10/11/2015 Tuesday in Parliament

Hello and welcome to Tuesday In Parliament,

our look at the best of the day in the Commons and the Lords.

the Government makes clear what it's negotiating for as it fights to get

Its whole aim is to make Harold Wilson's renegotiation look

Will Britain reach its 2020 targets for obtaining power

I recognise, as that letter does, that we don't have

the right policies, particularly in transport and heat, in order to

Labour attacks the Government proposals to alter the rules

I predict from the floor of the House of Commons that there

will be civil disobedience because bad laws need to be changed.

But first, David Cameron has laid out what he's aiming for in

his lengthy attempts to re-negotiate Britain's relationship with the EU.

In his speech at the Royal Institute of International Affairs,

the Prime Minister said he believed his objectives were

"mission possible", though it may be hard work to get there.

Britain needed a model of EU membership, he said, that worked

for Britain and for other countries outside the Eurozone.

And he believed the coming in/out referendum represented a huge

Inside the Commons, David Cameron's goals were set out

First, we want to end the United Kingdom's obligation to work

towards an ever closer union as set out in the treaties.

For many British people, this simply reinforces the sense

of being dragged against our will towards a political union.

Secondly, we want to enable national Parliaments to work together to

block unwanted European legislation, building on the arrangements

Thirdly, we want to see the EU's commitment to subsidiarity fully

implemented, with clear proposals to achieve that.

We believe that if powers do not need to reside in Brussels, they

As the Dutch have said, the ambition should be Europe where necessary,

We must also reduce the pull factor drawing migrants to the UK to take

low-skilled jobs, expecting their salary to be subsidised

We have proposed that people coming to Britain should live here

and contribute for four years before they qualify for in-work

benefits or social housing, and that we should end the practice

The Prime Minister has said and he repeated this morning that

should his concerns fall on deaf ears, he rules nothing out, but he

also believes that meaningful reform in the areas that I have described

would benefit our economic and our national security, provide a fresh

settlement for the UK's membership of the European Union, and offer a

basis on which to campaign to keep the United Kingdom as a member of a

reformed European Union, and it is that which remains

I commend the statement to the House.

The Prime Minister has set out in his speech this morning and in

the letter to the President of the European Council, the Prime Minister

As we have already heard in comments from his own Back Benchers,

the problem that the Prime Minister faces and, in fact, the reason he

has been so reluctant to put his position down on paper until now is

that there is nothing he can renegotiate that will satisfy

-- the large number of right honourable and honourable

Members sitting behind him who want to take Britain out

They are desperate to be disappointed, and they are here

After all the statements made by the Prime Minister, the Minister for

Europe, the Foreign Secretary, and the former Foreign Secretary about

being in Europe and not being run by Europe, and after all the pledges to

restore the primacy of national Parliaments

and to get an opt-out from the charter of fundamental rights

Is that the sum total of the Government's position

Is not the onus on those who advocate that we should

stay in the European Union to explain why we should put up with

being a second-tier country in an increasingly centralised

My right honourable friend must know that this is pretty thin gruel,

it is much less than people had come to expect from the Government.

It takes out a few words from the preamble but does nothing

about the substance of the treaties - it deals with competition,

for which the European Commission itself has a proposal - and it fails

It seems to me that its whole aim is to make Harold Wilson's

It needs to do more - it needs to have a full list of powers that will

be restored to the United Kingdom and to this Parliament, not

How are the so-called legally irreversible

changes going to be made when even the legal expert from the European

Commission says that the Danish and Irish precedents are not valid?

How is he going to be able to sell this pig in a poke?

The Prime Minister has paid the usual lip service to the EU's

crisis of competitiveness, but, rather like what happened under

his predecessor, Tony Blair, 15 years ago, nothing has changed.

The Minister's own officials are growing weary of initiatives that

What exactly is going to be different this time?

Will the Minister spell out the details

of the plans that will magically make the EU more competitive?

If there is one thing that does not change, it is the nature

of the honourable gentleman's interventions on this subject.

While our right honourable friend the Prime Minister is embarking on

very important negotiations, and I wish him success on competitiveness

in particular, will the Minister for Europe ensure that when we are

negotiating the benefit rights of those foreign nationals who work

alongside British people in employment in this country,

we remember the interests of the 2 million or so British nationals who

live and work in the EU and do not wish to see those

Governments start to discriminate against our nationals

Would he also thank the Prime Minister for his honesty today in

You confirm it is his understanding that recent remarks said that if the

UK were to leave the EU we would not be able to negotiate an independent

Would he also thank the Prime Minister for his honesty today in

coming forward with a renegotiation package that makes it clear that

if the package is successful, we will still be in a political

That allows Eurosceptics to say, "No longer do we have to pretend

there's going to be a substantial renegotiation, we can get

Will the Minister pass on my thanks to the Prime Minister?

Can I cheer up the Minister by assuring him that pro-EU, pro-reform

Members on this side of the House warmly welcome his statement today?

What would be the Government's position in the event

Members on these Benches remember the '90s, and we do not want to see

this Prime Minister marching out into the rose garden and inviting

the right honourable member for Wokingham to put up or shut up.

We want the Prime Minister to tell us where he stands - we do not want

that lot dictating what happens in the event of an out vote.

I am grateful for the honourable gentleman's kind thoughts,

but I always strive to continue to be cheerful in this job.

Meanwhile in the Lords, peers were also getting their opportunity to

react to the Prime Minister's European negotiating position.

The Prime Minister did not want a referendum, but he was forced into

Our European partners did not know what he wanted to negotiate.

The only thing we know for certain, and I am sure the Minister can

confirm this, is that whatever he does negotiate will result in his

returning to Downing Street saying that it has been a triumph, and he

My Lords, in these negotiations, will the Government be sure to look

after the interests of the 2 million British citizens living elsewhere

As the noble Lord, Lord Lawson, reminds us so frequently, people

like him who are residents of other EU countries would be adversely

affected if we were to leave, and we would naturally wish the interests

of the noble Lord and others to be fully protected

The media trick is going to be to polarise and build this up

as a Punch and Judy show, with deals achieved or not.

That is natural, and I suspect there will be one or two political

The more we can show that we are concerned with bringing the EU model

That is bound to require treaty change in due course,

for the simple reason that the treaties, right up to Lisbon,

They were designed in the pre-digital era and do not fit what

The firm that produces the malaria drug Lariam has told MPs

that it should not be prescribed to people with a history

The Defence Committee is investigating Lariam

after servicemen and women reported severe side-effects,

including hallucinations, depression and suicidal thoughts.

Former army captain now MP Johnny Mercer started by questioning

the pharmaceutical firm Roche about the "mass distribution" of Lariam.

So what sort of view would you take against

an organisation that essentially did some sort of mass distribution?

So it had a group of individuals that would go to

an area and say, there you go, there is your anti-malarials, crack on.

Is that in line with the manufacturer's guidelines or is

it outside of those very clear manufacturer's guidelines?

Roche said the expectation was that a physician would carry out an

In the material we had circulated, there is a check list that

the physicians are supposed to go through.

Absolutely, and they go through that in detail.

If that is not done, they're using that outside of the

guidelines that you as manufacturers have laid down, correct?

The expectation would be that a physician sees every individual

prior to prescribing any drug which sits under the legal classification.

Yes, and if that expectation is not fulfilled then the organisation that

is not fulfilling that expectation is falling short, is it not?

We appreciate that you are not responsible for the way in which the

Army prescribes this medication but in the light of the public concern

and publicity about cases where there have been severe and sometimes

irreversible side-effects apparently caused by it, have you had occasion

to write to the Ministry of Defence and to stress to them the

precautions that they ought to be taking specifically with regard to

individual assessments for prescribing this en masse?

-- individual assessments before prescribing this en masse?

We treat all general practitioners exactly the same way with this

and we have written to all general practitioners with

We haven't actually looked at the military in a different way.

Having said that, we are just starting to get in touch

with them now about the most recent article that came out in the press.

Dr Nichol described some of Lariam's side-effects.

There has been shown to be an increased risk of depression,

psychosis, hallucinations and terrors that are disturbing

And we have called that out in the information you have got,

and to the extent of indicating in the label that anybody who has a

past history or an existing history of depression or anxiety should not

Julian Lewis thought it raised an obvious problem.

You're a soldier, you know that you have had some episodes or

some anxieties in the past, but you really would feel pretty inhibited

before saying to the medical officer in your regiment, I really shouldn't

take this stuff because it could have a very serious effect on me.

You are looking at somebody who has had malaria,

a few years later took Lariam and had an adverse effect from it.

It was prior to 2013 when I think this came in.

And I wouldn't have said that I was somebody who would have

The feelings of mistrust towards others.

Probably it precludes all members of Parliament.

Are you aware that people who live and work in malarial areas in Africa

are amazed that this drug is still prescribed as a popular prevention

There is an increased risk of these events, which is why the

benefit/risk ratio, the balance of risk to the balance of benefit in

taking the drug, is still believed to be valuable and important in this

global endemic, if it is prescribed to the right people.

What we tried to wheedle out today, and I think we have been quite

successful, is that if it is not used within those guidelines,

like any medication that has side-effects, it is going to cause

adverse problems and some families clearly feel

their lives have been quite significantly affected by this.

And certainly I don't want you to think that I have a personal crusade

against the company, its nothing to do with that.

It is about representing families that for one reason or another,

rightly or wrongly, this hasn't been used properly and they have

Dr Nichol replied that if she was in that situation she would want to

understand if all the appropriate assessments had been made.

You're watching our round-up of the day in the Commons and the Lords.

The Energy Secretary talks about keeping the lights on this winter...

Labour and the SNP have launched a final assault on Government plans

to tighten up the rules on trade union strike ballots.

The Trade Union Bill will introduce a 50% turnout requirement,

while in some public services at least 40% of the people entitled

to vote would have to vote yes for action to go ahead.

Labour and the SNP called for unions to be allowed to

Proposing the changes the SNP's spokesman described the legislation

He keeps talking about it being ideological. Do you think it is

ideological for people who send their children

to schools in my constituency who cannot get childcare

during an unjustified strike with a very low turnout in a ballot?

Is it ideological for hard-pressed commuters

in my constituency who cannot get to work because of strikes called

The problem with that analysis is that it is based on ignorance.

the real test of a trade union and the biggest gamble in trade union

has to take when it decides to take industrial action is how many people

participate in the industrial action.

If the Opposition believe that e-voting

is the future and the way to go, why are they proposing returning

The problem is actually more profound, of course.

The security of a postal vote sent to a person's home does remove

a large area of risk in terms of intimidation that could attach to

We all know that the real fraud is the fraudulent

In reality, they want to discourage turnout and make

That is rule one from the Tory party political playbook - disfranchise

It was suggested that the thresholds have been met in transport.

In fact, the bus drivers strike earlier this year took place

at the behest of a turnout of 21%, inconveniencing all the workers who

Transport for London reported that there were 6.5 million passengers

in London who needed to make alternative arrangements.

There is no place in today's society for this unbelievably brutal attack

on hard-working men and women in the workplace.

that when ordinary people are pressurised

I predict from the Floor of the House of Commons that there

will be civil disobedience because bad laws need to be changed.

It is pretty clear, as I understand it from what Labour Front Benchers

are saying, that we are in a time of increased militant union activism.

"We will support all demonstrations in Parliament or on the picket line.

Can the hon member for Wansbeck, Ian Lavery, not see that what we

are trying to do is to protect the public through increased

If this Bill is forced through, we will see more industrial unrest,

as the hon Member for Edinburgh East said.

Disputes will not end, victimisation in

the workplace will not end, health and safety abuses at work will not

end, discrimination will not end and exploitation will not end.

Frustrated workers will not stand back, no matter what

We will end up with workers being forced to break rotten laws.

By increasing the democratic mandate, the Bill will not stop

strikes - it may not even lead to many fewer strikes - but it will

reassure members of the public that strikes are happening on the basis

of strong democratic mandates, and that their lives are not being

The Energy Secretary Amber Rudd says she IS committed to meeting

the target for the UK to get 15% of its energy from renewable sources

A leaked private letter recently suggested she feared

But at the latest session of the Energy and Climate Change Committee,

she said new policies were needed to encourage greater use of renewables

I have been writing to other ministers in other departments,

particularly transport, to urge them to work across Government to make

We have made our interim target and exceeded it,

but it is going to be challenging to make the rest of the target,

but I remain committed to making good progress towards that target.

It is because I am so committed to that that I'm encouraging other

This is, after all, a cross-Government target,

Are you on target to meet your 2020 objectives of 15% renewable energy.

It is difficult to say at the moment.

The private letter would indicate that it is not on target.

You asked me whether we're going to meet her 2020 target.

It is our aim that we should meet it.

I recognise, as the letter does, that we don't have

the right policies, particularly in transport and heat, in order to

make that 2020 target, but we have four to five years and I remain

Last week, National Grid, for the first time, used emergency

I think they call it demand slide balancing reserve, where I'm sure

you're aware, large businesses are paid to cut energy usage.

They were a number of factors that triggered this, low wind speed, a

couple of coal-fired power stations had maintenance issues, but given

that, are you satisfied with the way in which National Grid handled last

The reason why margins are takers because we have failed over

a long period to invest in a sufficient restructure to support

What we had last week was a notice of insufficient margin.

It's about the buffer rather than the actual

supply of electricity and I am satisfied the National Grid handled

it and I would just point out to the committee that since 1999, there

Now if you've got a query about your income tax, or your tax

credit, is it worth phoning up Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs?

A Conservative MP says the performance of the tax call centres

Between April and June this year, only half of all phone calls

for help from the public were answered successfully.

The chief executive of HMRC has been facing the questions of the

In 2014-15, you talked about the fact that only

Over the first half of this year, you said we would dipping to

That is staggeringly bad by anybody's measures.

When I was in front of the PAC in September, I was at pain to bring

them up to date with a first-quarter particularly because we were not

serving to a level that we believe we should have been in and we have

Tax credit claimants have a right to make a call that gets through.

She said a new telephony system was now in place.

We have at any one time the ability to have up to 20,000

Making that change was really important and this will help to

serve better but as we implemented it, it was challenging

Call handling to one or two minutes longer for a number of months.

We get 50 million calls in a year, that's quite a lot of time lost.

We are very apologetic for that period of call service.

A big part of this is to provide services online and allow people to

actually go online and not have to wait even five minutes or longer.

We are determined to continue to try making improvements

for the service but the first issue was unacceptable.

MPs are now off on their half-term autumn break.

The Commons returns on Monday, which is when we'll be back with

Until then, from me, Keith Macdougall, goodbye.