
Those in favour say aye. Those not in favour of C no. No! . Division. | :51:15. | :52:41. | |
The question is, should amendment to be made. Those in favour, C Aye. | :52:42. | :52:59. | |
Tellers for the Aye and for the zero. -- the No. | :53:00. | :59:13. | |
Order, order. VI smacked to the right, two and 51, the nose to the | :59:14. | :04:34. | |
left, ... The ayes to the right to 15, the noes have it. Unlock. The | :04:35. | :04:46. | |
question is clauses ten to 12, today stand as part of the Bill? As many | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
as are of the opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, "no". The ayes it. The | :04:50. | :04:56. | |
question is that amendment 27 be made, As many as are of the opinion, | :04:57. | :04:59. | |
say "aye". To the contrary, "no". . The ayes have it. The amendments | :05:00. | :05:08. | |
that clause 15 stand as part of the Bill, As many as are of the opinion, | :05:09. | :05:11. | |
say "aye". To the contrary, "no". The noes have it. Close extension | :05:12. | :05:16. | |
remain part of the Bill, As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To | :05:17. | :05:22. | |
the contrary, "no". . The noes at. As many as are of the opinion, say | :05:23. | :05:28. | |
"aye". To the contrary, "no". The ayes have it. The question is that | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
schedule three as amended, and clauses 17 and 18 stand as part of | :05:34. | :05:36. | |
the Bill. As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, | :05:37. | :05:44. | |
"no". The ayes it. Sir Roger to move was one formally. Should the Bill be | :05:45. | :05:50. | |
read a second time? As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To the | :05:51. | :05:52. | |
contrary, "no". Division. The question is that you knew clause | :05:53. | :07:08. | |
one B read a second time. As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To | :07:09. | :07:10. | |
the contrary, "no". . He and too late, 247, the nose to | :07:11. | :16:28. | |
the lake, 360. The Ayes Nos have it. We come to | :16:29. | :17:05. | |
clause 130 two. The claim change. Amendment 183, clause 135, the | :17:06. | :17:12. | |
questioners that clause 13 to be part of the bill. The climate change | :17:13. | :17:24. | |
Levy. It is a tax levied on businesses in the public sector. It | :17:25. | :17:34. | |
was brought in 2000 and 12 encourage energy efficiency. We want the | :17:35. | :17:40. | |
removal of the private Levy exemption. A consultation needs to | :17:41. | :17:51. | |
be made for the transitional period to be satisfactory. We want energy | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
suppliers to be exempt so that they can pursue efficient and more | :17:57. | :18:12. | |
environmentally friendly goals. We want employers to have the benefit | :18:13. | :18:21. | |
of the new sources acquired before the date. In consultation with | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
industry, it was announced that the government would abolish the complex | :18:27. | :18:32. | |
and unduly burdensome card and carbon reduction energy efficiency | :18:33. | :18:38. | |
scheme and move to a single tax from 2019. Moving to one tax will provide | :18:39. | :18:49. | |
a clear call for energy producers. Clauses 133 and 134 are to be | :18:50. | :19:04. | |
increased by RPI. It will give some certainty to businesses. Clause 135 | :19:05. | :19:10. | |
will increase the climate change regulates above RPI by 2019 to | :19:11. | :19:19. | |
recover the revenue lost. Increasing the Levy will strengthen the | :19:20. | :19:28. | |
businesses with the incentive to save energy. This will also update | :19:29. | :19:41. | |
an outdated system. This will help deliver on our commitment to deliver | :19:42. | :19:48. | |
bigger carbon savings. Clause 136 will to sell Levy discount for | :19:49. | :19:53. | |
energy intensive sectors. This will ensure businesses in these sectors | :19:54. | :19:58. | |
will pay no more than the expected amount of Levy by April 2019, | :19:59. | :20:08. | |
letting them maintain the international competitiveness. This | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
will provide the three-year lead-in time for businesses to adjust to the | :20:13. | :20:17. | |
new tax landscape. Several Honourable members have in the past | :20:18. | :20:23. | |
voiced concern about the impact of clauses to remove the climate change | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
Levy exemption from electricity. If I can repeat the reasoning for that. | :20:29. | :20:36. | |
There is no doubt that the exemption was increasingly pervading the pure | :20:37. | :20:43. | |
value for money for the taxpayer. Without acting, this would of course | :20:44. | :20:47. | |
Thomas ?4 billion over the course of this Parliament. Further, there is a | :20:48. | :20:57. | |
lot of poor for a low carbon generators which supports our aim. | :20:58. | :21:08. | |
There has been trebling of the renewable energy -- electricity | :21:09. | :21:12. | |
capacity. Last year was another record year of investment. Removing | :21:13. | :21:15. | |
the exemption will provide better now value for money the taxpayer. It | :21:16. | :21:27. | |
will also maintain the incentive for energy efficiency. The consultation | :21:28. | :21:33. | |
with industry shows that the current business energy landscape is over | :21:34. | :21:38. | |
burdensome and complex. This demonstrates the government | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
commitment to simplify and improve the system in order to meet our | :21:43. | :21:47. | |
environmental targets. I believe the clauses than part of the bill. If I | :21:48. | :21:54. | |
may turn to the amendments. In the name of the opposition, especially | :21:55. | :22:03. | |
the Honourable member for Salford. I would like to congratulate her on | :22:04. | :22:10. | |
her elevation to date. It is an extremely well-deserved promotion | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
and we wish all the very best in her new position. Her amendment has | :22:16. | :22:24. | |
slightly less merit. It would require the Chancellor to publish a | :22:25. | :22:30. | |
report detailing the impact of the levy within 12 months. It is, in | :22:31. | :22:37. | |
fact, unnecessary. Following a hearing on the 2015 summer budget, | :22:38. | :22:44. | |
the Chancellor vote to wrote to the select committee with regard to the | :22:45. | :22:49. | |
withdrawal of the exemption. He made it clear they would not directly | :22:50. | :22:53. | |
affect our commitment to reduce carbon emissions. In addition, the | :22:54. | :23:03. | |
government aims to publish information on the carbon framework | :23:04. | :23:06. | |
it later this year. This will examine the removal of the CLC. The | :23:07. | :23:20. | |
impact of reducing the system has been discussed at length. It has | :23:21. | :23:30. | |
been confirmed that this will not impact the United Kingdom 's impact | :23:31. | :23:35. | |
to reduce the carbon targets. I would like the Honourable lady to | :23:36. | :23:40. | |
withdraw the amendment. If not, I would call on the host to reject it. | :23:41. | :23:48. | |
Thank you, Sir Roger. I would like to thank the Minister of set for the | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
kind comments. I would thank him for being a fantastic duelling partner | :23:54. | :23:59. | |
in these debates. He has been nothing other than respectful and I | :24:00. | :24:04. | |
do enjoy debating with him. I rise to speak about the clauses one C two | :24:05. | :24:12. | |
to 136. I beg to move that the amendment in my name. Clause 132 | :24:13. | :24:21. | |
makes the removal of the exemption from electricity from renewable Serb | :24:22. | :24:28. | |
sources. Since the inception in 2001, electricity from renewables | :24:29. | :24:35. | |
has been exempt under an agreed contract between the energy supplier | :24:36. | :24:39. | |
and the customer. In 2015, the Chancellor announced this exemption | :24:40. | :24:48. | |
would be removed by August last year and the Ruby a transitional period | :24:49. | :24:52. | |
where suppliers would be able to claim the CLC exemption on in the | :24:53. | :24:59. | |
electricity generated before that date. Following an informal | :25:00. | :25:03. | |
consultation, the government announced the transition period | :25:04. | :25:10. | |
within one the 31st of March 2018. The hosts will be aware that we | :25:11. | :25:19. | |
oppose the removal of this exemption last year. Several Honourable member | :25:20. | :25:24. | |
shops are also did that. We maintain that position. We will be abstaining | :25:25. | :25:30. | |
on the clause today. The government has refused to publish some | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
responses to the formal consultation. In answer to written | :25:36. | :25:41. | |
questions as they contained commercially sensitive information | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
and the refused to publish in the suggested team skill. Could we have | :25:47. | :25:50. | |
some assurance that the length of this transitional period was in line | :25:51. | :25:54. | |
with the recommendations of the respondents. Moving on to clause 133 | :25:55. | :26:01. | |
which includes the main rates of the climate change Levy in line with | :26:02. | :26:11. | |
inflation. It has been a standard practice to increase the rates in | :26:12. | :26:16. | |
line with in inflation in each year 's Finance bill for the past nine | :26:17. | :26:21. | |
years. As the explanatory notes set out, why the changes to the CLC in | :26:22. | :26:29. | |
2019? It makes sense to make provision for the next two years at | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
the same time. These way that changes are subject to clause 135, | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
which significantly increases the main rates that have to be | :26:39. | :26:45. | |
recovered. Those will be lost from the carbon reduction commitment. In | :26:46. | :26:50. | |
doing so, the ratio from electricity to gas has been balanced somewhat. | :26:51. | :26:56. | |
It is a government intention to close the ratio further by 2025. | :26:57. | :27:02. | |
This is to reflect the falling gas prices and expected increase in | :27:03. | :27:08. | |
consumption as a result. The falling clause increases the CLC amount to | :27:09. | :27:23. | |
energy reliant businesses. The discount for electricity will | :27:24. | :27:27. | |
increase from 90% to 93% and the discounting gas will increase from | :27:28. | :27:36. | |
65% to 78% from April 20 19. This provision mitigates the knock-on | :27:37. | :27:38. | |
effect from clause one 35. Review will have particular | :27:39. | :27:50. | |
reference to the removal of the exemption for electricity | :27:51. | :27:52. | |
regenerated from renewable sources. The abolition of the carbon | :27:53. | :27:56. | |
reduction commitment and the reporting requirements for companies | :27:57. | :28:02. | |
and public sector bodies. Now, in order to explain the reasoning | :28:03. | :28:04. | |
behind this amendment, it might be helpful to outline, really, Howard | :28:05. | :28:12. | |
recovered arrived at the changes. In budget 2015, a review into the tax | :28:13. | :28:19. | |
landscape was announced to consider approaches about the effectiveness | :28:20. | :28:22. | |
of the regime. Launched in September, this consultation set out | :28:23. | :28:30. | |
the current range of business energy efficiency policies and regulations. | :28:31. | :28:35. | |
The consultation received a 356 responses from a drive your | :28:36. | :28:42. | |
businesses. The consultation sought to improve the effectiveness of the | :28:43. | :28:47. | |
policy framework by simply simplifying reporting to reduce an | :28:48. | :28:52. | |
edited of burden, targeting policy levers at cost effective energy | :28:53. | :28:57. | |
efficiency potential. -- administrative. Using policy | :28:58. | :29:04. | |
instruments to raise the profile of energy efficiency on carbon | :29:05. | :29:08. | |
reduction with decision-makers and improving the case for investment in | :29:09. | :29:12. | |
energy efficiency and low carbon alternatives. Now, as a result of | :29:13. | :29:16. | |
this consultation exercise, the Chancellor announced in his March | :29:17. | :29:21. | |
budget that the carbon reduction commitment would be abolished and | :29:22. | :29:24. | |
the Climate Change Levy increased to recover the lost revenue. The | :29:25. | :29:31. | |
Treasury's written response to this exercise, the governments committed | :29:32. | :29:40. | |
to a new carbon reporting framework by April 2000 and 19. Now, I fail to | :29:41. | :29:51. | |
see how these objectives meet what was outlined previously and, let me | :29:52. | :29:57. | |
acknowledge comments that encourage the overlapping budget as a burden. | :29:58. | :30:05. | |
We do not encourage the whining to make it less, symbol for it must be | :30:06. | :30:09. | |
done in a way which means the regime is equally, preferably, more | :30:10. | :30:13. | |
effective at reducing carbon emissions and improving energy | :30:14. | :30:17. | |
efficiency. We feel quite strongly that the Government missed a perfect | :30:18. | :30:21. | |
opportunity to make some really radical changes to the energy policy | :30:22. | :30:27. | |
landscape. A sentiment shared by the UK Green building Council who | :30:28. | :30:29. | |
indicated that such slider form is disappointing when a three pronged | :30:30. | :30:35. | |
approach to taxation, reporting and incentives would have really driven | :30:36. | :30:39. | |
change. I want to stress to the house today, anti-government, | :30:40. | :30:44. | |
unnecessary such radicalism really is. The game changing United Nations | :30:45. | :30:48. | |
CRP 21 conference at the latter end of last year marked a watershed | :30:49. | :30:55. | |
moment when tackling climate change. That is because it became a priority | :30:56. | :31:01. | |
on the world stage. The final agreement provided for a limitation | :31:02. | :31:03. | |
on the temperature rise to below 2 degrees. That is the consensus among | :31:04. | :31:08. | |
scientists that a greater increase in damage would be incredibly | :31:09. | :31:13. | |
dangerous. The UK signed up to this agreement and the Prime Minister | :31:14. | :31:17. | |
even delivered a speech in Paris saying, instead of making a visit to | :31:18. | :31:21. | |
our children and grandchildren, we should be taking action against | :31:22. | :31:24. | |
climate change today. The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate | :31:25. | :31:28. | |
Change, the honourable member for Hastings played a crucial part in | :31:29. | :31:35. | |
negotiations. She was responsible for talks that discuss immediate | :31:36. | :31:44. | |
action between 2020. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister, the Secretary of | :31:45. | :31:47. | |
State and this governments are better at talking the talk man | :31:48. | :31:51. | |
walking the walk. In six months before the Paris discussions, based | :31:52. | :32:01. | |
delayed many of their commitments. -- relay. They have scrapped the | :32:02. | :32:09. | |
zero carbon homes pledge. They cut the feed in tariff, a subsidy for | :32:10. | :32:14. | |
solar, I had before percent and actually for clean energy projects | :32:15. | :32:17. | |
has been list. This could lead, anti-government freely admit, to | :32:18. | :32:24. | |
more than 18,600 job losses. New onshore wind farms will not receive | :32:25. | :32:29. | |
subsidies after 2016. Changes have been made to vehicle excise duty, | :32:30. | :32:34. | |
which reduces the incentives for lower emissions vehicles by | :32:35. | :32:37. | |
introducing a flat rate of tax regardless of CO2 emissions after | :32:38. | :32:43. | |
the first year. I could go on, a 1 billion fund was scrapped. They have | :32:44. | :32:55. | |
scrapped safeguards to reduce the environmental risks of fracking and | :32:56. | :32:59. | |
green lighting fracking under national parks. Finally, the | :33:00. | :33:01. | |
Government has still not committed to maintaining, for the long | :33:02. | :33:07. | |
long-term, reduced rate of discount on solar panels, discount and wind | :33:08. | :33:11. | |
turbines on which we will discuss another day. And time again, this | :33:12. | :33:15. | |
would place a lip service to the world's appetite for better climate | :33:16. | :33:20. | |
change policy, but not connected to any substantial action in Whitehall, | :33:21. | :33:24. | |
this is not good enough. We need radical thinking if we are radical | :33:25. | :33:27. | |
change. Around the world, governments are supporting and | :33:28. | :33:32. | |
promoting green energy. Germany's energy transition policy is they can | :33:33. | :33:36. | |
enter the point that last year, 33% of their electricity was generated | :33:37. | :33:42. | |
from renewable sources and the sectors reported 355,000 jobs. In | :33:43. | :33:47. | |
France, all new routes must be nature or solar. These are great | :33:48. | :33:56. | |
examples of why radical policy is still important. And why this | :33:57. | :34:02. | |
Government's failures are so disappointing. That lack of ambition | :34:03. | :34:04. | |
is integral to our opposition amendment today. The Climate Change | :34:05. | :34:10. | |
Levy in its current form is an adequate driver to the reduction of | :34:11. | :34:17. | |
carbon emissions -- inadequate. We so desperately need more adequate | :34:18. | :34:21. | |
action. Westlake tax-raising measure. Up until very recently, | :34:22. | :34:28. | |
this was not the case. As we have seen, the exemption would resume, | :34:29. | :34:35. | |
removed in last year's Finance Bill, despite ad- from the renewable | :34:36. | :34:37. | |
industry. We are not aware of any assessment of the efficacy of the | :34:38. | :34:41. | |
Climate Change Levy since the removal of the exception, which is | :34:42. | :34:45. | |
why our amendment would require the report to make particular reference | :34:46. | :34:49. | |
to it. The second point of reference for the review would be the | :34:50. | :34:52. | |
abolition of the common reduction commitment, which is why the levy | :34:53. | :34:57. | |
are being increased. The Carbon reduction commitment contained a | :34:58. | :35:00. | |
requirement for participants to measure and report electricity and | :35:01. | :35:04. | |
gas supplies annually, and carbon dioxide emissions would then be | :35:05. | :35:09. | |
calculated. Participants must then, by dances for every tonne of carbon | :35:10. | :35:15. | |
that they emit under the scheme. The CRC and therefore forces companies | :35:16. | :35:20. | |
to be proactive, making Protestants think about and technology carbon | :35:21. | :35:22. | |
emissions and actively work to remove them -- reduce them in order | :35:23. | :35:29. | |
to improve their allowances. On this side, we are worried about it | :35:30. | :35:34. | |
becoming a straightforward consumption tax and being absorbed | :35:35. | :35:37. | |
into the company's costs, not requiring the same amount of | :35:38. | :35:40. | |
proactive fault. The Government's response to their consultation on | :35:41. | :35:44. | |
energy taxation stated that respondents supported financial | :35:45. | :35:49. | |
incentives to drive energy efficiencies and that views on the | :35:50. | :35:52. | |
mechanism to deliver an effective incentives were mixed. The | :35:53. | :35:57. | |
governments decided not to introduce a financial incentive at this stage. | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
Because they believe that a simple side tax any form of PC DL is a | :36:02. | :36:06. | |
sufficiently robust signal. -- Climate Change Levy. Could the | :36:07. | :36:09. | |
Minister confirm exactly why the Government decided not to introduce | :36:10. | :36:14. | |
a financial incentive when it was populist respondents, and why it | :36:15. | :36:17. | |
believes the Climate Change Levy is a sufficiently robust signal? The EN | :36:18. | :36:23. | |
DES report recently stated that it remains to be seen whether the CTL | :36:24. | :36:28. | |
alone will drive effort and investment of the 2000 or so CRC | :36:29. | :36:33. | |
participants. Acrobat. Today, while there is evidence that the CRC has | :36:34. | :36:43. | |
driven change, it is not apparent whether it is more than an | :36:44. | :36:46. | |
effectiveness that was from when it was first introduced. They say | :36:47. | :36:56. | |
carbon consumption was reduced. We would, therefore, like the | :36:57. | :37:00. | |
Government to properly assess how effective the Climate Change Levy | :37:01. | :37:03. | |
will be in replacing the advantages of the Carbon reduction commitment, | :37:04. | :37:07. | |
outlined. The final reference for the review will be with reporting | :37:08. | :37:10. | |
requirement by companies and public sector bodies for energy user than | :37:11. | :37:16. | |
double emissions. Now, I am aware, as the Minister's has referred to | :37:17. | :37:20. | |
elder, that the Government as committed to consult on a new carbon | :37:21. | :37:25. | |
energy reporting framework, to be introduced by 2019 and be published | :37:26. | :37:30. | |
later this summer. The Government will propose mandatory annual | :37:31. | :37:33. | |
reporting or organisations within its scope with water or senior level | :37:34. | :37:39. | |
sign off and some public disclosure of data, which we would certainly | :37:40. | :37:42. | |
welcome. However, we are concerned that scrapping the CRC scheme they | :37:43. | :37:48. | |
few gaps whereby companies agreed a Seattle report of an emissions and | :37:49. | :37:52. | |
energy usage will no longer have two. Indeed, the climate change | :37:53. | :37:56. | |
committee highlighted the fact that the CRC and is covered -- CRC scheme | :37:57. | :38:03. | |
covered a range of energy consuming organisations. They went on to say | :38:04. | :38:13. | |
that evidence suggests... The committee recommended that, if the | :38:14. | :38:18. | |
CRC scheme is abolished, it should be adopted by measures to enhance | :38:19. | :38:23. | |
the policy landscape to stimulate energy efficiency and carbon | :38:24. | :38:31. | |
reduction in MPs. -- SMEs. If they think it'll make up for scrapping | :38:32. | :38:36. | |
the Carbon emission reduction, we want to see evidence. Does the | :38:37. | :38:46. | |
Climate Change Levy provide adequate supplements to its predecessor? It | :38:47. | :38:51. | |
is not good enough to streamline the regime if you're doing is making | :38:52. | :38:54. | |
organisations out of having to address the emissions altogether. | :38:55. | :39:05. | |
Honourable members of on this side want to know if it'll be considered | :39:06. | :39:09. | |
when considering how effective the Climate Change Levy will be in | :39:10. | :39:14. | |
reducing emissions. To conclude, and wedding ring around the edges of | :39:15. | :39:16. | |
existing climate change policy without a clear strategy of how we | :39:17. | :39:25. | |
are going to meet our targets. -- the Government is. We must take | :39:26. | :39:33. | |
radical action for radical results. The opposition does not a oppose the | :39:34. | :39:44. | |
scrapping if the Climate Change Levy will the effect of images in | :39:45. | :39:46. | |
emissions. However, we remain to be convinced that it will. We were | :39:47. | :39:49. | |
never like to push for proper assessment from the Government | :39:50. | :39:52. | |
before we support the measure in full. I therefore beg to move that | :39:53. | :40:01. | |
the amendment be made. Thank you. I am writing to sneak in agreement | :40:02. | :40:08. | |
with the amendment, which is number 183, in relation to the changes to | :40:09. | :40:14. | |
the Climate Change Levy. The UK Government's idea to have a Climate | :40:15. | :40:17. | |
Change Levy was an admirable one and I think was introduced as a positive | :40:18. | :40:23. | |
step forward. It is completely reasonable that companies should be | :40:24. | :40:26. | |
made to think about their energy usage and the best they to think | :40:27. | :40:30. | |
about this is too taxing on it. The honourable member for Salford and | :40:31. | :40:36. | |
Eccles gave a speech which spoke about a range of different matters, | :40:37. | :40:39. | |
some of which I will speak on. I will try to tell my speech somewhat. | :40:40. | :40:46. | |
-- curtail. Energy consumption engines of energy usage, hello it is | :40:47. | :40:52. | |
a great idea, it fell to take account of the fact that the Medina | :40:53. | :40:58. | |
has generated, generating energy city 's -- electricity are better | :40:59. | :41:01. | |
than others and the kind change. You cannot come across the board, tax, | :41:02. | :41:15. | |
on everything at the same rate. Some energy is much cleaner than others. | :41:16. | :41:20. | |
It is reasonable to have very little tax rates for those two different | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
things. The Honourable member for Salford and Eccles spoke about some | :41:26. | :41:32. | |
of the impacts that the Government is having on low carbon energy. The | :41:33. | :41:34. | |
Government does not have a good record on supporting low carbon | :41:35. | :41:39. | |
energy and, honestly, it has widely been reported about the support for | :41:40. | :41:43. | |
nuclear energy. In terms of other forms of low carbon energy, it is | :41:44. | :41:49. | |
very difficult for those companies that are engaging, providing this | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
energy to keep up in this ever-changing climate. The current | :41:55. | :41:59. | |
policy framework in the UK Government... The Scottish | :42:00. | :42:01. | |
Government managed to meet its target in 2014, it was announced | :42:02. | :42:05. | |
this year, in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The target religious | :42:06. | :42:09. | |
by 42% and this happened six years early. -- was reduced by. This was | :42:10. | :42:16. | |
an excellent achievement by Scotland and the Scottish Government to have | :42:17. | :42:20. | |
worked together to achieve this. It will be very difficult for us to | :42:21. | :42:26. | |
this level up with the UK Government's drew on energy policy. | :42:27. | :42:28. | |
Some of the things that are happening is that there is no | :42:29. | :42:36. | |
clarity on winner will be a... That is relation to wind and, that is | :42:37. | :42:41. | |
really important. That is an attacker technology and one which | :42:42. | :42:44. | |
generate electricity cleanly and one that the UK Cameron has to give | :42:45. | :42:53. | |
better clarity on. With Brexit, we have a major problem in Scotland in | :42:54. | :42:56. | |
terms of some of the funding for law carbon energy and low carbon energy | :42:57. | :42:59. | |
project. Particularly grant-making ones that have come from the EU. I | :43:00. | :43:04. | |
know it is slightly out of this debate but I'd appreciate if you | :43:05. | :43:06. | |
great Government would look into whether or not this will continue to | :43:07. | :43:11. | |
be righted, because Scotland should be continuing to innovate for law | :43:12. | :43:14. | |
carbon energy, having massive natural resources. The last thing, | :43:15. | :43:20. | |
which is mentioned by the member for Salford and Eccles, which is | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
shameful is that the rug was pulled out from under the feet of the | :43:25. | :43:25. | |
investors there. I'm not happy with the response and | :43:26. | :43:41. | |
I'm not happy with the fact that I cannot see a climate which can go | :43:42. | :43:45. | |
forward now. If the UK Government was to give more certainty and | :43:46. | :43:52. | |
suddenly decide it supported carbon capture and storage, I can fully | :43:53. | :43:54. | |
understand why nobly would take it up because they would change their | :43:55. | :43:59. | |
mind again. Mr Chairman, there's change, the Climate Change Levy, is | :44:00. | :44:03. | |
penalising low carbon electricity and is barriers in the way of | :44:04. | :44:08. | |
reducing climate change, reducing carbon emissions. This is not | :44:09. | :44:12. | |
something that we want. We should be moving forward progress. This is a | :44:13. | :44:16. | |
regressive step. The Government should bring back back a further | :44:17. | :44:20. | |
report and back the opposition in this. Thank you. I would like to | :44:21. | :44:34. | |
focus on clauses 1232126. Referring to the Climate Change Levy. Both the | :44:35. | :44:38. | |
honourable member from Salford and Eccles and Matt honourable friend | :44:39. | :44:42. | |
from Aberdeen zero spoke comprehensively on the subject. I | :44:43. | :44:46. | |
have particular concerns regarding the removal of exemption for | :44:47. | :44:50. | |
electricity generated from renewable sources. I believe this to be a | :44:51. | :44:54. | |
counter-productive decision which are grossly undermined the | :44:55. | :44:59. | |
development of the UK's energy sector. Sir Roger, the long-term | :45:00. | :45:04. | |
future of our energy market is renewable. The UK and Scotland in | :45:05. | :45:08. | |
particular has extraordinary potential in the renewable sector. | :45:09. | :45:12. | |
Scotland itself has 25% of the wind in title potential of all of Europe | :45:13. | :45:18. | |
and 10% of the ways potential in Europe. For a small country in terms | :45:19. | :45:24. | |
of both land mass and population, nonetheless, one third of the UK | :45:25. | :45:28. | |
land mass, these figures represent an enormous potential. Not just in | :45:29. | :45:32. | |
leading the world in renewable energy production but are creating | :45:33. | :45:36. | |
tens of thousands of jobs in ushering in substantial economic | :45:37. | :45:41. | |
growth. This Conservative UK Government seems determined to tear | :45:42. | :45:44. | |
down any progressive policies intended to encourage the production | :45:45. | :45:47. | |
and incentivise Asian of green energy. Just this year, the | :45:48. | :45:54. | |
Government began the process of privatising the green investment | :45:55. | :45:56. | |
bank, something touched on by the honourable member of Salford and | :45:57. | :46:01. | |
Eccles. We have watched this Government cut subsidies for... By | :46:02. | :46:08. | |
65%. A massively damaging blow to the industry that says households | :46:09. | :46:12. | |
just a few pounds. Again, as mentioned by the honourable member. | :46:13. | :46:15. | |
Ford and Eccles again as Wells may honourable friend from Aberdeen, I | :46:16. | :46:20. | |
could go on to just mention the scrapping of support from onshore | :46:21. | :46:24. | |
wind, the biomass aryl subsidy, the killing of the flagship green homes | :46:25. | :46:30. | |
scheme, the Cardinal capture an initiative which I was heavily | :46:31. | :46:32. | |
involved in having been cancelled and what of the future? What hope is | :46:33. | :46:37. | |
there for that given the track record of this Government? The | :46:38. | :46:42. | |
Climate Change Levy was a positive step in the right direction. It was | :46:43. | :46:48. | |
policy designated to provide a disincentive to polluting | :46:49. | :46:50. | |
technologies. It is perverse that the Climate Change Levy has been | :46:51. | :46:55. | |
applied to green clean energies. That is not what it was intended | :46:56. | :47:00. | |
for. This change impacts disproportionally on Scotland, which | :47:01. | :47:06. | |
despite having under 10% of the UK's population, as mentioned by my | :47:07. | :47:09. | |
honourable friend from Aberdeen night, produces one third of its | :47:10. | :47:15. | |
renewable energy. Despite the austerity programme implemented by | :47:16. | :47:19. | |
this UK Government, Scotland has continued to drive forward in | :47:20. | :47:22. | |
reducing its carbon footprint and increasing the use of Brunel to | :47:23. | :47:26. | |
stay. Just earlier this month, it was announced that we in Scotland | :47:27. | :47:34. | |
reach our target of a 42% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020. That is | :47:35. | :47:39. | |
six years earlier than expected. The SNP Scottish Government has no set a | :47:40. | :47:44. | |
more ambitious target of over 50% reduction in carbon emissions by | :47:45. | :47:50. | |
2020. However, I fear that despite our progress in this matter, | :47:51. | :47:53. | |
unfortunate choices by this Conservative UK Government in terms | :47:54. | :47:57. | |
of both their ill-advised and counter-productive austerity | :47:58. | :48:01. | |
obsession and their mishandling of the EU referendum leading to a vote | :48:02. | :48:05. | |
free Brexit, will end up with a regression rather than progression | :48:06. | :48:09. | |
of climate change. And the promotion of renewable energy. For the above | :48:10. | :48:19. | |
reasons, I wholeheartedly support the amendment by the Honourable | :48:20. | :48:26. | |
member for Salford and Eccles. Thank you. The Climate Change Levy was a | :48:27. | :48:35. | |
and makes a big significant contribution to the revenues of the | :48:36. | :48:40. | |
exchequer and had been on a declining path. With the changes | :48:41. | :48:44. | |
that have come in, that path is now stabilised. It had been providing | :48:45. | :48:49. | |
increasingly poor value for money partly because one third of its | :48:50. | :48:55. | |
tally was going to generators overseas and that generation does | :48:56. | :48:58. | |
not contribute to UK targets but also quite often is and benefits | :48:59. | :49:06. | |
from subsidies and benefits at home. I was also only in direct support | :49:07. | :49:10. | |
for renewables. This is going to go to the heart of what the double | :49:11. | :49:13. | |
members from the Scottish National party were saying. The renewables | :49:14. | :49:22. | |
obligation direction a much more effective in providing direct | :49:23. | :49:24. | |
support. At a higher level, of course, as well per hour to bring on | :49:25. | :49:33. | |
that generation that we need. Because of the success of the | :49:34. | :49:38. | |
deployment of renewables in this country, that Parry. -- | :49:39. | :49:45. | |
paradoxically has an adverse effect on the CC Elle exemption such that | :49:46. | :49:52. | |
by the early 20 20s, the extension would not be effective in | :49:53. | :49:57. | |
stimulating new capacity to come on stream and its value would be | :49:58. | :50:02. | |
declining to generate as because... Just let me finish and then I will. | :50:03. | :50:08. | |
Because the supply of renewables and of these Levy exemption certificates | :50:09. | :50:13. | |
would actually exceed in volume total potential demand from eligible | :50:14. | :50:15. | |
customers in business and the public sector. Does he concede that it | :50:16. | :50:23. | |
would be effective to keep it in place now? He does not. As I was | :50:24. | :50:33. | |
trying to say, this is not a cliff edge thing. It's having a declining | :50:34. | :50:41. | |
effectiveness over time. A lot of the value leagues overseas but most | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
important of all, is this point that there are other ways of directly | :50:46. | :50:52. | |
stimulating new renewables provision and without getting too much into | :50:53. | :50:56. | |
the details and weeds of what goes where, its make sure that that | :50:57. | :51:02. | |
benefit is going directly to the generators not being split between | :51:03. | :51:06. | |
different parts of the value. In the case of CFT is, it stabilises the | :51:07. | :51:15. | |
price relative to fluctuating of the wholesale market that in turn makes | :51:16. | :51:22. | |
its investor confidence greater and can help in driving investments. The | :51:23. | :51:26. | |
honourable lady who speaks for the opposition asked about the | :51:27. | :51:33. | |
transition period in her several peak use about responses that I had | :51:34. | :51:39. | |
been received. Supplies were invited to respond to the informal | :51:40. | :51:44. | |
consultation and of those who responded, only one requested a | :51:45. | :51:49. | |
transitional period in excess of three years. All others were content | :51:50. | :51:53. | |
with an end date of the 31st of March 20 18th and most would already | :51:54. | :51:58. | |
have used their Levy exemption certificates within one year. Not | :51:59. | :52:04. | |
publish the results because, as you rightly said, it did include | :52:05. | :52:07. | |
commercially sensitive information received from them. With the size of | :52:08. | :52:13. | |
the sample, the number of responses that were talking about, were not | :52:14. | :52:19. | |
speaking in terms of an average response. The average period that | :52:20. | :52:23. | |
was called for does make a great deal of sense. Turning to the | :52:24. | :52:30. | |
abolition of the CIC co-production that commitment and the changes to | :52:31. | :52:35. | |
the Climate Change Levy mean rates, this is a big simplifying moves and | :52:36. | :52:40. | |
we did have extensive consultations both of the written sort but also of | :52:41. | :52:46. | |
the meeting people sort. I sat in a number of those myself and one of | :52:47. | :52:48. | |
the things that business said loud and clear was that they wanted to | :52:49. | :52:54. | |
simplify the way all this worked. They did value the discussions that | :52:55. | :52:58. | |
happened within companies and -- in elevating the role and the salience | :52:59. | :53:04. | |
of energy efficiency within their companies but these ECL as a single | :53:05. | :53:12. | |
tax will be a straightforward price signal and we will be removing some | :53:13. | :53:20. | |
of that additional administrative burden. The Government will also | :53:21. | :53:24. | |
consult on a simplified reporting framework in 2016 which will | :53:25. | :53:28. | |
encourage large businesses to identify energy efficiency savings. | :53:29. | :53:31. | |
In addition to the tax changes, this will further enhance the UK's | :53:32. | :53:37. | |
ability to reduce its carbon emissions and the intent to publish | :53:38. | :53:42. | |
an impact assessment alongside their consultation on a simplified | :53:43. | :53:45. | |
reporting framework and this will come -- include analysis of the | :53:46. | :53:50. | |
impact on carbon emissions. Rebalancing this ECL rates towards | :53:51. | :53:54. | |
gas will better incentivise remissions. May I just finished in | :53:55. | :54:08. | |
restating the very firm commitment of this Government and very strong | :54:09. | :54:13. | |
track record of this Government in terms of our commitment to reducing | :54:14. | :54:17. | |
emissions. Since 2010, we have reduced the UK's greenhouse gases by | :54:18. | :54:23. | |
14%. We have outperformed our European counterparts with the | :54:24. | :54:27. | |
largest cut in greenhouse emissions since 1990. We secured the first | :54:28. | :54:36. | |
truly global, legally binding agreement with our Secretary of | :54:37. | :54:39. | |
State playing a key role in the Paris agreement. Our annual rate | :54:40. | :54:44. | |
support for renewables will more than doubled to more than ?10 | :54:45. | :54:51. | |
billion in 2020, 20 21. We are the first major developed economy in the | :54:52. | :54:56. | |
world to commit to phase out unabated coal, the dirtiest fossil | :54:57. | :55:01. | |
fuel by 2025. We are the most leading player in offshore wind with | :55:02. | :55:05. | |
just over five megawatts installed now. Forecast to double by the end | :55:06. | :55:09. | |
of this Parliament. There can be no doubt about the credentials of this | :55:10. | :55:14. | |
Government when it comes to the commitment of reducing emissions | :55:15. | :55:21. | |
with these tax changes, we have reformed a tax which was proving | :55:22. | :55:25. | |
less effective over time in what its original state today was in 2001 | :55:26. | :55:31. | |
when the proportion of renewable electricity was 2.5% in those days | :55:32. | :55:35. | |
and with the changes to business taxation, we are keeping the price | :55:36. | :55:40. | |
signal very firm and sharper aye reducing the administrative burden | :55:41. | :55:44. | |
and I encourage all honourable members to support these clauses and | :55:45. | :55:47. | |
not to support the proposed amendments. | :55:48. | :55:57. | |
The iMac have it. Clauses 133 and 134. As many as are of the opinion, | :55:58. | :56:07. | |
say "aye". To the contrary, "no". , ayes habit. Formerly. The question | :56:08. | :56:17. | |
is that the amendment 183 being made, as many of that opinion and | :56:18. | :56:20. | |
say I. Contrary, no. Division. As many of that opinion say I, | :56:21. | :57:44. | |
contrary zero. For the eyes, tellers for the nose, Margot James and Guy | :57:45. | :57:45. | |
Opperman. The ayes to the ride, 237. The noes | :57:46. | :11:36. | |
on the left, 203. Ayes to the right 237, nose to the right 333. The noes | :11:37. | :11:47. | |
have it. Clauses 135 and one the bill. As many as are of the opinion, | :11:48. | :11:51. | |
say "aye". To the contrary, "no". The ayes habit. Group three, | :11:52. | :11:56. | |
insurance premium tax. Clause drugged and 39. -- one 29. Good | :11:57. | :12:11. | |
evening. I beg to move that clause 129, which increases the standard | :12:12. | :12:14. | |
rate of insurance premium tax from 9.5 to 10% and part of this ill. | :12:15. | :12:21. | |
This is in order to raise revenue to invest in flood defences and one | :12:22. | :12:27. | |
civilian spending. Insurance premium tax, Roger, is due on insurance | :12:28. | :12:32. | |
premiums, Ryan Rowland to risks in the UK, regardless of where the | :12:33. | :12:40. | |
insurer is based. This includes any broker commissions and other | :12:41. | :12:43. | |
directly related costs. It is a charge on the insurer, not on the | :12:44. | :12:48. | |
individual. Insurance premium tax is due on general insurance, which | :12:49. | :12:51. | |
accounts for approximately 20% of total insurance premiums. General | :12:52. | :12:58. | |
insurance includes motor insurance, home insurance, employers liability | :12:59. | :13:03. | |
insurance and medical insurance. Approximately 80% of insurance | :13:04. | :13:05. | |
premiums are exempt from insurance premium tax. Exempt insurance | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
includes long-term insurance, such as life insurance and critical | :13:12. | :13:12. | |
illness cover. Between its savings product and | :13:13. | :13:23. | |
long-term insurance products which can serve the same purpose for | :13:24. | :13:29. | |
consumers. Reinsurance is also exempt to avoid double taxation. | :13:30. | :13:34. | |
Most insurance which is subject to insurance premium taxes will be | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
increased to 10%. There is also a higher rate of insurance premium tax | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
which applies to travel insurance and an warranty insurance, it is | :13:44. | :13:47. | |
charged at the higher rate of 20% in order to prevent VAT avoidance and | :13:48. | :13:53. | |
this is unaffected by this change. Although insurance premium taxes is | :13:54. | :13:57. | |
charged on general insurance, there is no VAT on any sort of insurance | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
at all. Clause 129 sets out an increase in the standard rate of | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
insurance premium tax from 9.5% to 10% which will raise around ?210 | :14:08. | :14:12. | |
million per year which will be used to fund investment in flood defence | :14:13. | :14:16. | |
and resilience. Over this spending review, we will spend an extra ?700 | :14:17. | :14:21. | |
million on the flood defence measures in England. This is an | :14:22. | :14:27. | |
addition to our existing ?3.2 billion float investment programme. | :14:28. | :14:30. | |
As announced at the budget, the additional investment in flood | :14:31. | :14:35. | |
defences will be split between maintenance and capital spending. | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
Minted in spending will be increased by ?40 million per year taking it to | :14:40. | :14:43. | |
?1 billion in total this Parliament. This will help protect an extra | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
20,000 homes by keeping existing defences operational. In the budget, | :14:48. | :14:52. | |
the Government also announced over ?150 million of its additional | :14:53. | :14:55. | |
capital spending which will fund schemes affected by last December's | :14:56. | :15:01. | |
funds. This will include ?150 million per Yorkshire, with schemes | :15:02. | :15:06. | |
in Leeds and the Calder Valley to protect 300,000 homes and 7000 | :15:07. | :15:10. | |
businesses. ?33 million will also be invested in Cumbria to better | :15:11. | :15:16. | |
protect 1700 properties and key local infrastructure. The findings | :15:17. | :15:19. | |
of the national flood resilience review which is considering the | :15:20. | :15:22. | |
resilience ever committees and infrastructure will help the | :15:23. | :15:25. | |
Government decide how remaining funding is to be spent and it will | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
report in the autumn. As flood defence spending is a devolved | :15:31. | :15:34. | |
matter, the Barnett Formula will be applied in the normal way and | :15:35. | :15:38. | |
funding applied to the devolved administration in line with that | :15:39. | :15:41. | |
been spent in England. The new standard rate of insurance premium | :15:42. | :15:45. | |
tax will be 10% and will take effect from the 1st of October 2016. This | :15:46. | :15:52. | |
change will affect directly all insurers who write premiums for | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
general insurance. It may also affect businesses and households who | :15:57. | :15:59. | |
purchase general insurance at those insurers choose to pass on the | :16:00. | :16:02. | |
additional cost of the tax to the customers. It is a tax on insurers | :16:03. | :16:08. | |
and so it is for insurers to decide whether to adjust their prices in | :16:09. | :16:12. | |
response to this great change. Many factors affect the cost of | :16:13. | :16:15. | |
insurance, these include the insurers's assessment of risk, can | :16:16. | :16:19. | |
petition in the market and how will the insurer's investment report -- | :16:20. | :16:24. | |
performing. They also affect pricing and have benefited from cuts to | :16:25. | :16:28. | |
corporation tax. Even if insurers decide to pass on the entire impact | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
of the rate change, this will add about ?1 to the average home and | :16:34. | :16:37. | |
contents policies ensuring the and ?2 to the average motor insurance | :16:38. | :16:44. | |
policy. Increasing the standard rate of insurance premium tax by 0.5% | :16:45. | :16:50. | |
will raise revenue to invest in flood defence and resilience which | :16:51. | :16:53. | |
will enable us to better protect against floods such as those we saw | :16:54. | :16:57. | |
last winter. I move that this clause stands part of the bill. Thank you. | :16:58. | :17:05. | |
I appreciate being given the chance to talk about insurance premium tax. | :17:06. | :17:10. | |
Insurance premium tax is something that the SNP raised at some length | :17:11. | :17:17. | |
last year because the UK Government last year increased the tax by about | :17:18. | :17:23. | |
3.5%, it went up by 6% to nine have percent. We were bit concerned that | :17:24. | :17:29. | |
that was an incredible hike with very little warning and that it set | :17:30. | :17:34. | |
a possible president. In terms of the problems with this, I want to be | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
clear that we are not speaking against additional money being spent | :17:40. | :17:42. | |
on flood defences. That's a great idea with the climate change that we | :17:43. | :17:46. | |
are facing and with the devastating impact has been an committees. I can | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
understand completely why the Government is choosing to spend | :17:51. | :17:53. | |
money on that. My issue is with the fact that insurance premium tax is | :17:54. | :17:58. | |
possibly the wrong way through which to do it. I don't want people to be | :17:59. | :18:02. | |
discouraged from engaging with insurance. I don't want people to | :18:03. | :18:07. | |
not want to take out insurance on this basis. I understand what the | :18:08. | :18:10. | |
minister says about the fact that this could be a minor change to | :18:11. | :18:15. | |
people's bill. It's not a significant amount of money but my | :18:16. | :18:19. | |
concern is not what the 0.5% but with the fact that this sets a | :18:20. | :18:24. | |
precedent. This and last year, and concerned that the UK Government | :18:25. | :18:28. | |
will decide to increase this further from the level it is now going to | :18:29. | :18:32. | |
and that's my major concern with this issue. One of the things that | :18:33. | :18:39. | |
the Chancellor pointed out this morning that the UK's economy is | :18:40. | :18:45. | |
currently volatile, the markets are volatile and were going to have | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
continued volatility. With that situation, we don't want people to | :18:51. | :18:53. | |
be worried about their finances going into the future and to not | :18:54. | :18:56. | |
take out insurance because they don't know how the financial | :18:57. | :19:01. | |
situation is going to work. Because things are so uncertain at the | :19:02. | :19:04. | |
moment with the economy, we need to make sure that we are not | :19:05. | :19:08. | |
discouraging people from taking out insurance. It's necessary to have | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
home and motor insurance, particularly with the climate change | :19:13. | :19:15. | |
problem were having at the moment. Home insurance, the premiums have | :19:16. | :19:20. | |
increased -- increased significantly and although one kind will be the | :19:21. | :19:23. | |
average increase on insurance, those people that have been hit by | :19:24. | :19:27. | |
flooding owner having massive premiums to pay and it's likely that | :19:28. | :19:31. | |
the 0.5% increase will disproportionately impact them and | :19:32. | :19:35. | |
they're already having to pay increase premiums. I want to make | :19:36. | :19:38. | |
clear that were not intend to push that about so we would make people | :19:39. | :19:43. | |
stay here any longer than we have two but I appreciate the chance I | :19:44. | :19:48. | |
want to make clear that our issues are with the longer term for this. | :19:49. | :19:52. | |
0.5% is fairly minor but it continues to rise year-on-year, | :19:53. | :19:59. | |
that's going to be an added issue for household budgets and it's going | :20:00. | :20:03. | |
to disproportionately impact on people negatively each year. Thank | :20:04. | :20:10. | |
you very much. Thank you, Mr Chairman. I'm pleased to contribute | :20:11. | :20:16. | |
to this debate to speak to the SNP and the contributions by members on | :20:17. | :20:21. | |
each side. As the financial Secretary has is said, this finance | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
bill is rooted in unfairness and we are concerned that this tax change | :20:27. | :20:29. | |
may further in gender that unfairness of it is passed on to | :20:30. | :20:36. | |
customers. As we have already heard, clause one to nine increases the | :20:37. | :20:39. | |
standard rate of insurance premium tax from 9.5% to 10%, initially from | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
this October and with all premiums, including those in the special | :20:46. | :20:49. | |
accounting scheme, subject to it from February 2000 and 17. The | :20:50. | :20:53. | |
Chancellor also announced in the budget that the funds generated by | :20:54. | :20:56. | |
this increase will be allocated to increase spending in flood defences. | :20:57. | :21:04. | |
Mr Chairman, how concern is how does this affect the insurance market? | :21:05. | :21:08. | |
How does in fact those millions of customers who need to access | :21:09. | :21:11. | |
insurance and how effectively will it deliver for flood defences that | :21:12. | :21:15. | |
we so desperately need's this is the third increase in insurance premium | :21:16. | :21:20. | |
tax under this Chancellor after the increase in 2011 and that made | :21:21. | :21:26. | |
Finance Bill last year. The first increase was from 5% to 6%, a | :21:27. | :21:33. | |
comparative leap of 20%, last year 's increase was from 6% to 9.5% then | :21:34. | :21:41. | |
the 58% leap, this year's not .5 increase to 10% of beer | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
comparatively smaller. I do know that some insurance companies have | :21:47. | :21:52. | |
welcomed that they rise was not larger but it does follow hot on the | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
heels of the previous change. The frequency of increases as picking up | :21:59. | :22:01. | |
and the frequency of these rate rises is causing concern and I do | :22:02. | :22:09. | |
note, Mr Chairman, that then blocked and of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said, | :22:10. | :22:12. | |
back in March, to quote, the concern to many insurers is the prospect of | :22:13. | :22:21. | |
gradual but frequent rate rises. And David from the Association British | :22:22. | :22:24. | |
industry recently said that they have urged HM Treasury and HMI seat | :22:25. | :22:30. | |
to revisit the arrangements for how rises are implemented in order to | :22:31. | :22:35. | |
put members on a clear fitting in future rises come. Perhaps, Mr | :22:36. | :22:39. | |
Chairman, the Minister could put us straight on whether the Government | :22:40. | :22:42. | |
expects to hold the current rate where it is after this finance bill | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
for the next five years or just a year's and will be see if further | :22:48. | :22:53. | |
change in the Autumn Statement? I am sure, Mr Chairman, that the industry | :22:54. | :22:57. | |
and consumer groups and indeed, policyholders, will be hanging onto | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
this debate. The latest increase brings the standard rates of the tax | :23:02. | :23:08. | |
up to a total of ten per cent and that is the Dublin, 100% increase, | :23:09. | :23:15. | |
since 2011. Cumulatively, these three rate rises passed on to | :23:16. | :23:19. | |
customers, can potentially have a real impact on disposable income and | :23:20. | :23:24. | |
a real impact on policy uptake. We understand that this change will | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
impact on 26 million drivers and 20 million households. It will also hit | :23:29. | :23:36. | |
3 million pet policies and 3 million private medical policies. And our | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
concern is in that the industry will pass on this cost to its customers. | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
Money-saving expert, put it most bluntly in their immediate comment. | :23:46. | :23:50. | |
They said, Mr Chairman, that millions of households and motorists | :23:51. | :23:54. | |
will pay more. A further rise in the cost of pets, car, mobile contents, | :23:55. | :23:59. | |
buildings and private medical insurance. James Dalton, director of | :24:00. | :24:06. | |
the General insurance policy Association of British insurers, | :24:07. | :24:09. | |
said another increase in insurance premium tax will be a breed in the | :24:10. | :24:13. | |
responsible that targets those who do the right thing. If we hit those | :24:14. | :24:17. | |
on low incomes, it increases the risk that some people reduce their | :24:18. | :24:25. | |
cover or stop insuring altogether. The association chartered certified | :24:26. | :24:28. | |
accountants also said the rise will affect anyone who has the home or | :24:29. | :24:32. | |
car insurance for ever the left. More recently in the last few weeks, | :24:33. | :24:38. | |
the AA has published its latest British insurance premium index, | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
covering the first few months of 2016. It found the average coated | :24:43. | :24:48. | |
premium, the average of the five cheapest quotes freight customers in | :24:49. | :24:52. | |
a variety of scenarios, has jumped. It has jumped by 5.4% to ?114 .52 a | :24:53. | :24:59. | |
year at the end of March when the 16. Mr Chairman, the emerging | :25:00. | :25:06. | |
evidence is of an increase in cost of insurance to the customer. I will | :25:07. | :25:11. | |
come to the issue of flood defences afterwards but the Chancellor did | :25:12. | :25:14. | |
state during his budget speech that this measure is also intended to | :25:15. | :25:20. | |
help fund the cost of flood defences that he wants to raise the issue of | :25:21. | :25:25. | |
flood insurance, including the flood rescreening which is already | :25:26. | :25:30. | |
increasing costs for customers. We, on these benches, of course support | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
the introduction of flood but since insurers are having to be a total of | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
180,000,002 flood rate, that is being passed on. In a survey by the | :25:41. | :25:45. | |
Financial Times, seven out of the ten largest home insurers said they | :25:46. | :25:51. | |
would pass all or some of the levy directly to customers. I understand, | :25:52. | :25:57. | |
Mr Chairman, that 350,000 properties are currently expected to benefit | :25:58. | :26:00. | |
and we believe it's vital that those in flood prone areas can access the | :26:01. | :26:05. | |
vital insurance they need. Particularly so if the instances of | :26:06. | :26:10. | |
flooding as a result of climate change and appeared to be an | :26:11. | :26:13. | |
increase. If we understand that insurance premium tax and the flood | :26:14. | :26:18. | |
reliving their being passed on to customers, what is potential impact | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
of that? Our concern is what this will mean in terms of take-up for | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
those on the margins, those hit by other attacks on income in this | :26:29. | :26:32. | |
finance bill and in the Chancellor's budget and, who knows, in his | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
emergency budget to come and those hit by excessive cuts to pay, cuts | :26:37. | :26:39. | |
to pensions and protection of welfare payments over the last six | :26:40. | :26:45. | |
years. The Government policy paper relating to be change in this bill | :26:46. | :26:50. | |
says, as follows, the measure is expected to have a small impact on | :26:51. | :26:54. | |
individuals and households perched on a insurance which is not exempt | :26:55. | :27:00. | |
from IPT. If insurances... I would like to take this opportunity to ask | :27:01. | :27:07. | |
the minister what does a small impact mean? Which individuals and | :27:08. | :27:10. | |
households are being impacted upon and what discussions to the Treasury | :27:11. | :27:14. | |
hold on a likelihood of the increase being passed on to customers, both | :27:15. | :27:20. | |
with insurance providers and also with consumer groups? The | :27:21. | :27:24. | |
Government, policy paper also says that no equality is impacts have | :27:25. | :27:31. | |
been identified. The Association of British insurers has highlighted | :27:32. | :27:35. | |
that many families, however, face insurance bills around ?100 higher | :27:36. | :27:41. | |
as a result of last year's increase. We are concerned that this is the | :27:42. | :27:45. | |
tax burden that will ultimately be paid by ordinary people taking the | :27:46. | :27:47. | |
responsible approach and insuring their homes and motor vehicles. What | :27:48. | :27:54. | |
will this mean to those on lower incomes? Will younger or older | :27:55. | :27:59. | |
drivers be disproportionately, and firstly affected and can be Minister | :28:00. | :28:03. | |
say how the impact on this change will be monitored? We are concerned | :28:04. | :28:08. | |
about the impact of rising costs and this contributes to our overall | :28:09. | :28:12. | |
concerns about this finance bill as a whole and that is why when that | :28:13. | :28:17. | |
last changed to insurance premium tax was discussed in the previous | :28:18. | :28:21. | |
finance bill just a few months ago, the member for Worsley and Eccles | :28:22. | :28:26. | |
size moved an amendment. In last year's finance bill in the first day | :28:27. | :28:31. | |
of the committee, the Labour benches put forward an amendment. We were | :28:32. | :28:35. | |
seeking a review of the impact of the then more significant rise. | :28:36. | :28:40. | |
We saw the review after they want passing of the act to look at the | :28:41. | :28:46. | |
impact of any further rise any standard rate insurance premium tax, | :28:47. | :28:51. | |
with particular attention of the impact on the price charge of | :28:52. | :28:54. | |
insurance policies and the cake top of insurance policies. Mr Channon, | :28:55. | :29:03. | |
these concerns do still stand. -- chairman. When the Government last | :29:04. | :29:19. | |
increased IgG in 2007 -- IPT. They said they were not denying it, they | :29:20. | :29:23. | |
simply needed the money. In September last year, the minister | :29:24. | :29:27. | |
said, we expect that any impact on consumers will be modest but he also | :29:28. | :29:33. | |
said that the average household expenditure and insurance increased | :29:34. | :29:40. | |
by 70p per week. Here we are again. I want to ask the Minister can | :29:41. | :29:44. | |
confirm it is your's increase will be asked to the best of the | :29:45. | :29:48. | |
Minister's knowledge and with the Minister still picked to those | :29:49. | :29:53. | |
figures? We have already asked that the previous increases subject to | :29:54. | :29:56. | |
review and we still do believe that such a review is important so that | :29:57. | :30:00. | |
we have the clear evidence before us of the impact on customers. That is | :30:01. | :30:05. | |
our position and that is why they are not supporting the bad part | :30:06. | :30:11. | |
tonight, though we do recognise the concerns of the ex-MP. Much of our | :30:12. | :30:18. | |
review of the bill requires change -- S NP. I also want to Aske | :30:19. | :30:22. | |
question of the flood defence spending. That this tax rise will | :30:23. | :30:31. | |
find. Millions of properties are at risk of flooding from surface water, | :30:32. | :30:37. | |
the sea, and other things in England. The whole of the UK needs | :30:38. | :30:46. | |
?1.1 billion of funding. There was a very significant increase in flood | :30:47. | :30:53. | |
defence spending from 2007 to 2010. Spending increased by three quarters | :30:54. | :30:58. | |
in real terms. We all remember who was in Government then. We know that | :30:59. | :31:04. | |
the spending and maintaining of of flood defences fell at the lack of | :31:05. | :31:10. | |
until 2014 and we know which covenant was in power then. Given | :31:11. | :31:15. | |
the dots, given the cut we know are being imposed, will be ?700 million | :31:16. | :31:24. | |
bonus to insurance premium tax deliver sustainable and equitable | :31:25. | :31:30. | |
funding? Will the committee on climate change recently concluded | :31:31. | :31:33. | |
that the ?500 million gap has emerged between what the coalition | :31:34. | :31:39. | |
spent in 2015 and what is required to keep pace with climate change. | :31:40. | :31:44. | |
Friends of the Earth acknowledged that the Chancellor has closed the | :31:45. | :31:48. | |
gap and, of course, we welcome that. But the Chancellorsville to ensure | :31:49. | :31:55. | |
future investment keeps pace with flood risk. -- Chancellor needs to | :31:56. | :32:04. | |
ensure. The money that must be spent is welcomed, and welcomed by those | :32:05. | :32:09. | |
on this side of the house. Does it deliver what we need and isn't | :32:10. | :32:13. | |
sustainable? I would like the Minister to comment about how the | :32:14. | :32:22. | |
decision was made to, "Technically hypothecated" the measure for flood | :32:23. | :32:26. | |
defences and what the rationale is. There are few and those -- few | :32:27. | :32:32. | |
instances of hypothecated tax measures. We need to adapt the need | :32:33. | :32:38. | |
of flood insurance and provision of flood defences and that is not a | :32:39. | :32:41. | |
nasty case of those paying other forms, such as pet insurance, | :32:42. | :32:46. | |
currently flood defences from general taxation. Likely be increase | :32:47. | :32:51. | |
of ?700 million not be found general taxation? Due Evans, at the | :32:52. | :32:57. | |
Association of British insurers, has argued against the technical | :32:58. | :33:01. | |
hypothecation and wrote in his reflection on the budget that he | :33:02. | :33:05. | |
believes, in his words, that it is a slippery slope and we have to | :33:06. | :33:08. | |
continue to argue for all flood defence spending to come from | :33:09. | :33:13. | |
central expenditure. Can ministers say something about the decision to | :33:14. | :33:18. | |
find flood defence spending to this new tax increase? Was it something | :33:19. | :33:22. | |
that was discussed with flood insurers in a band? How were they | :33:23. | :33:27. | |
monitor how the 700 million and stated is spent and, as a number of | :33:28. | :33:33. | |
flooding Greece, will it be increase? Fundamentally, so it is on | :33:34. | :33:38. | |
the record, can the Minister confirm whether or not hypothecation will | :33:39. | :33:46. | |
actually take place? The Chancellor has many representations, Golden | :33:47. | :34:00. | |
Valley is one of those, who are calling for funding for flood | :34:01. | :34:05. | |
defence. I would highlight recent contributions that my honourable | :34:06. | :34:08. | |
friend, the member for the left, my honourable friend, from your | :34:09. | :34:16. | |
central, raised these points about efficiency and flood plans. The | :34:17. | :34:23. | |
extra funding meant ?150 million extra in Yorkshire, covering Golden | :34:24. | :34:29. | |
Valley and ?150 million extra in Calder Valley. This translates to | :34:30. | :34:37. | |
?355 million will be, when the Environment Agency in 2011 said the | :34:38. | :34:45. | |
river in the Leeds needed more than this, ?360 million, planned. In this | :34:46. | :34:50. | |
area, we are likely to increase in unique identifying resources to fund | :34:51. | :34:55. | |
flood prevention measures. Once the funds from the increase insurance is | :34:56. | :34:59. | |
brilliant tax are exhausted, will the governments simply continue to | :35:00. | :35:04. | |
raise its? So, Mr Chairman, I would question whether this is enough and | :35:05. | :35:09. | |
whether seeking to drive extra cash to insurance premium tax is a | :35:10. | :35:13. | |
stopgap to patch things up. Patching things up is not enough, given the | :35:14. | :35:20. | |
impact of climate change and the increasing likelihood of further | :35:21. | :35:23. | |
flooding. Patching up is all we get from a governments that is prepared | :35:24. | :35:26. | |
to slash spending on welfare, while giving freebies to the wealthiest in | :35:27. | :35:31. | |
Capital Gains Tax. We are never going to monitor the impact of the | :35:32. | :35:36. | |
rise of insurance premium tax, its effect on the industry, its effect | :35:37. | :35:41. | |
on customers and also it effectiveness in delivering the | :35:42. | :35:44. | |
flood defence we need. We will not be voting on the stand part and we | :35:45. | :35:49. | |
will continue oppose this Finance Bill. Well, if I know that the | :35:50. | :35:58. | |
opposition is having a hard time being in opposition at the moment | :35:59. | :36:03. | |
but I think it can only be left to the imagination how hard they might | :36:04. | :36:06. | |
find it with the difficult choices that people who make Government. | :36:07. | :36:12. | |
Because what I can say is that I think we all agree that flood | :36:13. | :36:16. | |
defence spending is an incredibly important part of what we need to do | :36:17. | :36:24. | |
how Archimedes. The come as a Leeds NP, I would've liked to have your | :36:25. | :36:27. | |
welcome and more about the additional spending that has been | :36:28. | :36:32. | |
given to flood defences in his constituency. I also represent a | :36:33. | :36:41. | |
very flood prone area, and now one in Government argues for more money | :36:42. | :36:48. | |
for flood defence is more than I do. It is very important that we | :36:49. | :36:52. | |
continue to find ways to make our country more resilient to what will | :36:53. | :36:58. | |
occur on unpredictable occasions when we have the kind of weather | :36:59. | :37:07. | |
that we had last winter. The honourable lady to represent | :37:08. | :37:13. | |
Aberdeen North was right in pointing out the importance of flood defence | :37:14. | :37:17. | |
spending. She was concerned about the fact that this budget raises | :37:18. | :37:23. | |
insurance premium tax by 0.5% and she asked whether that was our | :37:24. | :37:30. | |
policy to make any further changes to insurance premium tax. There are, | :37:31. | :37:35. | |
I will just have to give her, I'm afraid, the standard Treasury | :37:36. | :37:38. | |
Minister answer, which she can probably guess, which is that the | :37:39. | :37:41. | |
Government eats all taxes under review. This increase, of 0.5%, as | :37:42. | :37:50. | |
others have pointed out with something that is considerably less | :37:51. | :37:58. | |
than what is feared at the time. In terms of the availability of flood | :37:59. | :38:03. | |
insurance for homeowners, I think the flood initiative has been very | :38:04. | :38:09. | |
helpful and beneficial in making sure that those homeowners who have | :38:10. | :38:14. | |
perhaps in the past found it difficult to access affordable flood | :38:15. | :38:19. | |
insurance are able to continue to access it. That is something I think | :38:20. | :38:23. | |
that has been very widely welcomed by those homeowners across the | :38:24. | :38:31. | |
country. Certainly, in terms of my own constituency experience, it is | :38:32. | :38:33. | |
very important that people shop around. That they shop around if | :38:34. | :38:43. | |
there are particular insurer is is being difficult. There is a brokers | :38:44. | :38:49. | |
Association that can be very helpful in terms of alternatives. The | :38:50. | :38:55. | |
honourable gentleman asks about hypothecation. He also asked about | :38:56. | :39:00. | |
the amount of rate increases. We have to keep this in perspective. | :39:01. | :39:04. | |
Hello I do welcome the Labour Party's southern welcoming of lower | :39:05. | :39:11. | |
taxes, something I hope all parties can subscribe to. -- scored in | :39:12. | :39:17. | |
welcoming. It is worth putting in perspective Andy Donald gentleman | :39:18. | :39:22. | |
asked what it will actually cost. This will cost, in terms of the | :39:23. | :39:26. | |
average annual combined contents and building insurance, this measure | :39:27. | :39:30. | |
would add just ?1 to the annual bills, or 2p per week. Engines of | :39:31. | :39:38. | |
the average motor insurance premium, it will add just ?2 per year, or 4p | :39:39. | :39:44. | |
per week. Bearing in mind that just going from one petrol station to a | :39:45. | :39:48. | |
slightly better value petrol station can save you considerably more than | :39:49. | :39:51. | |
that, I think that does this measure into perspective, and presumably... | :39:52. | :39:58. | |
I can't imagine there is anything better or more exciting on | :39:59. | :40:00. | |
television at the moment than this but it may explain the fact that the | :40:01. | :40:07. | |
chamber is not a vigorously attended. With those points and six, | :40:08. | :40:14. | |
the link that we have made, rather than explicit hypothecation is | :40:15. | :40:20. | |
something that I think men these measures have been pretty widely | :40:21. | :40:26. | |
welcomed by all commentators. And without any more and you have given | :40:27. | :40:32. | |
rival attractions on television, I would like to commend this clause to | :40:33. | :40:39. | |
the house. The question is that was one to nine stand part of the As | :40:40. | :40:42. | |
many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, "no".. I | :40:43. | :40:45. | |
think the ayes have it, the ayes have it. The wit to move the | :40:46. | :40:53. | |
progress motion. The question is that I do know what progress and as | :40:54. | :40:57. | |
leave to say no again. As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To | :40:58. | :41:01. | |
the contrary, "no". The ayes have it, the ayes have it. | :41:02. | :41:26. | |
I beg to move this house to now add your own. -- Genaro adjourn. The | :41:27. | :41:43. | |
question is as an the order paper. As many as are of the opinion, say | :41:44. | :41:46. | |
"aye". To the contrary, "no". The ayes habit. The question is as on | :41:47. | :41:52. | |
the order paper. As many as are of the opinion, say "aye". To the | :41:53. | :41:55. | |
contrary, "no". The ayes have it. The ayes have it. I beg to move this | :41:56. | :42:08. | |
house to now add you're in. -- adjourn thank you. | :42:09. | :42:11. | |
This debate comes across the backdrop of the tumultuous events | :42:12. | :42:14. | |
that you place in the UK following the referendum at Thursday. I | :42:15. | :42:18. | |
applied for the debate before that time so I am grateful that I have | :42:19. | :42:25. | |
been granted it. I also wanted thank the library volunteer the timely | :42:26. | :42:27. | |
responses to some of the queries I have had. Just before the historic | :42:28. | :42:33. | |
vote on the EU, students were receiving statement of their loans | :42:34. | :42:35. | |
with the total figure, which left many of them in shock. On a loan of | :42:36. | :42:44. | |
?27,000, the figure was ?45,000. I want to acknowledge the fact that | :42:45. | :42:49. | |
young people between the ages of 18-25 voted overwhelmingly by 75% to | :42:50. | :42:53. | |
stay in the EU. We need to make sure we do not forget them and their | :42:54. | :42:59. | |
future. I want to focus on the regulations, the threshold and | :43:00. | :43:03. | |
concerned about the contract. The regulations brought any changes to | :43:04. | :43:06. | |
the threshold of interest-rate transacted in 2012, they were the | :43:07. | :43:11. | |
education student loans through repayment amendment which came into | :43:12. | :43:19. | |
force on June 2012. The versions or check out the alone affected by | :43:20. | :43:21. | |
these regulations have just graduated. In those regulations, | :43:22. | :43:27. | |
tuition fees and travel, a higher threshold at which the alone was | :43:28. | :43:34. | |
repaid with established of ?21,000 and a new maximum rate of interest | :43:35. | :43:38. | |
for the loans using the retail price index last be present. Not content | :43:39. | :43:44. | |
to treble tuition fees, the Government in the summer budget of | :43:45. | :43:47. | |
2015 throws the threshold of ?21,000. | :43:48. | :43:53. | |
In December 2010, the then Minister made a statement in which he said, | :43:54. | :44:03. | |
we will increase the repayment threshold to 21000 and will there | :44:04. | :44:07. | |
after increase it periodically to reflect earnings and 9% will apply | :44:08. | :44:13. | |
to income above 21,000, raising the threshold will reduce the monthly | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
income repayments for every single graduate. But then in July, the | :44:18. | :44:24. | |
Government consulted on freezing the repayment threshold. In November | :44:25. | :44:30. | |
2015, Debbie sponsors showed that 84% were against freezing the | :44:31. | :44:35. | |
repayment threshold for all post-2012 borrowers. The Government | :44:36. | :44:40. | |
went ahead against the evidence to freeze the repayment threshold until | :44:41. | :44:46. | |
April 20 21. I want to ask the Minister, why did the Government do | :44:47. | :44:49. | |
that in the face of all that evidence? Is it not the case of | :44:50. | :44:55. | |
misleading Parliament? Minister will it statement said that he was going | :44:56. | :45:00. | |
to increase the threshold. The consultation responses and the | :45:01. | :45:03. | |
Government action against all the evidence that was put before them. | :45:04. | :45:08. | |
By the Government's owner figures on the repayment, should the iniquity | :45:09. | :45:13. | |
of this. It is far from being progressive as the ministers pointed | :45:14. | :45:18. | |
out that this new scheme. Graduates on 21 to 30,000 will have to pay | :45:19. | :45:24. | |
?6,100 more. Those aren't over 40,000 will pay only ?400 extra and | :45:25. | :45:30. | |
to those on 50,000 will pay only ?200. I did seek permission from the | :45:31. | :45:43. | |
honourable lady. Absolutely no problem in intervening but just gave | :45:44. | :45:47. | |
a little bit longer than walking into the chamber to intervene. The | :45:48. | :45:50. | |
night wouldn't be the same without you. You are most kind. I spoke to | :45:51. | :45:57. | |
the honourable lady beforehand. I just want to put on record for those | :45:58. | :46:03. | |
in Northern Ireland. Those who own more than 17300 per year, the | :46:04. | :46:07. | |
interest rates alone is currently one have percent an undergraduate | :46:08. | :46:12. | |
and, a bigger proportion of the loan baby P. Those who benefit most from | :46:13. | :46:17. | |
their degree than those who do not benefit as much. Does the honourable | :46:18. | :46:22. | |
lady agree with me that you should look at the Northern Ireland | :46:23. | :46:25. | |
perspective on what we have done there which seems to be a very | :46:26. | :46:31. | |
system? Thank you. In his defence, most of us were taken by surprise | :46:32. | :46:36. | |
that I was an early. I absolutely agree with him, that seems to be a | :46:37. | :46:44. | |
much fairer system. I don't call that progressive, the figures I have | :46:45. | :46:47. | |
just given, and neither do the Institute for Fiscal Studies that | :46:48. | :46:50. | |
found that the impact of freezing had threshold was that the largest | :46:51. | :46:53. | |
increase in a proportion of earnings was among the lower earners. Can the | :46:54. | :46:58. | |
Government explain why it has chosen to link this funding system less | :46:59. | :47:02. | |
progressive by removing the central elements of the 2012 reforms and | :47:03. | :47:09. | |
what of women and disabled graduates? They are most likely to | :47:10. | :47:14. | |
be on salaries in the region of 21,000 to 30000 and the Government | :47:15. | :47:18. | |
has acknowledged this. Let me give an example. In the 2013 cohort, 8000 | :47:19. | :47:25. | |
more women were paid in that range and men. Six months after | :47:26. | :47:31. | |
graduation. 51% of the M E a graduates are employed in that range | :47:32. | :47:36. | |
compared to 45% of their white graduate counterparts. Could I ask | :47:37. | :47:40. | |
the Minister, what measures have the Government implement to mitigate | :47:41. | :47:42. | |
against the disproportionate effect on those on comes, women, disabled | :47:43. | :47:50. | |
graduates and BM E a graduates? As those groups earn less than other | :47:51. | :47:54. | |
graduates, they are most likely to be middle earners, those who pays | :47:55. | :47:58. | |
the largest absolute increase in repayments. What of prescriptive | :47:59. | :48:03. | |
students to the nursing profession who will have lots of debts? The | :48:04. | :48:08. | |
concerned about the change to a based system which will leave many | :48:09. | :48:13. | |
nursing student with debts of 60,000 for a three-year degree. They are | :48:14. | :48:17. | |
desperately in need of nurses from here who are trained and qualified | :48:18. | :48:23. | |
in this country. The NUS, which represents more than 95% of all | :48:24. | :48:26. | |
higher education and further education units, August seven | :48:27. | :48:30. | |
million students, have expressed their concerns. They say that the | :48:31. | :48:33. | |
repayment threshold will not increase in line with earnings so | :48:34. | :48:36. | |
students have to start repaying their loans on a lower income. | :48:37. | :48:41. | |
Secondly, those ongoing comes pay more than they otherwise would and | :48:42. | :48:45. | |
thirdly, they are concerned that the Government can change her -- turns | :48:46. | :48:51. | |
retrospectively and the impact that will have an existing borrowers | :48:52. | :48:54. | |
which they say that a terrifying precedent. I will congratulate on | :48:55. | :49:03. | |
securing this debate. Despite having graduated in 2001, I am still paying | :49:04. | :49:06. | |
off student loans but I fall under the old system where the threshold | :49:07. | :49:14. | |
is the median wage but that means it can go up and down depending on your | :49:15. | :49:18. | |
earnings. I have paid off student debt for a while, gone back down | :49:19. | :49:22. | |
below the medium and then re-accumulative interest which has | :49:23. | :49:26. | |
basically negated the payments that I previously made. Does she share my | :49:27. | :49:30. | |
concern about the outsourcing or the selling off of student loans and the | :49:31. | :49:34. | |
continual of doing this by the Government? It just seems to be a | :49:35. | :49:37. | |
never ending chain and it's not clear who benefits from that others | :49:38. | :49:40. | |
in the private companies who own these loans. I absolutely agree with | :49:41. | :49:46. | |
team and I'm coming onto an aspect where students are and student loans | :49:47. | :49:51. | |
are to do differently from any other ordinary loans. Turning to the | :49:52. | :49:56. | |
contract, the Government is asking Mr Deputy Speaker, 17 and | :49:57. | :49:59. | |
18-year-olds to look at contract terms and understand them. They are | :50:00. | :50:04. | |
not given financial advisers are lawyers, that's when they go to | :50:05. | :50:07. | |
universities that become those professions. The rule of their | :50:08. | :50:12. | |
teachers is doing courage and is to go to university, not to give | :50:13. | :50:15. | |
financial advice. Under the new system of 2012, this can vary across | :50:16. | :50:24. | |
the lifetime of the loan. Another great when they graduate but on the | :50:25. | :50:28. | |
repayment threshold and another rate when they are over the threshold. I | :50:29. | :50:35. | |
would argue that is a complicated system unlike my other honourable | :50:36. | :50:39. | |
members who have a much clearer system. How is a 17 or 18-year-old | :50:40. | :50:45. | |
expected to understand these terms? Especially when the table of | :50:46. | :50:49. | |
circumstances are not set out in a contract or attached to it and they | :50:50. | :50:53. | |
receive no financial advice? The guidelines and terms I am told I set | :50:54. | :50:58. | |
out in a separate convocation and Asians are told to look online to | :50:59. | :51:04. | |
look at these documents. The information provided in the | :51:05. | :51:06. | |
representations that I made that leads them to sign the contract | :51:07. | :51:12. | |
could be, on the face of it, a form of mis-selling. The contract terms | :51:13. | :51:16. | |
could be described as unfair could be terms which could be described as | :51:17. | :51:21. | |
void for uncertainty because it is not clear on the face of the | :51:22. | :51:24. | |
contract wattage and are signing up to. There are no clear terms of | :51:25. | :51:30. | |
exactly what they have to repay. No financial information is provided, | :51:31. | :51:33. | |
such as sitting down in front of the financial adviser. When we take out | :51:34. | :51:39. | |
a mortgage, we have someone sitting down in front of us explaining | :51:40. | :51:42. | |
everything, the students aren't even that. Yet, they're expected to sign | :51:43. | :51:47. | |
up to pay back a loan, in some instances ?45,000, we need to be | :51:48. | :51:54. | |
able to protect our young people. Worse still, student loans are not | :51:55. | :51:58. | |
subject to financial regulations and consumer protections as for other | :51:59. | :52:03. | |
loan agreements. That must change. There is an opportunity which can | :52:04. | :52:07. | |
arise in the higher education and research bill to add that extra | :52:08. | :52:10. | |
regulatory protection. What assessment has the Government made | :52:11. | :52:14. | |
that student loan agreements are exempted from consumer credit | :52:15. | :52:18. | |
protection unlike other loans and why does the Government not want to | :52:19. | :52:22. | |
protect our young people? Can the Minister confirm whether there are | :52:23. | :52:30. | |
any plans to plan other terms and conditions to existing borrowers? It | :52:31. | :52:32. | |
can't be right that the Bank of England base rate is your .5% and | :52:33. | :52:38. | |
students are paid retail Price index plus 2% under loans. How can we | :52:39. | :52:43. | |
treat our young people the fewer the future? No wonder they are the | :52:44. | :52:47. | |
welders, confused and upset. The minister comes to the house to see | :52:48. | :52:51. | |
double B and increasingly threshold and the Government ignores that. The | :52:52. | :52:54. | |
consultation gives an 84% response and the Government ignores it and | :52:55. | :52:59. | |
presses ahead with the boys. A young person have to sign a form in | :53:00. | :53:02. | |
contract terms in another document online with three rates of interest. | :53:03. | :53:08. | |
Students should not be burdened by debt but they should enjoy the | :53:09. | :53:10. | |
benefits of the hard work and achievements. Thank you. I would | :53:11. | :53:17. | |
like to congratulate the honourable member for Walsall size in securing | :53:18. | :53:23. | |
this debate. Student debate is an important means for insurance higher | :53:24. | :53:28. | |
education is open to all and I'm happy to respond to her points and | :53:29. | :53:33. | |
other points made in the debate. This Government has done more than | :53:34. | :53:38. | |
any other debate the financing of higher education on to be secure and | :53:39. | :53:41. | |
sustainable footing. England has some of the finest universities and | :53:42. | :53:44. | |
the world and it is vital for our future economic prospects that they | :53:45. | :53:48. | |
remain well funded. Total funding for the sector has increased ?22 | :53:49. | :53:56. | |
billion in 2009 to ?20 billion in 2014, 15 and is forecast to reach | :53:57. | :54:03. | |
?31 billion by 2017, 16. We must ensure our universities have the | :54:04. | :54:06. | |
resources they need and that every student receives a high-quality | :54:07. | :54:10. | |
experience during their time in higher education. When we reformed | :54:11. | :54:15. | |
student finance in 2011, we put in place a progressive system of | :54:16. | :54:19. | |
student loans that means higher education is accessible to all have | :54:20. | :54:22. | |
the potential to benefit from it, irrespective of their ability to | :54:23. | :54:27. | |
pay. The system is working. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds are | :54:28. | :54:30. | |
going to university at a record rate. Up from 13.6% of those from | :54:31. | :54:36. | |
the most disadvantaged backgrounds in 20 nine to 18.5% of those same | :54:37. | :54:43. | |
groups today in 2015. If you are from a disadvantaged background, you | :54:44. | :54:47. | |
are now 36% more likely to go to university than you were under the | :54:48. | :54:52. | |
last Labour Government. The reforms have supported an increase in | :54:53. | :54:55. | |
participation at higher education across the country. In the | :54:56. | :55:01. | |
honourable member 's own constituency, participation has | :55:02. | :55:08. | |
increased from 25.1% in 2010 to 31.4% in 2015. Walsall size now | :55:09. | :55:13. | |
sends it higher proportion of its 18-year-old university than the | :55:14. | :55:16. | |
English average, a reversal of the situation that existed in the last | :55:17. | :55:22. | |
Labour Government. They shouldn't loan system is fair and sustainable. | :55:23. | :55:26. | |
It removes financial barriers that anyone hoping distended and is | :55:27. | :55:30. | |
backed by the taxpayer with outstanding debt written off after | :55:31. | :55:34. | |
30 years. Steelers get a fair deal, graduates only pay back 9% of their | :55:35. | :55:39. | |
earnings above 21000 and enjoy an average wage premium of ?9,500 per | :55:40. | :55:50. | |
year. Over non-graduates. Happily. I admit the point about the system we | :55:51. | :55:54. | |
have in Northern Ireland and how that is much more manageable than | :55:55. | :55:57. | |
the system here in the mainland. As the Minister had the chance to look | :55:58. | :56:01. | |
at the northern Ireland example of how it works and how I think gives | :56:02. | :56:04. | |
better response to the students when it comes to repayment? Thank you. | :56:05. | :56:12. | |
Yes, of course. Higher education has been devolved in Scotland and Wales | :56:13. | :56:16. | |
since 1999 and in Northern Ireland since 2007 and will continue to look | :56:17. | :56:20. | |
at how other nations within the UK choose to allocate public funds to | :56:21. | :56:24. | |
the Highridge edition system and see what lessons there are to be learned | :56:25. | :56:29. | |
from it. We believe we've now got in England, a very and sustainable | :56:30. | :56:34. | |
system of funding. Our higher education system. The ?21,000 | :56:35. | :56:38. | |
threshold is higher than the one we inherited from Labour and is also | :56:39. | :56:44. | |
very on lower earners. The system is also more progressive. Interest | :56:45. | :56:48. | |
rates after graduation increased with income so that higher earners | :56:49. | :56:53. | |
repay more. If you are earning ?21,000 less, the interest late is | :56:54. | :56:57. | |
set at RPI, the loan balance does not increase in real terms. For | :56:58. | :57:01. | |
those graduates who I'm writing this, the interest rate increases to | :57:02. | :57:05. | |
maximum of our PA plus three. It only fair that the graduates who | :57:06. | :57:09. | |
have benefited most from education should pay the most back into the | :57:10. | :57:13. | |
system. Student loans are very different from a mortgage or credit | :57:14. | :57:16. | |
card debt. Repayments are determined by income, not the amount borrowed, | :57:17. | :57:23. | |
graduates are protected if at any point their income drops, so did the | :57:24. | :57:28. | |
repayments. The loans are income contingent so they will only repay | :57:29. | :57:32. | |
if the owner of the threshold and the loans are written off after 30 | :57:33. | :57:35. | |
years, meaning that many graduates will not repay the full amount and | :57:36. | :57:40. | |
this is a crucial part of the taxpayers knowing investment in our | :57:41. | :57:44. | |
country's skills base. Our approach is based on the fundamental | :57:45. | :57:47. | |
principle that a borrower's contributed to the cost of education | :57:48. | :57:51. | |
should be linked to their ability to pay. Graduates benefit from higher | :57:52. | :57:55. | |
earnings than those who do not go to university and we must ensure we | :57:56. | :57:59. | |
maintain a fair balance between taxpayers and graduates in the costs | :58:00. | :58:04. | |
of higher education. It is clearly important that students know what | :58:05. | :58:07. | |
they are signing up to when the agreed to take out the loans. All | :58:08. | :58:11. | |
students are provided with clear information to help them understand | :58:12. | :58:15. | |
what financial support they may be eligible for as well as the interest | :58:16. | :58:18. | |
rates and payment terms that will apply. They must also confirmed that | :58:19. | :58:22. | |
the understand the information before they are granted the loan. | :58:23. | :58:26. | |
All of the information that the SLC provides to James is reviewed | :58:27. | :58:29. | |
regularly to assure that is both accurate and accessible. | :58:30. | :58:34. | |
Let me turn to the threshold freeze which was mentioned in the | :58:35. | :58:43. | |
honourable member's remarks. To sustain better footing, we must ask | :58:44. | :58:47. | |
graduates to meet more of the costs of their studies. It is clear that | :58:48. | :58:50. | |
graduates benefit hugely from higher education. An ad -- on average, | :58:51. | :58:56. | |
graduates earnings are higher than nongraduates. In comparison, ?31,000 | :58:57. | :59:06. | |
to ?21,000 per year. As King graduates to support higher | :59:07. | :59:10. | |
education is asking the taxpayer who will earn much less than those | :59:11. | :59:14. | |
graduates. We did not take the decision to freeze the repayment | :59:15. | :59:17. | |
threshold lightly. We consulted on the changes before they were | :59:18. | :59:22. | |
announced last year and conducted a full quality impact assessment. | :59:23. | :59:27. | |
Graduate earning more than ?21,000 will pay about ?6 per week more than | :59:28. | :59:31. | |
if you had increased the threshold in line with average earnings. This | :59:32. | :59:36. | |
is higher than what we inherited from Labour. This means that they do | :59:37. | :59:40. | |
more of their earnings before they start to repay. A sustainable | :59:41. | :59:46. | |
student finance system enabled us to abolish student number controls, | :59:47. | :59:49. | |
lifting the cap on aspiration and enable more people to receive the | :59:50. | :59:54. | |
benefits of a university education. This is essential if we are to | :59:55. | :59:57. | |
maintain our place as a country in the modern, highly skilled economy. | :59:58. | :00:02. | |
We still spend proportionately fewer people to university to study at | :00:03. | :00:05. | |
undergraduate level than our competitors. She now and 2022 more | :00:06. | :00:10. | |
than half of job vacancies will be in occupations much more likely to | :00:11. | :00:16. | |
employ graduates. If we continue to grow our economy, we must equip our | :00:17. | :00:19. | |
young people with these skills and provocations they will need to | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
vaudeville the rose. Can I thank the Minister for his response? But I | :00:25. | :00:30. | |
have not heard any response to the questions asked and he seems to have | :00:31. | :00:35. | |
ignored the evidence I have given him in terms of the breakdown of | :00:36. | :00:42. | |
those who are overpaying and receive ?40,000 actually paying less. I | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
agree that all the points he makes about people going to university | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
don't actually address the issue of the loans. Could also say, if a | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
student still just as they get, with baby able to apply for a mortgage | :00:55. | :01:00. | |
with that student loan date against their main? Would they be able to? | :01:01. | :01:07. | |
The critical thing is that we have which are higher education finances | :01:08. | :01:10. | |
on a sustainable footing. In order to do that, we have to do makes | :01:11. | :01:15. | |
difficult decisions and freezing the repayment threshold was certainly | :01:16. | :01:22. | |
one of them. It was in an underlying furnace which means they may earn | :01:23. | :01:30. | |
more than nongraduates and have two contribute to the cost of running a | :01:31. | :01:33. | |
big and expanding, and the Castle higher education system. If they do | :01:34. | :01:37. | |
not make a big contribution, the cost of funding that system will | :01:38. | :01:41. | |
fall back on many of her constituents, who did not go to | :01:42. | :01:44. | |
university and did not get a chance to have a higher earning career path | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
over their lifetimes. As a result. That is fundamental furnace, which | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
I'm sure she will appreciate. One point, it is a difference now of | :01:57. | :02:02. | |
ideology. I was lucky to benefit from a free education. I went to | :02:03. | :02:08. | |
university without having to pay. I saved on my grant, which is slightly | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
unusual. They will pay back the taxpayer does not have to pay back. | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
They will be paid rapidly higher rate of tax and a graduate, so they | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
will be putting more back into the economy. But leading students that | :02:21. | :02:26. | |
they get in this way of ?45,000 Minister underlines is not the right | :02:27. | :02:31. | |
in my view. The honourable member was fortunate, in a sense, that she | :02:32. | :02:35. | |
went to university at a time when it was very much smaller system in the | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
country, as a percentage of the 18-19 year cohort when she went to | :02:41. | :02:48. | |
university, when a lot of people do not go to university at all. In the | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
mid-40s, we are in that cohort and it is a big system to run. If you | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
make the cost of that system runs solely on the taxpayer, you put a | :02:58. | :03:02. | |
very big burden on those who are not going to have benefited from the | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
higher earnings part, which, being a graduate gives you. For women, as | :03:07. | :03:12. | |
she will be aware, the lifetime earnings are likely to amount to | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
some ?250,000 more than for a woman who did not go to university. For a | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
man, to something like ?175,000 more. There are significantly higher | :03:22. | :03:27. | |
earning path which is going to university put you on making the | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
amount of debt that you might take on on an income contingent bases | :03:32. | :03:34. | |
look relatively small by comparison when you set the huge lifetime games | :03:35. | :03:38. | |
to higher education against the songs would you take on in debt in | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
order to generate the lifetime games. It is important to barely to | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
some side-by-side when thinking about it. Of course, England is not | :03:47. | :03:50. | |
unique in grappling with these problems. But we are, according to | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
experts in the financing of higher education, such as the OECD, one of | :03:56. | :04:03. | |
the very few countries on the world which has what is came to seem a | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
sustainable solution. -- what is the a stable solution. This been | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
recognised internationally by the OECD, praising our student system as | :04:14. | :04:18. | |
one of the few systems to have figured out a sustainable approach | :04:19. | :04:26. | |
to higher education finance. The honourable member mentioned | :04:27. | :04:31. | |
bursaries and the health... Funding from hell students. At the moment, | :04:32. | :04:34. | |
the presence is admittedly not working for patients, students or | :04:35. | :04:38. | |
for the universities which train them. To deliver more nurses and | :04:39. | :04:42. | |
other health professionals for the NHS, a better funding system for | :04:43. | :04:46. | |
hell students and a sustainable model for universities will need to | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
move fell student grants and bursaries on to the bandage and | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
support system, as we have for all degrees. This means we can move away | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
from centrally proposed student number controls and financial | :05:00. | :05:02. | |
limitations, and as a result, the Department of Health imagine that | :05:03. | :05:09. | |
this will help sustain up to 10,000 health professional training places | :05:10. | :05:13. | |
over this Parliament. Mr Deputy Speaker, that is just one example of | :05:14. | :05:17. | |
why we have one of the best higher education systems and most | :05:18. | :05:19. | |
sustainable higher education systems anywhere in the world. As many as | :05:20. | :05:26. | |
are of the opinion, say "aye". To the contrary, "no". The ayes have | :05:27. | :05:30. | |
it. Order, order. | :05:31. | :05:41. |