13/04/2016

:00:36. > :00:42.700,000 more EU migrants are living in the UK than three years ago -

:00:43. > :00:47.would leaving the European Union let us take control of our borders?

:00:48. > :00:49.The Culture Secretary and the dominatrix -

:00:50. > :00:52.John Whittingdale's relationship ended two years ago

:00:53. > :00:54.and didn't make the papers until today,

:00:55. > :00:58.but is that because the story wasn't worth printing?

:00:59. > :01:01.David Cameron faces Jeremy Corbyn across the despatch box

:01:02. > :01:04.for the first Prime Minister's Questions of the summer term -

:01:05. > :01:09.And publishing your tax return is par for the course these days

:01:10. > :01:19.if you're a politician - but whose form's been most memorable?

:01:20. > :01:23.All that in the next hour and with us for the duration, two MPs

:01:24. > :01:25.who've produced some fascinating reading - and I'm not just talking

:01:26. > :01:29.The former Environment Secretary, who's now campaigning for the UK

:01:30. > :01:34.to leave the EU, Owen Paterson, and Shadow Foreign Secretary

:01:35. > :01:42.Hilary Benn - who is firmly in the Remain camp.

:01:43. > :01:46.First this morning - there are now 3.3 million EU

:01:47. > :01:49.nationals living in the UK, an increase of 700,000 over

:01:50. > :01:53.from the Oxford Migration Observatory, which says

:01:54. > :01:56.almost half of the 700,000 were from Poland and Romania.

:01:57. > :01:59.Spain, Italy and Portugal accounted for almost

:02:00. > :02:09.So is this all grist to the mill for the Leave campaign?

:02:10. > :02:15.Hilary Benn, do you think the issue of freedom of movement will decide

:02:16. > :02:22.who wins this argument? No, not in the end, because of the economic

:02:23. > :02:25.argument remaining in the EU being extremely strong, not least because

:02:26. > :02:29.of those workers that you are referring to, who make a net

:02:30. > :02:32.contribution to the British economy. They pay more tax than they take

:02:33. > :02:36.out, they help to paper the NHS, care for the elderly and things like

:02:37. > :02:41.that. And secondly because if we wish to retain access to the biggest

:02:42. > :02:44.in the market in the world, then it's quite clear that we would have

:02:45. > :02:48.to continue to accept free movement, because that's what Norway and

:02:49. > :02:52.Switzerland have to do, and I think, in the end, people will decide the

:02:53. > :02:55.economic argument and the economic risks and we've seen the IMF report

:02:56. > :03:01.that Kmart yesterday, talking about the risk if we were to leave. Our

:03:02. > :03:11.group that came out yesterday. We will talk about the IMF and other

:03:12. > :03:14.institutions in a moment. You've got conflicting information. The think

:03:15. > :03:18.tank open Europe says immigration is unlikely to fall in the event of

:03:19. > :03:28.Brexit because of examples of other large, developed countries with the

:03:29. > :03:33.low unemployment... What would you like to sequence Bob people accept

:03:34. > :03:36.immigration because we have an expanding economy but we need

:03:37. > :03:39.control and we don't have control. When I was at Defra, we had a scheme

:03:40. > :03:45.which is brought in skilled people to pick fruit. I saw an eye surgeon

:03:46. > :03:50.two weeks ago, absolutely furious that she counsels Morris be rinsed,

:03:51. > :03:56.better qualified, more skilled eye surgeons from California, Sutherland

:03:57. > :03:59.rear -- southern India or Hong Kong. We need a policy so that we can

:04:00. > :04:04.bring in targeted, skilled people in a whole range of sectors. But the

:04:05. > :04:06.numbers may not change? The numbers depend on what our economy requires

:04:07. > :04:10.but let's get the power to decide this in our own Parliament by people

:04:11. > :04:13.who we kick out of their make the wrong decisions. That's the

:04:14. > :04:16.difference stop if we accept Owen Paterson's argument that the numbers

:04:17. > :04:21.may not change that much, or they may vary, but it will be us that

:04:22. > :04:25.decides what sort of people come in and Tuesdays with the right skills.

:04:26. > :04:29.If Owen is accepting that the numbers may not change, then what's

:04:30. > :04:33.the point of leaving the EU? And this point about the single market,

:04:34. > :04:36.because the two are intimately connected, I think it's very clear

:04:37. > :04:39.that if we were to vote to leave, the EU would say, well, if you wish

:04:40. > :04:43.to continue to have full access to the single market, with all other

:04:44. > :04:47.benefits it brings for jobs, investment and economic growth, you

:04:48. > :04:51.will have to what Norway does, which is to pay into the European budget.

:04:52. > :04:57.They pay almost the same per head of population. You have to accept all

:04:58. > :05:01.of the rules - you do - you have to accept free movement. The only

:05:02. > :05:03.difference is that we will have removed ourselves from the room when

:05:04. > :05:08.it comes to making decisions about others in the market works. How does

:05:09. > :05:12.that make us better off? Is that the case, that it could be a trade-off?

:05:13. > :05:16.The quid pro quo will be that you do still have to have some sort of

:05:17. > :05:21.freedom of movement, otherwise we won't give you full access? We will

:05:22. > :05:25.give you access but not full access. We are the fifth largest economy in

:05:26. > :05:31.the world. We have the fastest growth. We will be able to get

:05:32. > :05:33.control of our own policy, in our own Parliament, and people are very

:05:34. > :05:37.angry about this, because they've had no say on this issue, because we

:05:38. > :05:41.don't control this policy and they know Beverley well that people can

:05:42. > :05:44.bowl about Victoria station this afternoon, drawn in by our growing

:05:45. > :05:49.economy, and there is no decision on our part of who comes goes. That

:05:50. > :05:52.will change if we get control of our own policy can stop the numbers

:05:53. > :05:55.depend on how fast the economy is growing and which sectors one which

:05:56. > :05:59.people. We want targeted policy, bringing the right people for the

:06:00. > :06:02.right jobs at the right time. At the moment there is no stopping people

:06:03. > :06:06.coming from the EU in large numbers, not just from Eastern Europe but

:06:07. > :06:10.from southern Europe, where the economies are still recovering, from

:06:11. > :06:13.Italy, from Portugal. Interviews all morning about the fact that in Spain

:06:14. > :06:17.young Spanish people cannot get jobs that pay anything like the rate that

:06:18. > :06:21.they are going to be paid here and, again, we wouldn't be able to do

:06:22. > :06:23.anything about that. That is true and the prospects for young people

:06:24. > :06:28.in Spain are pretty grim. It's one of the reasons why our decision on

:06:29. > :06:32.the last Labour government decision, not to join the euro was wise of

:06:33. > :06:36.time and even more wise in hindsight. But they are coming and

:06:37. > :06:42.contributing to the economy. They are often low skilled workers. To

:06:43. > :06:46.constantly assert that we will be able to continue to get access to

:06:47. > :06:49.the single market on current terms and not have to accept free

:06:50. > :06:53.movement, there is no evidence for that whatsoever, and the problem

:06:54. > :06:56.with your argument, Owen, is that you won't control it and I wouldn't

:06:57. > :07:02.control it in the event was voting to leave. It would be the other

:07:03. > :07:05.member states. And the choice people have to make is, do we stick with

:07:06. > :07:09.what we know and what we've got, which is access to the larger single

:07:10. > :07:12.market in the world, with all of the benefits, or do we take a risk on

:07:13. > :07:17.not getting as good a deal? And you can't promise the deal will be as

:07:18. > :07:20.good, can you? It's looking like we are going to win because ICM gave us

:07:21. > :07:24.the 3-point lead last night. We will have a massive mandate from the

:07:25. > :07:27.British people. This is a key issue in the campaign and we will be

:07:28. > :07:30.negotiating from a position of enormous strength. That changes the

:07:31. > :07:33.whole debate. We are the fifth largest economy in the world. We are

:07:34. > :07:37.saying we want control of our own borders, to decide who comes in and

:07:38. > :07:39.when. We don't have that control now and there are people watching this

:07:40. > :07:47.who are completely infuriated by that. How damaging do you think it

:07:48. > :07:51.is that institutions like the IMF put out statements saying, and

:07:52. > :07:55.highlighting, the risks, the uncertainty? Do they have as much

:07:56. > :08:00.sway as the government would have us believe? Well, the good news is, the

:08:01. > :08:04.IMF has got a track record of getting forecast heroically wrong.

:08:05. > :08:08.They completely missed the 2008 recession. They weren't alone on

:08:09. > :08:11.that. They told us that George Osborne's sensible measures to get

:08:12. > :08:15.public spending back under control would lead to a terrible shock in

:08:16. > :08:19.2013. Christine Lagarde actually said, "Do I have to go on my knees

:08:20. > :08:25.to George Osborne to apologise?" So I think we can relax about this.

:08:26. > :08:29.Doom and gloom, if you put your head in the oven, and what it is showing

:08:30. > :08:32.is that the UK will continue to have the fastest growth in Europe and we

:08:33. > :08:38.come down or .3 points. Does anybody care? The IMF is an institution,

:08:39. > :08:42.within these hallowed walls in Westminster, people care about what

:08:43. > :08:45.institutions think but out on the streets, people are thinking, this

:08:46. > :08:49.is the time to be antiestablishment. We don't want to be told what is

:08:50. > :08:54.better for us by these lofty organisations like the IMF. Will it

:08:55. > :08:59.actually sway any books? In the end, people have got to make a choice. --

:09:00. > :09:03.sway any votes. I'm convinced there will be an adverse economic impact

:09:04. > :09:06.if we leave. It's why every single survey of business opinion has shown

:09:07. > :09:11.that majority of those polled in those organisations have said that

:09:12. > :09:15.we should remain in the European Union and, look, if we don't get the

:09:16. > :09:19.deal, you confidently but it that we will but I don't make it so sure,

:09:20. > :09:23.they might say free trade and industry, of course they might. When

:09:24. > :09:25.it comes to services, which is really important for the British

:09:26. > :09:30.economy, they might say, we are not so sure about that. The Leave

:09:31. > :09:33.campaign say, let's be like Canada. At stake in seven years and isn't

:09:34. > :09:39.yet a done deal and it doesn't give them full access to the single

:09:40. > :09:44.market. -- it's taken seven years. The fact is, in the end, people have

:09:45. > :09:46.to decide, do they feel that we have benefited economically and will

:09:47. > :09:51.continue to benefit and be better off because we are in the EU? That

:09:52. > :09:55.sounds like you don't think the IMF will actually have that much sway in

:09:56. > :10:00.itself. It may feed into, as you say, arguments about uncertainty

:10:01. > :10:03.generally. What about the press? We haven't had that many official

:10:04. > :10:07.declarations in terms of in or out that there are stories on Adobe

:10:08. > :10:12.bases from the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Sun, pro-British stories.

:10:13. > :10:18.How worried are you about that? The press will do what the press... What

:10:19. > :10:24.about the influence? People have to decide. People may say, look, I

:10:25. > :10:27.don't like ripping about the European Union. This is not a

:10:28. > :10:31.referendum about whether you love the European Union. It's about, what

:10:32. > :10:34.is the wise thing to do? And I think people will go into the polling

:10:35. > :10:38.booth and decide, I may not like this or that but do I really want to

:10:39. > :10:42.take a risk on us damaging our future economic prospects by

:10:43. > :10:46.leaving? And that's where the IMF warning yesterday will have an

:10:47. > :10:50.impact. They are leaving us. They are going to form a new coherent

:10:51. > :10:54.state around the eurozone, from which we will be excluded. There is

:10:55. > :10:56.dirty work of the crosswords. Yesterday a debate of European

:10:57. > :11:03.Parliament that the IMF should take our seat. That is what is happening

:11:04. > :11:09.and we will be excluded from major decisions stop we need to get back

:11:10. > :11:11.control, and back our full seat and all the governing bodies that decide

:11:12. > :11:16.regulation and we will completely recover man's world trade. We are

:11:17. > :11:18.the great free trading nation and we want to go completely international,

:11:19. > :11:23.working with all our historical links, and that would be a massive

:11:24. > :11:26.and if it, not just a hard-working people here but some of the poorest

:11:27. > :11:30.people. That is so wrong because being in the EU, the truth is, it

:11:31. > :11:36.strengthens our voice in a whole range of fields. I am going to stop

:11:37. > :11:38.this discussion at this moment. Very temporarily!

:11:39. > :11:39.Now, the Culture Secretary, John Whittingdale,

:11:40. > :11:45.But the story of his relationship with a dominatrix, which ended

:11:46. > :11:48.more than two years ago, hasn't been reported until now,

:11:49. > :11:51.despite the fact that journalists at several newspapers were aware

:11:52. > :11:56.So has a conspiracy of silence protected the minister who oversees

:11:57. > :12:01.the media - or was the story just not newsworthy enough to print?

:12:02. > :12:06.Earlier this month, the journalism website Byline reported

:12:07. > :12:09.John Whittingdale had a previous relationship with a professional

:12:10. > :12:15.But the story stayed out of the newspapers.

:12:16. > :12:19.Mr Whittingdale said that when he discovered the truth

:12:20. > :12:23.about what she did in February 2014, he ended the relationship.

:12:24. > :12:26.At the time of the relationship, Mr Whittingdale was chairman

:12:27. > :12:28.of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, a post

:12:29. > :12:35.But campaigners against press intrusion say the fact the story

:12:36. > :12:39.wasn't reported has raised questions about a potential conflict

:12:40. > :12:44.of interest involving the man in charge of media regulation

:12:45. > :12:48.and the motivation of newspapers and broadcasters not to report it.

:12:49. > :12:50.Four newspapers - the People, the Mail on Sunday, the Sun

:12:51. > :12:54.and the Independent - learned about it but decided not

:12:55. > :13:00.In a statement, Mr Whittingdale said what he called

:13:01. > :13:04.an old story had no influence on any decisions he had taken

:13:05. > :13:10.Labour has called for him to withdraw from any further

:13:11. > :13:16.Number Ten said Mr Whittingdale was a "single man and entitled

:13:17. > :13:20.to a private life" and had the full confidence of the Prime Minister.

:13:21. > :13:22.This is what he had to say this morning

:13:23. > :13:28.Can you really successfully regulate the press after last

:13:29. > :13:34.What about what Labour are saying this morning...

:13:35. > :13:37.That you shouldn't be taking decisions about the press?

:13:38. > :13:40.We're joined now by former Lib Dem MP and campaigner

:13:41. > :13:43.against press intrusion, Evan Harris.

:13:44. > :13:53.Welcome to the programme. You were with Hacked Off for years and years.

:13:54. > :13:58.Patkar off has been complaining -- Hacked Off has been complaining

:13:59. > :14:01.about press intrusion. Now there has been a decision that there was no

:14:02. > :14:06.public interest in intruding and you are complaining about. The Secretary

:14:07. > :14:10.of State should not be regulating the press. John Whittingdale has

:14:11. > :14:14.done two things that are unique. He has first decided to avert the

:14:15. > :14:17.Government's previous policy that there will be a second part of the

:14:18. > :14:21.Leveson Inquiry to look at the cover of the police and the press and the

:14:22. > :14:26.corporate governance failures on hacking, and to cancel a cover-up

:14:27. > :14:30.investigation is a serious matter. The Prime Minister said it will go

:14:31. > :14:34.ahead. John Whittingdale in 2013 said it will go ahead. Now his

:14:35. > :14:37.position is, it might not. What evidence do you have that any of

:14:38. > :14:40.these decisions were taken because he knew that the papers have these

:14:41. > :14:46.stories? The second thing he's done is that Parliament passed a law to

:14:47. > :14:49.give victims access to justice, to sue the press and to encourage

:14:50. > :14:55.newspapers into the royal charter system. As you know, laws need to be

:14:56. > :14:59.commenced by a signature of the Secretary of State without further

:15:00. > :15:02.action. He has chosen to suspend indefinitely commencement of that,

:15:03. > :15:05.to the applause of the Society of editors to use conferencing made

:15:06. > :15:11.this announcement without any consultation. What is the answer to

:15:12. > :15:17.my question? I asked him in a recent meeting... What evidence is there

:15:18. > :15:25.that given John Whittingdale has a long track record of being against

:15:26. > :15:30.Leveson style regulation... In the Guardian he made it clear in 2012 as

:15:31. > :15:31.part of the social media profile that he was opposed to Leveson. In

:15:32. > :15:40.2012 he was. He voted in favour of it in March

:15:41. > :15:44.2013 and spoke out in favour of it when the report was announced in

:15:45. > :15:50.November. There may be something inaccurate a newspaper... But I've

:15:51. > :15:57.met him... John Whittingdale has always opposed Levenson. That is

:15:58. > :16:00.wrong. That is wrong. The government's policy, there was a

:16:01. > :16:04.cross-party agreement signed, was that there would be a part two and

:16:05. > :16:10.these incentives and access to justice would come forward. What is

:16:11. > :16:14.the evidence? I want to tell you what he told me, I asked why he had

:16:15. > :16:18.taken the power to decide whether to sign into law this thing that

:16:19. > :16:23.Parliament passed, and he said it would keep the press on their toes.

:16:24. > :16:27.It is not the job of a Secretary of State to do that and until they give

:16:28. > :16:30.an alternative reason for why the government has decided to intervene

:16:31. > :16:36.in press regulation, which all parties opposed, newspaper opposed,

:16:37. > :16:40.there is no other reason why he would be doing that if it wasn't a

:16:41. > :16:47.suspicion that he wanted to please the editors to stop them. So you are

:16:48. > :16:51.claiming that he has acted as a minister in the ways you have

:16:52. > :16:55.described because he knew the newspapers were looking at the

:16:56. > :16:59.story? There appears to be no other explanation unless it is the case

:17:00. > :17:03.that the Prime Minister breaks or promises he makes to victims and to

:17:04. > :17:10.Parliament regardless. What evidence do you have for this? If this was

:17:11. > :17:13.not the case, why would he not have told the Prime Minister on

:17:14. > :17:17.appointment, they have got this story on me, there is no public

:17:18. > :17:21.interest justification and they have not published but if it ever got out

:17:22. > :17:25.it might be implied there is a conflict of interest. They know I

:17:26. > :17:29.did not declare an overseas trip that arguably should have been

:17:30. > :17:33.declared. How did he know when he became a minister that the press

:17:34. > :17:37.were investigating this? It has been made clear in the articles

:17:38. > :17:41.published, that not originally in the newspapers but on the website...

:17:42. > :17:44.You don't know whether he was appointed that he knew the

:17:45. > :17:50.newspapers were looking at the story. I think that has been made

:17:51. > :17:54.clear. Do you know? That is a question that should be put to him.

:17:55. > :17:58.You made the claim that he should have told the Prime Minister. And

:17:59. > :18:02.asking if he knew there were investigations going on and you are

:18:03. > :18:08.telling me you don't know. -- I am asking. It has not been disputed by

:18:09. > :18:12.him that he was approached and he said at the time that he ended it

:18:13. > :18:18.when I found out what she did. If that is the case, then he should

:18:19. > :18:21.have told the Prime Minister, if it isn't, his position is much better.

:18:22. > :18:30.If he didn't know they had a story, how could it be influencing him? A

:18:31. > :18:36.journalist for the independent, has hacked off been working with him? He

:18:37. > :18:41.has been following the trial. Have you been working with him on the

:18:42. > :18:45.story? Even though a lot of people on social media have treated this

:18:46. > :18:50.story which has been going around for a long time, you will not find

:18:51. > :18:58.that Hacked Off has linked to this story. You have not been working

:18:59. > :19:05.with Mystic you sick? No. -- with Mr Cusack. We were asked if we had any

:19:06. > :19:07.reason to believe if John Whittingdale was seeking to appease

:19:08. > :19:11.the press and by keeping the examples are given new and we also

:19:12. > :19:16.applied Hansard references where John Whittingdale said there must be

:19:17. > :19:22.part to Levenson and we will implement the crime and court act.

:19:23. > :19:26.Is it not the case in this original story, as it was pitched, that it

:19:27. > :19:30.was not as we subsequently discovered, that he was dating

:19:31. > :19:36.someone and he discovered what she was and he ended the dating, but

:19:37. > :19:40.that he had been actively using this prostitute and that was the original

:19:41. > :19:46.story and it turned out that there was no evidence for that, isn't that

:19:47. > :19:51.the case? I have no idea. If there is no public interest in the story,

:19:52. > :19:55.we don't believe, just like we don't believe with this is deliberately

:19:56. > :20:01.threesome that the press desperately want to publish... Do you think it

:20:02. > :20:06.should be published? No. You don't believe the story of the celebrity

:20:07. > :20:10.should be published despite... A judge has said there is no public

:20:11. > :20:20.interest. We follow the rule of law, you may not. Editors might... It has

:20:21. > :20:26.been published in Scotland. There was a judgment that said that rights

:20:27. > :20:28.were engaged on both sides, freedom of expression and article eight

:20:29. > :20:32.rights of privacy including the children and the judge said that on

:20:33. > :20:37.the facts known to the judge, it should not be published. I respect

:20:38. > :20:46.the judgment... We all respect but do you agree? If a judge had gone

:20:47. > :20:51.the other way... I don't believe it is my job nor do I believe it is

:20:52. > :20:55.John Whittingdale's job to decide what the press should print. There

:20:56. > :20:59.is a code of practice and should be an independent regulator and should

:21:00. > :21:02.be the rule of law. Is it not the case that Hacked Off has been

:21:03. > :21:06.pushing the line that the Mail on Sunday was ready to publish this

:21:07. > :21:10.story but senior editors and management in their organisation

:21:11. > :21:12.intervened and that is the line your organisation has been pushing

:21:13. > :21:17.privately? It was then discovered there was not a shred of evidence to

:21:18. > :21:24.establish that, if that's not the case. James Cusack, who had the

:21:25. > :21:30.courage to publish press issues, said in his article, which people

:21:31. > :21:34.can read online, that the independent told him that their

:21:35. > :21:39.landlords, the Daily Mail, did not want the independent running this

:21:40. > :21:44.story, the public interest aspects of it because it would damage their

:21:45. > :21:51.asset. It's quite clear. Do you have any evidence that the Mail on Sunday

:21:52. > :21:58.pulled this story? I saw what was written in the Independent. That is

:21:59. > :22:01.not in the -- that is not evidence. They have not defended their

:22:02. > :22:06.actions, I don't know why you are asking me. What I'm trying to find

:22:07. > :22:11.out is how close Hacked Off were involved in getting this story out.

:22:12. > :22:16.We had no involvement in any of the stuff to do with the allegations on

:22:17. > :22:20.his private life. We were asked not just by that journalist but by

:22:21. > :22:25.others if there was any evidence that John Whittingdale has changed

:22:26. > :22:28.government policy giving himself power over the press and we said

:22:29. > :22:38.yes. He had said it is not necessarily the case that Levenson

:22:39. > :22:47.part two will go ahead. Sajid Javid said it would not go ahead. No, he

:22:48. > :22:51.didn't. It's my job to know what this they said. I know you think of

:22:52. > :22:55.nothing else but that's my understanding of it, that

:22:56. > :23:03.essentially Sajid Javid killed this. Let me ask Owen Paterson, whenever

:23:04. > :23:06.Mr Whittingdale found out there were press investigations into this,

:23:07. > :23:14.should he not have informed the Prime Minister? I think this is a

:23:15. > :23:19.most extreme the outbreak of humbug. John had done nothing wrong. When he

:23:20. > :23:23.was a backbencher, as soon as he found out that the woman he was

:23:24. > :23:25.having an affair which had an embarrassing background, he stopped

:23:26. > :23:33.the whole thing, 14 months before he became a cabinet minister. When he

:23:34. > :23:37.found out there were several newspapers come up to four, looking

:23:38. > :23:41.at this and looking to make something of it, if there was ought

:23:42. > :23:46.not, that is another matter, but given his role as culture Secretary,

:23:47. > :23:52.should he not have informed the Prime Minister? I don't know when he

:23:53. > :23:55.found out and I don't know what form investigations took, investigations

:23:56. > :24:01.go on the whole time. By sometime last year, he knew that there were

:24:02. > :24:10.these investigations into his relationship. That is clear, that is

:24:11. > :24:17.true. He has not denied that. You're talking about evidence as if he is

:24:18. > :24:21.some rogue elephant pounding around making his old policy. He has made

:24:22. > :24:24.it clear he does not want state intervention in the press and he is

:24:25. > :24:27.right on that and any major position on this will be a collective

:24:28. > :24:35.government 's decision and he will talk to the Prime Minister. We are

:24:36. > :24:39.back to square one. The court case is going on, it seems sensible to

:24:40. > :24:43.wait until it is over. Do you believe that as a result of this

:24:44. > :24:50.that Mr Whittingdale should no longer be involved in the press

:24:51. > :24:55.regulation element of his job? First of all, his private life is his own

:24:56. > :24:59.affair and frankly, it is nobody else's business, that is an

:25:00. > :25:04.important principle. The thing I would like him to do, and where I

:25:05. > :25:07.agree, is to get on with implementing those two further

:25:08. > :25:17.changes. Our main criticism of him is that he has not done as far, part

:25:18. > :25:20.two of the inquiry and the access to justice, and if he did that, we

:25:21. > :25:26.could move on because that is what is required. I agree. I know that

:25:27. > :25:34.you are in favour of going down that route, that was not what I asked. I

:25:35. > :25:38.asked, as a result of this story in the fact that the press was

:25:39. > :25:43.investigating it, should he no longer be involved in any element of

:25:44. > :25:49.the press regulation? I don't think that'll happen, is no sign it will

:25:50. > :25:59.happen. He should get on and do his job. And that is to implement those

:26:00. > :26:03.two... It was said that he should step back from any further

:26:04. > :26:06.decisions. I don't think that will happen, that is what Maria said but

:26:07. > :26:12.I don't think it will happen. What she meant was that the Secretary of

:26:13. > :26:16.State should have no role. The Prime Minister has said that Levenson is

:26:17. > :26:20.right and the government should stay out of this. He should not be

:26:21. > :26:24.putting his thing over commencement of legislation that effect the

:26:25. > :26:31.press. Now the story is out, there was nothing to hold over him. We

:26:32. > :26:32.will see where it ends up. Thank you very much.

:26:33. > :26:35.Now, it's well known that I'm partial to a drop of Blue Nun -

:26:36. > :26:37.a very wise choice for the responsible drinker

:26:38. > :26:43.But while here I'm only supposed to drink a measly 14 glasses a week,

:26:44. > :26:54.if I moved to Chile I could safely quaff up to seven glasses a day!

:26:55. > :26:58.Researchers at Stanford University have revealed the huge discrepancies

:26:59. > :27:00.in official guidance on alcohol consumption - drinkers in Poland

:27:01. > :27:04.and Vietnam are told they can drink two and half times as much as us

:27:05. > :27:09.While in Australia, the size of a standard drink is over

:27:10. > :27:17.Why not follow Jo Co's approach and just have a nice cup of tea,

:27:18. > :27:26.To be in with a chance to win one of these,

:27:27. > :27:32.see if you can remember when all of this happened.

:27:33. > :27:57.Thousands have gathered to watch, the fate of this rare visitor

:27:58. > :28:17.In May last year, hoodies became political.

:28:18. > :28:42.To be in with a chance of winning a Daily Politics mug,

:28:43. > :28:45.send your answer to our special quiz email address -

:28:46. > :28:50.Entries must arrive by 12.30pm today, and you can see the full

:28:51. > :28:52.terms and conditions for Guess The Year on our website.

:28:53. > :29:09.I'm glad you got all that out! It is coming up to midday on Wednesday,

:29:10. > :29:14.there is Big Ben on a lovely spring day here in London and that must

:29:15. > :29:19.mean Prime Minister's Questions are underway and Laura Kuenssberg is

:29:20. > :29:25.here. Where does Jeremy Corbyn start today? It's quite difficult to know.

:29:26. > :29:31.Sometimes you can have too much choice and as we have seen recently,

:29:32. > :29:36.he will decide on one subject and go through that rather doggedly. He

:29:37. > :29:45.also likes to stick to his subjects. Would he do anything else on tax?

:29:46. > :29:49.Possibly Labour feel they made some ground on this fallout from the

:29:50. > :29:53.Panama Papers. It is interesting because a few Labour MPs have said

:29:54. > :29:58.to me, it was good because it was something they could unite around

:29:59. > :30:03.and that felt different for them. So often since Jeremy Corbyn has been

:30:04. > :30:09.in charge it has been disunity and disharmony and things being awkward.

:30:10. > :30:17.Even at the top of the party! We were thinking about steel, personal

:30:18. > :30:22.independent payment, tax... And the speed of the news cycle now seems to

:30:23. > :30:27.get ever faster. We went into the Easter break with steel being the

:30:28. > :30:32.big domestic story and what could be done to save the steel industry.

:30:33. > :30:39.Then the Panama Papers came out of the blue and that dominated and that

:30:40. > :30:47.then moved onto a story about tax returns and the Panama Papers were

:30:48. > :30:50.kept behind. Now we have John press intrusion, it is difficult to keep

:30:51. > :30:57.up with it -- we have John Whittingdale. It is quite

:30:58. > :31:00.exhausting. Maybe there is a danger because things happen so quickly

:31:01. > :31:04.that political parties are just beginning to get their heads round

:31:05. > :31:09.them and what they might do or not do about an issue before moving onto

:31:10. > :31:12.the next thing. I would say, in the background of all of this at the

:31:13. > :31:17.moment, which is why the difficulties on different front the

:31:18. > :31:21.government is having, whether about tax all John Whittingdale, it is the

:31:22. > :31:25.backdrop of the EU referendum which is creating a unique and intense

:31:26. > :31:26.pressure on what the government is doing. Let's go straight to the

:31:27. > :31:35.Commons. Warning this morning I had meetings

:31:36. > :31:38.with ministerial colleagues and in addition to my duties in this House,

:31:39. > :31:50.I shall have further such meetings later today. Last week I visited a

:31:51. > :31:52.manufacturing company, which supplied the Tower of London

:31:53. > :31:56.poppies. Would my right honourable friend agree with me that supporting

:31:57. > :32:02.small businesses and personal web of further increasing personal income

:32:03. > :32:04.tax allowance shows that we on this side of the House are the party of

:32:05. > :32:07.enterprise and inspiration and believe in enabling hard-working

:32:08. > :32:13.people to keep more of the money they earn? Let me join her in

:32:14. > :32:16.congratulating the firm that she mentioned. She's absolutely right

:32:17. > :32:20.that it is small and medium-size businesses that predominantly will

:32:21. > :32:24.be providing the jobs of the future and we want people to keep more of

:32:25. > :32:28.their own money to spend as they choose. That's why the historic move

:32:29. > :32:33.last week to an ?11,000 personal allowance means that people will

:32:34. > :32:40.have gained, by 2018. They'll be paying ?1000 less per taxpayer and

:32:41. > :32:43.we will have taken formally and of the lowest paid people out of tax

:32:44. > :32:48.altogether. That is the action of the Progressive Conservative

:32:49. > :32:53.government. Jeremy Corbyn. Thank you, Mr Speaker. I'm sure the whole

:32:54. > :32:59.house will join me in mourning the death today of the dramatist Arnold

:33:00. > :33:02.Wesker, one of the great playwrights of this country, one of those

:33:03. > :33:06.wonderful angry young men of the 1950s and, like so many angry young

:33:07. > :33:12.people, actually changed the face of our country. Yesterday, Mr Speaker,

:33:13. > :33:17.the European Commission announced new proposals on country by country

:33:18. > :33:25.tax reporting, so that companies must declare where they make their

:33:26. > :33:28.profits in the EU and in blacklisted tax havens. Conservative MEPs voted

:33:29. > :33:33.against the proposal for country by country reporting and against the

:33:34. > :33:38.blacklisting. Can the Prime Minister now assure us that Conservative MEPs

:33:39. > :33:42.will support the new proposal? First of all, let me join the right

:33:43. > :33:44.honourable gentleman in mourning the loss of the famous playwright and

:33:45. > :33:49.all the work that he did. It's quite right to mention that. Let me... Let

:33:50. > :33:56.me also welcome... Let me welcome the

:33:57. > :34:02.country by country tax reporting proposal put forward by Commissioner

:34:03. > :34:05.Jonathan Hill, appointed by this government, the United Kingdom

:34:06. > :34:10.Commissioner. This is very much based on the work that we've been

:34:11. > :34:14.doing, leading the collaboration between countries, making sure that

:34:15. > :34:18.we share tax information. As we discussed on Monday, this has gone

:34:19. > :34:24.far faster and far further under this government than under any

:34:25. > :34:27.previous government. Mr Speaker, if the proposals were put forward by

:34:28. > :34:31.the British Government, wider Conservative MEPs then vote against

:34:32. > :34:40.them? Their scenes to be a bit of a disconnect here. -- there seems to

:34:41. > :34:43.be. The Panama papers exposed scandal situation, where wealthy

:34:44. > :34:49.individuals seems to believe that corporation tax and other taxes are

:34:50. > :34:51.something optional. Indeed, as the Member for Rutland and Melton

:34:52. > :34:56.informed us, it is only for low achievers, apparently for top so

:34:57. > :35:04.when the HMRC says that the tax gap is ?34 billion, why, then, is he

:35:05. > :35:09.cutting HMRC staff by 20% and cutting down tax offices which loses

:35:10. > :35:16.the expertise of people to close that tax gap? I'm glad he wants to

:35:17. > :35:21.get onto our responsibilities to pay our taxes. I think that's very

:35:22. > :35:25.important. I thought his tax return was a metaphor for Labour policy. It

:35:26. > :35:34.was late, it was chaotic, it was inaccurate, it was costed. --

:35:35. > :35:41.un-costed. He's absolutely right to identify the tax gap and that is why

:35:42. > :35:45.we closed off loopholes in the last Parliament, equivalent of ?12

:35:46. > :35:51.billion. We aim to close loopholes in this Parliament equivalent to ?16

:35:52. > :35:54.billion, so the HMRC is taking very strong action, backed by this

:35:55. > :35:57.government, backed by the Chancellor, legislated for by this

:35:58. > :36:04.House, and I think I'm right in saying that since 2010 we put over

:36:05. > :36:08.?1 billion into HMRC to increase its capabilities to collect the tax that

:36:09. > :36:11.people should be paying. The difference, I think, between this

:36:12. > :36:14.side of the House on the right honourable gentleman is we believe

:36:15. > :36:20.in setting low tax rates and encouraging people to pay them and

:36:21. > :36:24.it's working. Mr Speaker, I'm grateful to the Prime Minister for

:36:25. > :36:31.drawing attention to my own tax return. There warts and all, the

:36:32. > :36:41.warts being my handwriting all my generous donation to HMRC. I paid

:36:42. > :36:49.taxes for companies that he might know quite well. The Prime

:36:50. > :36:54.Minister... Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister isn't cutting tax abuse,

:36:55. > :36:59.he's cutting down on tax collectors. The tax collected helps to fund our

:37:00. > :37:05.NHS and all the other services. Last month, the OBR reported that HMRC

:37:06. > :37:12.doesn't have the necessary resources to tackle offshore tax disclosures.

:37:13. > :37:16.The Government is committed to taking ?400 million out of HMRC's

:37:17. > :37:20.budget by 2020. Will he now commit to reversing that cut, so that we

:37:21. > :37:25.can collect the tax that will help to pay for the services? I'm afraid

:37:26. > :37:33.his figures, rather like his tax return, aren't entirely accurate.

:37:34. > :37:36.The summer budget 2015, we gave an extra ?800 million to HMRC to fund

:37:37. > :37:40.additional work to tackle tax evasion and noncompliance between

:37:41. > :37:46.now and 2021. This is going to enable HMRC to recover equivalent of

:37:47. > :37:49.7.2 billion in tax over the next five years and we've all be brought

:37:50. > :37:54.in more than 2 billion from offshore tax evaders since 2010. -- we've

:37:55. > :37:59.already brought in. I think we should try and bring some consensus

:38:00. > :38:01.to this issue. For years in this country, Labour governments and

:38:02. > :38:05.Conservative governments have an attitude to the Crown dependencies

:38:06. > :38:09.and overseas territories that their tax affairs were a matter for them

:38:10. > :38:12.and their compliance affairs were out of them and their transparency

:38:13. > :38:16.was a matter for them. This government has changed that. We've

:38:17. > :38:20.got the overseas territories and the Crown dependencies the table. We

:38:21. > :38:24.said, you've got to have registers of ownership, you got to collaborate

:38:25. > :38:27.with the UK Government, you got to make sure people don't hide their

:38:28. > :38:30.taxes, and it's happening. So when he gets to his feet, he should

:38:31. > :38:35.welcome the fact that huge progress has been made, raising taxes,

:38:36. > :38:39.sorting out the overseas territories and Crown dependencies, closing the

:38:40. > :38:41.tax gap, getting businesses to pay more, giving international

:38:42. > :38:48.leadership to this issue, all things that never happened under Labour. Mr

:38:49. > :38:52.Speaker, I thank the Prime Minister for that answer. The only problem

:38:53. > :39:00.with it is that the red book states HMRC spending will fall from 3.3

:39:01. > :39:04.billion to 2.9 billion by 20 20. And in regard to UK Crown dependencies

:39:05. > :39:09.and overseas territories, only two days ago the Prime Minister said

:39:10. > :39:15.that he had agreed that they will provide, the overseas territories,

:39:16. > :39:17.UK law enforcement and tax agencies with full access to information on

:39:18. > :39:20.the beneficial ownership of companies. There seems to be some

:39:21. > :39:26.confusion here because the chief minister of Jersey said, in response

:39:27. > :39:29.to a need for information without delay, where terrorist activities

:39:30. > :39:35.are involved. We welcome his commitment to fighting terrorism but

:39:36. > :39:37.is Jersey and all the other dependencies actually going to

:39:38. > :39:42.provide beneficial ownership information or not? The short answer

:39:43. > :39:46.to that is yes, they are. And that is what is such a big breakthrough.

:39:47. > :39:49.I totally accept they are not going as far as us because we are

:39:50. > :39:53.publishing a register of beneficial ownership. That will happen in June

:39:54. > :39:56.and we will be one of the only countries in the world to do so. I

:39:57. > :39:59.think Norway and Spain are the others. What the overseas

:40:00. > :40:04.territories and Crown dependencies are doing is making sure that we

:40:05. > :40:06.have full access to registers of beneficial ownership, to make sure

:40:07. > :40:11.that people aren't invading or avoiding their taxes. In the

:40:12. > :40:17.interests of giving full answers to his questions, let me give him the

:40:18. > :40:24.figures for full-time equivalents in HMRC in terms of compliance. The

:40:25. > :40:29.numbers are going from 25,020 ten to 26,798 in 2015. It's not how much

:40:30. > :40:33.money you spend on the organisation but how many people you have out

:40:34. > :40:40.there collecting the taxes and making sure the forms are properly

:40:41. > :40:44.filled in. The Prime Minister is quite right. The number of people

:40:45. > :40:48.out there collecting taxes is important. Therefore, why has he

:40:49. > :40:54.laid off so many staff at HMRC who their four cannot collect those

:40:55. > :40:58.taxes? In 2013, Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister demanded that the

:40:59. > :41:02.overseas territories rip aside the cloak of secrecy by creating a

:41:03. > :41:08.public register of beneficial ownership of information. Will he

:41:09. > :41:14.now make it clear that the beneficial ownership register will

:41:15. > :41:19.be an absolutely public document, transparent for all to see who

:41:20. > :41:25.really owns these companies, and whether they are paying their taxes

:41:26. > :41:29.or not? Let me be absolutely clear. For the United Kingdom, we have

:41:30. > :41:33.taken the unprecedented step, never done by Labour, never done

:41:34. > :41:37.previously by Conservatives, of open beneficial ownership registers with

:41:38. > :41:40.the Crown dependencies and overseas territories. They have to give full

:41:41. > :41:44.access to the registers of beneficial ownership. We did not

:41:45. > :41:49.choose the option of forcing them to have a public register because we

:41:50. > :41:53.believed if that was the case, we'd get into the situation that he spoke

:41:54. > :41:56.about, where some of them might have walked away from this cooperation

:41:57. > :42:00.altogether. That's the point. The question is, are we going to be able

:42:01. > :42:05.to access the information? Yes. Are we going to be able to be sued tax

:42:06. > :42:09.evaders? Yes. Did any of these things happen under a Labour

:42:10. > :42:13.government? No. The Prime Minister does talk very tough and I grabbed

:42:14. > :42:17.him that. The only problem is, it's not a public register he's offering

:42:18. > :42:24.us. He is only offering us a private register that some people can see.

:42:25. > :42:27.It's quite interesting that the premiere of the Cayman Islands is to

:42:28. > :42:32.day apparently celebrating his victory over the Prime Minister

:42:33. > :42:36.because he is saying the information certainly will not be available

:42:37. > :42:42.publicly or available directly by any UK on an Cayman Islands agency.

:42:43. > :42:46.The Prime Minister is supposed to be chasing down tax evasion and tax

:42:47. > :42:50.avoidance. He's supposed to be bringing it all into the open. If he

:42:51. > :42:55.cannot even persuade the premiere of the Cayman Islands or Jersey to open

:42:56. > :42:58.up their books, where is the tough talk bringing the information we

:42:59. > :43:04.need to collect the taxes that should pay for the services that

:43:05. > :43:10.people need? I think he's misunderstanding what I've said. In

:43:11. > :43:13.terms of the UK, it is an absolute first in terms of a register of

:43:14. > :43:18.beneficial ownership that is public. He keeps saying it's not public. The

:43:19. > :43:21.British one will be public. Further to that, and I think this is

:43:22. > :43:24.important because it goes to a question asked by the right

:43:25. > :43:27.honourable member for Tottenham, we are also saying to foreign companies

:43:28. > :43:30.that have dealings with Britain that they have to declare their

:43:31. > :43:35.properties and the properties they own, which will remove a huge

:43:36. > :43:37.failure of secrecy over the ownership, for instance, of London

:43:38. > :43:42.property. I'm not saying we've completed all this work but we've

:43:43. > :43:45.got more tax information exchange, mortgage so beneficial ownership,

:43:46. > :43:48.more chasing down tax evasion and avoidance, or money recovered from

:43:49. > :43:52.businesses and individuals and all of these things are things that have

:43:53. > :43:55.happened under this government. The truth is, he's running to catch up

:43:56. > :44:06.because Labour did nothing in 13 years. Thank you, Mr Speaker. My

:44:07. > :44:10.constituents John and Penny Clough, whose daughter Jane was tragically

:44:11. > :44:15.murdered by her ex-partner whilst he was out on bail, are campaigning to

:44:16. > :44:17.save Lancashire's nine women's refuges, which are currently at

:44:18. > :44:23.threat because Labour run Lancashire County Council are proposing to cut

:44:24. > :44:27.all of their funding. Does the Prime Minister agree with the Clough

:44:28. > :44:29.family and me that Labour run Lancashire County Council should

:44:30. > :44:37.prioritise the victims of domestic violence? First of all, my

:44:38. > :44:40.honourable friend does raise a very moving case and I know the whole

:44:41. > :44:44.house will wish to join me in sending our sincere condolences to

:44:45. > :44:47.Mr and Mrs Clough. In terms of making sure we stop violence against

:44:48. > :44:52.women and girls, nobody should be living in fear of these crimes. That

:44:53. > :44:56.is why we committed ?80 million of extra funding to 2020 to tackle

:44:57. > :44:59.violence against women and girls and this does include funding for

:45:00. > :45:04.securing the future for refuges and other accommodation based services.

:45:05. > :45:11.But it obviously helps if local councils make the right decisions as

:45:12. > :45:15.well. The United Kingdom and its offshore territories and

:45:16. > :45:20.dependencies collectively sits at the top of the financial secrecy

:45:21. > :45:25.index of the tax Justice network. Since the leaking of the Panama

:45:26. > :45:29.papers, France has put Panama on a blacklist of uncooperative tax

:45:30. > :45:34.havens and the Mossad Fonseca offices have been raided by the

:45:35. > :45:38.police in Panama City. What have British authorities done

:45:39. > :45:44.specifically in relation to Mossad Fonseca and with Panama since the

:45:45. > :45:49.leak of the Panama papers? First of all, in terms of who is at the top

:45:50. > :45:52.of the permit of tax secrecy, I think it is now an fair to say that

:45:53. > :45:56.about our Crown dependencies and overseas territories as they are now

:45:57. > :46:01.going to cooperate with the three things that we asked them to do in

:46:02. > :46:04.terms of the reporting standard, the exchange of tax information and

:46:05. > :46:08.access to register the beneficial ownership. That is more than we get

:46:09. > :46:13.out of some states in America, like Delaware. So I think in this House

:46:14. > :46:18.we should be tough on all those that facilitate lack of transparency but

:46:19. > :46:22.we should be accurate in the way we do it. He asked what we are doing

:46:23. > :46:26.about the Panama papers. We have a ?10 million funded cross agency

:46:27. > :46:30.review to get to the bottom of all the relevant information. It would

:46:31. > :46:34.hugely be helped if the newspapers and other investigative journalists

:46:35. > :46:37.now share this information with tax inspectors, so we can get to the

:46:38. > :46:41.bottom of it, and his final question on blacklists - we are happy to

:46:42. > :46:46.support blacklists but we don't think you should draw up a blacklist

:46:47. > :46:49.solely on the basis of a territory raising a low tax rate. We don't

:46:50. > :46:53.think that is the right approach. That approach the French have

:46:54. > :46:56.sometimes taken in the past was in terms of taking action against tax

:46:57. > :47:06.havens, this government has done more than any previous one.

:47:07. > :47:13.3250 DWP staff has been specifically investigating benefit fraud while

:47:14. > :47:19.only 300 HMRC staff have been systematically investigating tax

:47:20. > :47:24.evasion. Surely we should care equally about people abusing the tax

:47:25. > :47:32.system and those abusing the benefit system. Why has this government had

:47:33. > :47:36.ten times more staff dealing often with the poorest in society abusing

:47:37. > :47:44.benefits than with the super-rich evading their taxes? I will look

:47:45. > :47:49.carefully at his statistics but they sound to me entirely bogus for this

:47:50. > :47:55.reason. The predominant job of the DWP is to make sure that people

:47:56. > :47:59.receive their benefits. The predominant job of HMRC is to make

:48:00. > :48:03.sure people pay their taxes. The 26,000 people I spoke about earlier

:48:04. > :48:18.are all making sure that people pay their taxes, the clue is in the

:48:19. > :48:22.title. Many farmers in South Herefordshire are still awaiting

:48:23. > :48:26.their 2015 payments from the rural payments agency. Nearly four months

:48:27. > :48:31.after they were due which follows the failure of the RPA website last

:48:32. > :48:35.year which is causing great personal and financial distress and threatens

:48:36. > :48:38.the future of farm businesses so will the Prime Minister agreed to

:48:39. > :48:42.meet farmers on this issue and press the RPA to make the payments by the

:48:43. > :48:48.end of this month and does he share my view that farmers should receive

:48:49. > :48:54.interest on the amount overdue? I have recently met with both the NFU

:48:55. > :48:56.and Welsh NFU and have continued to have meetings with farming

:48:57. > :48:59.organisations including in my own constituency and I know that have

:49:00. > :49:05.been problems with the payment system. The latest figures are some

:49:06. > :49:08.-- that 87% of claims have been paid and bowed -- I believe that the

:49:09. > :49:12.figures in Herefordshire are in line with the national average but that

:49:13. > :49:16.is no consolation for those who have not received payments which is why

:49:17. > :49:20.we have a process and we are working with charities and we made payments

:49:21. > :49:27.amounting to over ?7 million but we have to make sure that the system

:49:28. > :49:32.works better in the future. If the British people vote to leave the

:49:33. > :49:36.European Union, will the Prime Minister remain in office to

:49:37. > :49:44.implement their decision? Yes. CHEERING

:49:45. > :49:49.Again on Europe, does the Prime Minister agree that the European

:49:50. > :49:55.Union is not just the world's biggest single market but also an

:49:56. > :49:58.ample source of foreign and direct investment providing 50% of the

:49:59. > :50:03.investment we receive and also an excellent platform for supplying

:50:04. > :50:08.James to thrive and prosper meaning the ability to get the skills they

:50:09. > :50:15.need and the innovation they need and for my constituency means a

:50:16. > :50:21.whole load of high-tech companies thriving and prospering as they do

:50:22. > :50:26.in the UK? I remember my visit to his constituency when the company

:50:27. > :50:34.showed me a world first in a bicycle that was printed on a 3-D printer. I

:50:35. > :50:40.did not give it a try but it looked like it might even carry some of my

:50:41. > :50:44.weight! The single market is 500 million people and that is a great

:50:45. > :50:47.market for our businesses and services and increasingly the market

:50:48. > :50:50.that the supply chain is getting more integrated and that is why we

:50:51. > :50:56.should think carefully before separating ourselves from it. Brain

:50:57. > :51:01.tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and people under

:51:02. > :51:07.40 but despite this, research into them received less than 1%, just

:51:08. > :51:12.over 1% of the UK's national spent on cancer research. This will be the

:51:13. > :51:15.subject of a debate next Monday in Westminster Hall. Will the Prime

:51:16. > :51:18.Minister at a word with the Secretary of State for Health so

:51:19. > :51:23.that the minister answering that debate might be able to bring with

:51:24. > :51:29.him or her some long overdue good news of change in this area? I'm

:51:30. > :51:35.very happy to do exactly as he says. It is an important issue. We invest

:51:36. > :51:38.something like 1.7 billion a year in health research but there is always

:51:39. > :51:42.a question when it comes to cancer research, the spending has gone up

:51:43. > :51:46.by a third over the last Parliament the daily 100 35mm hounds but there

:51:47. > :51:58.is the question of whether that is fairly distributed -- ?135 million.

:51:59. > :52:04.I have a still produce in my constituency and share concerns

:52:05. > :52:07.about the future of the industry. The North of England still had

:52:08. > :52:12.significant manner that drink but it has been held back by green taxes,

:52:13. > :52:18.high energy costs and emissions targets. What more can he do to help

:52:19. > :52:22.energy intensive industries? I think he raises an important point and the

:52:23. > :52:26.changes we are making will save the steel industry over ?400 million by

:52:27. > :52:30.the end of this Parliament and that is a good example of what we can do.

:52:31. > :52:34.There was an excellent debate yesterday about this issue, we have

:52:35. > :52:37.to work on everything we can in terms of procurement, making sure we

:52:38. > :52:42.are taking action in the EU against dumping and we are. We have to make

:52:43. > :52:48.sure we reduce energy costs where we can and we stand by to work with any

:52:49. > :52:51.potential purchaser of the Port Talbot works which will safeguard

:52:52. > :52:55.steel jobs in other parts of the country to see how we can help on a

:52:56. > :53:01.commercial basis. I'm satisfied with doing everything we can. We cannot

:53:02. > :53:05.totally bucked the global trend of this massive overcapacity of steel

:53:06. > :53:09.and decline in prices but those are the key areas in terms of power and

:53:10. > :53:16.plant and procurement, all areas where we can help. Research by the

:53:17. > :53:20.Sutton trust shows turning schools in the academies does not

:53:21. > :53:25.necessarily improve them. Thousands of excellent primary schools,

:53:26. > :53:28.parents want them to be continued to be maintained by their local

:53:29. > :53:31.authority so why are ministers are planning to overall parents and

:53:32. > :53:37.force those schools to become academies? I think the evidence

:53:38. > :53:45.shows that academies work as part of our education reforms. Let me give

:53:46. > :53:50.the evidence. If you look at those schools that converted into

:53:51. > :53:54.academies, 88% of them are other outstanding or good schools. If you

:53:55. > :54:00.look at the sponsored academies, often failing schools, if you listen

:54:01. > :54:04.and look at what happened with the schools that were often failing but

:54:05. > :54:08.were now sponsored by academies, you have seen on average a 10%

:54:09. > :54:14.improvement over the first two years. All the evidence is that

:54:15. > :54:18.results are better, freedoms lead to improvements and where there are

:54:19. > :54:23.problems, intervention happens far faster with academies. We have 1.4

:54:24. > :54:24.million more children in good or outstanding schools and we should

:54:25. > :54:33.finish the job. The Prime Minister has met many

:54:34. > :54:41.great people but I believe he has yet to meet the Vale of Evesham very

:54:42. > :54:47.open does the asparagus man. Would you like to join me for the upcoming

:54:48. > :54:50.British asparagus festival which starts on St George's Day and show

:54:51. > :54:57.his support for our fantastic farming industry? I'm happy to say

:54:58. > :55:02.that my honourable friend's constituency is only one

:55:03. > :55:06.constituency away, we share the same railway line so if there is an

:55:07. > :55:12.opportunity for some great British asparagus I would be happy to join

:55:13. > :55:17.him. Can I take the Prime Minister back to his response to the

:55:18. > :55:25.honourable member's drop handle, it was a truly dreadful case. Women's

:55:26. > :55:29.refuges are facing absolute crisis. The changes the government proposes

:55:30. > :55:36.to make to housing benefit will force the closure of women's

:55:37. > :55:40.refuges. He needs urgently to look again at these changes because

:55:41. > :55:46.unless he makes refuges exempt, they will be closing up and down the

:55:47. > :55:51.country. Can he do it? What I would say is what we did in the last

:55:52. > :55:56.Parliament with rape crisis centres we are doing the same type of thing

:55:57. > :56:01.with these refuges and that is why the ?80 million of funding is so

:56:02. > :56:03.important. It is widely Secretary of State has written to local

:56:04. > :56:12.authorities to explain that this money is available to make sure

:56:13. > :56:17.those refuges are there. As part of world autism awareness week last

:56:18. > :56:21.week, the National Autistic Society launched its biggest ever awareness

:56:22. > :56:25.campaign. Young Alex Cunliffe the star of the film, was here in the

:56:26. > :56:31.house and met many MPs this week -- Ruairidh Young Alex, the star

:56:32. > :56:35.some 50% of autistic people don't even go out in public because of

:56:36. > :56:40.what people think and their reaction. Will he meet with me and

:56:41. > :56:44.the Cherokee to discuss how the government can support this campaign

:56:45. > :56:51.and how we can tackle the social isolation of so many families -- and

:56:52. > :56:54.the charity. Let me pay tribute to my right honourable friend who has

:56:55. > :56:57.been campaigning and legislating on this issue now for many years

:56:58. > :57:01.including the landmark legislation that went through in the last

:57:02. > :57:07.Parliament. We have been working closely with the autism aligned and

:57:08. > :57:11.have invested some ?325,000 since 2014 but we don't do more in terms

:57:12. > :57:16.of helping -- helping families with autistic children and raising the

:57:17. > :57:21.profile of the understanding of what being autistic is all about. Let me

:57:22. > :57:25.put in a plug for the strange incident of the dog in a night which

:57:26. > :57:29.is still available at the Whitehall Theatre, it is excellent and will

:57:30. > :57:36.give you a better explanation of autism and perhaps anything we can

:57:37. > :57:41.discuss in this house. Authorities in the room, El Salvador and Panama

:57:42. > :57:45.have raided offices of Mossack Fonseca, seizing documents and

:57:46. > :57:50.computer equipment but nobody has knocked on the door of their branch

:57:51. > :57:53.in the UK. While recognising the operational independence of our

:57:54. > :58:00.enforcement agencies, does he share my deep concern that come as we

:58:01. > :58:04.speak, documents are no doubt being shredded and databases being wiped,

:58:05. > :58:09.undermining the opportunity to bring further potential wrongdoing to

:58:10. > :58:13.like? She makes an important point which is that we need to make sure

:58:14. > :58:17.that all the evidence coming out Panama is properly investigated and

:58:18. > :58:21.that is right we have set up a special cross agency team including

:58:22. > :58:24.the National Crime Agency, HMRC and other relevant bodies to make sure

:58:25. > :58:29.we get to the bottom of what happened. She is right to reference

:58:30. > :58:32.the fact that these organisations are operationally independent and it

:58:33. > :58:35.would be quite wrong for a minister or Prime Minister to order an

:58:36. > :58:45.investigator into a particular building in a particular way, that

:58:46. > :58:48.is not a river, we want to cross in this house. Empower the National

:58:49. > :58:51.crime agency and HMRC, give them resources and let them get on with

:58:52. > :58:59.the job. Can I draw his attention to the tragic death of a 20 month --

:59:00. > :59:03.21-month-old baby when she was stamped on by her mother so

:59:04. > :59:10.violently that it prompted her heart. Yet she had been known to

:59:11. > :59:14.social services since the day she was born, they knew about the

:59:15. > :59:19.violent boyfriends, the domestic violence, they saw the doors kicked

:59:20. > :59:22.in and smelt the cannabis, they saw the bruisers, the cuts, the

:59:23. > :59:28.fingerprints on her little thighs and they did nothing -- bruises. He

:59:29. > :59:32.will understand that people want to know how this could have happened

:59:33. > :59:35.yet they are concerned to know that the serious case review has on its

:59:36. > :59:40.panel people who are directly involved in the

:59:41. > :59:44.organisationorganisations are being investigated. Will he look at what

:59:45. > :59:47.we can do to make this and other serious case reviews more

:59:48. > :59:54.independent so we can make sure that no other child suffers the life and

:59:55. > :59:57.death that this little girl did? I think my honourable friend is

:59:58. > :00:02.absolutely right to raise this. Obviously in the work we all do we

:00:03. > :00:07.hear about some hideous and horrific incidents but anybody watching

:00:08. > :00:09.television that night and seeing the description of what happened to that

:00:10. > :00:13.girl could it simply took your breath away that people could behave

:00:14. > :00:17.in such a despicable way towards their own children. There is no

:00:18. > :00:23.punishment in the world in my view that fits that sort of crime carried

:00:24. > :00:28.out by their own parent. There will be a serious case review and I will

:00:29. > :00:31.look carefully at the suggestions he makes and I know the Secretary of

:00:32. > :00:35.State for Education will do so as well. There are criticisms of the

:00:36. > :00:39.way these cases are done but in this case we must get on with the review

:00:40. > :00:46.because we have to get to the bottom of what went wrong. There are

:00:47. > :00:49.currently over 7000 people in the UK needing an organ transplant

:00:50. > :00:54.including 139 children and many will die because of a shortage of

:00:55. > :00:57.available organs. The Welsh Labour government has already introduced

:00:58. > :01:03.ground-breaking legislation for opt out organisation in Wales so will

:01:04. > :01:08.you join me in supporting the campaign for opt out organ donation

:01:09. > :01:11.throughout the UK? I'm always happy to look at this again having looked

:01:12. > :01:17.at it before and have not come out in favour of opting out. We debated

:01:18. > :01:21.in the last Parliament and made a lot of moves to making opt in much

:01:22. > :01:23.easier and we found that if you look at different hospitals and areas of

:01:24. > :01:28.the country there are different record in terms of how well they do.

:01:29. > :01:32.My position is that it is something we should support and continue to

:01:33. > :01:40.drive but this house can vote on the issue about whether it wants to go

:01:41. > :01:43.down the Welsh track rather than the track we are on but personally I say

:01:44. > :01:47.we should make opt in better. He will be well aware that our

:01:48. > :01:55.colleague Lord Bates has just started a 2000 mile walk from one is

:01:56. > :02:03.Iris to Rio de Janeiro, arriving in time for the Olympics -- Buenos

:02:04. > :02:07.Aires. Will he join me in wishing him well on this epic journey and

:02:08. > :02:12.committing his government to uphold the values and principles of the

:02:13. > :02:15.Olympic truce? I have already written to Michael Bates to wish him

:02:16. > :02:20.well and give support for the work he has done over many years. He

:02:21. > :02:24.leaves me a bit of a hole in the House of Lords where he has been

:02:25. > :02:30.doing fantastic work for the Home Office on security issues so we wish

:02:31. > :02:37.him a good walk and a speedy return. At Ealing hospital the experienced

:02:38. > :02:42.doctors I met with last week are dismayed that the government's own

:02:43. > :02:45.equality assessment of their new contract find it discriminates

:02:46. > :02:49.against women which is over half of them. As he is a self-confessed

:02:50. > :02:58.feminist, leading a progressive government, will he... So he says.

:02:59. > :03:05.Will the reverse this blatant injustice which has no place in

:03:06. > :03:09.2016? I am grateful for her question and backhanded compliment! I would

:03:10. > :03:17.say that this contract is actually very pro-women because it involves a

:03:18. > :03:20.13% basic pay rise, because it restricts the currently horrendous

:03:21. > :03:25.hours that some junior doctors are working that are unsafe, and because

:03:26. > :03:29.it gives greater guarantees about levels of pay and the amount of

:03:30. > :03:32.money that doctors will get. As people start to work on it and with

:03:33. > :03:44.it, they will see it is very pro-women. Over 200,000 economic

:03:45. > :03:48.migrants came from the European Union in the period for which we

:03:49. > :03:51.have figures and yet the propaganda sheet said at the British people

:03:52. > :03:56.says we maintain control of our borders. As we withdrawn from the

:03:57. > :04:03.free movement of people all sit -- is it simply untrue? The truth is

:04:04. > :04:06.that economic migrants coming and to the EU don't have the right to come

:04:07. > :04:14.to the UK, they are not European nationals. They are nationals of

:04:15. > :04:19.Pakistan or Morocco or Turkey. None of them have the right so it is very

:04:20. > :04:23.important and it is important we send information stew households

:04:24. > :04:27.because then they can see the truth about what is proposed. What he has

:04:28. > :04:32.put forward is classic of the sort of scare stories we get, Britain has

:04:33. > :04:41.borders, Britain will keep its borders, we have the best of both

:04:42. > :04:46.worlds. Still at university at the University of sporting excellence

:04:47. > :04:49.elite sports have been rocked in recent months about an international

:04:50. > :04:55.doping scandal that threatens the entire country is thrown out or

:04:56. > :04:58.major and petitions. Does he agree that the world anti-doping agency

:04:59. > :05:04.needs further support and can he tell me what further action can be

:05:05. > :05:08.taken? I think he is right to raise it, Wada has made a lot of advances

:05:09. > :05:13.in recent years. There is a relevance to our anti-corruption

:05:14. > :05:16.Summit in May when we will be looking at corruption in sport and

:05:17. > :05:20.bringing forward new codes of practice to adopt in this country

:05:21. > :05:23.and we hope others also do. There is also the question about whether

:05:24. > :05:28.doping should be a specific criminal offence which is something we should

:05:29. > :05:33.be debating. What progress has been made in impairment in Sir Bruce

:05:34. > :05:38.Keogh's ten clinical standards published in December 2013 which are

:05:39. > :05:45.essential for rolling out the seven-day NHS? Perhaps I can write

:05:46. > :05:50.specifically on the clinical standards but the truth is that what

:05:51. > :05:54.is good is that he and others in the NHS support this vision of a

:05:55. > :05:58.seven-day NHS and recognise that we should pay tribute to all those

:05:59. > :06:01.doctors and nurses who work at weekends already because it is very

:06:02. > :06:06.important but what we are trying to move toward is an NHS where the

:06:07. > :06:10.individual has access to their family doctor seven days a week and

:06:11. > :06:14.also where hospitals work on or seven databases because it will save

:06:15. > :06:20.lives and improve care and I will write to him about the specific

:06:21. > :06:24.detail. Parent governors play a key role in local schools supporting

:06:25. > :06:29.their children's education and performing an important civic duty.

:06:30. > :06:32.If the Prime Minister aware of the sadness and anger which has resulted

:06:33. > :06:36.from the forced Academy 's announcement that the duty for each

:06:37. > :06:42.school to have parent governors will be removed? Will he urgently review

:06:43. > :06:44.this attack on parents? I'm delighted the Honourable lady asked

:06:45. > :06:49.this question because we will be debating it later but let me be

:06:50. > :06:53.clear, we support parent governors, we think they have a great role to

:06:54. > :06:58.play but no school should think that is simply -- that by simply having

:06:59. > :07:03.parent governors you have solved the problem about engaging with parents.

:07:04. > :07:07.Let me say that there is something in the Labour motion today that it

:07:08. > :07:13.actually inaccurate and should be withdrawn. It says, the white Paper

:07:14. > :07:17.proposes the removal of parent governors from school governing

:07:18. > :07:22.bodies. It does no such thing. As well as not getting his tax return

:07:23. > :07:23.in on time coming is bringing forward motions that are simply

:07:24. > :07:35.wrong. So Prime Minister's Questions comes

:07:36. > :07:43.to an end. It used a version 12 30p. Now we are lucky if it finishes at

:07:44. > :07:50.12:40pm. The subject on the front tax, tax, tax and then a bit more

:07:51. > :07:55.tax from the EU now moving to beef up exchange of information between

:07:56. > :08:01.various territories to other HMRC -- to whether HMRC in this country has

:08:02. > :08:05.enough resource to climb down on tax evasion and aggressive tax

:08:06. > :08:09.avoidance, to the role of the overseas territories and Crown

:08:10. > :08:12.dependencies and whether the register of registered companies in

:08:13. > :08:17.these various territories is now going to allow proper investigation

:08:18. > :08:21.by the British authorities. It was all covered between the two

:08:22. > :08:26.frontbenchers, then we got Angus Robertson and we moved to tax, tax,

:08:27. > :08:31.tax. He raised the issues with those two questions, so it is clearly

:08:32. > :08:33.still the big issue in Westminster. Before we get some reaction, let's

:08:34. > :08:39.hear what you thought of today's PMQs.

:08:40. > :08:43.Well, it still tax, in that consistent line of questioning and

:08:44. > :08:46.e-mail so stop Mike Wilkinson said, Jeremy Corbyn started off on a good

:08:47. > :08:49.know but once got embroiled in technical detail he lost his

:08:50. > :08:57.audience. That in David Cameron's worst period as PM Jeremy Corbyn

:08:58. > :09:03.still can't land a decisive blow him is worrying. Another viewer said the

:09:04. > :09:06.questions were too long and delivered a clumsy way. David

:09:07. > :09:10.Cameron is much better at thinking on his feet and has an easy ride.

:09:11. > :09:17.Spencer says, Cameron budget request and again. Jeremy Corbyn the winner

:09:18. > :09:19.by a mile. Under a different subject, this from Gareth Hughes

:09:20. > :09:23.says, David Cameron says he would remain in office to represent the

:09:24. > :09:29.will of the British people in the event of a Leave vote on the 23rd of

:09:30. > :09:35.June in response to Doug -- Douglas Carswell was Bob question. Total

:09:36. > :09:40.fantasy. He will be gone within a week.

:09:41. > :09:43.We may be struggling to keep our jobs if that turns out to be right.

:09:44. > :09:48.I'm going to come onto that because it an important issue. But first,

:09:49. > :09:52.did we learn anything on the tax exchanges or was it just more of the

:09:53. > :09:55.same? What we learned is just how big an issue this has been and how

:09:56. > :09:59.much it has pervaded everything in politics over the last ten days. We

:10:00. > :10:04.had Jeremy Corbyn and Caroline Lucas and Angus Robertson, so from across

:10:05. > :10:07.the parties, people thinking this is a bruise that is absolutely worth

:10:08. > :10:11.pressing on the Prime Minister in terms of his own experience in the

:10:12. > :10:14.last ten days. I don't think we've learned very much that was new but

:10:15. > :10:17.it tells us the depth of feeling and that politicians in opposition

:10:18. > :10:22.parties believe it's absolutely worth carrying on trying to hang

:10:23. > :10:27.this around the Prime Minister. In a less adversarial political system,

:10:28. > :10:31.Hilary Benn, commentators could well conclude that there is broad

:10:32. > :10:36.consensus on what should be done on tax avoidance and tax evasion. I

:10:37. > :10:43.think there's an element of truth in that. What was striking was that the

:10:44. > :10:48.Prime Minister did not answer Jeremy's first question about why

:10:49. > :10:51.Conservative MEPs have been voting against this, and I trust that they

:10:52. > :10:57.will now be instructed to change their... Can the British party

:10:58. > :11:03.leader instruct the MEPs? He might want to ring them up and say, since

:11:04. > :11:06.I've just told the House of Commons this is an I support it might be

:11:07. > :11:10.helped lift you would stop trying to obstruct it. That's the first point.

:11:11. > :11:13.Secondly, I absolutely welcome what has been agreed with the overseas

:11:14. > :11:18.territories and Crown dependencies, apart from the two Prime Minister

:11:19. > :11:22.mentioned on Monday, but there is let it a question I raised myself -

:11:23. > :11:27.if the British register, which I think is going to come live in June,

:11:28. > :11:29.is going to be available to the public, the register beneficial

:11:30. > :11:32.ownership, what exactly is the argument for saying to the overseas

:11:33. > :11:37.territories and Crown dependencies, you don't have to do that now,

:11:38. > :11:40.especially when two years ago the Prime Minister wrote to them arguing

:11:41. > :11:43.it should be open on one of the reasons he gave them was that it

:11:44. > :11:48.would help to tackle crime. If it's going to help to tackle crime, he

:11:49. > :11:51.should press the point. I understand that but didn't you get the

:11:52. > :11:54.impression that he thought that if he forced that particular point on

:11:55. > :12:00.them, it could delay the whole business of transparency and that he

:12:01. > :12:07.thought that he had made major progress by allowing automatic

:12:08. > :12:11.access by the authorities in this country, HMRC, the National Crime

:12:12. > :12:15.Agency, the serious fraud squad, to these registers. You and I may not

:12:16. > :12:18.be able to see them but the guys and women who are going to do all the

:12:19. > :12:21.hard work would get to see them, they would now have access that they

:12:22. > :12:25.didn't have before, including two beneficial ownership. It is and

:12:26. > :12:29.that's why it is a step forward in the same way that the European Union

:12:30. > :12:32.actually makes a point that I was arguing earlier, the EU has just

:12:33. > :12:35.agreed the fourth anti-money-laundering directive,

:12:36. > :12:39.which is also going to make things more transparent, including for

:12:40. > :12:42.those who have a need to know, investigative journalists, and that

:12:43. > :12:46.is a really good example of how working with our allies in Europe

:12:47. > :12:50.helps us to tackle this problem. What's your take on this? The hero

:12:51. > :12:56.was David Cork. He brought in measures to close 40 loopholes and I

:12:57. > :13:03.think that 12 were brought in and he's looking at bringing in another

:13:04. > :13:06.60 million with liberals. Someone told me that Jack Straw said we

:13:07. > :13:11.could have done more in our time and David has done an awful lot of this.

:13:12. > :13:15.What I didn't quite get was wide Jeremy Corbyn was buying on about

:13:16. > :13:19.transparency. The Prime Minister has made it clear that if he pushed the

:13:20. > :13:22.overseas territories to far, and it's all absolutely open, for a

:13:23. > :13:27.reason I don't totally understand, they won't play ball. The key thing

:13:28. > :13:30.surely is HMRC and the National Crime Agency have access to the

:13:31. > :13:35.books on the information. That's what's really important. That would

:13:36. > :13:38.be a game changer. I'm totally sympathetic with the Primus's

:13:39. > :13:41.comment that we will be transparent but if we want all these overseas

:13:42. > :13:46.territories to play ball, don't push them to the transparency. Make sure

:13:47. > :13:49.we have total access our agencies. There are two reasons why Labour is

:13:50. > :13:52.keen to keep pressing on this. Firstly, Jeremy Corbyn has

:13:53. > :13:55.campaigned on these issues for a long time, tax transparency and what

:13:56. > :13:58.happens around the world, so this is one of his core issues, but they

:13:59. > :14:00.know that what's happened in the last ten days makes this a

:14:01. > :14:04.vulnerability for the Prime Minister. It even lead Jeremy Corbyn

:14:05. > :14:11.to do is an quite unusual, which was to crack rather a good joke at the

:14:12. > :14:13.prime list's expense, joking that he paid more tax than some of the

:14:14. > :14:18.companies that David Cameron might know quite well did. For Jeremy

:14:19. > :14:21.Corbyn, this is a good, not easy, but a straightforward political

:14:22. > :14:24.issue, even though behind-the-scenes there is quite a lot of consensus

:14:25. > :14:29.that has meant that progress has been made here. So the accusation

:14:30. > :14:33.that the Government's done nothing and sat back and nothing has changed

:14:34. > :14:36.in the last couple of years doesn't quite wash, but it's a vulnerable

:14:37. > :14:39.political area for the Prime Minister, as we've seen in the last

:14:40. > :14:42.ten days. It's clearly been a bruising time for the Prime

:14:43. > :14:46.Minister, not just on this issue but a whole host of issues, including

:14:47. > :14:52.steel, the budget and the Panama papers and so on. Isn't there a

:14:53. > :14:57.danger, given the pivotal role the Prime Minister will play in the

:14:58. > :15:01.Remain campaign, that what damages the Prime Minister risks damaging

:15:02. > :15:04.the Remain campaign? Yes, indeed, because the Prime Minister is the

:15:05. > :15:08.figure who is going to be upfront and central in the Remain campaign.

:15:09. > :15:12.That is the way that they are planning to play it, that is how

:15:13. > :15:16.they have been playing it so far. And, of course, anything that dog

:15:17. > :15:21.damages trust in him does damage how much the message that comes out of

:15:22. > :15:25.his mouth, how that will land with members of the public who are

:15:26. > :15:27.undecided. Particularly because he needs to get centrist and

:15:28. > :15:31.centre-left voters and these are not great issues to attract them. And we

:15:32. > :15:36.understand that there is some nervousness among Remainders that

:15:37. > :15:40.the message that has been put forward isn't landing very well with

:15:41. > :15:44.Labour voters because it appears that it is coming out of the

:15:45. > :15:49.Conservative Prime Minister's mouth, therefore that is a problem for

:15:50. > :15:53.them. There is almost a retro feel about all of this, however serious

:15:54. > :15:55.these stories really are stop we've had embarrassment or perceived

:15:56. > :16:00.embarrassment from Conservatives over financial dealings. We had

:16:01. > :16:05.split over Europe, difficulties over an industrial issue like what's

:16:06. > :16:10.happening in steel, and then today this story about John Whittingdale.

:16:11. > :16:13.It's got a touch of the 1980s about it and it is definitely difficult

:16:14. > :16:17.for David Cameron. I would suggest that what we are seeing is the

:16:18. > :16:20.difficulty that Number Ten is having in keeping a grip on the sort of

:16:21. > :16:27.everyday business of government and a grip on this big political

:16:28. > :16:31.campaign. Sticking with this theme, what was the significance, given

:16:32. > :16:34.that Mr Carswell, the one Ukip MP, that he knew what the answer would

:16:35. > :16:40.be gone because it is the pro forma answer from the Prime Minister, why

:16:41. > :16:45.did he ask him, would he stepped down as Prime Minister in the event

:16:46. > :16:48.of a leave vote? I just wonder if he is trying to prepare the ground for

:16:49. > :16:53.something that I understand is going to happen in the next week or so.

:16:54. > :16:57.Senior figures on the Leave side believe very strongly that if there

:16:58. > :17:02.is a vote for us to leave the EU that people who argued on their case

:17:03. > :17:04.should absolutely be involved in the negotiations over the kind of

:17:05. > :17:08.relationship that we have with the rest of the EU and how we depart.

:17:09. > :17:12.They believe that very strongly. They believe that David Cameron, the

:17:13. > :17:14.Foreign Secretary, the Chancellor, should not be the only people in

:17:15. > :17:18.charge of those the glaciations. They would have to bring in someone

:17:19. > :17:24.like Michael Gove? -- those negotiations. They absolutely

:17:25. > :17:27.believe they would have the right to be around that table if they have

:17:28. > :17:33.won the argument and I expect in the next week or so, we'll hear that

:17:34. > :17:35.argument being put publicly. I wonder if that's what Douglas cars

:17:36. > :17:39.will was trying to prepare the ground for. What's your view? You

:17:40. > :17:45.said earlier that you thought you were going to win. I was interested

:17:46. > :17:49.in that because so far, mostly poor people have gone that far. You can

:17:50. > :17:55.leave them, rightly or only, that the wind is behind you on this so if

:17:56. > :18:00.it is and you are right, who should do the negotiations to exit? You get

:18:01. > :18:05.away from Westminster, you get away from the London bubble, you get out

:18:06. > :18:08.into the counties. I was in Northern Ireland last week. The strength of

:18:09. > :18:13.feeling on the ground is remarkable. I'm not arguing about that. My

:18:14. > :18:17.question was quite specific - who should do the renegotiation, or the

:18:18. > :18:22.negotiation, the exit turns if you are right? Well, there will be a

:18:23. > :18:26.mandate. This will give real strength to the team who are

:18:27. > :18:29.negotiating. But who should do it? It's got to be people who are

:18:30. > :18:33.committed to us leaving the EU, getting the power to make our own

:18:34. > :18:38.laws, getting the 350 million back which goes every week. So not the

:18:39. > :18:41.Prime Minister? Prime Minister has been quite clear all along that he

:18:42. > :18:45.will stay as the Prime Minister but there has got to be a team who are

:18:46. > :18:49.absolutely committed to leaving the EU established in the UK as an

:18:50. > :18:53.independent country and taking all the advantages of being the fifth

:18:54. > :18:55.biggest economy in the world. So by definition that couldn't include the

:18:56. > :18:59.Prime Minister or the Chancellor because they are not committed to

:19:00. > :19:03.leave. I think there is continuity as well. That's important. The 24th

:19:04. > :19:07.of June is my birthday. There will be a great celebration and I hope we

:19:08. > :19:12.will hear that we will be leaving but nothing will change on that day.

:19:13. > :19:17.I understand that. You think the team would have to include Leave

:19:18. > :19:22.people? We are very short on time. I will just ask you, Hilary Benn, are

:19:23. > :19:27.you worried that given that Conservative voters looked like they

:19:28. > :19:31.could split 55/45 to come out, so those who are in Remain will need

:19:32. > :19:35.Labour voters to come out, is enough being done to get these Labour

:19:36. > :19:40.voters out? All the polls show that Labour voters support remaining in

:19:41. > :19:45.the European Union and that Jeremy is making a big speech about the

:19:46. > :19:48.case for remaining tomorrow. On your original question, which is the

:19:49. > :19:52.position of the Prime Minister, I'd like to see him out of office very,

:19:53. > :19:56.very quickly but the time to do that as a general election. The decision

:19:57. > :20:00.about our place in Europe is for the next 15 years. Not my actual

:20:01. > :20:05.question! You are getting as bad as him. The question was, are you happy

:20:06. > :20:12.that enough is being done to get that Labour vote out? We are doing a

:20:13. > :20:16.laugh -- a lot and we will do more because I think once the local and

:20:17. > :20:19.mayoral elections are out of the way, people will really turn their

:20:20. > :20:23.attention to the biggest decision we've faced for over 40 years. I

:20:24. > :20:26.know when to quit when I'm behind! Laura, you can quit as well. From

:20:27. > :20:29.our programme, that's all. Now, later today Tim Farron

:20:30. > :20:32.will publish plans on how the UK could offer sanctuary to 3,000

:20:33. > :20:34.unaccompanied child refugees. The Lib Dem leader has just returned

:20:35. > :20:37.from the refugee camp at Idomeni Among his recommendations,

:20:38. > :20:40.the expansion of family reunification rules and major

:20:41. > :20:55.changes to the foster Tim Farron, welcome. In recent

:20:56. > :20:59.months, the Government's doubled the funding commitment to the region and

:21:00. > :21:03.said the UK will accept more unaccompanied child refugees. Should

:21:04. > :21:06.they be doing more? Yes, they should. I'm very much in favour of

:21:07. > :21:14.the support that the UK Government gives to the region itself around

:21:15. > :21:17.Syria, Lebanon and so on. What the UK Government is not doing is

:21:18. > :21:21.helping a single one of those refugees trapped in Europe and the

:21:22. > :21:25.ones I met yesterday, almost all of them were families. I met very many

:21:26. > :21:33.small children and they are trapped now because the failure to make the

:21:34. > :21:36.EU and Turkey deal work properly, which David Cameron bears some

:21:37. > :21:39.response ability for, means you've now got thousands and thousands of

:21:40. > :21:44.families trapped in squalid and desperate circumstances and in need

:21:45. > :21:49.of help and what we've been saying for more than six months now is that

:21:50. > :21:56.police the UK Government could do for those refugees are stranded in

:21:57. > :21:58.Europe is to help some of, 3000, of the unaccompanied child refugees

:21:59. > :22:02.that are currently in Europe. There are about 30,000 at the moment and

:22:03. > :22:08.we know at least 10,000 have gone missing in the hands of traffickers,

:22:09. > :22:11.those people who, as children, will very now often be sublet to

:22:12. > :22:15.exploitation of the most horrific kind.

:22:16. > :22:22.We have shown some pictures of you at that refugee camp and there has

:22:23. > :22:25.also been news from that area where Macedonian police have tried to

:22:26. > :22:31.disperse a crowd of refugees who were tearing at barbed wire,

:22:32. > :22:35.separating the Idomeni camp on the Greek side of the border from the

:22:36. > :22:38.camp and we can show some pictures about now. How tense was the

:22:39. > :22:46.situation with refugees when you were there? Very tense. I went right

:22:47. > :22:51.up to the fence, which incidentally was erected in 48 hours by the

:22:52. > :22:55.Macedonian authorities, a huge fence, and it shows what authorities

:22:56. > :23:00.can do when they put their minds to it in a short period, reminding us

:23:01. > :23:06.that if we really want to help 3000 orphaned children we could do it

:23:07. > :23:11.quickly. My experience there was of real tension, there were armoured

:23:12. > :23:16.vehicles, walking to the fence weapons were pointed through the

:23:17. > :23:22.side of them at us. There was a real sense that there is great attention.

:23:23. > :23:26.What has happened, Idomeni was a place where people who were making

:23:27. > :23:30.their way north to join family and friends in Germany and Sweden for

:23:31. > :23:34.example, would stop for a night on their way and there were a few

:23:35. > :23:41.hundred people at any given time but now there are 15,000. It is squalid

:23:42. > :23:43.and tense and the overwhelming majority are families and there are

:23:44. > :23:49.hundreds and thousands of young children. This is an issue about

:23:50. > :23:54.unaccompanied child refugees who are a huge risk to traffic smugglers and

:23:55. > :23:59.criminals. Should the government be doing more to help them

:24:00. > :24:04.specifically? We are talking about 30,000 unaccompanied child refugees.

:24:05. > :24:09.I think what Tim has explained is very interesting but we have to be

:24:10. > :24:13.incredibly careful not just taking pure, lonely children from eight

:24:14. > :24:17.site in Europe where they are safer than they would be in Syria because

:24:18. > :24:22.that could act as temptation for children to be sent. Are they safe

:24:23. > :24:26.in Europe if they are alone when we have talked about people smugglers,

:24:27. > :24:30.they could just disappear, should we not be focusing our attention? It is

:24:31. > :24:34.incredibly fraught but the current policy is to take children with

:24:35. > :24:39.their families from the border with Syria where they are in real danger.

:24:40. > :24:44.Tim has seen the camp on the Greek Macedonian border and they are

:24:45. > :24:49.probably at less risk there than on the Syrian border. Do you accept

:24:50. > :24:54.that? We are talking about difficult choices. We should be doing our bit.

:24:55. > :25:00.We have been arguing for a long time as Tim has that we should be taking

:25:01. > :25:05.unaccompanied children. The 30,000 he is talking about. I think the

:25:06. > :25:09.figure was 3000. If it was our children who found themselves in

:25:10. > :25:12.that situation, separated from their parents, would we want other

:25:13. > :25:17.countries to say, we will bring you in? We have always had a

:25:18. > :25:20.disagreement with the government on this because it is right that we are

:25:21. > :25:25.putting a lot into humanitarian aid to support people in the region but

:25:26. > :25:29.from talking to refugees myself, those who have made that dangerous

:25:30. > :25:33.journey to come to Europe, we should not penalised them by saying we will

:25:34. > :25:37.not offer shelter to those who are vulnerable to have made it as well

:25:38. > :25:40.as those in the camps in the region. Tim Farron, thank you very much.

:25:41. > :25:43.Now, if you've been concentrating over the past few days you may have

:25:44. > :25:45.noticed the latest fad to sweep Westminster -

:25:46. > :25:48.All those fascinating details about politicians' income, taxable

:25:49. > :25:54.But have our guests been paying attention to the deluge

:25:55. > :26:03.It's time to play, whose tax return is it anyway.

:26:04. > :26:06.In 2014 this MP's salary was half what the Prime Minister makes -

:26:07. > :26:08.though that may not be the case anymore.

:26:09. > :26:10.They also earned ?1,350 from delivering lectures

:26:11. > :26:12.and ?500 from taking part in surveys.

:26:13. > :26:25.Who is it? Jeremy Corbyn. You have been concentrating!

:26:26. > :26:27.Leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn.

:26:28. > :26:30.This politician earned just under ?105,000 before tax,

:26:31. > :26:33.They claimed just under ?12,000 in non-taxable expenses,

:26:34. > :26:50.Nicola Sturgeon. You can be a bit more enthusiastic, you are right!

:26:51. > :26:53.Let's stay with Scotland but make it a bit more tricky.

:26:54. > :26:56.The leaders of three other Scottish parties also released their tax

:26:57. > :27:00.They all earn the same but one underpaid their tax by ?3.20.

:27:01. > :27:19.No! None! They don't know who the leaders are!

:27:20. > :27:21.It's Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson,

:27:22. > :27:24.who declared she still owed the tax payer ?3.20 in the self-assessment

:27:25. > :27:31.Back in Westminster, this politician reduced his taxable

:27:32. > :27:34.income from his salary to fund a bigger pension pot.

:27:35. > :27:36.Perhaps they learnt about that from Chairman

:27:37. > :27:54.Yes, it's Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell.

:27:55. > :28:04.And the answer to the year was 2006. If you press that button we will

:28:05. > :28:15.find out who has won... Well done. Very skilful. This is our winner,

:28:16. > :28:19.congratulations. I have never been there. We will have an awayday!

:28:20. > :28:26.The one o'clock news is starting over on BBC One now.

:28:27. > :28:29.Jo will be here at noon tomorrow with all the big

:28:30. > :28:43.I will be back tomorrow night on BBC just after Question Time I hope you

:28:44. > :28:45.can join us for all of that. Let BBC Two whisk you away

:28:46. > :29:01.to a world of luxury, boasting an impressive

:29:02. > :29:03.celebrity clientele... I've seen somebody spend

:29:04. > :29:09.over half a million. ..and a free gift

:29:10. > :29:13.you'll want to treasure forever.