Browse content similar to 16/01/2013. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Morning, folks, welcome to the Daily Politics. Spare a thought for | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
call me Dave, the poor PM is being shouted at for more sides about, | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
you've guessed it, Europe. This morning the so-called Fresh Start | :00:51. | :00:55. | |
group of Conservative MPs told Mr Cameron they wanted the complete | :00:55. | :00:58. | |
repatriation of key powers from the EU and would not settle for | :00:58. | :01:04. | |
anything else. Fighting talk. Ken Clarke is a bit worried. He is | :01:04. | :01:09. | |
concerned the PM may accidentally open the door to a British exit. | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
His medical innovation being stifled by the law? Maurice Saatchi | :01:13. | :01:18. | |
will explain why he thinks so. Hold your horses for PMQs, when we | :01:18. | :01:23. | |
will be examining the contents of the 12 o'clock Westminster Stakes - | :01:23. | :01:28. | |
or should that be Shergar burgers?! If that has -- if that is not | :01:28. | :01:32. | |
enough to whet your appetite, we have a bookie on hand to spice | :01:32. | :01:37. | |
things up. For the first time I will be taking | :01:37. | :01:43. | |
bets on the number of times Speaker Bercow interrupts PMQs. | :01:43. | :01:47. | |
We are all waiting for Speaker Bercow! We speak of nothing else. | :01:47. | :01:52. | |
That is coming up in the next 90 minutes. We are joined for the | :01:52. | :01:56. | |
duration by Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander and | :01:56. | :01:59. | |
Health Minister Dan Poulter. If you have just joined us on BBC Two this | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
morning, Scotland Yard have confirmed that two people died | :02:03. | :02:07. | |
early after a helicopter crashed at rush-hour just across the river | :02:07. | :02:11. | |
from our studio in Westminster in the Vauxhall area. It is a very | :02:11. | :02:15. | |
misty morning in Central London. Police say it appeared the | :02:15. | :02:20. | |
helicopter hit a crane on top of a new block of high-rise flats. It is | :02:20. | :02:27. | |
not yet complete. That was at about 8am. As well as two fatalities, | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
nine injured people have been taken to hospital, one is said to be in a | :02:32. | :02:36. | |
critical condition. If there are any more developments we will keep | :02:36. | :02:42. | |
you up-to-date. In a speech this evening, Health | :02:42. | :02:47. | |
Secretary Jeremy Hunt will say he wants the NHS to be paperless by | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
2018. The first step would be to give people online access to health | :02:51. | :02:56. | |
records by 20th March 15. By April 2018, any crucial health | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
information should be able to staff at the touch of a button. It is a | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
lovely idea, but in terms of IT revolutions, haven't we heard this | :03:04. | :03:09. | |
before and why would this be more successful? There was a very good | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
idea to set up, if you like, a national database for NHS IT. | :03:14. | :03:18. | |
Unfortunately that did not work well for a number of reasons, we | :03:18. | :03:25. | |
did not involve front line professionals in designing the | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
service -- it did not involve. Jeremy this morning is making sure | :03:28. | :03:32. | |
the database will be driven at a local level so that different parts | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
of local health care can talk together effectively, so someone | :03:36. | :03:39. | |
being picked up in an ambulance, patient details will be available | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
to the paramedics, saving the time of a lot of my medical colleagues | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
and also it will mean that patients are treated in a more timely and | :03:47. | :03:52. | |
effective manner, particularly in emergencies. Looking at the Labour | :03:52. | :03:55. | |
record and NHS IT projects, it has not been amazing and does not | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
inspire confidence. My first reaction would be, I would not take | :04:00. | :04:07. | |
the risk? Of course we want the NHS to innovate, but we need to make | :04:07. | :04:13. | |
difficult choices about priorities, especially given how tight budgets | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
are. The Care Quality Commission said that there were 17 hospitals | :04:16. | :04:20. | |
with unsafe staffing levels, so I am sure viewers would think that | :04:20. | :04:25. | |
would be a priority. Isn't that more of an issue for patients, | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
rather than trying to make it paperless? As a doctor, I know | :04:29. | :04:33. | |
paperless records will make it better for patient care. I will | :04:33. | :04:36. | |
have more time to spend with patients rather than chasing around | :04:36. | :04:41. | |
the hospital corridors where the paper records are in different | :04:41. | :04:46. | |
apartments or phoning up the GP, I will have them in front of me and | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
it will save a lot of time and I can affect patients more | :04:49. | :04:54. | |
effectively and quickly, especially in an emergency. On staffing, it | :04:54. | :04:58. | |
has always been the case that some hospitals are managed very well, | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
the vast majority are managed exceptionally well and have very | :05:02. | :05:08. | |
high quality staff, and the right number. But the CQC flag up that | :05:08. | :05:14. | |
there are problems and concerns in 17 hospitals. Those hospitals need | :05:14. | :05:19. | |
to to be flagged up, the directors of those hospitals need to make | :05:19. | :05:24. | |
sure that patient care is achieved. Surely Labour supports the idea of | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
saving money in terms of what you might call back of his style | :05:29. | :05:36. | |
operations? It could save �4.4 billion. -- back office style | :05:36. | :05:41. | |
operations? This Government is spending billions on an unwanted, | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
indeed, a reorganisation of the NHS from the top down that was | :05:44. | :05:49. | |
explicitly denied before the election. If you want real savings, | :05:49. | :05:53. | |
surely the priority is not spending billions on an unwanted | :05:53. | :05:58. | |
organisation, it is ensuring safe levels of staffing. There are 7000 | :05:58. | :06:04. | |
less nurses today than in 20th May 10. We should consider how the NHS | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
can innovate and be strengthened for the future, but the priority | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
must be safe staffing in the NHS and making sure that patients are | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
getting the care that they need. it much more widespread than you | :06:15. | :06:20. | |
said? The CQC have five to problems of local hospitals in the past. The | :06:20. | :06:26. | |
Labour government made it a requirement that you must use a | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
Freedom of Information request to get information, we want to see | :06:29. | :06:35. | |
more transparency in the NHS. At a local level, where we are seeing | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
Chief Executives not prioritising frontline care, it is right we | :06:38. | :06:42. | |
should expose those hospitals and pressure should be brought to bear. | :06:42. | :06:49. | |
This IT project is about to delivering savings to the NHS. It | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
is �4 billion of savings. A big challenge was set under the | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
previous government, just to continue to deliver the same high | :06:55. | :07:00. | |
quality of patient care, we need to make savings and put that into the | :07:00. | :07:09. | |
front line. It will save �1.5 billion a year, these IT savings | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
will save �4 billion and allow doctors to spend more time with | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
patients. Let me ask you about something broadcast in the news | :07:17. | :07:23. | |
this morning, traces of horsemeat found in value beefburgers. Tesco | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
was named. What is your reaction? It was very concerning foreign | :07:27. | :07:32. | |
number of reasons. It is also the fact that there is potentially pork | :07:32. | :07:35. | |
found in beefburgers, and we know people for religious reasons may | :07:35. | :07:41. | |
not wish to eat pork. That was another concern. We know as we | :07:41. | :07:44. | |
understand at the moment there are no soap... No public safety | :07:44. | :07:49. | |
concerns, but the Food Standards Agency are investigating and we | :07:49. | :07:52. | |
must make sure that they investigate quickly. It is | :07:52. | :07:56. | |
important that consumers can make an informed choice, that is what we | :07:56. | :08:01. | |
all want to do, particularly for groups affected. Why did it take | :08:01. | :08:05. | |
the Irish to discover this? Why didn't the British Food Standards | :08:05. | :08:08. | |
Authority identified that this was a problem in the supply chain, | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
ending up in stores like Tesco and ASDA in the United Kingdom? Serious | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
questions must be asked of the Food Standards Authority. | :08:18. | :08:22. | |
If you have been an underground bunkers and Christmas you may not | :08:23. | :08:25. | |
know that the Prime Minister is about to make a key, key, key | :08:25. | :08:30. | |
speech about our relationship with our European cousins across la | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
Manche. Ahead of his speech on Friday you may not be surprised to | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
learn that the Prime Minister has been lobbied by every Conservative | :08:37. | :08:42. | |
Tom, Dick and Harry about what to say. The Deputy Prime Minister has | :08:42. | :08:49. | |
stuck his oar in. Let's go to Captain JoCo, who can preview. | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
Here is David Cameron's battle plan. Tomorrow evening the Prime Minister | :08:53. | :08:57. | |
will drop quietly into Holland as Operation Common Market Garden gets | :08:57. | :09:03. | |
under way. Then Addo 900 hours on Friday morning the action begins. - | :09:03. | :09:10. | |
- then acts 0900 hours. David Cameron's trips include the Fresh | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
Start group of MPs, who are in no mood to take prisoners, demanding a | :09:15. | :09:20. | |
complete repatriation of social and employment law, an opt-out from all | :09:20. | :09:24. | |
existing policing and criminal justice measures, an emergency | :09:24. | :09:27. | |
brake on any new regulation of financial services and changes to | :09:27. | :09:32. | |
the EU agricultural, fishing and regional policies. Ken Clarke has | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
described David Cameron's raid on the EU as a gamble. Can the Prime | :09:36. | :09:39. | |
Minister link-up with friendly forces and deliver a tactical | :09:40. | :09:43. | |
withdrawal from Europe in these areas, or is the plan overly | :09:43. | :09:48. | |
ambitious? Let's go to the Central lobby in | :09:49. | :09:54. | |
Parliament, where -- where the chair of the conservative Fresh | :09:54. | :09:58. | |
Start group Andrea Leadsom joins us. Good morning. Let me ask you this, | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
you're not calling for Britain to withdraw from the EU? Correct, we | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
think Britain should be in the EU, but we want a better settlement for | :10:07. | :10:13. | |
Britain. You have outlined a number of areas where you want power was | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
repatriated. Have you spoken to any of your political counterparts in | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
the other 26 member states about how they may react to these | :10:21. | :10:28. | |
demands? Yes, we've had a number of conversations over many months. | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
What not many people in this country ever see reported is people | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
like the Dutch Prime Minister is already talking about doing a | :10:36. | :10:39. | |
balance of competencies review in the Netherlands to look at areas | :10:39. | :10:44. | |
where perhaps the EU is doing stuff it should not, and where it should | :10:44. | :10:48. | |
perhaps be repatriated to member states. I don't think we are alone | :10:48. | :10:51. | |
by any means. Are you saying the Dutch want the complete | :10:51. | :10:55. | |
repatriation of all social and employment law, a complete opt out | :10:55. | :10:59. | |
of existing policing and criminal justice measures? Are you claiming | :10:59. | :11:05. | |
that is the Dutch position? No. But the Fresh Start manifesto is a | :11:05. | :11:11. | |
culmination of 18 months of research into 11 EU policy headings. | :11:11. | :11:16. | |
We are trying to set out what would be a significant renegotiation from | :11:16. | :11:20. | |
Britain's point of view, but what could also get some support from | :11:20. | :11:23. | |
other EU member states who also have problems with the particular | :11:23. | :11:30. | |
areas highlighted. We have limited our calls to five treaty | :11:30. | :11:34. | |
negotiations, but another raft of reforms that could be achieved | :11:34. | :11:38. | |
within existing treaties. This is a huge piece of research we are | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
giving to the Prime Minister and other thinkers in this area which | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
has a contribution to the debate about what sort of renegotiation we | :11:45. | :11:50. | |
want. And I am sure he is very grateful! You have admitted it | :11:50. | :11:55. | |
would require a number of treaty changes, some quite substantial. | :11:55. | :12:00. | |
That requires the unanimous support of the other 26 countries, so it | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
would only take one to say no, we are not going down this road, and | :12:04. | :12:09. | |
you are stymied? Yes, but the status quo is not an option. The | :12:10. | :12:12. | |
eurozone has to move down the path of ever greater fiscal union | :12:12. | :12:17. | |
because of the financial crisis. They have set themselves off on | :12:17. | :12:22. | |
that journey. Britain as a non-Euro member, along with other non-Euro | :12:22. | :12:27. | |
members, has to articulate what sort of relationship we wanted | :12:27. | :12:33. | |
going forward with the EU. This is a contribution to that. What are | :12:33. | :12:40. | |
you prepared to trade at to get you demand? What will you give? Britain | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
is a major EU contributor, one of the big three contributors to the | :12:45. | :12:49. | |
Budget. We have lead in a number of areas, particularly in moves | :12:49. | :12:54. | |
towards... What will you give in negotiations? The eurozone needs to | :12:54. | :13:02. | |
move be -- moves towards fiscal union. As and when there is another | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
treaty, which Barroso says is soon and other politicians say they will | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
avoid, if another treaty negotiation happens, the eurozone | :13:10. | :13:14. | |
will be looking to Britain to support their need, which we do | :13:14. | :13:18. | |
support, for greater fiscal union. Bad at the same time Britain should | :13:18. | :13:24. | |
look for what will work better as a new settlement for British people. | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
Supposing British Government goes to Europe and tries to meet your | :13:27. | :13:31. | |
agenda and repatriate most of what you have in this document and comes | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
back and says, actually, they are not interested, they don't want to | :13:36. | :13:40. | |
give us anything, it is the status quo or nothing, what would your | :13:40. | :13:45. | |
attitude be? I I don't accept the premise. Why would they say that? | :13:45. | :13:51. | |
Indulge me, what would you do? not really inclined to indulge you. | :13:51. | :13:55. | |
You are suggesting they would say get lost, we are happy for Britain | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
to leave the EU. They would not discuss anything. Would you be up | :14:00. | :14:03. | |
for leaving if you can't get this agenda? I don't believe it would | :14:04. | :14:09. | |
come to that. But if it did? think it is extremely unhelpful to | :14:09. | :14:14. | |
talk about leaving. Precisely what Nick Clegg said this week, the Big | :14:14. | :14:18. | |
Chill. We are in a position now where the Conservative Party is | :14:18. | :14:21. | |
very united behind the need for reform, we don't want to leave the | :14:22. | :14:25. | |
European Union, it would be a disaster for the British economy so | :14:25. | :14:28. | |
we don't want to go there. Discussing it when there is no need, | :14:28. | :14:32. | |
I don't think that is helpful. will leave it there. | :14:32. | :14:37. | |
Let's come back into the studio. Dan Poulter, David Cameron once | :14:37. | :14:40. | |
warned Conservative MPs to stop banging on about Europe, these are | :14:40. | :14:45. | |
his exact words. How is that going? At the moment we have a situation | :14:45. | :14:51. | |
where we have a party that is broadly of a mind that we believe | :14:51. | :14:55. | |
that our interests are best served being in Europe. There are lots of | :14:55. | :14:59. | |
benefits we have. We need to be part of the trading bloc in Europe. | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
Do you support all these things that she wants to repatriate? | :15:03. | :15:09. | |
not looked into it in great detail. Social and employment law, existing | :15:09. | :15:13. | |
police and criminal justice measures, any new legislation | :15:13. | :15:17. | |
affecting financial services. are legitimate concerns. On | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
employment law I have seen in the NHS the previous government signed | :15:21. | :15:24. | |
up to the European Working Time Directive, which has badly affected | :15:24. | :15:28. | |
the continuity of care. So there are things, and the Prime Minister | :15:28. | :15:34. | |
has made clear, that we want to renegotiate with Europe. The Prime | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
Minister will set that out very clearly. He has been telling us for | :15:38. | :15:42. | |
weeks, six weeks, it feels like six months. Do you support the Fresh | :15:42. | :15:51. | |
I fully support the fact we need to look at what powers are in Europe | :15:51. | :15:55. | |
and which powers... That's your Government's policy. I am asking if | :15:55. | :15:59. | |
you support the powers that Fresh Start have said they want | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
repatriated? There are some things they have outlined and I have given | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
you an example of the European work time directive where there are | :16:08. | :16:11. | |
concerns that we have expressed as a Government - we have expressed. I | :16:11. | :16:14. | |
haven't seen the full list and in detail but there are clearly issues | :16:14. | :16:19. | |
that have been raised by that group. It's been in the papers for days, | :16:19. | :16:24. | |
what have you been doing? I do read the papers, but until it was | :16:24. | :16:28. | |
outlined properly, I have have to analyse it, as you will later on. | :16:28. | :16:31. | |
have read it. Look into detail at what they've said and we will take | :16:31. | :16:35. | |
a judgment. But the point is that there are things within that group | :16:35. | :16:38. | |
have outlined which the Prime Minister has highlighted, this | :16:38. | :16:41. | |
Government has highlighted. We fully agree... I understand that. | :16:41. | :16:46. | |
How often do your constituents raise the common fisheries policy? | :16:46. | :16:51. | |
I have had letters about the fisheries policy. How often? I am | :16:51. | :16:56. | |
not a coastal constituency so I haven't had in the past very many | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
representations about that. Would you tell us one other country of | :17:00. | :17:04. | |
the remaining 26 members of the European Union that supports the | :17:04. | :17:07. | |
British approach? We just heard from Andrea that in other countries | :17:08. | :17:11. | |
in the European Union, the Dutch, for example, agree that there are | :17:11. | :17:15. | |
powers that need to be repatriated. They don't agree with the full list | :17:15. | :17:21. | |
of Fresh Start. Mr Rutt, I think his name is, isn't even going, we | :17:21. | :17:25. | |
understand, to listen to Mr Cameron, even though he will be in the | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
Netherlands. It's clear there are a number of countries in Europe that | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
have concerns that too many powers have been centralised, that there's | :17:32. | :17:35. | |
been too much centralisation of powers too fast and too quickly and | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
that's not in the interest, not just of Britain but other nation | :17:38. | :17:44. | |
states. Name me one other than the Dutch? We said Holland. Another? | :17:44. | :17:48. | |
Other countries that have raised concerns. Almost every country... | :17:48. | :17:54. | |
Name one! Every country in Europe has politicians who have raised | :17:54. | :17:57. | |
concerns absolutely about the fact that there are - that Europe has | :17:57. | :18:01. | |
had too many centralised powers and that we need to - all countries | :18:01. | :18:05. | |
realise that there is a legitimate debate about having more powers in | :18:05. | :18:11. | |
the British national centre back... You just can't tell me one. Douglas | :18:11. | :18:15. | |
Alexander, if you don't want a referendum on Europe, you should | :18:15. | :18:19. | |
vote Labour? You should vote Labour for a number of reasons. On that | :18:19. | :18:22. | |
issue? Well, we will set out our manifesto in due course but we are | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
clear and we stand along with senior business leaders actually on | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
this point with Michael Heseltine, and Nick Clegg and others in saying | :18:29. | :18:34. | |
to commit now to an in-out referendum is not just bad for | :18:34. | :18:38. | |
British investment, creating economic uncertainty but bad for | :18:38. | :18:41. | |
influence within Europe. Change is coming to Europe, on that there is | :18:41. | :18:45. | |
common ground between Andrea and myself. Will Labour rule out a | :18:45. | :18:48. | |
referendum at the next election? Well, we do not believe now is the | :18:48. | :18:52. | |
time to commit to an in-out referendum. Are you saying there is | :18:52. | :18:57. | |
any circumstances in the future? He is announcing as we anticipate, | :18:57. | :19:00. | |
depending on whether the speech is delivered on Friday, that he will | :19:00. | :19:06. | |
commit to an in-out referendum we expect around 2018. Will you commit | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
to a referendum at the next election? We are saying what Ed | :19:09. | :19:12. | |
Miliband said on Sunday, we do not believe now is the time to commit | :19:12. | :19:16. | |
to an in-out referendum in 2018 or beyond. You rule out a referendum | :19:16. | :19:21. | |
for the foreseeable future? We are clear that in the present | :19:21. | :19:24. | |
circumstances we do in the believe that a referendum is justified. | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
What about another kind of referendum? Is Labour in favour of | :19:29. | :19:32. | |
repatriating any powers. In terms of other referendums, it's the law | :19:32. | :19:35. | |
of the the land and reaccept that, if there is any significant | :19:35. | :19:38. | |
transfer of sovereignty from Britain to Brussels under the | :19:38. | :19:43. | |
referendum act there will be a referendum. You won't repeal that | :19:43. | :19:46. | |
legislation. We will see how the legislation operates. We have given | :19:46. | :19:50. | |
no commitment to repeal that legislation. If there is a new | :19:50. | :19:55. | |
treaty which involves a substantial movement of power from London to | :19:55. | :19:57. | |
Brussels, you will have a referendum? Well, the Government of | :19:57. | :20:02. | |
the day would have a referendum, yes. Not if you repeal the law. | :20:02. | :20:09. | |
have not given a commitment. That's different from saying you won't | :20:09. | :20:11. | |
repeal the law. We will look at how that legislation operates in | :20:11. | :20:15. | |
practice, that's what we said when the legislation passed. If you are | :20:15. | :20:22. | |
asking me to commit to repeal the legislation... The only way you can | :20:22. | :20:25. | |
see the legislation in operation is by having a referendum. You can see | :20:25. | :20:28. | |
how it affects Britain's capacity to answer some of the questions you | :20:28. | :20:31. | |
were asking Andrea. Are we in a position where we can have a | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
genuine negotiation with other European partners about how Europe | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
changes? My real concern is that notwithstanding the reasonableness | :20:38. | :20:43. | |
of how Andrea presents the case, there is still still an unbridgable | :20:43. | :20:46. | |
gap between what the Conservative Party will insist upon and what | :20:46. | :20:51. | |
other European leaders can concede. What powers would Labour | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
repatriate? In relation to state aids, for example, in relation to | :20:55. | :21:00. | |
regional policies there are grounds to look at whether those powers | :21:00. | :21:03. | |
better held within individual states. In the last Government we | :21:03. | :21:05. | |
made the case in relation to regional policy there was a case | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
for powers coming back to the United Kingdom and in that sense we | :21:09. | :21:12. | |
will take a pragmatic view. We are not saying no to any powers coming | :21:12. | :21:17. | |
back from Brussels. We are saying if you set this up... It's not a | :21:17. | :21:21. | |
big issue, is it? If you set it up as an agenda for what we can take | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
back from Brussels you are left with a question that you posed, | :21:24. | :21:28. | |
which is what if other nations say no? If you have a broad agenda of | :21:28. | :21:32. | |
reform rather than a narrow agenda of repatriation you are more likely | :21:32. | :21:37. | |
to get an outcome that works for Britain and is accepted. Is no | :21:37. | :21:40. | |
repatriation and no referendum. have given you an example, regional | :21:40. | :21:46. | |
policy and state aids. That would be part of a general agreement. | :21:46. | :21:48. | |
any reckoning, even David Cameron would accept this there are broader | :21:49. | :21:52. | |
changes coming to Europe. repatriation initiative and no | :21:52. | :21:55. | |
referendum. I have given you two examples of where we said that we | :21:55. | :21:59. | |
would be willing and indeed support powers coming back. It's not true | :21:59. | :22:05. | |
to say no repatriation. I am still not clear on that, but that's | :22:05. | :22:09. | |
probably just me. Only a few more days to go until the great speech! | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
The pain will be over, temporarily. Now, Prime Ministers questions is | :22:13. | :22:20. | |
often described as a lottery for Mr Cameron and Miliband, each man's | :22:20. | :22:22. | |
political future balancing on the turn of a question. Apparently | :22:22. | :22:27. | |
that's not enough of a gamble for some. A well-known book-maker is | :22:27. | :22:33. | |
placing bets on today's questions questions. Being the BBC, we take | :22:33. | :22:37. | |
our values seriously, but we are not going to tell you which bookie, | :22:37. | :22:42. | |
but I can tell you that we have someone called Paddy in the studio. | :22:42. | :22:45. | |
Other book-makers are available. What are you doing? Taking bets the | :22:45. | :22:55. | |
number of times The Speaker interruts. -- interpruts. We have - | :22:55. | :22:57. | |
- interrupts questions. We have come up with the idea that we | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
reckon it will be between two or three interruptions that will | :23:01. | :23:06. | |
happen today in PMQs. It might make watching questions more interesting. | :23:06. | :23:11. | |
Right. A huge talking point most weeks in this studio, John Bercow | :23:11. | :23:14. | |
interventions. How are you going to define an intervention? Obviously, | :23:14. | :23:19. | |
it's not easy, he has to stop proceedings to be considered an | :23:19. | :23:22. | |
intervention. So a significant stop and if he is watching this he might | :23:22. | :23:28. | |
want to have a bet himself and he can affect the outcome of that. | :23:28. | :23:36. | |
will be watching closely. Not wanting - - do you think this is | :23:36. | :23:39. | |
treuflising parliament? It makes it more engaging for people who want | :23:39. | :23:43. | |
to watch and it's what people are talking about and speculating. Some | :23:43. | :23:47. | |
people think he likes the sound of his own voice too much. This is a | :23:48. | :23:52. | |
chance for people to put their money where their mouth is. What do | :23:52. | :23:58. | |
you think of the idea? I am afraid I can say I have never placed a bet | :23:58. | :24:02. | |
in my life. Could this be the first time? I wouldn't know thousand fill | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
in a betting slip if I walked into a bookies. I am sure we could find | :24:06. | :24:12. | |
someone to help you. What about you, Dan Dan Poulter? I am not a betting | :24:12. | :24:16. | |
man either. I am a great man of John Bercow but I would be going | :24:16. | :24:21. | |
for three or more. Exactly how many times do you think? Two sounds | :24:21. | :24:28. | |
fairly modest. How many times do you go for? Three. That's quite a | :24:28. | :24:34. | |
lot. He always does one because he likes the sound of his own voice. | :24:34. | :24:39. | |
Sour sin sale -- you are so cynical, Andrew. What are you going for? I | :24:39. | :24:48. | |
think he only does one. One, three and more than three. He can't | :24:48. | :24:52. | |
interrupt more than three times! We will be speaking to you later. | :24:52. | :24:57. | |
It's hard to know what to trust these days. HMV gift vouchers that | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
won't buy you a Lembit Opik DVD. Beefburgers that may have more than | :25:01. | :25:07. | |
a passing acquaintance with the winner of the 2.30 at Doncaster. | :25:07. | :25:10. | |
It's good to know there's always something you can that rely on. Yes | :25:10. | :25:17. | |
you have guessed it, the Daily Politics mug, crafted lovingly by | :25:17. | :25:23. | |
little BBC elves and fired in the kiln of free-flowing political | :25:23. | :25:30. | |
discourse. It's free from ekwaeupb -- equine DNA, I am told. It can be | :25:30. | :25:35. | |
euros if you can answer just -- it can be yours if you can answer one | :25:35. | :25:42. | |
question. You would be a horse's derriere to miss. It. -- to miss it. | :25:42. | :25:52. | |
:25:52. | :26:05. | ||
Let's see if you can remember when # I don't feel like dancing | :26:05. | :26:11. | |
# My heart could take a chance #. Storming to victory in Labour's | :26:11. | :26:14. | |
heartlands, there's hardly any seat in the country that will be safe | :26:14. | :26:24. | |
:26:24. | :26:26. | ||
and Gordon Brown must be quaking in # Does that make me crazy | :26:26. | :26:36. | |
:26:36. | :27:04. | ||
To be in with a chance of winning a Daily Politics mug you can send | :27:04. | :27:14. | |
:27:14. | :27:15. | ||
your answer to our special e-mail address. You can see the full terms | :27:15. | :27:20. | |
and conditions on our website. It's coming up to midday. There's Big | :27:20. | :27:25. | |
Ben behind me. It's a cold winter's day here but quite bright. Prime | :27:25. | :27:31. | |
Ministers questions are on the way and Nick Robinson is here. We have | :27:31. | :27:34. | |
been talking about Europe. Think we are going to hear more about it in | :27:34. | :27:37. | |
and in a way it's dominated this week and it's worth pausing to | :27:37. | :27:42. | |
think how cure curious this is. We are debating, and I think they will | :27:42. | :27:45. | |
debate in a few minutes, a speech that's yet to be delivered about a | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
decision that will be taken for an election that hasn't yet been | :27:48. | :27:51. | |
called, about a treaty change that may not happen, because other | :27:51. | :27:55. | |
European countries may not agree to it, about a negotiation that hasn't | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
been started that Britain might not succeed in and what might then | :27:58. | :28:03. | |
happen in that referendum. It is a pretty curious position we have | :28:03. | :28:06. | |
ourselves into. It seems all parties have a problem on this. The | :28:06. | :28:10. | |
Tories have the biggest problem, of course, because of the danger of | :28:10. | :28:13. | |
disappointing one faction or another. That's why David Cameron | :28:13. | :28:17. | |
for so long said he wouldn't talk about this subject at all. William | :28:17. | :28:21. | |
Hague refers to the issue of Europe as a ticking timebomb underneath | :28:21. | :28:25. | |
the Conservative Party. But forgive me, I was watching Douglas | :28:25. | :28:28. | |
Alexander, too. The Labour Party don't want to tell you whether they | :28:28. | :28:31. | |
will have a referendum or not, whether they're ruling it out or in. | :28:31. | :28:36. | |
They want to essentially watch the Government's difficultying and say | :28:36. | :28:40. | |
-- difficulties, and say, on you go, why don't you make a mess of it and | :28:40. | :28:43. | |
we will tell you what we will do in a couple of years. Given there is | :28:43. | :28:48. | |
not a majority in the Commons for a big repatriation strategy because | :28:48. | :28:53. | |
Lib and the Lib Dems won't vote against it why does Mr Cameron not | :28:53. | :28:56. | |
just wait until the election manifesto? Why does he have to lay | :28:56. | :29:00. | |
out a stall now? Why doesn't he say I am with you, chaps and lasses, I | :29:01. | :29:06. | |
am on your side on the Tory Party in this but we haven't got a | :29:06. | :29:13. | |
majority. Let's get it right in the manifesto? One word answer - trust. | :29:13. | :29:16. | |
Three-word, lack of trust. His party doesn't trust him because the | :29:16. | :29:22. | |
fact he posed as a eurosceptic and - remember that row about who the | :29:22. | :29:25. | |
Tories sat with in Europe in parliament, because he said let's | :29:25. | :29:28. | |
have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and said actually I didn't | :29:28. | :29:32. | |
mean now have a referendum on the treaty. The truth is his own party | :29:32. | :29:36. | |
don't trust him on it. So there would be a strategy that any Prime | :29:36. | :29:38. | |
Minister would want to follow, which is we are not sure how things | :29:38. | :29:41. | |
are going to change, we are sure they are, we will get back to you | :29:41. | :29:44. | |
in a while. Is that all right? The reason he can't do that, the reason | :29:44. | :29:49. | |
he has to give a speech is because at his back are backbenchers saying, | :29:49. | :29:52. | |
we need to know and if you don't give us something we want, we will | :29:52. | :29:56. | |
put our own motion down in the House of Commons and will force it. | :29:56. | :30:00. | |
His His activists are saying, do you know how many of my friends | :30:00. | :30:04. | |
have joined the UK Independence Party? He has twin pressures and | :30:04. | :30:08. | |
his attempt will be to say OK, here is a rationale picture of what the | :30:08. | :30:13. | |
next five years might look like but if he listened to John Major or | :30:13. | :30:17. | |
Margaret Thatcher he might remind himself that it's quite hard to do | :30:17. | :30:21. | |
that, to draw a line in the sand on this issue. All my sources tell me | :30:21. | :30:25. | |
he is not going to give them enough red meat, that he will end up not | :30:25. | :30:28. | |
satisfying anybody. He won't satisfy the remaining pro-Europeans | :30:28. | :30:33. | |
in the Tory Party, because he has raised the issue, they don't want | :30:33. | :30:37. | |
it raised at all and he won't go down the repatriation road that | :30:37. | :30:44. | |
others... I think that group was effectively set up to put the | :30:44. | :30:47. | |
Cameron and Hague strategy... think that's the moderate strategy? | :30:47. | :30:51. | |
They're saying is you create space for us. So the things that I think | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
David Cameron thinks could be and I emphasise could be achievable, is | :30:55. | :30:59. | |
for Britain to say, we will not be part of judicial co-operation, we | :30:59. | :31:04. | |
will get back things like the Working Time Directive, and we will | :31:04. | :31:07. | |
have some protections which even a a Labour Government would fight for | :31:07. | :31:10. | |
if they were there for the City of London and the financial services. | :31:10. | :31:15. | |
Now, issue, question, - would that ever be enough? Answer for some of | :31:15. | :31:21. | |
course, because there is a great spectrum between people who want | :31:21. | :31:24. | |
some protections, and those who have had enough of it and want to | :31:24. | :31:27. | |
get out. The big change since I first started reporting on this, it | :31:27. | :31:31. | |
was the first story I really did as a young producer at the BBC 25 | :31:31. | :31:36. | |
years ago, is the split in the Tory Party, it's no longer between pro- | :31:36. | :31:41. | |
Europeans and eurosceptics, it's between eurosceptics and those who | :31:41. | :31:46. | |
want out and those figures who regard themselves as public pro- | :31:46. | :31:55. | |
Europeans, the older generation. he undervails -- veils the stall | :31:55. | :32:01. | |
and it goes quiet for two years. We have had our say. Let's hear what | :32:01. | :32:11. | |
Can I pay tribute to suburb Richard Walker. But it is clear to see from | :32:11. | :32:14. | |
the tributes paid that he was an outstanding soldier and hugely | :32:14. | :32:17. | |
respected, and our deepest sympathies are with his family and | :32:17. | :32:21. | |
friends at this difficult time. I would also like to mention a | :32:21. | :32:24. | |
helicopter crash in Central London this morning. The whole house wish | :32:24. | :32:29. | |
to join me in thanking the emergency services for their rapid | :32:29. | :32:32. | |
and professional response to this situation. This morning I had | :32:32. | :32:35. | |
meetings with ministerial colleagues and others, and in | :32:35. | :32:38. | |
addition to my duties in the House I will have further such meetings | :32:38. | :32:43. | |
today. For too long many women and | :32:43. | :32:48. | |
especially hard-working stay-at- home mums have been penalised by | :32:48. | :32:53. | |
the country's pension system for having interruptions to their | :32:53. | :32:58. | |
National Insurance contributions. After 13 years when the previous | :32:58. | :33:04. | |
government did nothing to redress first, does the Prime Minister | :33:04. | :33:09. | |
think that the announcement this week of a single tear pension will | :33:09. | :33:15. | |
find a league deal with this grave injustice? -- will finally deal | :33:15. | :33:21. | |
with? I think the single deer pension is excellent. I think it | :33:21. | :33:26. | |
will have all-party support, because it holds out the prospects | :33:26. | :33:32. | |
in 2017 of having a basic state pension of over �140 rather than | :33:33. | :33:37. | |
�107, taking millions of people out of the means test, giving them | :33:37. | :33:42. | |
dignity in retirement and particularly, as he said, helping | :33:42. | :33:44. | |
low-paid people, self employed people and, above all, women who | :33:44. | :33:49. | |
have not been able to have a full state pension in the past, to have | :33:49. | :33:55. | |
one. It is an excellent reform. Mr Speaker, can I join the Prime | :33:55. | :34:00. | |
Minister in paying tribute to Sapper Richard Reginald Walker, | :34:00. | :34:07. | |
attached to 21 Engineer Regiment. He showed the utmost courage and | :34:07. | :34:11. | |
bravery. I also joined him in passing on condolences to the | :34:11. | :34:16. | |
families of those who lost their lives in a helicopter crash in | :34:16. | :34:23. | |
London, and paying tribute to the emergency services. When the Prime | :34:23. | :34:25. | |
Minister first became leader of the Conservatives, he said their | :34:25. | :34:31. | |
biggest problem was spending too much time banging on about Europe. | :34:31. | :34:37. | |
Busy but those days are over? LAUGHTER. -- is he glad those days | :34:37. | :34:46. | |
are over? LAUGHTER. I think even the leader of the | :34:46. | :34:50. | |
Labour Party should accept a massive change taking place in | :34:50. | :34:55. | |
Europe. A change driven by the changes in the eurozone. Frankly, | :34:55. | :34:59. | |
this country faces a choice and political parties in this country | :34:59. | :35:05. | |
face a choice, do we look at these changes and see what we can do to | :35:05. | :35:08. | |
maximise Britain's national interest, and do we consult the | :35:08. | :35:12. | |
public about that, or do we sit back, do nothing and tell the | :35:12. | :35:17. | |
public to go hang? I know where I am this party stand, in the | :35:17. | :35:27. | |
:35:27. | :35:30. | ||
national interest of this country. I should congratulate him on having | :35:30. | :35:36. | |
decided on the date of his speech. Well done. Another example of the | :35:36. | :35:40. | |
Rolls Royce operation of Number Ten Downing Street. Now, Mr Speaker, in | :35:40. | :35:45. | |
advance of his speech, what is his answer to this question, which | :35:45. | :35:49. | |
investors need to know? Will Britain be in the European Union in | :35:49. | :35:54. | |
five years' time? On important decisions, can I firstly | :35:54. | :35:58. | |
congratulate him on his important decision this week, to keep the | :35:58. | :36:05. | |
Shadow Chancellor in place until 2015. Rarely do we see so much | :36:05. | :36:09. | |
cross-party support. My view is that Britain is better off in the | :36:09. | :36:15. | |
European Union, but I think it is right for us to use... It is right | :36:15. | :36:20. | |
for us to see the changes taking place in Europe and make sure we | :36:20. | :36:25. | |
are arguing for the changes Britain needs, so therefore we had a better | :36:25. | :36:29. | |
relationship between Britain and Europe, a better organised European | :36:29. | :36:33. | |
Union and the full-hearted consent of the British people. Those are | :36:33. | :36:41. | |
our choices, what are his? Maybe we are making progress. In October | :36:41. | :36:44. | |
2011, I am sure you will remember, he and I walked shoulder to | :36:44. | :36:51. | |
shoulder through the lobby against the 81 members of his party who | :36:51. | :36:55. | |
voted for and in/out referendum. You might call it two parties | :36:55. | :37:02. | |
working together in the national interest, Mr Speaker! The Foreign | :37:02. | :37:06. | |
Secretary said at the time, I think he was on his way to Australia to | :37:06. | :37:09. | |
get as far away as possible from the Prime Minister's speech, he | :37:09. | :37:14. | |
said, the reason for our boat was that an in/out referendum would | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
create additional economic uncertainty at a difficult economic | :37:18. | :37:24. | |
time. Was he right? He was entirely right. It is interesting that the | :37:24. | :37:28. | |
leader of the opposition only wants to talk about process, because he | :37:28. | :37:35. | |
dare not debate the substance. I don't think it would be right for | :37:35. | :37:39. | |
Britain to have an in/out referendum today, because I think | :37:39. | :37:44. | |
we would be given the British people a false choice. -- would be | :37:44. | :37:49. | |
giving the British people. Millions, myself included, want Britain to | :37:50. | :37:53. | |
stay within the European Union but believe there are chances to | :37:53. | :37:57. | |
negotiate a better deal. Countries are looking at forthcoming treaty | :37:58. | :38:02. | |
change and thinking, what can I do to maximise my national interest? | :38:02. | :38:06. | |
That is what the Germans and the Spanish will do, that is what the | :38:06. | :38:09. | |
British should do. Let's get to the substance and give up the feeble | :38:09. | :38:19. | |
:38:19. | :38:20. | ||
First of all, Mr Speaker, I thought the jokes were pretty good. But I | :38:20. | :38:29. | |
am talking about the substance. His position appears to be this, and | :38:29. | :38:35. | |
in/out referendum now would be destabilising, but promising one- | :38:35. | :38:41. | |
in-five years' time is just fine for the country. -- but promising | :38:41. | :38:47. | |
one in five years' time. That is five years of businesses seeing a | :38:47. | :38:51. | |
closed for business sign hanging around Britain. What did Lord | :38:51. | :39:01. | |
:39:01. | :39:01. | ||
Heseltine say? He said, to commit... Dear Lord Heseltine, one mainstream | :39:01. | :39:05. | |
conservative voice, to commit to a referendum about a negotiation that | :39:05. | :39:10. | |
has not begun, and a timescale you can't predict, on an outcome that | :39:10. | :39:16. | |
is unknown, seems to me like an unnecessary gamble. Isn't he right? | :39:16. | :39:20. | |
It is no secret that there are disagreements between myself and | :39:20. | :39:24. | |
Michael Heseltine when it comes to Europe. I have a huge amount of | :39:24. | :39:27. | |
time for Michael, he was one of the leading voices for Britain joining | :39:27. | :39:31. | |
the single currency, and I am delighted we have been joined, and | :39:31. | :39:37. | |
we should not, and under my prime ministership we never will. -- I am | :39:37. | :39:42. | |
delighted we have not joined. What business wants in Europe is what I | :39:42. | :39:46. | |
want, to be part of Europe but a more flexible and competitive | :39:46. | :39:50. | |
Europe, a Europe that can take on the challenge of the global race | :39:50. | :39:55. | |
and the rise of nations in the south and east. I put it to him | :39:55. | :39:58. | |
again, when there is change taking place in Europe, when the single | :39:58. | :40:03. | |
currency is driving change, isn't it in the British national interest | :40:03. | :40:06. | |
to argue for changes that will make the European Union more competitive | :40:06. | :40:10. | |
and flexible, that will strengthen and sort out the British | :40:11. | :40:14. | |
relationship between Britain and the European Union, then to ask the | :40:14. | :40:18. | |
British people for their consent? That is our approach. Apart from | :40:18. | :40:23. | |
coming out with what he considers very amusing jokes, what is his | :40:23. | :40:27. | |
approach? The biggest change we need in Europe is to move from | :40:27. | :40:32. | |
austerity to growth and jobs. And he has absolutely nothing to say | :40:32. | :40:39. | |
about that. And here is the reality, the reason he is changing his mind | :40:39. | :40:43. | |
is nothing to do with the national interest, it is because he has lost | :40:43. | :40:48. | |
control of his party. And the problem is this, he thinks his | :40:48. | :40:53. | |
problems on Europe will end on Friday. They are just beginning. | :40:53. | :40:56. | |
They are just beginning. Can he confirm that he has now given the | :40:56. | :41:03. | |
green light to Conservative cabinet ministers to campaign on different | :41:03. | :41:06. | |
positions on whether they are for or against being in the European | :41:06. | :41:12. | |
Union? He tries to make the point that Europe should somehow be | :41:12. | :41:17. | |
moving off the policy of deficit reduction, he is completely | :41:17. | :41:21. | |
isolated in Europe. There is not one single government, not even | :41:21. | :41:25. | |
socialists in Europe, who believe you should be pushing up borrowing | :41:25. | :41:30. | |
and borrowing more. That is the simple truth. What is in Britain's | :41:30. | :41:34. | |
interest is to seek a fresh settlement in Europe that is more | :41:34. | :41:37. | |
flexible and competitive, that is in our interest and that is what we | :41:38. | :41:46. | |
will seek. I must ask him, doesn't he understands -- understand that | :41:46. | :41:49. | |
what has happened over the last decade, where a Labour government | :41:49. | :41:54. | |
signed treaty after treaty, gave away power after power, saw more | :41:54. | :41:57. | |
centralisation after more centralisation had never consulted | :41:57. | :42:01. | |
the British people is what has made this problem so big in the first | :42:01. | :42:10. | |
place? The Prime Minister did not answer the question about whether | :42:10. | :42:13. | |
he gave the green light to his Conservative colleagues in Cabinet, | :42:13. | :42:17. | |
for some of them to concern being in the European Union and some of | :42:17. | :42:22. | |
them getting out of the European Union. -- for some of them to | :42:22. | :42:27. | |
campaign about being in the European Union. When there are 1 | :42:27. | :42:30. | |
million young people out of work and businesses are going to the | :42:30. | :42:35. | |
wall, he spends six months creating a speech to create five years of | :42:35. | :42:39. | |
uncertainty for Britain. When it comes to Europe, it is the same old | :42:39. | :42:45. | |
Tories, a divided party and a weak Prime Minister. | :42:45. | :42:49. | |
He has absolutely nothing to say about the important issue of | :42:49. | :42:54. | |
Britain's relationship with Europe. What is his view? Order, order. The | :42:54. | :42:58. | |
response from the Prime Minister must be heard, and it will be. | :42:58. | :43:02. | |
There will be a very simple choice at the next election. If you want | :43:02. | :43:06. | |
to stay out of the single currency, you vote Conservative, if you want | :43:06. | :43:10. | |
to join it, you boots Labour. If you want to take power back from | :43:10. | :43:15. | |
Britain, you vote Conservative, if you want to give power to Brussels, | :43:15. | :43:21. | |
you vote Labour. That is the truth. He wants absolutely no change in | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
the relationship between Britain and Europe and he does not believe | :43:24. | :43:33. | |
the British people should be given a choice. Mark Causey! | :43:33. | :43:38. | |
The Prime Minister has very rightly focus the Government on growth and | :43:38. | :43:41. | |
the development of new housing plays a key part in providing that | :43:41. | :43:45. | |
growth, as well as providing much- needed new homes. In my | :43:45. | :43:49. | |
constituency we have two developments of the combined size | :43:49. | :43:54. | |
of 8000 new homes. Will the Prime Minister joined meet in praising | :43:54. | :43:59. | |
the Council's attitude towards new development? He might come to rugby | :43:59. | :44:05. | |
to see how we are going about it. would be delighted to visit him in | :44:05. | :44:09. | |
Rugby. He is right in saying we need to build more houses, because | :44:09. | :44:13. | |
right now, unless you have help from your parents, the average age | :44:14. | :44:17. | |
of a first-time buyer is in their 30s. We need to build more homes to | :44:17. | :44:21. | |
make sure we can allow people to achieve the dream that so many | :44:21. | :44:27. | |
people have done, getting on the housing ladder. David Lammy. | :44:27. | :44:30. | |
2010 the Prime Minister and his party said it was, I quote, lying | :44:30. | :44:34. | |
and scaremongering to suggest that they would reduce family tax | :44:34. | :44:39. | |
credits for families earning less than 31,000. We found out last week | :44:39. | :44:45. | |
that the threshold will in fact be �26,000. Will he now apologised to | :44:45. | :44:51. | |
families that he has failed to protect. | :44:51. | :44:54. | |
This Government has had to make difficult decisions on public | :44:54. | :44:58. | |
spending and welfare. But throughout that we have protected | :44:58. | :45:02. | |
those on the lowest incomes and Major, particularly with the child | :45:02. | :45:06. | |
tax credit, that we have increased it. That is what we have done with | :45:06. | :45:11. | |
child tax credits, it is a record we should support. | :45:11. | :45:15. | |
The residents of Thanet both enjoyed burgers but also love | :45:15. | :45:22. | |
horses. This morning they will be shocked to hear that they might | :45:22. | :45:26. | |
have been eating horsemeat. I wonder whether the Prime Minister | :45:26. | :45:29. | |
can reassure us that he and the Government is doing enough to | :45:29. | :45:34. | |
reassure the diners of Thanet? honourable lady raises a very | :45:35. | :45:42. | |
important issue. It is an extremely serious issue. People in our | :45:42. | :45:45. | |
country would have been very concerned to read this morning that | :45:45. | :45:48. | |
when they thought they were buying beefburgers they were buying | :45:48. | :45:53. | |
something that had horsemeat in it, that is extremely disturbing news. | :45:53. | :45:56. | |
I've asked the Food Standards Agency to conduct an urgent | :45:56. | :46:00. | |
investigation. They have made clear there is no risk to public safety | :46:00. | :46:04. | |
because there is no food safety was, but this is a completely | :46:04. | :46:08. | |
unacceptable state of affairs. They will be meeting retailers and | :46:08. | :46:12. | |
processes this afternoon, working with them to investigate the supply | :46:12. | :46:15. | |
chain, but it is worth making the point that ultimately retailers | :46:15. | :46:23. | |
must be responsible for what they Could I thank the Prime Minister | :46:23. | :46:26. | |
and the leader of the opposition for their condolences and could I | :46:26. | :46:30. | |
add my condolences and sympathy to those people who died, the families | :46:30. | :46:34. | |
of those who have died in my constituency this morning in the | :46:34. | :46:40. | |
helicopter crash. Would he share with me the absolute amazing work | :46:40. | :46:43. | |
that was done by particularly the fire services this morning, the | :46:43. | :46:49. | |
firefighters who came from Clapham station were there in a short time. | :46:49. | :46:52. | |
Would he also recognise at some stage, not for today, but some | :46:52. | :46:56. | |
stage we do need to look at whether now with a changing skyline of | :46:56. | :47:01. | |
London we need to look much more closely at where and how and why | :47:01. | :47:04. | |
helicopters fly throughout our central city? | :47:04. | :47:08. | |
I think the honourable lady is absolutely right again to praise | :47:08. | :47:11. | |
the emergency services. Everyone could see from those terrifying | :47:11. | :47:14. | |
pictures on our screens this morning just how quickly the | :47:14. | :47:17. | |
emergency services responded and how brave and professional they | :47:17. | :47:20. | |
were in the way in which they responded. I think the point she | :47:21. | :47:24. | |
makes about the rules for helicopter flights and other | :47:24. | :47:28. | |
flights over our capital city, I am sure they will be looked at as part | :47:28. | :47:32. | |
of the investigations that will take place. That's not an issue for | :47:33. | :47:36. | |
today but tpheft plea something -- inevitably it's something to be | :47:36. | :47:42. | |
looked at. Last week I organised an entrepreneurship seminar for women | :47:42. | :47:45. | |
wanting to set up their own businesses and one of the questions | :47:45. | :47:47. | |
they asked was about the cost of child care. Given that this | :47:47. | :47:53. | |
Government has extended 15 hours of care to two-year-olds for the most | :47:53. | :47:55. | |
disadvantaged, quarter of a million two-year-olds and extended it to | :47:56. | :47:59. | |
three and four-year-olds, does it not show this Government is | :47:59. | :48:03. | |
supporting families and women who want to work? I think my honourable | :48:03. | :48:07. | |
friend makes an important point. We have seen over the last couple of | :48:07. | :48:11. | |
years one of the fastest rates of new business creation in our | :48:11. | :48:15. | |
history. But we do need to encourage particularly female | :48:15. | :48:18. | |
entrepreneurship, if we had the same rate as other countries we | :48:18. | :48:21. | |
could help wipe out unemployment altogether. We do help families as | :48:21. | :48:25. | |
she said, in terms of two, three and four-year-olds with childcare. | :48:25. | :48:28. | |
We also help through the tax credit system, but as the House will know, | :48:28. | :48:31. | |
we are looking at how we can help even further for hard-working | :48:31. | :48:36. | |
people that want to go out to work, that need help for childcare, to | :48:36. | :48:38. | |
make sure they can do the right thing for their children and | :48:38. | :48:45. | |
families. Thank you, Mr Speaker. When will the Prime Minister visit | :48:45. | :48:55. | |
:48:55. | :48:55. | ||
a food bank? He is welcome to come to Rother hpl? -- -- Rotherham. | :48:55. | :48:58. | |
should welcome the work they do. It was the last Government I think | :48:58. | :49:03. | |
that quitely actually recognised that through giving food banks an | :49:03. | :49:06. | |
award. As honourable members have asked this question, and shout out | :49:06. | :49:10. | |
a lot about food banks, let me remind them of one simple fact - | :49:10. | :49:14. | |
the use of food banks went up ten- fold under the last Labour | :49:14. | :49:20. | |
Government. So before they try to use this as some political weapon, | :49:20. | :49:27. | |
they should recognise this started under their own Government. | :49:27. | :49:31. | |
Thank you, Mr Speaker. The national star college in my constituency | :49:31. | :49:34. | |
provides well renowned care for some of our disabled youngsters | :49:34. | :49:38. | |
with the most profound and complex learning difficulties to enable | :49:38. | :49:43. | |
them to lead an independent life. Sadly, it and a few similar | :49:43. | :49:47. | |
colleges' future is being placed in jeopardy by a decision not to | :49:47. | :49:50. | |
ringfence the funding. As I am sure my right honourable friend will | :49:50. | :49:53. | |
wish to solve this problem, may I invite him to come to the college | :49:53. | :49:57. | |
to see this wonderful care for himself. | :49:57. | :50:01. | |
As my constituency neighbour, I am happy to discuss this issue with | :50:01. | :50:05. | |
him. He praises the fantastic work carried out by the college. It does | :50:05. | :50:09. | |
do an excellent job in improving the life chances of young people. I | :50:09. | :50:12. | |
know the college has concerns over the new funding system. I know that | :50:12. | :50:15. | |
he has contacted the Minister responsible. We are changing the | :50:15. | :50:18. | |
way that funding is allocated but this does not necessarily mean that | :50:19. | :50:22. | |
the funding will be cut. I am happy to discuss this with him but the | :50:22. | :50:26. | |
new funding system does allow local authorities to have more say in how | :50:26. | :50:29. | |
the funding is distributed but I am sure they'll want to recognise | :50:29. | :50:33. | |
excellent work including from this college. | :50:33. | :50:38. | |
Is the Prime Minister aware of the trauma facing thousands of families, | :50:38. | :50:41. | |
particularly in London, who live in private represented accommodation | :50:42. | :50:45. | |
where the housing benefit payments do not meet the rapidly increasing | :50:45. | :50:50. | |
rents and they are forced out of their homes, out of their boroughs | :50:50. | :50:53. | |
and the community suffers as a result and children's education | :50:53. | :50:57. | |
suffers? Does he not think it's time to regulate private sector | :50:57. | :51:01. | |
rents and bring in a fair rents policy in this country so that | :51:01. | :51:05. | |
families are not forced out of the communities where they have lived | :51:05. | :51:10. | |
for a very long time? I would say is he does have to | :51:10. | :51:14. | |
recognise that we inherited a situation in terms of housing | :51:14. | :51:18. | |
benefit in London that was completely out of control. Some | :51:18. | :51:24. | |
families were getting as much as �104,000 for one family for one | :51:24. | :51:29. | |
year. Even today we are still spending something like �6 billion | :51:29. | :51:33. | |
on housing benefit in London. I think we have to recognise that | :51:34. | :51:37. | |
higher levels of housing benefit and higher rents were chasing each | :51:37. | :51:43. | |
other up in a spiral. I don't support the idea of mass rent | :51:43. | :51:48. | |
controls because what we would see a massive decline in the private | :51:48. | :51:50. | |
rented sector which is what happened last time we had such | :51:50. | :51:54. | |
controls. We need proper regulation of housing benefit and making sure | :51:54. | :51:58. | |
we have a competitive system for private sector renting and also | :51:59. | :52:06. | |
making sure we build more flats and houses. The deficit has to be | :52:06. | :52:10. | |
brought down, but if tax credits and benefits are capped now for the | :52:10. | :52:14. | |
next three years at 1%, people on low incomes will be vulnerable to | :52:14. | :52:19. | |
increases in food and energy prices. If prices go up by more than | :52:19. | :52:22. | |
expected what contingency plans does the Government have for | :52:22. | :52:25. | |
benefits and tax credits? The most important thing is to make sure | :52:25. | :52:28. | |
people are getting a good deal in terms of energy prices. That's why | :52:28. | :52:32. | |
we are going to be ledge lating to make -- legislating to make | :52:32. | :52:35. | |
companies put people on the lowest available tariffs, that's something | :52:35. | :52:40. | |
on this side of the House we are doing that will help all families. | :52:40. | :52:44. | |
As a diabetic, can I welcome the fact that last year the Prime | :52:44. | :52:50. | |
Minister lit up Number 10 for the first time on World Dine Day. One - | :52:50. | :52:56. | |
- Diabetes Day. One third of all school leavers, are either obese or | :52:56. | :53:02. | |
overweight, yet they consume cans of coke and Pepsi that contain up | :53:02. | :53:05. | |
to eight teaspoons of sugar. What steps is the Prime Minister | :53:05. | :53:08. | |
proposing to take to engage manufacturers in a war against | :53:08. | :53:14. | |
sugar? If we don't act now, the next generation will be overwhelmed | :53:14. | :53:20. | |
by a diabetes epidemic. I think the gentleman is absolutely right to | :53:20. | :53:23. | |
raise this issue. It's one of the biggest health challenges that we | :53:23. | :53:26. | |
face in our country, a public health challenge that we face. He | :53:26. | :53:30. | |
is right to highlight the problem of accessive eating of sugar. | :53:30. | :53:33. | |
That's why we challenged business through our responsibility deal to | :53:33. | :53:37. | |
try and reduce levels of sugar and that has had some effect. What we | :53:37. | :53:42. | |
have in place now is a diabetes action plan which is about how we | :53:42. | :53:47. | |
improve early diagnosis, how we better spwe care and -- integrate | :53:47. | :53:50. | |
care and provide better support. It's one of of those challenges not | :53:50. | :53:53. | |
just for the health service, it's a challenge for local authorities, | :53:53. | :53:57. | |
schools and for parents, as well. As someone trying to bring up three | :53:57. | :54:02. | |
children without excessive amounts of coca-cola, I know exactly how | :54:03. | :54:11. | |
big the challenge is. 20 years ago this week Claire Tiltman, a 16- | :54:11. | :54:14. | |
year-old girls school pupil was stabbed to death in my constituency. | :54:14. | :54:19. | |
Nobody has ever been convicted of this crime. Both of her parents | :54:19. | :54:22. | |
subs subsequently died never knowing who had actually taken | :54:22. | :54:25. | |
their only child from them. Mr Speaker, could the Prime Minister | :54:25. | :54:29. | |
assure the House that this government will continue to provide | :54:29. | :54:34. | |
full assistance to Kent Police to help bring justice for one of | :54:34. | :54:41. | |
Britain's most brutal and unsolved murders? He is absolutely right to | :54:42. | :54:44. | |
raise this case. It is a particularly tragic case because as | :54:44. | :54:50. | |
he says, the parents of this girl have both died. What Wye say is of | :54:50. | :54:52. | |
course we will do everything we can but above all, it's for other | :54:53. | :54:55. | |
people, anyone who knows anything about this case to talk to the Kent | :54:55. | :54:58. | |
Police because in the end it is their responsibility to try and | :54:58. | :55:02. | |
solve this case. In terms of taking action to deal with appalling knife | :55:02. | :55:06. | |
crimes like this one, as he knows the Government has taken a set of | :55:06. | :55:12. | |
important actions. 39 people suspected of serious child sex | :55:12. | :55:16. | |
offences who fled the country have been brought back quickly to | :55:17. | :55:21. | |
Britain under the European Arrest Warrant to face justice. Sadly, | :55:21. | :55:26. | |
many of these backbenchers want to scrap the European Arrest Warrant | :55:26. | :55:31. | |
making it easier for paedophiles to escape justice. Will he today | :55:31. | :55:36. | |
categorically rule that out? As the honourable gentleman knows, we have | :55:37. | :55:40. | |
the opportunity to work out which of the home affairs parts of the | :55:40. | :55:44. | |
European Union we want to opt out of and which ones we want to opt | :55:44. | :55:47. | |
back into. That's being rightly discussed in the Government. It's | :55:47. | :55:49. | |
being discussed in this House. I am sure they'll listen carefully to | :55:49. | :55:59. | |
his arguments. Great progress is being made in improving the rights | :55:59. | :56:04. | |
of park oepl owners, many of whom are are vulnerable on low incomes. | :56:04. | :56:08. | |
Currently they're not eligible for the green deal. Will he ask his | :56:08. | :56:11. | |
civil servants to investigate this mat tore make sure that assistance | :56:11. | :56:16. | |
with energy efficiency is available to everybody who really needs it? | :56:16. | :56:20. | |
I will look carefully at what my honourable friend says. This | :56:20. | :56:24. | |
Government has taken some steps forward in terms of the rights of | :56:24. | :56:28. | |
park home owners. I have some of these in my own constituency and I | :56:28. | :56:32. | |
know how important it is we get the balance of law right. Specifically | :56:32. | :56:35. | |
her point on the green deal, I will look at that because the green deal | :56:35. | :56:39. | |
is a very important measure to try and help people with their energy | :56:39. | :56:41. | |
efficiency and keep their bills down. We want that obviously to be | :56:41. | :56:48. | |
available to as many people as possible. Yesterday Sir Bruce Keel | :56:48. | :56:54. | |
the medical director of the NHS, told the Public Accounts Committee | :56:54. | :56:59. | |
GPs were imposing unjustified restrictions on cataract operations. | :56:59. | :57:02. | |
It seems the Prime Minister and his reorganisation is taking the NHS | :57:02. | :57:07. | |
back to the 1980s when it was - when the NHS was the sick man of | :57:07. | :57:10. | |
Europe. Will he take this opportunity to apologise to elderly | :57:10. | :57:13. | |
people who are waiting unnecessarily for their cataract | :57:13. | :57:18. | |
operations? First of all, can I make the point that compared with | :57:18. | :57:24. | |
2010-11 last year there were 400,000 extra operations in our NHS. | :57:24. | :57:31. | |
If you look across our NHS, there are 5,000 more doctors and 5,000 | :57:31. | :57:37. | |
fewer administrators. We have the level of mixed sex wards right down. | :57:37. | :57:41. | |
The level of infections - the point I am making, I know the the party | :57:41. | :57:44. | |
opposite don't want to hear, the NHS is improving under this | :57:44. | :57:46. | |
Government because we are putting money in and they take the money | :57:46. | :57:54. | |
out. Many of us were inspired by the Prime Minister's speech on | :57:54. | :57:59. | |
political reform delivered in kaoepbs kaoepbs kaoepbs -- Milton | :57:59. | :58:04. | |
Keynes when we were in opposition. To make that happen, we were | :58:04. | :58:07. | |
promised a system of open primary selection which has already had | :58:07. | :58:12. | |
such a refreshing effect in the constituencies of Totnes. When does | :58:12. | :58:15. | |
the Prime Minister expect open primaries to be in place more | :58:15. | :58:21. | |
widely as promised in the coalition agreement? I do support using open | :58:21. | :58:24. | |
primaries. On this side of the House - sorry in this party we had | :58:24. | :58:28. | |
a number of open primaries. I hope that all parties can look at this | :58:28. | :58:33. | |
issue and debate and see how we can encourage maximum participation, | :58:33. | :58:37. | |
including in the selection of candidates. Let's talk about Europe | :58:37. | :58:42. | |
and the national interest. Millions of British women would be hit by | :58:42. | :58:47. | |
the post in today's Conservative Fresh Start report to opt out of | :58:47. | :58:52. | |
the EU law on equal pay. Will the Prime Minister rule out this opt- | :58:52. | :58:58. | |
out today? What this Government has done is we explained at the | :58:58. | :59:02. | |
beginning of Prime Ministers questions, is massively helped | :59:02. | :59:05. | |
women through the single tier pension. I will look carefully at | :59:05. | :59:13. | |
the proposal he mentioned and I will write to him. I know my right | :59:13. | :59:17. | |
honourable friend is aware of the extreme flooding suffered in the | :59:17. | :59:21. | |
West Country in November and December of last year, impacting | :59:21. | :59:25. | |
many homes and businesses and also sweeping away the rail link between | :59:25. | :59:28. | |
the West Country and London, leaving us cut off for several days. | :59:29. | :59:32. | |
Would he please ensure our Government will take every step | :59:32. | :59:35. | |
necessary to impoef the resilience -- improve the resilience of this | :59:35. | :59:42. | |
sraoeut afl link to -- vital hreurpbg so we -- link to we never | :59:42. | :59:52. | |
:59:52. | :59:54. | ||
get cut off again? I went to see myself how badly one town had been | :59:54. | :59:58. | |
-- flooded. He is going to be visiting the area soon to look at | :59:58. | :00:02. | |
this. We are working with Network Rail to improve the resilience of | :00:02. | :00:05. | |
the overall network and we will do everything to make sure these | :00:05. | :00:10. | |
important services are maintained even when they're challenged by | :00:10. | :00:14. | |
floods like last year. Does the Prime Minister accept that a | :00:14. | :00:19. | |
statement on Europe designed to be populist runs the risk of | :00:19. | :00:24. | |
polarising this House, undermining key UK UK relations with America, | :00:24. | :00:29. | |
confusing and alienating our friends in Europe and starting a | :00:29. | :00:34. | |
process that sleep-walks the UK out of Europe? I think the most | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
dangerous thing for this country would be to bury our head in the | :00:37. | :00:41. | |
sand and pretend there isn't a debate about Britain's future in | :00:41. | :00:44. | |
Europe. The most dangerous thing for this country would be to see | :00:44. | :00:48. | |
the changes that are taking place in Europe because of the single | :00:48. | :00:51. | |
currency and stand back and say, we are going to do nothing about it. | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
What Britain should be doing is getting in there, fighting for the | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
changes that we want, so then we can ask for the consent of the | :00:58. | :01:05. | |
British people to settle this issue once and for all. Can the Prime | :01:05. | :01:07. | |
Minister tell the House what the Government is doing to keep | :01:07. | :01:14. | |
pensioners warm in this cold weather and will he join me in | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
congratulating the Suffolk Foundation for the great success of | :01:19. | :01:23. | |
their surviving winter campaign? What this Government has done is | :01:23. | :01:28. | |
first of all give the biggest increase in the basic state pension | :01:28. | :01:31. | |
of �5.30 a week last year. We have kept the winter fuel payments, we | :01:31. | :01:35. | |
kept the cold weather payments at the higher level and we are | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
replacing the Warm Front Scheme with the energy company obligation | :01:38. | :01:42. | |
and while the Warm Front Scheme helps something like 80,000 houses | :01:42. | :01:47. | |
a year, the eco could help up to 230,000 houses a year. So that is | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
what we are doing. That's how we are helping old people and it's a | :01:50. | :01:55. | |
record we should be proud of. Prime Minister should know that the | :01:55. | :02:01. | |
ONS have recently released figures which show there were 24,000 extra | :02:01. | :02:06. | |
cold weather deaths over the winter of 2011-12. The majority of those | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
who perished were over the age of 75. Mr Speaker, can I ask the Prime | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
Minister if he thinks his Government should do more to help | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
the elderly and vulnerable and less to help millionaires with tax cuts? | :02:18. | :02:21. | |
As I just said, we are doing more to help the elderly and the | :02:21. | :02:26. | |
vulnerable. A record increase in the basic state pension. Bigger | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
than what the party opposite would have done with their rules. Keeping | :02:30. | :02:34. | |
the cold weather payments at the higher level that the last party | :02:34. | :02:38. | |
only - last Government introduced before the election. Keeping our | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
promise on winter fuel payments, taking all of those steps and | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
making sure again something never done by the party opposite, that | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
energy companies will have to put people on the lowest tariffs. | :02:48. | :02:55. | |
That's a record we can be proud of. Mr Speaker, a business in my | :02:55. | :03:00. | |
constituency is enduring a hideous regulatory farce, thanks to the | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
Health and Safety Executive and the European Union. Will my right | :03:04. | :03:08. | |
honourable friend remind the CBI that the British economy is very | :03:08. | :03:11. | |
reliant and small and medium businesses, businesses far less | :03:11. | :03:15. | |
able to cope with bad regulation, particularly when it's badly | :03:15. | :03:20. | |
administered in the UK? He is absolutely right. Businesses large | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
and small are complaining about the burden of regulation, not just the | :03:24. | :03:28. | |
pwurtd of regulation -- burden of regulation from Europe but more | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
generally and that's why we should be fighting in Europe for a more | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
flexible, more competitive Europe and a Europe where we see | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
regulations come off, rather than always go on. The sraouf of the | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
party -- view of the party opposite is sit back and do nothing and | :03:41. | :03:50. | |
never listen to the British people The big news is that the speaker | :03:50. | :03:55. | |
interrupted only once. Who said he would interrupt only once? Are a | :03:55. | :04:01. | |
forgotten! That would be me. How much do I get? Nothing. | :04:01. | :04:07. | |
In other news, a Europe dominated the frontbench exchanges, just as | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
they dominated the first part of our programme. PMQs now follows the | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
so carefully that the leader of the opposition even began with the same | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
question I began the programme with. He is obviously watching the show | :04:18. | :04:24. | |
and taking notes as he heads into the chamber. We saw a debate about | :04:24. | :04:28. | |
Europe that will take place over the next three years. Just get used | :04:28. | :04:34. | |
to it. An interesting thing that was not mentioned, there was no | :04:34. | :04:39. | |
question about Mali, a major intervention by one of our European | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
allies in which the British are providing logistical support. Al- | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
Qaeda will now use northern Mali as a new base to launch terrorist | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
attacks on Western Europe and the United States, it is said, and yet | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
no one in the House of Commons, the mother of parliaments, I asked a | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
question about it. That may be a sign of increasing parochialism in | :04:59. | :05:04. | |
British politics. 99% of our viewers commented on | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
Europe and the debate between the two leaders. John in Leeds said | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
that history is to date repeating itself, a Conservative PM digging a | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
hole for himself over Europe. David Cameron even made a non-existent | :05:17. | :05:24. | |
Labour policy on Europe look viable. Diane in Truro, David Cameron has | :05:24. | :05:28. | |
dug himself into a massive hole and is committing political suicide as | :05:28. | :05:33. | |
a result. The issue of Europe will be an irrelevance in a general | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
election, but party unity and competence is always crucial. | :05:37. | :05:42. | |
Peter in the Wirral, an incredibly weak performance from Cameron but | :05:42. | :05:46. | |
Europe is an open goal for Miliband. One viewer says that the electorate | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
cannot forget the way in which Labour handed over power was to the | :05:50. | :05:55. | |
European Union, I shed our thinking of Gordon Brown is signing the back | :05:55. | :06:03. | |
door and going -- going in the back door and signing the Lisbon Treaty. | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
Chris in Berkshire says Ed Miliband's attempt to embarrass the | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
Prime Minister by suggesting that Tory cabinet members would be given | :06:11. | :06:16. | |
the right to campaign in a referendum campaign from -- for a | :06:16. | :06:20. | |
withdrawal from the EU, does he not recall that is what Harold Wilson | :06:20. | :06:30. | |
:06:30. | :06:32. | ||
did in 1975? Was he... Yes, he was Prime Minister in 1975, I was just | :06:32. | :06:36. | |
checking. They call it the hokey-cokey | :06:36. | :06:41. | |
referendum. In, out, shake it all about! | :06:41. | :06:47. | |
I know exactly where we are. Let me ask you this, Nick, is it the view | :06:47. | :06:57. | |
of Mr Cameron and those around 10 that Europe is a vote winner? -- Mr | :06:57. | :07:00. | |
Cameron and those around him. It is not an issue which resonates every | :07:00. | :07:05. | |
day, and this country is more Euro- sceptic than it has ever been. So | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
do they think for him to be, quote, banging on about it in a Euro- | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
sceptic way, is that a helper in the run-up to the election or not? | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
What do they think? Coup I think they did this beach not because | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
they thought it was a bold winner, but because the pressure was coming | :07:22. | :07:28. | |
from within and outside his party, from UKIP and others. But you could | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
see the strategy. In his last words, and the Prime Minister always gets | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
the last word, he said if you want to go into the single currency you | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
vote Labour. They looked amazed, because Ed Balls was the person who | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
told Gordon Brown under no circumstances should Britain go... | :07:46. | :07:51. | |
No, he just told Gordon Brown that Tony Blair was in favour! Tony -- | :07:51. | :07:56. | |
Gordon Brown said, that was not happening! But clearly the tactic | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
was to say that Labour were in favour of more powers. If in favour | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
of getting rid of the pound. If you want to keep the pound you have to | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
vote for the Conservatives. They are trying to turn it around into a | :08:10. | :08:13. | |
vote-winner. Sometimes it is worth looking at faces in the House of | :08:13. | :08:19. | |
Commons. Did the Tories look like they were having a good time? | :08:19. | :08:22. | |
Whereas the Labour backbenchers looked like they were. I think Ed | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
Miliband can scarcely believe his luck. The reminder that he summed | :08:26. | :08:32. | |
up of a divided Conservative Party, people just hear a noise in the | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
Conservatives, an argument about something which does not appear to | :08:35. | :08:40. | |
be the priority of the day. That is so valuable foreign opposition | :08:40. | :08:44. | |
party. It does not mean that Labour will not face difficult questions | :08:44. | :08:52. | |
that they are not answering... did this morning. Perish the | :08:52. | :08:56. | |
thought! That has never happened before, when Douglas did not answer | :08:56. | :09:00. | |
the question! I suspect he does not feel any pressure to answer the | :09:00. | :09:04. | |
question at the moment. He will do one day, before the election, but | :09:04. | :09:10. | |
not now. It is clear that Mr Maher but -- Mr Miliband knew what he was | :09:10. | :09:18. | |
doing... Because he asked your question! We will send the invoice. | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
And his and your backbenchers seemed to like it. There must be | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
concern that Labour gets its positioning rights in a country | :09:27. | :09:33. | |
where all the polls show there is very little appetite for Europe. | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
have to recognise the legitimate concerns expressed by the British | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
public. Europe needs to change. But the central point, as Mix suggested, | :09:41. | :09:48. | |
the promise is being driven by this position not by strength but by a | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
weakness. I expect you'll get some good headlines out of the speech. | :09:52. | :09:55. | |
The suggestion you up -- will be that he will push around other | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
European leaders. But he is being pushed around by his own | :09:59. | :10:05. | |
backbenchers, which might be good for Labour but not for the country. | :10:05. | :10:10. | |
As Nick outlined earlier, the Prime Minister has always maintained a | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
pragmatic Euro-scepticism and a pragmatic year-old involvement, we | :10:14. | :10:17. | |
must be involved as trade in Europe is important to the country, we | :10:17. | :10:23. | |
must be part of Europe, but there is widespread agreement among so | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
Conservative Party that where we are now is not in a good position, | :10:26. | :10:33. | |
it is not in the British national interest. The European Working Time | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
Directive and the powers highlighted this morning by Andrea. | :10:36. | :10:40. | |
It is right that we look to bring back powers that are in the British | :10:40. | :10:44. | |
interest back to Britain. That is the broad consensus of the | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
Conservatives. I thought the most significant moment for the history | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
books today was when he said, Ed Miliband, will you give your | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
Cabinet permission to campaign on either side during the referendum? | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
Because going back to 1975 when Harold Wilson did that, you have | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
the extraordinary spectacle of two cabinet members in the Panorama | :11:07. | :11:11. | |
studio, Roy Jenkins on one side, Tony Benn on the other, at each | :11:11. | :11:19. | |
other's throats on the issue of Europe. That was 1975. By 1981, Roy | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
Jenkins was leading the SDP, an alternative political party, and I | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
think the row about Europe and the Labour Party in the mid-70s | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
generated the anger that produced the Social Democratic Party, which | :11:31. | :11:34. | |
generated the split on the centre- left which meant the Tories were in | :11:34. | :11:42. | |
power for 18 years. It was written last week that this European | :11:42. | :11:48. | |
Business has the ability to split the Tories like corn rows. Forgive | :11:48. | :11:53. | |
me if I'm wrong, the referendum happens in this context, as Mr | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
Cameron would wish it, that he gets a deal from Europe in some form | :11:56. | :12:00. | |
that you think amounts to a repatriation of certain powers. | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
Probably not his wish-list or anything like it, but something to | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
come back. Then the choice he plans to put before us if re-elected is | :12:08. | :12:15. | |
that we both for this may be a bit more semi-detached relationship | :12:15. | :12:21. | |
with Europe, and if we both know, we are voting to leave? We won't | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
know until he delivers the speech. We know he wants to renegotiate and | :12:26. | :12:31. | |
thinks he can do it. What is the vote on? One possibility is to say | :12:31. | :12:34. | |
to the British public, do you support to the new negotiated | :12:34. | :12:39. | |
position of the Government on Europe? If they vote yes, we know | :12:39. | :12:45. | |
what that means. Voting no could mean a boat to try a bit harder, | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
have another negotiation in the sense that the Irish referendum did | :12:48. | :12:52. | |
not mean they got out of Europe, the Dutch referendum, the French | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
referendum, these were all no votes over different treaties in recent | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
years. That is the ambiguity which we will see if it is resolved on | :13:01. | :13:11. | |
:13:11. | :13:13. | ||
Friday. And does it mean, please try again, all, off we go? -- or | :13:13. | :13:18. | |
off we go? Is it true, as I have read in the papers, that Downing | :13:18. | :13:24. | |
Street and those around Mr Cameron ARC all his mates from Eton who are | :13:24. | :13:33. | |
around him? -- are all his mates? don't recognise that at all. All of | :13:33. | :13:39. | |
their cabinets and Mr Tenham regularly engaged. I mean what we | :13:39. | :13:44. | |
used to call the kitchen cabinet? It is not something I recognise. | :13:44. | :13:50. | |
How many did not go to Eton? I am sure you will tell me. But it | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
depends on who you describe as the inner circle. I always found him | :13:55. | :14:00. | |
very receptive to me when I was a backbench MP, from all members of | :14:00. | :14:06. | |
the party he is receptive. He has shown very good engagement with our | :14:06. | :14:13. | |
backbenchers and with ministers. I think that is the case. You up for | :14:13. | :14:23. | |
promotion, I can see it! -- you are up for promotion. Tell us about it. | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
His Chief of Staff, Ed Llewellyn, was at Eton with him. Craig Oliver | :14:27. | :14:32. | |
used to work at the BBC, he is not an Old Etonian, and Andrew Cooper. | :14:32. | :14:36. | |
There are lots of exceptions. But what angers a lot of Conservatives, | :14:36. | :14:40. | |
let alone people outside, is they feel they can't break into a circle | :14:41. | :14:45. | |
which is as much about what's anything-goes end of the Times | :14:45. | :14:51. | |
called it not at the Notting Hill set, but the research department | :14:51. | :14:59. | |
set. A group of people began in the -- began in politics working in the | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
research department under John Major, George Osborne and David | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
Cameron included. The reason they became so-called Tory modernisers | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
and said our generation should lead, they look at what happened to John | :15:11. | :15:15. | |
Major and said, never again to our party. The reason today is | :15:15. | :15:19. | |
significant is they will go back to their office and say, does that | :15:19. | :15:26. | |
feel just a bit familiar? Maastricht rebels, who were seen as | :15:26. | :15:30. | |
the extreme Euro-sceptics, are now the mainstream of the | :15:30. | :15:36. | |
Conservatives? And the mainstream of the country, in some respect. | :15:36. | :15:41. | |
The gamble the Prime Minister is taking is that Europe is bound to | :15:41. | :15:44. | |
change after the Euro crisis, that it is, therefore, perfectly | :15:44. | :15:49. | |
possible to negotiate a new deal and that no government - Labour, | :15:49. | :15:53. | |
Tory or Coalition - could drive that a new deal through Parliament | :15:53. | :15:58. | |
like the Maastricht treaty was, without consulting the public. The | :15:58. | :16:02. | |
gamble is let's get brownie points now for stating what he regards, we | :16:02. | :16:05. | |
know he regards this, as the completely obvious - there will be | :16:05. | :16:10. | |
a new deal, there will have to be a referendum. Does he get brownie | :16:10. | :16:15. | |
points or do the parties say, it is not enough, or it is too far, and | :16:15. | :16:20. | |
drag him around? There is a rather more significant, powerful and some | :16:20. | :16:30. | |
will say significance arrangement of chums, it is the Paisley | :16:30. | :16:37. | |
arrangement. We have always seen it as a conspiracy! I was not brought | :16:37. | :16:47. | |
:16:47. | :16:56. | ||
up in Paisley, just for the No one wants to join! Touche! 15- | :16:56. | :17:01. | |
all! Writing a letter of complaint as we speak! | :17:01. | :17:04. | |
I really must not lower my standards! | :17:04. | :17:09. | |
He is best known as an advertising guru, but now Lord Saatchi says he | :17:09. | :17:13. | |
knows how to cure cancer and it's all by changing the law. 18 months | :17:13. | :17:16. | |
ago, Lord Saatchi lost his wife to a rare form of the disease. He has | :17:16. | :17:24. | |
put what he learnt into his Medical InOvation Bill -- Innovation Bill | :17:24. | :17:27. | |
which aims to prevent doctors from being held liable for clinical | :17:28. | :17:30. | |
negligence if they innovate during cancer treatment. Here he explains | :17:30. | :17:40. | |
:17:40. | :17:50. | ||
Cancer is relentless, remorseless, merciless. Its treatment is | :17:50. | :17:56. | |
medieval, degrading and ineffective. There is no more distressing thing | :17:56. | :18:03. | |
in the whole world than a beautiful woman being reduced to a sparrow. | :18:03. | :18:08. | |
That's why I have introduced the Medical Innovation Bill into the | :18:08. | :18:13. | |
House of Lords. Will this Bill cure cancer? No, but it will encourage | :18:13. | :18:21. | |
the man or woman who will. The treatment regime for such cancers | :18:21. | :18:29. | |
are 40 years old. For the woman, the good news is hair loss. The | :18:29. | :18:35. | |
less good news is that the drugs mimic the disease. Nausea, | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
diarrhoea, vomiting, fatigue. That's before we get to the bad | :18:39. | :18:46. | |
news. That's that the drugs do such damage to the immune system, | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
allowing fatal infections to enter the body, that the woman is as | :18:50. | :18:56. | |
likely to die from the infections as from the cancer. Current law is | :18:56. | :19:04. | |
a barrier to progress in curing cancer. Under present law, any | :19:04. | :19:12. | |
tkaoef -- divation by a doctor will result in a verdict of guilt of | :19:12. | :19:15. | |
medical negligence. Fear of litigation is sa barrier to | :19:15. | :19:21. | |
progress in curing cancer. We don't want human beings being treated | :19:21. | :19:26. | |
like mice, but on the other hand, we do want bold scientific | :19:26. | :19:36. | |
:19:36. | :19:38. | ||
discovery. This Bill achieves both. One man or woman with an idea will | :19:38. | :19:45. | |
cure cancer. That person has to be encouraged, not frightened. Only a | :19:45. | :19:51. | |
change in the law can solve that problem because the law is the | :19:51. | :19:55. | |
problem. And Lord Saatchi joins us now. | :19:55. | :19:59. | |
Welcome to the programme. Before I come to you, Dan Poulter, do you | :19:59. | :20:02. | |
tkpre with Maurice Saatchi that current law is a barrier to | :20:02. | :20:07. | |
progress in terms of cancer care? think we are sympathetic to the | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
points that Lord Saatchi has raised. Do you think it's a barrier, the | :20:11. | :20:16. | |
law is a barrier to progress can cancer care? One thing that was a | :20:16. | :20:21. | |
problem in the past was getting quick access to drugs and we | :20:21. | :20:24. | |
introduced as a Government the cancer drugs fund which has meant | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
25,000 more people are getting access to drugs but there are | :20:28. | :20:31. | |
concerns certainly that some medical professionals have that | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
sometimes when they bring forward or have new ideas about what can | :20:34. | :20:38. | |
improve care for patients, that sometimes they're not able to bring | :20:38. | :20:40. | |
that forward as quickly as they would like to do and this is | :20:40. | :20:45. | |
something we do need to have a look at. We are sympathetic to the ideas | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
and would like to engage further. I think Jeremy Hunt has already | :20:49. | :20:53. | |
spoken to Lord Saatchi and I know I will be keen to continue | :20:53. | :20:57. | |
discussions because we have to do everything we can to improve | :20:57. | :21:01. | |
patient care. Certainly as far as cancer treatment. Let me ask you | :21:01. | :21:06. | |
then, do you think it really could lead to a cure in the way that you | :21:06. | :21:10. | |
outlined, that by releasing doctors or giving them the freedom to be | :21:10. | :21:15. | |
more innovative, that it could then lead to a proper cure for cancer? | :21:15. | :21:20. | |
Well, I thank Dan very much for what he has just said. It sounds | :21:20. | :21:26. | |
surprising, doesn't it, that... sounds quite dramatic. Yes, how can | :21:26. | :21:30. | |
an skwrablt of parliament -- skwrablt of parliament cure cancer? | :21:30. | :21:33. | |
The answer is the analysis which has taken place over the course of | :21:33. | :21:38. | |
the last year with a great deal of consultation with medical | :21:38. | :21:42. | |
practitioners and academics and lots of people in Dan's department, | :21:42. | :21:47. | |
if the analysis is correct there is an ever present fear in the mind of | :21:47. | :21:53. | |
a doctor who is treating a patient, that only the well worn path of the | :21:53. | :22:01. | |
status quo is safe and that to deviate from the status I do, from | :22:01. | :22:06. | |
-- status quo, from that path is a risk to the patient, never mind the | :22:06. | :22:13. | |
patient, a risk to the doctors' lifelyhood and -- livelihood. | :22:13. | :22:17. | |
you advocating experimentation? You don't want patients to be treated | :22:17. | :22:22. | |
like mice, isn't that the risk? What this Bill does, and there is a | :22:22. | :22:27. | |
debate in the House of Lords today on the general subject of medical | :22:27. | :22:30. | |
innovation and the Bill will take its course and probably there will | :22:30. | :22:33. | |
be a second reading when the particular clauses can be debated | :22:33. | :22:38. | |
in detail. But those of us who have been involved in the preparation of | :22:38. | :22:44. | |
this Bill believe that by defining responsible innovation in law for | :22:44. | :22:51. | |
the first time that you will do more to discourage quackery and | :22:51. | :22:54. | |
reckless experimentation which puts patients' lives at risk than the | :22:54. | :22:58. | |
present law. Let's put that to Dan Poulter, who is a doctor, a | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
hospital doctor, of course, still practising. I tried to retire you | :23:01. | :23:04. | |
last time you were on the programme! I am going this | :23:04. | :23:09. | |
afternoon. Do you agree that you could actually minimise risk by | :23:09. | :23:14. | |
defining what being innovative is in law? That still sounds like not | :23:14. | :23:19. | |
a huge guarantee to being being experimented on? It's right that we | :23:19. | :23:25. | |
have safeguards in place so people can't - you won't have ad hoc | :23:26. | :23:28. | |
experimentation with medical drugs and with procedures. We do know in | :23:28. | :23:35. | |
some areas in medicine advances happen very quickly. But at the | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
same time Lord Saatchi is right, in other areas, for example, | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
particularly in the field of drugs, things have not been as quick as we | :23:44. | :23:48. | |
would like. Where we know that a drug potentially has worked and | :23:48. | :23:51. | |
there are clinical evidence and trials that's worked we need to | :23:52. | :23:56. | |
bring on stream more quickly and continue to do more quickly | :23:56. | :24:02. | |
medications that are effective. Douglas Alex and tkrer, do -- | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
Alexander, do you agree? Of course you want to strike the right | :24:06. | :24:10. | |
balance between established protocols and innovation. Dan is a | :24:10. | :24:15. | |
doctor, I am a lawyer by training. My instinct is to establish on | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
statute a legal water-tight definition. It's a tough ask of the | :24:19. | :24:23. | |
legal draftsman. That being said, my own mother was a leukaemia | :24:23. | :24:26. | |
specialist for many years in the NHS. There recall clearly | :24:26. | :24:29. | |
established protocols for cancer treatment. But if we encounter | :24:29. | :24:32. | |
situations where there are patients who if they follow established | :24:32. | :24:34. | |
protocols, inevitably are not going to respond to that treatment, we | :24:34. | :24:38. | |
need to look, for example, at the named patient procedure in place at | :24:38. | :24:41. | |
the moment and see if there is further scope for innovation | :24:41. | :24:44. | |
because we have an interest in finding right balance between | :24:44. | :24:47. | |
innovation and safety. Because some patients would like to try, if | :24:47. | :24:52. | |
they're coming towards the end of their life, you may think I will | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
try anything, why not, I have not very much to lose? To take | :24:56. | :25:02. | |
Douglas's point, he is a lawyer and he understands that in the court of | :25:02. | :25:06. | |
-- course of the drafting of this Bill by senior draftsmen with | :25:06. | :25:10. | |
support and advice from the judiciary, that the point that the | :25:10. | :25:16. | |
Bill takes in law is to follow, for example, the law in relation to | :25:16. | :25:22. | |
abortion or law in relation to sectioning under the Mental Health | :25:22. | :25:25. | |
Act both of which involve activities not permitted by the | :25:25. | :25:29. | |
signature of one doctor alone. Two doctors are required in both those | :25:29. | :25:34. | |
cases, for very good reasons. In this Bill what the safeguards that | :25:34. | :25:39. | |
appears is a definition of a process which has to be followed in | :25:39. | :25:45. | |
order for the innovation to be legal. That process is very | :25:45. | :25:49. | |
restrictive in that the multidisciplinary teams that Dan | :25:49. | :25:53. | |
has put in place who deal with all cancer patients will have to | :25:53. | :25:57. | |
approve the innovation. I have to stop you there, thank you very much. | :25:57. | :26:06. | |
Because we need to move, we are getting the word from the betting. | :26:06. | :26:11. | |
Let's get back to our friend, Paddy. As you said yourself, before and | :26:11. | :26:16. | |
after, one interruption from the Speaker today. A little bit | :26:16. | :26:19. | |
disappointing. Probably should have been offering odds on how many | :26:19. | :26:28. | |
times the Prime Minister said "you are absolutely right ask that | :26:28. | :26:34. | |
question". To be fair, you were correct. Exactly. What are the odds | :26:35. | :26:39. | |
on the next election? Labour majority is favourite at 5-4. A | :26:39. | :26:43. | |
Conservative majority 11-4. Between the two of them is probably the | :26:43. | :26:51. | |
outcome. What odds on a hung parliament? Would be, I suppose, | :26:51. | :27:00. | |
probably around 8 or 10-1 shot. What odds by still being in Europe | :27:00. | :27:06. | |
by 20? There is talk about a referendum. It's 5-1 that he | :27:06. | :27:10. | |
actually - the Prime Minister says he has an intention of having an | :27:10. | :27:13. | |
in-out referendum on Friday. What odds of Dan Poulter being the next | :27:13. | :27:16. | |
leader of the Conservative Party? This is a difficult one because he | :27:16. | :27:23. | |
is here. You want to pitch this in such a way... 100-1?! We want to | :27:24. | :27:29. | |
offer good value but not be insulting. 80-1. What about Douglas | :27:29. | :27:34. | |
Alexander the next leader of the Labour Party? Well, Douglas, 12-1 | :27:34. | :27:43. | |
shot. Better news. Who is ahead of him? Ed Miliband! How very helpful | :27:43. | :27:47. | |
there. I like this one, odds on the first MP to go topless in a | :27:47. | :27:52. | |
photoshoot? I think I - most appropriate thing to do is probably | :27:52. | :27:55. | |
offer 20-1 for either of your guests to do it right now. Because | :27:55. | :28:05. | |
:28:05. | :28:07. | ||
we have a fine example of this, you will be pleased to know. Let's have | :28:07. | :28:10. | |
a look. Dan. Is that you having a flu jab? I am disturbed about the | :28:10. | :28:14. | |
Mail on Sunday reporter's interest in spending time in researching | :28:14. | :28:18. | |
this. But I am pleased it's raised awareness for the campaign. We need | :28:18. | :28:28. | |
:28:28. | :28:28. | ||
to do The Guess The Year. The answer was David Cameron was - the | :28:28. | :28:38. | |
husky photoshoot, remember? It was 2006. Dan, press that red button. | :28:38. | :28:42. | |
Paul Rees in Hampshire. You won, you got 2006. That's it for today. | :28:42. | :28:48. |