Browse content similar to 27/04/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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The Labour Party is facing a fresh row over anti-semitism after one | :00:35. | :00:39. | |
of its MPs posted controversial remarks about Israel and the Jews. | :00:40. | :00:49. | |
Naz Shah has apologised for Facebook posts she made before becoming an MP | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
supporting the deportation of all Israeli Jews to America. | :00:54. | :00:57. | |
She's stepped down as a Parliamentary aide to the Shadow | :00:58. | :00:59. | |
Junior doctors are staging their second all-out strike - | :01:00. | :01:07. | |
walking out of routine and emergency care. | :01:08. | :01:11. | |
But the Government insists it won't back down. | :01:12. | :01:14. | |
So there's plenty for MPs to quiz the Prime Minister on. | :01:15. | :01:21. | |
We'll have full coverage of PMQs at midday. | :01:22. | :01:26. | |
And, while we're on the subject of PMQs, Jeremy Corbyn said | :01:27. | :01:28. | |
he wanted to make the weekly bout less confrontational. | :01:29. | :01:31. | |
All that in the next hour and a half, and with us for the whole | :01:32. | :01:43. | |
of the programme today the Shadow Energy Secretary Lisa | :01:44. | :01:45. | |
Nandy, and the former Defence Secretary Liam Fox. | :01:46. | :01:47. | |
Both Lisa and Liam have been tipped as future | :01:48. | :01:49. | |
Although, now I've said that, it probably won't come to pass! | :01:50. | :01:58. | |
However, without wishing to go too far, the next 90 minutes could play | :01:59. | :02:01. | |
a key role in shaping the future of British politics... | :02:02. | :02:04. | |
junior doctors in England have begun their second | :02:05. | :02:16. | |
Once again senior doctors and other medical staff are having | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
Junior doctors are staging the walk-out over the imposition | :02:21. | :02:23. | |
Ministers say the change is required to provide safe | :02:24. | :02:27. | |
Let's talk now to our Health Correspondent Smitha Mundasad | :02:28. | :02:31. | |
who at St Thomas' Hospital in central London. | :02:32. | :02:40. | |
The second day, and is the atmosphere and resilience the same | :02:41. | :02:48. | |
as yesterday? The picket line behind me with a drum out here today, and I | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
have been told that there few doctors on the picket line today | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
that -- but the passion is still running high. The message is the | :02:57. | :03:00. | |
same, that the contract is not fair and they will not accept it. The | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
Department of Health have said that around 78% of junior doctors did not | :03:06. | :03:08. | |
turn up for work yesterday which could be around one in five crossing | :03:09. | :03:15. | |
the picket line. What has the impact been? Hospitals around the country | :03:16. | :03:18. | |
have told us they coped very well. Some said that their accident and | :03:19. | :03:22. | |
emergency departments were less busy than usual and perhaps the public | :03:23. | :03:26. | |
heeded warnings not to come in unless it was a genuine emergency, | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
but the question remains today whether more patients will turn up | :03:30. | :03:35. | |
and the really big question is where both sides go from here. It feels | :03:36. | :03:40. | |
very much like neither side is budging from their sticking points. | :03:41. | :03:46. | |
Are they saying, the doctors you spoke to, that they would consider | :03:47. | :03:50. | |
an indefinite walk-out if the government does not give in to their | :03:51. | :03:56. | |
demands? They have been saying that all options are on the table. Some | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
said to me that they brought their babies with them on the picket line | :04:01. | :04:03. | |
and said, look, I have a family to think about and I don't know what to | :04:04. | :04:08. | |
do if his contract lands on my door. Others say they might go abroad. | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
Scotland and Wales are not imposing the contract, and there has been | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
some talk of indefinite strikes, but hospital managers, one I spoke to | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
yesterday, he said he did not feel the NHS could cope with an | :04:22. | :04:24. | |
indefinite strike. The truth is that junior doctors have had to rely on | :04:25. | :04:29. | |
the goodwill of senior staff to cover for them, and the question is | :04:30. | :04:33. | |
how long will the goodwill stretch. Thank you very much. | :04:34. | :04:36. | |
Liam Fox, used to be a doctor. The health service is already stretched | :04:37. | :04:43. | |
doing what it does at the moment. How can you go to a seven day per | :04:44. | :04:50. | |
week all up service with no more money? This has been one of the | :04:51. | :04:54. | |
things that has come the entire dispute. --, located the entire | :04:55. | :05:03. | |
dispute. It is not really defined in what the seven-day NHS was. Are we | :05:04. | :05:09. | |
talking about a seven-day emergency NHS where we think it is patchy and | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
needs improvement? We have always had a seven-day NHS, but are we | :05:15. | :05:17. | |
talking about a seven-day elective NHS that does everything on a | :05:18. | :05:21. | |
Saturday and Sunday, which you cannot simply deal with with more | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
doctors because you need the ancillary and support staff. I have | :05:25. | :05:30. | |
been asking questions about this and the Secretary of State has made it | :05:31. | :05:32. | |
increasingly clear that we are talking about an emergency service | :05:33. | :05:35. | |
and it shouldn't be that difficult to implement if you are just | :05:36. | :05:40. | |
improving what we already have got and you are not moving to a full | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
service. Are you saying that the government policy, as you understand | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
it, is simply to provide better emergency cover? It already provides | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
emergency cover at weekends. Are you saying the policy is simply to | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
improve the scope and level of emergency cover? And to improve | :05:59. | :06:01. | |
access to general practice. It's a different concept to move into a | :06:02. | :06:06. | |
full elective service. What underlies this dispute is this | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
misunderstanding about what it is we're trying to achieve. Greater | :06:12. | :06:17. | |
clarity is setting out the policy from the outset, that would have | :06:18. | :06:20. | |
been helpful. But to be fair, on the other side, we need to have an | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
understanding that this is about pay and conditions and I don't believe | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
any dispute about pay and conditions justifies putting patients at risk. | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
Perhaps if the government had given more clarity, she said, from the | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
start, we wouldn't be where we are now. Even if we had that, we still | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
have the dispute about pay and conditions. There is another problem | :06:44. | :06:46. | |
and we have to be frank about it, the NHS has had not enough doctors | :06:47. | :06:52. | |
since its inception. The problem is exacerbated now by the fact that you | :06:53. | :06:56. | |
have more elderly patients with more comics medical needs and you require | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
more doctors to just stand still, as you were, in terms of the quality of | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
patient treatment and we have to accept that we have a finite budget | :07:05. | :07:09. | |
and we have to decide what the priorities are. We need a proper | :07:10. | :07:13. | |
grown-up debate in this country because what medical sciences able | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
to do is growing exponentially. Even if we are giving a substantial | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
increase in funding we need a much better quality debate than we get in | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
this country. Lisa, am I behind the curve, or is what Liam Fox said News | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
to you as well? That this is just down to providing better emergency | :07:34. | :07:38. | |
cover at weekends? It was news to me because this has changed over the | :07:39. | :07:41. | |
course of the last few months and is changing it seems on a daily basis. | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
The point Liam made was important because it's not clear what the | :07:47. | :07:51. | |
government is now imposing on junior doctors. Because it's not clear what | :07:52. | :07:55. | |
they are imposing it is not clear what the impact will be on them and | :07:56. | :08:02. | |
patient safety. That is why we said earlier in the week, backed by the | :08:03. | :08:06. | |
Royal colleges, that they should be piloted in a number of trusts and we | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
could see the impact. Any sensible government would do it. We did it | :08:11. | :08:14. | |
when we brought in a new covenant -- when we brought in a new contract. | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
We shall see, it is an ongoing dispute. | :08:19. | :08:19. | |
Naz Shah, the Labour MP for Bradford West, | :08:20. | :08:21. | |
has stepped down from her role as a parliamentary aide to | :08:22. | :08:24. | |
the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell after controversial Facebook | :08:25. | :08:26. | |
comments about Israel were unearthed. | :08:27. | :08:27. | |
Miss Shah has also apologised over the Facebook post from 2014 | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
in which she called for Israel to be relocated to the USA. | :08:31. | :08:36. | |
In August 2014, Naz Shah shared a graphic showing Israel's outline | :08:37. | :08:40. | |
superimposed onto a map of the US with the comment "problem solved". | :08:41. | :08:47. | |
And the following month she shared an image of a man | :08:48. | :08:53. | |
with a number around his neck with the words "Never forget that | :08:54. | :08:55. | |
everything Hitler did in Germany was legal" and the hashtag | :08:56. | :08:58. | |
Yesterday the Bradford West MP, | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
who was elected in May 2015, resigned from her position | :09:03. | :09:04. | |
Ms Shah said: to shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. | :09:05. | :09:33. | |
Well, we asked Naz Shah for an interview but she declined. | :09:34. | :09:36. | |
We also contacted John McDonnell's office. | :09:37. | :09:37. | |
to the statement he made yesterday saying he had accepted Miss Shah's | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
resignation as his parliamentary aide. | :09:42. | :09:42. | |
We also asked the Labour Party for a statement. | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
Why has the whip not been withdrawn from her? My understanding is that | :09:47. | :09:56. | |
Naz Shah has been called in to hold her to account for the comments she | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
posted there and I think it's the right thing to do. Hold her to | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
account? Do you expect her to have the whip with withdrawn? We have a | :10:06. | :10:11. | |
policy in the Labour Party that people who make anti-Semitic remarks | :10:12. | :10:16. | |
are suspended and an investigation is carried out. I don't want to | :10:17. | :10:19. | |
pre-empt the outcome of the conversation that Jeremy is about to | :10:20. | :10:23. | |
have but I have made clear my view to the office that the policy should | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
be followed without exception. You would say that quite clearly those | :10:29. | :10:32. | |
anti-Semitic remarks, never forget that everything Hitler did in | :10:33. | :10:36. | |
Germany it was legal, with that hash tag. We heard views from the Jewish | :10:37. | :10:42. | |
community today who found the remarks offensive. Do you not find | :10:43. | :10:46. | |
them offensive? I do, and I think it was wrong to share those posts on | :10:47. | :10:49. | |
social media and I think she was right to resign and apologise. | :10:50. | :10:54. | |
Resigning as an aid is not the same as being suspended from the party. | :10:55. | :10:57. | |
The party has suspended other people for saying similar things, so why | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
are they not using that zero tolerance approach with an MP? I | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
agree with you and I made that clear to the leader 's office this | :11:08. | :11:11. | |
morning. As Louise Ellman, one of the most high-profile Jewish MPs | :11:12. | :11:16. | |
said in the media this weekend, the vast majority of members of the | :11:17. | :11:18. | |
Labour Party are not anti-Semitic and Avevor these views. It is really | :11:19. | :11:24. | |
important that we make that clear to the country and give the Jewish | :11:25. | :11:27. | |
community and the rest of the country the confidence that we take | :11:28. | :11:31. | |
it seriously. This is a statement that has come from the Labour Party. | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
What Naz Shah did was offensive and unacceptable and I have spoken to | :11:37. | :11:41. | |
him -- her and made it clear. These are historic social media posts made | :11:42. | :11:45. | |
before she was a member of Parliament. Naz Shah has issued a | :11:46. | :11:48. | |
fulsome apology, she does not hold these views and accepts she was | :11:49. | :11:51. | |
completely wrong to have made these posts. The Labour Party is | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
implacably opposed to anti-Semitism and all forms of racism. That | :11:56. | :11:59. | |
doesn't look like she will have the whip withdrawn. All I can say is | :12:00. | :12:02. | |
that when I spoke to the leaders offers this morning they said she | :12:03. | :12:05. | |
was being called in to see Jeromy personally and he was handling it | :12:06. | :12:09. | |
personally, which is right as the leader of the Labour Party. Do you | :12:10. | :12:13. | |
think she should have the whip withdrawn? I've made clear my view | :12:14. | :12:16. | |
on the leader 's office that we should suspend anybody who makes | :12:17. | :12:20. | |
anti-Semitic remarks in line with our policy and investigate. I don't | :12:21. | :12:24. | |
want to pre-empt the outcome of it an investigation. We know this | :12:25. | :12:29. | |
morning that she apologised and her local synagogue came out in support | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
of her. It's right we look at the circumstances of what happened but I | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
think the policy is clear, though we suspend and then we investigate. If | :12:39. | :12:43. | |
the party does not move swiftly to deal with this, or certainly in the | :12:44. | :12:46. | |
same way as they did with other people, and they say they are | :12:47. | :12:49. | |
implacably opposed to anti-Semitism, it will leave the impression that | :12:50. | :12:52. | |
they don't actually follow through on an issue that they say they are | :12:53. | :12:56. | |
against. I think that's right and I think that is a problem for the | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
Labour Party if we don't look like we are taking these things | :13:01. | :13:03. | |
seriously. But what I would also say is that it's not just about the | :13:04. | :13:07. | |
impact on the Labour Party. There is also a question of what is the right | :13:08. | :13:10. | |
thing to do, and the right thing to do is to do a full investigation and | :13:11. | :13:15. | |
make sure that we do not tolerate anti-Semitism in our party at all. | :13:16. | :13:20. | |
You have said she has apologised for these posts, she has and she says | :13:21. | :13:28. | |
that that is not her view, but it clearly is what she thinks otherwise | :13:29. | :13:31. | |
she would not have shared her posts. You could argue that she has just | :13:32. | :13:35. | |
been rumbled. I can't get into saying what somebody thinks. I think | :13:36. | :13:41. | |
the apology was right. I think it is wrong to share those posts and I | :13:42. | :13:45. | |
think they were very offensive. The question is what happens next. The | :13:46. | :13:48. | |
key thing is that there must be an investigation and we have to make | :13:49. | :13:52. | |
sure we are not just saying that we are opposed to anti-Semitism, but we | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
are acting on it. The Shadow Chancellor said in a recent article | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
in the Independent, out, out, out, that is how people with anti-Jewish | :14:02. | :14:08. | |
views are dealt with. If people express these views, they are out. I | :14:09. | :14:11. | |
am taking a harder line, he says, than the leadership so far because | :14:12. | :14:14. | |
people might say I have changed my views and will do something in | :14:15. | :14:17. | |
another organisation. So he does not believe people change their views. | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
He also said in the interview that people who make anti-Semitic remarks | :14:23. | :14:25. | |
should be excluded from the Labour Party for life, which is further | :14:26. | :14:29. | |
than our stated policy. Do you agree with him? I don't know if I agree | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
that people should be excluded for life because I think you have to | :14:35. | :14:38. | |
give people a chance to say sorry and change and amend for what they | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
have done. But what I would say is that there has to be a suspension | :14:43. | :14:45. | |
and an investigation when something like this occurs, because it is so | :14:46. | :14:50. | |
serious and it does have such a knock-on effect on people outside of | :14:51. | :14:55. | |
Parliament in the real world. Liam Fox, anti-Semitism is not just | :14:56. | :14:58. | |
particular to the Labour Party. It is an issue that other parties have | :14:59. | :15:03. | |
dealt with as well over the years and decades. Do you think that | :15:04. | :15:08. | |
Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell are sending a clear enough message? I | :15:09. | :15:16. | |
think there are a number of issues. I don't think it is whether you | :15:17. | :15:18. | |
share the posts but whether you share the sentiment behind them or | :15:19. | :15:22. | |
whether you write them. That's one thing. Another is that these were | :15:23. | :15:26. | |
done before she was selected and elected so there are questions of | :15:27. | :15:30. | |
process here. How does this simply not get picked up in advance of an | :15:31. | :15:35. | |
election, that a candidate is allowed to stand having these things | :15:36. | :15:39. | |
out there on social media? And I think there is a wider problem. Alex | :15:40. | :15:44. | |
Chalmers, who was the chairman of Oxford University Labour club, who | :15:45. | :15:47. | |
resigned because he said there was a problem with anti-Semitism there... | :15:48. | :15:52. | |
If that's happening at Oxford University Labour club, you would | :15:53. | :15:56. | |
suggest it was a wider problem. So I think it is absolutely essential | :15:57. | :15:59. | |
that a clear line is taken by the Labour leadership. Ever get us the | :16:00. | :16:06. | |
withdrawal of the -- I think it has to be withdrawal of the whip. I | :16:07. | :16:10. | |
think the problem here is that sympathising with the views, not | :16:11. | :16:16. | |
necessarily the timing of the event. I think you're wider point is | :16:17. | :16:19. | |
important because the Labour Party, the vast majority of members in the | :16:20. | :16:23. | |
Labour Party, are not anti-Semitic and a poor those views. But | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
anti-Semitism is found in every institution and every part of | :16:30. | :16:31. | |
society and it's important that none of us are complacent. There's a lot | :16:32. | :16:36. | |
of them coming out of the Labour Party at the moment, though. There | :16:37. | :16:39. | |
have been a number of incidents in the last few months. | :16:40. | :16:44. | |
And a number of suspensions. What is going through somebody's mind when | :16:45. | :16:48. | |
you post "Let's not forget everything Hitler did was legal"? | :16:49. | :16:52. | |
Some of the things that you see on social media are unbelievable. But | :16:53. | :16:59. | |
she's an MP. She wasn't an MP when she posted them but I'm not saying | :17:00. | :17:03. | |
that excuses. Eyes up is the criticism is, is the Labour Party | :17:04. | :17:06. | |
being reactive rather than proactive? | :17:07. | :17:16. | |
-- I suppose the criticism is. So, the referendum | :17:17. | :17:18. | |
campaign is hotting up. And what would normally be fairly | :17:19. | :17:20. | |
dry stories suddenly This morning new figures show | :17:21. | :17:22. | |
a slight slow-down in economic growth in the first | :17:23. | :17:25. | |
quarter of this year. The Chancellor, George Osborne, | :17:26. | :17:27. | |
says "the threat of leaving the EU It's the latest salvo | :17:28. | :17:30. | |
in the campaign, so, Jo, bring us up Earlier this month, the Treasury | :17:31. | :17:34. | |
released analysis in which they claimed leaving the EU | :17:35. | :17:37. | |
would cost British But Vote Leave called the study | :17:38. | :17:39. | |
"completely worthless" and said the figures didn't add up, | :17:40. | :17:44. | |
because they equated household Then last week, US President Barack | :17:45. | :17:47. | |
Obama arrived in the UK to issue a warning on future | :17:48. | :17:56. | |
US-UK trade deals. He said Britain would be | :17:57. | :18:00. | |
at "the back of the queue" when drawing up future trade deals | :18:01. | :18:03. | |
in the event of a British And Mayor of London Boris Johnson | :18:04. | :18:06. | |
got himself into hot water after arguing the President's | :18:07. | :18:15. | |
"part-Kenyan" ancestry may have led to a "dislike of the British | :18:16. | :18:18. | |
Empire". On Sunday, Home Secretary | :18:19. | :18:21. | |
Theresa May made her first should remain in the EU, | :18:22. | :18:27. | |
but admitted free movement of people makes it harder to control | :18:28. | :18:31. | |
immigration to the UK. And on Monday, leading Leave | :18:32. | :18:36. | |
campaigner Michael Gove launched a campaign arguing Britain will face | :18:37. | :18:38. | |
a migration "free-for-all" unless it Thanks, Jo Co. Liam Fox, the OECD | :18:39. | :18:52. | |
this morning, probably the most famous international think tank, has | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
now said that incomes in Britain will be hit if we leave the EU. So | :18:58. | :19:03. | |
we've now got the OECD, the IMF, the IFF, the World bank, six US former | :19:04. | :19:10. | |
Treasury Secretary is all saying roughly the same thing. What | :19:11. | :19:15. | |
international think tank still you have in your side? It's a question | :19:16. | :19:19. | |
of why they are saying these things and the assumptions that they are | :19:20. | :19:23. | |
making. I think they are making many of the wrong assumptions. If you | :19:24. | :19:26. | |
look at the Treasury's on report, for example, it assumes that we | :19:27. | :19:33. | |
wouldn't have any bilateral trade negotiations that were successful in | :19:34. | :19:36. | |
the opening period. It doesn't take into account the cost of regulation | :19:37. | :19:40. | |
on British industry and the fact that we could be freed from some of | :19:41. | :19:43. | |
that. So I think you have to look at the wider picture. I think that | :19:44. | :19:49. | |
today's figures that Jo was referring to are very interesting. | :19:50. | :19:52. | |
At one set annual growth, the Treasury would normally be saying, | :19:53. | :19:58. | |
"That's wonderful". -- at 1% annual growth. We have these strong | :19:59. | :20:04. | |
disruptions on the international stock markets so that's quite a good | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
figure. I'm afraid that I think this rather childish obsession with | :20:09. | :20:11. | |
blaming everything that we have in our economy on the European | :20:12. | :20:15. | |
referendum doesn't wash. First of all, it was too far back and wasn't | :20:16. | :20:21. | |
really affected by this. I understand that but let's come back | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
to my question. Are you saying that you are right and the IMF, the IFF | :20:27. | :20:32. | |
this, the World bank, the OECD, the US Treasury are all wrong? They all | :20:33. | :20:40. | |
said we would benefit from being the exchange rate mechanism and they | :20:41. | :20:42. | |
also will benefit from being in the euro and I we didn't listen to them. | :20:43. | :20:48. | |
So you are right, a graduate of medicine from the University of | :20:49. | :20:52. | |
Glasgow, and all these people - the IMF, the IFF is, the World Bank, the | :20:53. | :20:57. | |
British Treasury, the US Treasury - are all wrong? I think they were all | :20:58. | :21:05. | |
run on the euro. I think if we had followed their advice and we'd been | :21:06. | :21:09. | |
part of the single currency, we'd now be facing what's facing many of | :21:10. | :21:12. | |
the economies in Europe. The fact that we stayed out of that project | :21:13. | :21:15. | |
was against all of the advice we were getting at the time and thank | :21:16. | :21:18. | |
goodness John Major took that decision. So why hasn't Vote Leave | :21:19. | :21:25. | |
managed to come up with a reputable and independent think tank or study | :21:26. | :21:32. | |
that makes the right assumptions and shows the opposite of that? There | :21:33. | :21:39. | |
was the open Europe report on it, Roger Bootle's report on it. Roger | :21:40. | :21:45. | |
Bootle is a pro-leave economist. And these are anti-leave economists. So | :21:46. | :21:50. | |
you can't say it's wrong to be an anti-BV economist because you are | :21:51. | :21:58. | |
part... I would say open Europe is a fine think tank in this city. I | :21:59. | :22:02. | |
would say it is not quite on a par with the IMF, the IFF is, the World | :22:03. | :22:07. | |
Bank and the OECD. Excuse me if I'm not a great believer in the IMF's | :22:08. | :22:13. | |
editing capabilities because back in 2013 the Chancellor was up in arms | :22:14. | :22:17. | |
about them talking about how wrong we were to carry forward are sturdy | :22:18. | :22:21. | |
programme. Six months later, they were revising to radically upwards | :22:22. | :22:24. | |
are growth figures because they realised we'd taken the right | :22:25. | :22:27. | |
decisions. They wanted us to join the single currency. We didn't do | :22:28. | :22:32. | |
that. They have a very pro-European outlook. I don't say that they're | :22:33. | :22:35. | |
wrong for doing that, I just think it's wrong for the UK. Lisa Nandy, | :22:36. | :22:41. | |
doesn't Liam Fox make a decent point? I was looking back of the | :22:42. | :22:46. | |
OECD's record. The OECD recommended that we should join the European | :22:47. | :22:50. | |
exchange-rate in the 90s and it turned out to be a disaster, and it | :22:51. | :22:55. | |
advocated that we should, in 1999... It didn't just say we should | :22:56. | :23:01. | |
consider joining, it said we should join the euro. If it was wrong on | :23:02. | :23:05. | |
these two massive things, why should we listen to it now? You don't have | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
to listen to them if you don't want to. You could listen to Barack Obama | :23:11. | :23:13. | |
and the US Treasury Secretary, you can listen to our Treasury, you | :23:14. | :23:17. | |
could listen to a whole host of ignite experts, including the Bank | :23:18. | :23:20. | |
of England, who are all saying the same thing. The Bank of England has | :23:21. | :23:26. | |
been quite... It is only stored about short-term. The EU referendum, | :23:27. | :23:35. | |
they think, will have a damaging effect on investment. You could | :23:36. | :23:37. | |
listen to any of those experts if you want. You don't have to listen | :23:38. | :23:42. | |
to the OECD. I don't agree with Liam. I remember when we were having | :23:43. | :23:45. | |
the debate about whether to join the euro and you could actually find | :23:46. | :23:49. | |
credible economists on both sides of the argument but what we are seeing | :23:50. | :23:52. | |
with this... All these groups were on the wrong side of the argument. | :23:53. | :23:57. | |
But it's really difficult to find anyone credible in economic series | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
prepared to back your case and I think British people need to think | :24:02. | :24:04. | |
about that very carefully in advance of the referendum because this is a | :24:05. | :24:08. | |
really big decision that has gone to have a huge impact on our economy. | :24:09. | :24:14. | |
Other than Roger Bootle, do you have people, credible in economic, who | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
are on your side? I think there are people from the Mayor's financial | :24:20. | :24:23. | |
adviser, who is a senior figure in the city, who has made an analysis | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
and said that the City of London Police letter. You have to look at | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
it in the wider context. First of all to take up this point about our | :24:32. | :24:36. | |
own Treasury, our own Treasury were make this prediction in this report, | :24:37. | :24:40. | |
which takes is 14 years ahead and without being disloyal to my | :24:41. | :24:43. | |
colleagues in the Treasury, let's face it, they've got both the | :24:44. | :24:49. | |
deficit figure wrong for this year and they got the growth figures | :24:50. | :24:53. | |
wrong for this quarter. So prediction is a very dangerous thing | :24:54. | :24:57. | |
to do. And I think it is important to see things in the wider context. | :24:58. | :25:03. | |
We have a wider debate here than just this narrow element, because | :25:04. | :25:08. | |
there's an element... I want to be in the EU and I've made it very | :25:09. | :25:11. | |
clear because I want to get control of making our own laws. -- I want to | :25:12. | :25:17. | |
leave the EU. These are huge issues. If you take one of them... You don't | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
have greater control by stepping out of the European Union and refusing | :25:24. | :25:26. | |
to actually take collective action on the big issues. Our financial | :25:27. | :25:35. | |
service industry, which was the one that people said would be most | :25:36. | :25:39. | |
attractor uncertainty over the referendum, has actually been the | :25:40. | :25:41. | |
strongest part of our growth in this quarter. So it doesn't actually add | :25:42. | :25:45. | |
up to all that that is causing uncertainty. What you're saying | :25:46. | :25:51. | |
really doesn't make sense. The argument put forward by the Bank of | :25:52. | :25:56. | |
England on this is that it will choke off investment because of the | :25:57. | :26:00. | |
uncertainty created by the referendum. Companies are delaying | :26:01. | :26:04. | |
decisions to invest and that long-term there will be an impact | :26:05. | :26:08. | |
because of investment and trade. We are still getting more investment | :26:09. | :26:11. | |
than any other part of the EU. Why are we getting more investment? If | :26:12. | :26:16. | |
it's just being part of the EU, why are we getting so much of it in | :26:17. | :26:22. | |
Britain? Let's leave that question. We could but we won't. | :26:23. | :26:26. | |
David Cameron's inner circle have been accused of getting | :26:27. | :26:29. | |
round transparency laws by using a secret WhatsApp group. | :26:30. | :26:31. | |
His aides and ministers are said to be using the messaging app | :26:32. | :26:34. | |
Unlike e-mails sent on Downing Street computers, WhatsApp messages, | :26:35. | :26:38. | |
which are encrypted, cannot be released under Freedom | :26:39. | :26:40. | |
Now, we'd like to remind anyone in Number 10 who wants | :26:41. | :26:47. | |
to enter our Guess The Year competition that you can't | :26:48. | :26:49. | |
secretly enter via WhatsApp, you have to e-mail us. | :26:50. | :26:53. | |
We're nothing if not transparent here at the Daily Politics. | :26:54. | :26:56. | |
So to be in with a chance of winning this week's mug all you need to do | :26:57. | :27:00. | |
The idea that extending it from 28 days to 42 days is going to make a | :27:01. | :27:29. | |
# Should I give up or should I just keep chasing pavements? | :27:30. | :27:39. | |
What if it's Andrew Sachs's answerphone? | :27:40. | :27:50. | |
MUSIC: Hero by The X Factor Finalists | :27:51. | :27:58. | |
The Prime Minister has asked me to come back. | :27:59. | :28:01. | |
# You don't have to be afraid of what you are | :28:02. | :28:09. | |
To be in with a chance of winning a Daily Politics mug, | :28:10. | :28:19. | |
send your answer to our special quiz e-mail address - that's | :28:20. | :28:21. | |
Entries must arrive by 12.30 today, and you can see the full terms | :28:22. | :28:25. | |
and conditions for Guess The Year on our website. | :28:26. | :28:28. | |
That's bbc.co.uk/dailypolitics | :28:29. | :28:39. | |
We'd better not set up a secret WhatsApp group! | :28:40. | :28:42. | |
I already have. Yes, Prime Minister's | :28:43. | :28:43. | |
Questions is on its way. A lot going on again. The OECD | :28:44. | :28:57. | |
report this morning. Is Mr Corbyn going to surprise us? I think there | :28:58. | :29:01. | |
might be a surprise in that little bird has suggested to me that he | :29:02. | :29:05. | |
might, again, go on the issue of forcing every school in England to | :29:06. | :29:09. | |
become an academy. Didn't he do all six questions on that last week? He | :29:10. | :29:13. | |
did all six questions that last week. Since then it's an issue that | :29:14. | :29:19. | |
continue to be difficult for the Education Secretary Nicky Morgan. | :29:20. | :29:21. | |
She had a pretty bloody exchange at the dispatch box with problems being | :29:22. | :29:24. | |
put forward by her own MPs and has been suggested to me that Mr Colburn | :29:25. | :29:29. | |
might decide to do that again. As ever, I would put a big caveat on | :29:30. | :29:32. | |
that and if he doesn't, it was only a little tip, but I think you might | :29:33. | :29:36. | |
do that. It's interesting because I think Labour believes genuinely that | :29:37. | :29:39. | |
they are onto something with this, partly because there is a real | :29:40. | :29:42. | |
unease among some of the Tory benches, among Tory local | :29:43. | :29:45. | |
government, and we know already there are going to be two to this | :29:46. | :29:48. | |
plan. Not a big climb-down but we know there are tweaks on the way. | :29:49. | :29:53. | |
Talking to some Labour MPs, they were saying it's quite a big issue | :29:54. | :29:56. | |
in Westminster but it's not a huge issue in the country. It may well | :29:57. | :29:59. | |
not have cut through. It's the kind of issue that you think might become | :30:00. | :30:03. | |
a big issue in the local elections next week, of course. We've got the | :30:04. | :30:07. | |
biggest, most compensated set of elections we've had for some years, | :30:08. | :30:10. | |
in fact the biggest set of elections will have in this Parliament, but it | :30:11. | :30:14. | |
doesn't seem really, and you don't hear from MPs that it's happening on | :30:15. | :30:17. | |
the doorstep, but it seems that Jeremy Corbyn has fixated on this. | :30:18. | :30:21. | |
And he did well last week so maybe that's why he's returning to it. It | :30:22. | :30:25. | |
is also des two of the junior doctors' strike. It was interesting | :30:26. | :30:29. | |
that Jeremy Corbyn and Madonna chose to go to some of the strike sites | :30:30. | :30:36. | |
themselves. There was an alternative. The pilot scheme is | :30:37. | :30:43. | |
something he could urge, which would resonate with the voters more than | :30:44. | :30:49. | |
another round. Yes, Heidi Alexander, the Shadow Health Secretary, | :30:50. | :30:52. | |
together with syllable Democrats and a Tory backbencher, a forward | :30:53. | :30:56. | |
doctor, put forward the idea of trying out the new contract in some | :30:57. | :30:59. | |
hospitals, which was dismissed by Jeremy Hunt. Would I be right in | :31:00. | :31:04. | |
thinking Mr Camara will try to work on something on the anti-Semitism | :31:05. | :31:08. | |
row? It would to practice -- surprise me if he didn't. There is a | :31:09. | :31:13. | |
Leicester there from Oliver Downes, so you would think it would be | :31:14. | :31:17. | |
something he would raise. Indeed. David Cameron is always very well | :31:18. | :31:20. | |
prefer prime and it is questions and armed with a list of things to choke | :31:21. | :31:24. | |
back, not just a list of questions you expect to come along. This is a | :31:25. | :31:28. | |
big issue for the Labour Party. It has been very controversial, it has | :31:29. | :31:32. | |
become a problem for them. We've seen that with Jeremy Corbyn having | :31:33. | :31:35. | |
to respond to it himself this morning. He's been accused of being | :31:36. | :31:37. | |
too slow to respond to these problems previously and it may well | :31:38. | :31:41. | |
be in any case that there should be a suspension and an investigation. | :31:42. | :31:46. | |
Naz Shah has had to stand down from her job working for John McDonell | :31:47. | :31:50. | |
but she is still there in the party. And that may not be the position by | :31:51. | :31:54. | |
the end of today. It may not run but there is going to be pressure on the | :31:55. | :31:58. | |
Shadow Cabinet members liked Lisa, saying maybe there should be a | :31:59. | :32:02. | |
suspension. Is there a head of steam building up to suspend the whip from | :32:03. | :32:06. | |
her? What we've seen on previous occasions like this... In the end, | :32:07. | :32:08. | |
that's been the position, whether it's been local councillors, there's | :32:09. | :32:14. | |
had to be a suspension on exclusion. It may well be that because of other | :32:15. | :32:17. | |
events today in Westminster, the story sometimes fades away. That | :32:18. | :32:22. | |
happens, too. Don't forget after Prime Minister's Questions, there | :32:23. | :32:26. | |
will be a very serious and, I think, well attended, probably quite | :32:27. | :32:28. | |
compelling debate, on the Hillsborough inquest yesterday. So | :32:29. | :32:33. | |
in the way of these things, for good or for ill, in Westminster sometimes | :32:34. | :32:36. | |
stories fade away, literally because a bigger thing comes along. But I | :32:37. | :32:40. | |
think there is going to be pressure on Labour to take more dramatic | :32:41. | :32:43. | |
action against Naz Shah, at least for the coming time. We should say, | :32:44. | :32:46. | |
she's been clear that doesn't hold those views any more and it was a | :32:47. | :32:50. | |
mistake. We will leave it there. Let's go straight over to the | :32:51. | :32:51. | |
Commons. I would like to associate myself | :32:52. | :33:42. | |
with the Prime Minister is important comments on the Hillsborough tragedy | :33:43. | :33:45. | |
along with members on all sides of the house and pay tribute to the | :33:46. | :33:50. | |
victims, their families, and the resilience of the campaigners who | :33:51. | :33:54. | |
continue to strive for the pursuit of justice. In my constituency of | :33:55. | :34:05. | |
easterly service the GPs provide is crucial to people's daily lives, so | :34:06. | :34:12. | |
does the Prime Minister agree with me that recent key announcements of | :34:13. | :34:18. | |
?2.4 billion of funding for GPs is only possible because there was | :34:19. | :34:23. | |
strong, Conservative majority government. My honourable friend is | :34:24. | :34:29. | |
absolutely right. We made a choice to put ?12 billion into the NHS in | :34:30. | :34:33. | |
the last Parliament, 19 billion into the NHS in this Parliament, and we | :34:34. | :34:38. | |
need to see strengthening primary care. Our vision is GPs coming | :34:39. | :34:43. | |
together and having in their surgeries, physiotherapists, mental | :34:44. | :34:46. | |
health practitioners, other clinics so people can get the health care | :34:47. | :34:49. | |
they need and we take the pressure off hospitals. That will only happen | :34:50. | :34:55. | |
if we have a government that keeps investigating -- investing in our | :34:56. | :35:00. | |
NHS. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Yesterday, after 27 years, the 96 | :35:01. | :35:05. | |
people who tragically lost their lives at Hillsborough and their | :35:06. | :35:08. | |
families finally received the justice they were entitled to. I | :35:09. | :35:12. | |
welcome the fact that the Prime Minister has apologised for the | :35:13. | :35:15. | |
actions of previous governments and I join him in paying tribute to all | :35:16. | :35:20. | |
of those families who campaigned with such dignity, steadfastness and | :35:21. | :35:23. | |
determination to get to the truth of what happened to their loved ones on | :35:24. | :35:27. | |
that dreadful afternoon. I also paid a very warm tribute to my friends, | :35:28. | :35:35. | |
the members for Liverpool Walton, Holton, Garston and Halewood, who | :35:36. | :35:38. | |
have relentlessly campaigned with great difficulty over many years. I | :35:39. | :35:44. | |
hope the whole house today will be united in demanding that all those | :35:45. | :35:48. | |
involved in the lies, smears and cover-ups that have so bedevilled | :35:49. | :35:51. | |
the whole enquiry will now be held to account. Last week, the Prime | :35:52. | :35:59. | |
Minister told the house that he was going to put rocket boosters on his | :36:00. | :36:04. | |
forced canonisation proposals. This weekend, in the light of widespread | :36:05. | :36:09. | |
unease, it seems the Weald are falling off the rocket boosters, and | :36:10. | :36:15. | |
the government is considering a U-turn -- the wheels are falling. | :36:16. | :36:25. | |
Can the Prime Minister 's confirm whether the U-turn is being prepared | :36:26. | :36:30. | |
for not? First of all let me join the Right Honourable gentleman in | :36:31. | :36:32. | |
praising those who campaigned so hard and so long to get justice for | :36:33. | :36:36. | |
the victims of Hillsborough. This whole process took far too long but | :36:37. | :36:41. | |
I think it is right, and I pay tribute to the honourable member | :36:42. | :36:44. | |
that we had that Jones report and responded to it, and I also want to | :36:45. | :36:48. | |
mention the former Attorney General who took the case to the High Court | :36:49. | :36:52. | |
for the government himself to argue for that vital second inquest. | :36:53. | :36:57. | |
Turning to the issue of academies, I have yet to see a rocket booster | :36:58. | :37:02. | |
with a wheel on it, but rocket science isn't really my science, and | :37:03. | :37:09. | |
maybe it's not his. I repeat again, academies are raising standards in | :37:10. | :37:16. | |
our schools. I want a system where it is heads and teachers running | :37:17. | :37:22. | |
schools, not bureaucrats. There wasn't much of an answer there, so | :37:23. | :37:32. | |
can the Prime Minister tell us whether... If the members opposite | :37:33. | :37:39. | |
would be patient enough, they might hear the question I'm putting to the | :37:40. | :37:42. | |
Prime Minister, which is another very simple one. Could he tell us | :37:43. | :37:46. | |
whether he will bring forward legislation to force, against the | :37:47. | :37:52. | |
wishes of good and outstanding schools, to become academies in the | :37:53. | :37:59. | |
upcoming Queen 's speech? Yes or no? Obviously I cannot pre-empt what is | :38:00. | :38:01. | |
in the Queens speech, but on this one example I can help him out. We | :38:02. | :38:08. | |
are going to have academies for all, and it will be in the Queens speech. | :38:09. | :38:16. | |
Well, Mr Speaker, we look forward to that, but there is still time for | :38:17. | :38:25. | |
the U-turn that I'm sure is at the back of the Prime Minister's mine. | :38:26. | :38:29. | |
It has been reported that the government is considering allowing | :38:30. | :38:36. | |
good local authorities to form multi-academy trusts. Ironically, | :38:37. | :38:39. | |
this would give local authorities more responsibility for running | :38:40. | :38:45. | |
schools than they have now. Although the Prime Minister's previously | :38:46. | :38:47. | |
suggested that local authorities are holding schools back. So why is this | :38:48. | :38:52. | |
costly reorganisation of school is necessary for schools that are | :38:53. | :38:56. | |
already good or outstanding? Why is he forcing it on them? As I said | :38:57. | :39:01. | |
last week, and I like repeats on television and I am happy to have | :39:02. | :39:06. | |
them in the house as well, outstanding schools have nothing to | :39:07. | :39:09. | |
fear from becoming academies and indeed have a lot to gain. Just | :39:10. | :39:13. | |
because a school is outstanding or good doesn't mean it can't have | :39:14. | :39:20. | |
further improvement, not least, because we want to see outstanding | :39:21. | :39:24. | |
schools helping other schools in their area, often by being part of | :39:25. | :39:28. | |
an Academy trust. He raises the issue about local authorities. To | :39:29. | :39:36. | |
question so far, third question, third clear answer coming. Simmer | :39:37. | :39:41. | |
down. Perhaps if you can deal with the anti-Semites in your own party, | :39:42. | :39:45. | |
we might be prepared to deal with you a little bit more. Maybe we will | :39:46. | :39:53. | |
come answer that. Of course there are lots of ways schools can become | :39:54. | :39:56. | |
academies. They can convert and become academies, they can work with | :39:57. | :40:02. | |
an outside organisation or work with other schools in the area all look | :40:03. | :40:06. | |
at working with the local authority. Those schools that want to go on | :40:07. | :40:10. | |
looking at local authority services are free to do so. Academies are | :40:11. | :40:15. | |
great, academies for all our good policy, but what we are seeing from | :40:16. | :40:21. | |
the Labour Party, I sense, is in favour of moving towards academy | :40:22. | :40:24. | |
schools. When he gets to his feet, maybe he can save does he favour | :40:25. | :40:30. | |
academies or not? Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister will be aware that | :40:31. | :40:34. | |
sometimes repeats on television get more views than the first time | :40:35. | :40:39. | |
round. The chief executive of the largest academy chain in London, the | :40:40. | :40:44. | |
Harris Academy, has warned that a far more fundamental thing that the | :40:45. | :40:49. | |
Prime Minister should worry about, whether school should become | :40:50. | :40:51. | |
academies or not, is actually teacher shortages. The academies, Mr | :40:52. | :40:58. | |
Speaker, don't want this, teachers don't want it, parents don't want | :40:59. | :41:04. | |
it, Conservative councils and MPs don't want it. Who actually does | :41:05. | :41:09. | |
want this top-down reorganisation he is imposing on the education system? | :41:10. | :41:14. | |
Question number four, answer number four. Let's start with Michael | :41:15. | :41:20. | |
Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools. Somebody quite worthwhile | :41:21. | :41:27. | |
listening to. Academies Asian -- academies in schools can lead to | :41:28. | :41:32. | |
improvement and it is right to give more power to the front line. The | :41:33. | :41:37. | |
OECD, they have been in the news today. The OECD say that they view | :41:38. | :41:43. | |
the trend towards academies as a promising development in the UK | :41:44. | :41:46. | |
which used to have a rather prescriptive education system. So | :41:47. | :41:51. | |
they have supported it. What about endless Academy trusts who support | :41:52. | :41:54. | |
it? He asked another question, very keen for complete at answers. If you | :41:55. | :41:58. | |
shout, you won't hear the answers. He asked about teacher shortages. | :41:59. | :42:14. | |
The fact is, there are more school places and more teachers under this | :42:15. | :42:17. | |
government than there were under Labour. Why? Because we got a | :42:18. | :42:22. | |
successful economy and we are putting it into our schools and our | :42:23. | :42:28. | |
children's future. Mr Speaker, there are of course still record numbers | :42:29. | :42:32. | |
of children in oversized classes and super-sized classes that is getting | :42:33. | :42:38. | |
worse. And he feel he is looking for support for his academies proposal, | :42:39. | :42:42. | |
he might care to phone up his friends, the leaders of Hampshire, | :42:43. | :42:46. | |
West Sussex and his own Oxfordshire County Council, who are deeply | :42:47. | :42:50. | |
concerned and opposed to it. He might care to listen to Council | :42:51. | :42:54. | |
Carter, the Conservative chair of the county council 's network, who | :42:55. | :42:59. | |
said the change will lead to a poorer education system -- | :43:00. | :43:03. | |
Councillor Carter. So why is he pushing it through with so much | :43:04. | :43:06. | |
opposition and so much concern and such a waste of money when we should | :43:07. | :43:11. | |
be investing in teachers and schools, not top-down | :43:12. | :43:17. | |
reorganisation? I'm glad he is quoting Conservative council | :43:18. | :43:19. | |
leaders, and because they keep the council tax than provide good | :43:20. | :43:22. | |
services I hope we will see more of them in days' time. -- council tax | :43:23. | :43:29. | |
down and provide. On teacher supply, just to be clear, 13,000 more | :43:30. | :43:38. | |
teachers than 2010, to give a wholly accurate answer to his fourth | :43:39. | :43:42. | |
question. Again he asked about who else would support academies. Let me | :43:43. | :43:47. | |
quote Helena Mills of the burnt Mill Academy trust. She said she used to | :43:48. | :43:51. | |
be very sceptical and resistant to academy status. But during the | :43:52. | :43:57. | |
process of developing the academy I have been increasingly convinced | :43:58. | :43:59. | |
that this is the way forward. That is what more and more people are | :44:00. | :44:05. | |
seeing. That is why 1.3 million more children in good and outstanding | :44:06. | :44:11. | |
schools. That is why almost nine out of ten converter academies are good | :44:12. | :44:14. | |
or outstanding schools. We are very clear on this side of the house, we | :44:15. | :44:19. | |
back aspiration and opportunity. We back investment in our schools. We | :44:20. | :44:22. | |
want every child to get the best. It is Labour who want to hold back | :44:23. | :44:26. | |
opportunity and have one size fits all. Mr Speaker, there seems to be a | :44:27. | :44:30. | |
pattern developing here. The pattern is quite simply this. He | :44:31. | :44:46. | |
has a Health Secretary that is imposing a contract on junior | :44:47. | :44:49. | |
doctors against the wishes of patients and the public and the rest | :44:50. | :44:55. | |
of the medical profession. He has an Education Secretary imposing yet | :44:56. | :45:00. | |
another Tory top-down reorganisation that nobody wants. When will his | :45:01. | :45:06. | |
government show some respect and listen to the public, parents and | :45:07. | :45:10. | |
patients, and indeed, professionals who have given their lives to public | :45:11. | :45:14. | |
service in education and health and change his ways? Listen to them and | :45:15. | :45:21. | |
trust other people to run other services rather than imposing things | :45:22. | :45:26. | |
from above. I tell him the pattern that is developing. We can see 1.9 | :45:27. | :45:29. | |
million more people being treated in the health service. We | :45:30. | :45:35. | |
can see 1.3 million more children in good or outstanding schools. That is | :45:36. | :45:39. | |
the battlements developing, a strong economy investing in public | :45:40. | :45:42. | |
services. -- pattern developing. The other pattern I'm seeing is that I | :45:43. | :45:49. | |
am on my fifth Labour leader standing at this box, and if he | :45:50. | :45:52. | |
carries on like this I will soon be on my sixth. | :45:53. | :46:01. | |
Mr Speaker, the Government package to help potential buyers of the Tata | :46:02. | :46:04. | |
Steel site in Port Talbot is substantial, befitting the trend is | :46:05. | :46:12. | |
bipartisan measures the government has taken to save this industry for | :46:13. | :46:17. | |
top it stands in stark contrast with the distasteful, disrespect for | :46:18. | :46:21. | |
contacts web of contrast of a Labour spokesman who said that it had been | :46:22. | :46:25. | |
good for Labour. Could I ask if there is any indication that the | :46:26. | :46:29. | |
package could help expedite the sale of the site, which could provide | :46:30. | :46:33. | |
long-term viable future for well steal the we all hope for? I want to | :46:34. | :46:41. | |
thank him for welcoming me yesterday and before come into his | :46:42. | :46:44. | |
constituency yesterday, I visited Port Talbot and I met with the | :46:45. | :46:48. | |
management and the trade unions. I had a very constructive discussion | :46:49. | :46:52. | |
and I did actually meet the Conservative leader, Andrew RT | :46:53. | :46:55. | |
Davies, who does an excellent job in the Welsh Assembly. If you want to | :46:56. | :47:00. | |
be Speaker, you better stop interrupting everybody. It's not | :47:01. | :47:06. | |
going to get you any votes! A little tip for you there. There is a | :47:07. | :47:11. | |
serious point, which is that the areas where we could help are in | :47:12. | :47:18. | |
power, procurement, on the issue of pensions. There is a very | :47:19. | :47:20. | |
constructive conversation going on but I say again from this dispatch | :47:21. | :47:25. | |
box, while I want to do everything I can to secure the future not only | :47:26. | :47:29. | |
for Port Talbot but also for Scunthorpe and steel-making in | :47:30. | :47:32. | |
Britain, we are coping with a massive oversupply, a collapse in | :47:33. | :47:36. | |
prices from China, so we must do all we can. There is no guarantee of | :47:37. | :47:40. | |
success but if we work hard, get a proper sales process and get behind | :47:41. | :47:46. | |
it on a bipartisan basis, we can see success here. Following the | :47:47. | :47:51. | |
Hillsborough inquiry, we join in all of the comments that have been said | :47:52. | :47:54. | |
thus far in relation to the families and paying tribute all of the | :47:55. | :47:58. | |
campaigners for justice. Mr Speaker, last night the Government was | :47:59. | :48:01. | |
defeated for the second time in the House of Lords on the issue of | :48:02. | :48:04. | |
refugee children being given refuge in the UK. There are many members of | :48:05. | :48:09. | |
that house, as there are many members of this House, in all | :48:10. | :48:13. | |
parties, including the primers to's wild side, who would wish us to do | :48:14. | :48:20. | |
much much more in helping provide refuge for unaccompanied children in | :48:21. | :48:23. | |
Europe at the present time. Will the Prime Minister please reconsider his | :48:24. | :48:27. | |
opposition and stop walking on by on the other side? I don't think anyone | :48:28. | :48:34. | |
could accuse this country of walking on by in terms of this refugee | :48:35. | :48:37. | |
crisis. Let's be very clear about what we've done. First of all, | :48:38. | :48:41. | |
taking 20,000 refugees from outside of Europe, which I think has | :48:42. | :48:45. | |
all-party support. Second of all, last week announcing a further 3000 | :48:46. | :48:49. | |
principally unaccompanied children and children at risk from outside | :48:50. | :48:54. | |
Europe that we will be taking. Third of all, in our normal refugee | :48:55. | :48:57. | |
procedures, last year we took over 3000 unaccompanied children. But | :48:58. | :49:03. | |
where I disagree, respectively, with their Lordship's house, is those | :49:04. | :49:07. | |
people who are in European countries are in safe European countries. To | :49:08. | :49:13. | |
compare somehow children or adults who are in France or Germany or | :49:14. | :49:19. | |
Italy or Spain or Portugal or Greece... To compare that with | :49:20. | :49:23. | |
children stuck in Nazi Germany I think is deeply wrong and we'll | :49:24. | :49:26. | |
continue with our approach, which includes, by the way, being the | :49:27. | :49:31. | |
second largest donor of any country anywhere in the world into those | :49:32. | :49:39. | |
refugee camps. Just as in the 1930s, thereafter thousands... There's no | :49:40. | :49:50. | |
comparison, Mr Speaker. Apparently, there's no comparison between | :49:51. | :49:52. | |
thousands of children needing refuge in the 1930s and thousands of | :49:53. | :49:56. | |
children it in Europe at the present time. Order, order! Order! I'm not | :49:57. | :50:05. | |
interested in somebody yelling out their opinion of the honourable | :50:06. | :50:09. | |
gentleman's question. This is the home of free speech. The honourable | :50:10. | :50:12. | |
gentleman and every other member will be heard, however long this | :50:13. | :50:20. | |
session takes. It's very clear. Mr Angus Robertson. Europol estimates | :50:21. | :50:26. | |
that 10,000 unaccompanied children in Europe have disappeared. This is | :50:27. | :50:32. | |
an existential question about the safety of vulnerable children. The | :50:33. | :50:38. | |
Prime Minister thinks it is not the responsibility of the latest kingdom | :50:39. | :50:42. | |
to help unaccompanied children in Europe, so I ask him, who has the | :50:43. | :50:50. | |
moral responsibility to feed them, to clothe them, to educate them and | :50:51. | :50:55. | |
give them refuge if not us and everybody in Europe? Let me answer | :50:56. | :51:01. | |
that very directly. First of all, any unaccompanied child who has | :51:02. | :51:05. | |
direct family in Britain and claiming asylum, under the Dublin | :51:06. | :51:08. | |
regulations, can come to Britain, and quite right, too. But he asked | :51:09. | :51:13. | |
the question, who was was once both refugees? The person responsible is | :51:14. | :51:18. | |
the country in which they are in. -- who is responsible for refugees. You | :51:19. | :51:23. | |
have to ask yourself, do we do better by taking a child from | :51:24. | :51:27. | |
refugee camp or taking a child from the Lebanon or taking a child from | :51:28. | :51:30. | |
Jordan than we do taking a child from France or Italy or Germany? | :51:31. | :51:36. | |
And, as I said, to compare this to the 1930s is frankly to insult those | :51:37. | :51:39. | |
countries who are our neighbours and partners. Thank you, Mr Speaker. ATP | :51:40. | :51:49. | |
industries group based in Kalak would one of Europe's largest | :51:50. | :51:55. | |
independent manufacturers of vehicle electronics and were last week | :51:56. | :52:02. | |
awarded the Queens award for innovation. They export goods across | :52:03. | :52:07. | |
the globe, with the international trade increasing by 50 this out last | :52:08. | :52:12. | |
year. Will my right honourable friend join me in congratulating ATP | :52:13. | :52:15. | |
and will he set out what the government is doing to support | :52:16. | :52:21. | |
exporters to reach new markets? I certainly join her in congratulating | :52:22. | :52:25. | |
ATP. It's very difficult to win at Queen's on for export so they do | :52:26. | :52:29. | |
deserve praise. What we need to see in our country is... We currently | :52:30. | :52:32. | |
have one in five SMEs that exports. If we could make that one in four, | :52:33. | :52:36. | |
we could wipe out our trade deficit. We are courage and that through the | :52:37. | :52:42. | |
work of UKTI. We are also encouraging it by encouraging | :52:43. | :52:45. | |
reassuring, by getting the supply and components industries, for | :52:46. | :52:48. | |
instance, for the automotive industries, to come back on shore | :52:49. | :52:57. | |
and invest in Britain. In my constituency, family have lived and | :52:58. | :53:00. | |
raise their family in a small village for many years. Despite full | :53:01. | :53:04. | |
cooperation, they face an uphill and fruitless battle the Home Office, | :53:05. | :53:08. | |
have had their driving licences revoked and are being forced out of | :53:09. | :53:11. | |
a community they have served and invested in by a technicality around | :53:12. | :53:17. | |
their business, the local shop. Will the Prime Minister look into this | :53:18. | :53:20. | |
grossly unfair situation and work with me to achieve justice for this | :53:21. | :53:25. | |
family? I'll certainly have a look at the KC mentions if he lets me | :53:26. | :53:30. | |
know the names and the nature of the issues, and I'll make sure the Home | :53:31. | :53:34. | |
Office look at it urgently. As the primers to will know from getting | :53:35. | :53:38. | |
stuck in traffic on his way into Bath just before the general | :53:39. | :53:42. | |
election last year, my constituency is plagued by high air-pollution and | :53:43. | :53:47. | |
congestion. Given this government's commitment to invest billions of | :53:48. | :53:51. | |
pounds in a Church, something that the previous Labour government | :53:52. | :53:54. | |
failed to do in 13 years, will Prime Minister look at committing to look | :53:55. | :53:57. | |
of the construction of the long overdue and much-needed missing | :53:58. | :54:02. | |
A36-40 six Link Rd to the east of my constituency? I'll certainly have a | :54:03. | :54:06. | |
look at what he says stop the makes an important point because some | :54:07. | :54:09. | |
people think that if you care about air quality, there is no room for | :54:10. | :54:13. | |
any road building but, of course, stationary traffic is much polluting | :54:14. | :54:16. | |
than moving traffic and we have to make sure the arteries that serve | :54:17. | :54:20. | |
all our constituencies are open, so I'll carefully at what he said but | :54:21. | :54:23. | |
at the same time, we should recognise that air quality is | :54:24. | :54:27. | |
improving, nitrogen oxides are down 17% over the last four years and we | :54:28. | :54:31. | |
want to do more by introducing the clean air programme. With the UK | :54:32. | :54:37. | |
facing our most momentous decision for a generation in eight weeks, | :54:38. | :54:42. | |
does the Prime Minister think it makes more sense for us to listen to | :54:43. | :54:45. | |
all of our closest friends and allies around the world or to a | :54:46. | :54:50. | |
combination of French fascists, Nigel Farage and Vladimir Putin? | :54:51. | :54:57. | |
Well, I'm glad he takes the English pronunciation of Farage, rather than | :54:58. | :55:01. | |
the rather poncey foreign sounding one that he seems to prefer. I think | :55:02. | :55:06. | |
that's a thoroughly good thing. Obviously, I think we should listen | :55:07. | :55:09. | |
to our friends and our allies and as I look around the world, it's hard | :55:10. | :55:15. | |
to find the leader of a country that wishes us well that wants us to do | :55:16. | :55:19. | |
anything other than stay inside a reformed European Union. Mr Speaker, | :55:20. | :55:25. | |
the new ISAs that were announced in this budget are very welcome. They | :55:26. | :55:28. | |
will help people save for homes and retirement. Does my right Oracle | :55:29. | :55:32. | |
friend will have seen in this morning's City AM, as much of a | :55:33. | :55:37. | |
third of the gains a pension could make over a lifetime could be | :55:38. | :55:42. | |
stripped. Can he tell me what this covenant is doing to make sure that | :55:43. | :55:47. | |
firms investing people's hard earned savings reveal all the fees they | :55:48. | :55:50. | |
will be paying so that people can choose what is best for them? He has | :55:51. | :55:54. | |
fought a long campaign about this and quite rightly so. One of the | :55:55. | :55:59. | |
things that saps people's enthusiasm for investing and savings products | :56:00. | :56:04. | |
is the sense that they don't understand the fees and charges and | :56:05. | :56:07. | |
don't know how much they are going to get out of them. What we've done | :56:08. | :56:10. | |
is since last April, trustees have defined -- of defined contribution | :56:11. | :56:17. | |
schemes... The FCA argument bids to making regulations with us during | :56:18. | :56:20. | |
this Parliament requiring the publication of more costs and | :56:21. | :56:25. | |
charges. -- the FCA are committed. I'm sure he will put us all the way | :56:26. | :56:32. | |
to make sure it happens. The Prime Minister and his government did next | :56:33. | :56:34. | |
to nothing to say the Scottish steel industry. It was left to the | :56:35. | :56:42. | |
Scottish Government. Now the UK Government is breaking the promises | :56:43. | :56:47. | |
made by both Tories and Labour to protect the Scottish shipbuilding | :56:48. | :56:51. | |
industry. Why does the Prime Minister think that Scottish jobs | :56:52. | :56:58. | |
are so expendable? Frankly, the Scottish Government and the UK | :56:59. | :57:01. | |
Government should work together and one of the things we should work | :57:02. | :57:05. | |
together on his procurement. And it is worth asking how much Scottish | :57:06. | :57:10. | |
steel was in the Forth Road Bridge? Zero, none, absolutely nothing. Yes, | :57:11. | :57:16. | |
what a contrast with the warships that we're building. Of course, we | :57:17. | :57:21. | |
wouldn't be building them if we happen independent Scotland. So | :57:22. | :57:23. | |
we've backed the steel industry with actions as well as words. Order! The | :57:24. | :57:36. | |
House is excitable but it must simmer down. We must hear the | :57:37. | :57:41. | |
honourable lady. Hatred and ignorance lie at the heart of | :57:42. | :57:46. | |
anti-Semitism. And when those in public life express such views, they | :57:47. | :57:50. | |
denigrate not only themselves but also the institutions to which they | :57:51. | :57:55. | |
belong. Will my right honourable friend please reassure this House of | :57:56. | :58:00. | |
his commitment to fighting this vicious form of prejudice? I think | :58:01. | :58:06. | |
it is very simple. Anti-Semitism is effectively racism and we should | :58:07. | :58:09. | |
call it out and fight it wherever we see it. And the fact that, Frankie, | :58:10. | :58:13. | |
we've got a Labour MP with the Labour whip, who made remarks about | :58:14. | :58:19. | |
the transportation of people from Israel to America, and talked about | :58:20. | :58:22. | |
a solution, and is still in receipt of the Labour whip, is quite | :58:23. | :58:25. | |
extraordinary. Let me tell you what the Shadow Chancellor said about | :58:26. | :58:30. | |
these people. "Out, Out, out. If people express these views, they are | :58:31. | :58:34. | |
out. People might be able to reform their views on the rest of it. On | :58:35. | :58:37. | |
this, I can't see it, I'm not having it. People might say, I change my | :58:38. | :58:44. | |
views and will do something with a different organisation". I'm | :58:45. | :58:46. | |
friendly, there will be too many hours in the day before that happens | :58:47. | :58:51. | |
the MP in question. One of my constituents was killed at the age | :58:52. | :58:54. | |
of 25 by an 18-year-old driving a hire car without a licence. He was | :58:55. | :59:01. | |
driving at 80 mph in a 30 mph zone. The 18-year-old was convicted of | :59:02. | :59:04. | |
causing death by dangerous driving and received a sentence after six | :59:05. | :59:08. | |
years, of which probably serve three. Two weeks ago, myself along | :59:09. | :59:14. | |
with Joseph's family, delivered a 20,000 signature petition calling | :59:15. | :59:17. | |
for tougher sentences for causing death by dangerous driving. Does the | :59:18. | :59:21. | |
Prime Minister agree with me that sentences for these crimes are too | :59:22. | :59:25. | |
lenient, and when can we expect to get a response to our petition and | :59:26. | :59:31. | |
get justice for Joseph? Well, I have every simply with the family in | :59:32. | :59:35. | |
question. I had an almost identical case in my constituency, where a | :59:36. | :59:40. | |
young girl was killed I a dangerous driver. The maximum sentence is 14 | :59:41. | :59:45. | |
years, so the courts do have the ability to sentence more but I know | :59:46. | :59:48. | |
what this means to the families. I'm making sure that the Minister for | :59:49. | :59:53. | |
roads is looking again at these issues in terms of dangerous driving | :59:54. | :59:55. | |
and I'll make sure the case she mentioned this taken into account. | :59:56. | :00:04. | |
-- is taken. As the birthplace of the industrial revolution, Dudley is | :00:05. | :00:08. | |
proud of its heritage but we need economic stability to deliver a | :00:09. | :00:15. | |
prosperous future. Will the Prime Minister helped to launch the new | :00:16. | :00:18. | |
enterprise zone in Brierley Hill, to look at how we can attract more | :00:19. | :00:24. | |
investment, create new jobs and develop a highly skilled workforce | :00:25. | :00:30. | |
our community needs? I will look very carefully, whether I'm able to | :00:31. | :00:33. | |
do that, because we support the industrial regeneration of the Black | :00:34. | :00:37. | |
Country. The truth is, enterprise zones have been a success. They | :00:38. | :00:42. | |
created nearly 25,000 jobs, attracted over 630 companies and | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
secured 2.4 billion of private sector investment. A lot of the | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
delivery of enterprise zones is going to involve a lot of hard work | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
by local authorities and I pay tribute to them and I wish him well | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
in the Black Country. Given the strategic and economic importance of | :00:59. | :01:03. | |
the M62 corridor to the northern powerhouse, can the Prime Minister | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
give me and the people of Bradford his commitment to the | :01:08. | :01:10. | |
electrification of the cold of a line, and lent his support for the | :01:11. | :01:14. | |
great city of Bradford to be a fundamental part of the proposed | :01:15. | :01:20. | |
northern powerhouse? We have made commitments knowledge | :01:21. | :01:22. | |
of occasion in terms of North- South lines and East - Westlands stockpile | :01:23. | :01:27. | |
look carefully at proposal she makes. Nuclear matters in Cumbria. | :01:28. | :01:37. | |
We have a nuclear Gazzi at Sellafield. Defence work at Barrow | :01:38. | :01:40. | |
and the prospect of serious investment in a new nuclear land at | :01:41. | :01:45. | |
Moorside. Given the apparent opposition to nuclear from the party | :01:46. | :01:49. | |
is opposite, can the Prime Minister confirm that the long-term decisions | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
for both nuclear power and defence will be made in a timely manner? He | :01:53. | :01:57. | |
is absolutely right that Cumbria does depend, to a large extent, on | :01:58. | :02:03. | |
jobs from the industries that he mentions. Obviously, an Sellafield, | :02:04. | :02:07. | |
we continue to invest in reprocessing and in the procedures | :02:08. | :02:14. | |
that. We are also looking at redeveloping our commercial nuclear | :02:15. | :02:15. | |
industries, starting with the vital decision that Hinkley Point, which | :02:16. | :02:19. | |
could have very great benefits for other areas that want to see nuclear | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
power stations. And, of course, Barrow is home to the development of | :02:24. | :02:26. | |
our nuclear submarines and we will be holding a vote in this House to | :02:27. | :02:30. | |
make sure we renew our Trident in full. The Prime Minister has just | :02:31. | :02:37. | |
suggested that child refugees alone in Europe are safe. There are | :02:38. | :02:43. | |
children's homes fall in Italy and Greece and over 1000 children will | :02:44. | :02:46. | |
sleep rough in Greece alone tonight. How are they safe? 10,000 children | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
have disappeared in Europe. How are they safe? The agencies say that | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
children are committing survival sex. They are being abused, subject | :02:56. | :03:02. | |
to prostitution and rape. It is not insulting other European countries | :03:03. | :03:07. | |
to offer to help. They want us to help. So will he reconsider his | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
position on the amendment before it comes back to the vote and stopped | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
with his attitude to loan child refugees, putting this House and | :03:18. | :03:27. | |
this country to shame? If we are helping other European countries, | :03:28. | :03:30. | |
and we're helping other European countries, not least with the ?10 | :03:31. | :03:34. | |
million we was announced. But the crucial point is this. How do we in | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
Britain best help child refugees? We think we help them by taking them | :03:40. | :03:43. | |
from the refugee camps. Taken from Lebanon, from Jordan, when they to | :03:44. | :03:46. | |
this country. That's what we're doing and we have a proud record. -- | :03:47. | :03:56. | |
bringing them to this country. Several small businesses I've met | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
within Tadcaster last week are being treated appallingly by insurance | :04:02. | :04:06. | |
companies. Four months after the floods Maclean's have not been | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
settled and renewal premiums art being hiked to astronomical levels. | :04:11. | :04:16. | |
-- claims have not been settled. The Government has introduced the flood | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
scheme to help homeowners after flooding the stock does my right | :04:22. | :04:23. | |
honourable friend agree with me that the same protection should be given | :04:24. | :04:29. | |
to small business owners, to? First of all, I absolutely recognise the | :04:30. | :04:34. | |
problem that he lays out. My constituency was badly flooded and | :04:35. | :04:36. | |
some insurance company is paid out very quickly, others were not so | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
fast. I understand when will look at what happened during the winter, | :04:41. | :04:44. | |
we've got 82% of claims that have been paid out but what I would say | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
to him and other colleagues is, where you have specific examples, | :04:49. | :04:51. | |
the Secretary of State for farming, food and rural affairs will be very | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
interested to see them so we can get on top of the insurance industry. On | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
the issue of whether we need a flood restyle approached of small | :05:01. | :05:03. | |
businesses, we will looks as if they're about to make sure the small | :05:04. | :05:06. | |
businesses can get the insurance they need. Three years ago, whilst | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
on holiday in France, my mother fell seriously ill. Thanks to the French | :05:13. | :05:16. | |
health service, she received excellent treatment, was diagnosed | :05:17. | :05:19. | |
with cancer, unfortunately, but she is doing well today, thanks to our | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
NHS is well. Millions of Brits every year travel to other EU countries | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
and benefit, like my mum, from the revered health insurance card. What | :05:29. | :05:31. | |
would happen to that card should we vote to leave on the 23rd of June? | :05:32. | :05:36. | |
First of all, our behalf of the whole house, can I wish Motherwell | :05:37. | :05:39. | |
in her treatment and the treatment she is getting from the NHS? She | :05:40. | :05:44. | |
raises an important point, which is, this is one of the important | :05:45. | :05:47. | |
benefits we have now. Many of us would have used it ourselves or for | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
our own children and we think we can make the system even better as we | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
are. It is for those who want to leave the EU to explain, if we were | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
to leave, would we still be able to access this and other such systems, | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
which are very handy for people going on holidays? Whatever the | :06:03. | :06:08. | |
outcome of the EU referendum, does the Prime Minister agree that one | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
thing that will never diminish is the mutual affection and admiration | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
between Britain and our great ally France? In that connection, will he | :06:18. | :06:27. | |
paid tribute to the people who fought and won the Normandy | :06:28. | :06:35. | |
campaign, such as the late Captain Paul Cash, who was killed fighting | :06:36. | :06:40. | |
in Normandy at the age of 26, having won the military cross. He was the | :06:41. | :06:43. | |
father of the honourable member, my friend the honourable member for | :06:44. | :06:54. | |
stone, and Sergeant Peter Carne, who, at 93, is at Westminster today, | :06:55. | :06:59. | |
who built the bridge is that May the break-out from the Normandy | :07:00. | :07:04. | |
beachhead and who will be receiving a French award in a typically | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
cordial gesture French allies. I join him in paying tribute all those | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
who served, particularly those who fell in that heroic campaign. One of | :07:15. | :07:20. | |
the proudest things I've been able to do as Prime Minister was to go to | :07:21. | :07:25. | |
the 70th anniversary and go to that vigil, where our gliders came in to | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
prepare for those landings and to go to Gold Beach and see the incredible | :07:30. | :07:33. | |
work that was done, so we should remember what they did and we should | :07:34. | :07:36. | |
remember what it was that they gave their lives for, which was to | :07:37. | :07:43. | |
achieve peace on our continent. My constituent Debra has HIV that she | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
contracted via a partner who received a contaminated blood | :07:48. | :07:53. | |
transfusion. My constituent Neil has hepatitis, again from the controller | :07:54. | :07:56. | |
tainted transfusion. He now needs a second liver transplant. Neither of | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
them can hold down a full-time job because of the catastrophic effects | :08:01. | :08:04. | |
of their health on the conditions so they absolutely rely on the support | :08:05. | :08:07. | |
from the state that the Government is applied to slash in half. I asked | :08:08. | :08:11. | |
the Prime Minister, why is the Government so willing to attack | :08:12. | :08:14. | |
people whose only this take was to be unlucky? First of all, what we | :08:15. | :08:20. | |
said before the election was that we'd set aside ?25 million to help | :08:21. | :08:23. | |
those who were infected with HIV because of contaminated blood. We | :08:24. | :08:30. | |
raise that to 100 million and we are currently consulting with all the | :08:31. | :08:33. | |
groups about how best to use that money. We are going to be doing more | :08:34. | :08:36. | |
than we said at a lecture on time and it is very necessary because | :08:37. | :08:39. | |
these people have suffered through no fault of their own. | :08:40. | :08:54. | |
A bit like Back to the Future, as six questions there, and we know | :08:55. | :09:02. | |
that they went over some of the ground last week. He did go over the | :09:03. | :09:09. | |
junior doctors strike in the final question saying that the government | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
had it in for parents and patients. Whether we learned anything new | :09:16. | :09:17. | |
compared with last week is another matter. We will discuss that in a | :09:18. | :09:24. | |
minute. Before we do, what are the viewers thinking today? They agreed | :09:25. | :09:28. | |
in the main that perhaps academies was not the issue to choose the | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
second week running. John from Hemel Hempstead said the Jeremy Corbyn | :09:34. | :09:36. | |
went on academies last weekend and it would have been better to go on | :09:37. | :09:40. | |
the doctors strike this week. John Gray said he was saddened that | :09:41. | :09:44. | |
Jeremy Corbyn missed an important opportunity to put meaningful | :09:45. | :09:46. | |
questions about the junior doctors strike. Tim said that last week was | :09:47. | :09:54. | |
a failure going on academies and a repeat was worse. John from | :09:55. | :09:56. | |
Wakefield said Jeremy Corbyn was right to ask why once again there | :09:57. | :10:02. | |
was a proposed top-down reorganisation in a very important | :10:03. | :10:06. | |
institution, ie the children's education. It seems pretty evident | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
the reason for what he's doing is the same as his reorganisation the | :10:11. | :10:14. | |
NHS which is to privatise service delivery. Before we go on we are | :10:15. | :10:21. | |
going to read a bit from Naz Shah who were talking about earlier, who | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
stood down as Parliamentary aide to John McDonald over comments made | :10:28. | :10:29. | |
that were claimed to be anti-Semitic and were certainly anti-Zionist. She | :10:30. | :10:35. | |
has written a full apology to the Jewish community via the Jewish | :10:36. | :10:41. | |
news. She says that she is sorry, someone who knows the scourge of | :10:42. | :10:44. | |
oppression all too well it is important that I make an unequivocal | :10:45. | :10:48. | |
apology for statements and ideas I foolishly endorsed in the past. The | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
manner and tone of what I wrote in haste is not excusable. With the | :10:55. | :11:01. | |
understanding of the issues I have now, I have to wear not that | :11:02. | :11:09. | |
ignorance is not a defence. But that importance is the impact that the | :11:10. | :11:12. | |
posts have had on other people. I understand that referring to Israel | :11:13. | :11:19. | |
and Hitler, as I did, is offensive to Jewish people, for which I | :11:20. | :11:22. | |
apologise. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I'm shocked myself that | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
the language used in some instances during the Gaza Israel conflict. For | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
this, I apologise. Since winning the seat Bradford West I have made a | :11:32. | :11:34. | |
conscious efforts in areas around integration, building bridges and | :11:35. | :11:39. | |
community development in and around Muslim and Jewish relations. Indeed, | :11:40. | :11:44. | |
one of my first visit was to my local synagogue. If politicians put | :11:45. | :11:47. | |
their hands up when they get something wrong it helps restore | :11:48. | :11:51. | |
faith in politics and I hope that by writing to those who might have hurt | :11:52. | :11:55. | |
I am practising what I preach and calling myself out. Lisa, this is an | :11:56. | :12:01. | |
apology which presumably she hopes might spare her being suspended from | :12:02. | :12:06. | |
the party. Would that be wrong if the Labour Party decide to keep her | :12:07. | :12:09. | |
in the Labour Party and not suspend her? Listening to that it sounded | :12:10. | :12:15. | |
like an incredibly genuine and difficult thing for her to do and I | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
think it's right that she has so unequivocally apologised for what | :12:20. | :12:22. | |
she said. At the heart of that statement is the recognition that | :12:23. | :12:28. | |
the reason comments like that are so damaging it's not the impact on the | :12:29. | :12:32. | |
Labour Party or Parliament it's the impact on people. To stick to what I | :12:33. | :12:38. | |
said earlier, we have a process in the party and it's important we | :12:39. | :12:43. | |
follow it. She is apologising to the Jewish community? But my | :12:44. | :12:50. | |
understanding is that she wasn't advocating that British Jews should | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
be sent to America, it was Israeli Jews. Shouldn't she apologised to | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
the people of Israel? She said in the early statement that she did not | :13:01. | :13:03. | |
really think about what she was posting at the time and she is | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
sorry. But she did it. She was saying that the people of Israel | :13:09. | :13:12. | |
should be mass deported to the United States. Surely she has to | :13:13. | :13:20. | |
apologise to them, because she was not saying that British Jews should | :13:21. | :13:24. | |
be mass deported as well. I'm pretty sure that would be even worse. What | :13:25. | :13:31. | |
I would say is the important thing is she's made it clear she does not | :13:32. | :13:40. | |
hold the views or subscribe to them fighting for the Labour whip. The | :13:41. | :13:44. | |
Labour Party a policy and we should follow it and I made that clear to | :13:45. | :13:48. | |
the leader 's office. You would be happy with her having the whip | :13:49. | :13:52. | |
withdrawn? Pending an investigation. I don't think it's fair or right to | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
pre-empt the outcome of an investigation. All of the points | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
that she made should be considered and she should be given the | :14:02. | :14:03. | |
opportunity to make the case but we have a policy in the party, and the | :14:04. | :14:08. | |
reason that the policy and process is important is because it gives | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
confidence to the outside world that we deal with these things in that | :14:13. | :14:18. | |
way. It's not an isolated incident, there have been others in recent | :14:19. | :14:21. | |
times and there's another issue for the Labour Party which is | :14:22. | :14:25. | |
reputational. She made these comments and put out these posts | :14:26. | :14:28. | |
before she was elected, so why was it not picked up? You made a decent | :14:29. | :14:38. | |
point that a political party cannot just respond to problems, we need to | :14:39. | :14:42. | |
be pre-emptive and make sure that they don't occur. I think that's a | :14:43. | :14:45. | |
decent point and something I'll be considering. You do get Mavericks | :14:46. | :14:52. | |
all over the place is Conservative Party chairman and with social media | :14:53. | :14:56. | |
it is more difficult but there needs to be a process when people are | :14:57. | :14:59. | |
putting out statements like that which are very extreme and which are | :15:00. | :15:02. | |
being posted by very dangerous and radical groups that there needs to | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
be a way of discovering or monitoring this as part of due | :15:08. | :15:11. | |
diligence. It is about being proactive, I think. I'm sure you | :15:12. | :15:15. | |
would agree that none of us should be complacent about what happens in | :15:16. | :15:18. | |
our political parties and we should be proactive. What is happening? The | :15:19. | :15:27. | |
most of my adult life, anti-Semitism was overwhelmingly the preserve of | :15:28. | :15:32. | |
the far right, it is what the National front spoke about. Le Pen's | :15:33. | :15:39. | |
father was a Holocaust denier and it was always on the far right of | :15:40. | :15:45. | |
British politics where there was lingering Nazism, and when it rose | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
up, it was slapped down. Why is this now coming from elements of the | :15:51. | :15:54. | |
left? What I'd say first of all is that the vast majority of the Labour | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
Party, and beyond the Labour Party on the left eye and these sort of | :15:59. | :16:06. | |
things an affront to our values. I maybe wrong, historically, but I'm | :16:07. | :16:13. | |
thinking, on the Democratic left, because the Russians had their | :16:14. | :16:17. | |
pogroms, but on the Democratic left, they fought anti-Semitism. That is | :16:18. | :16:22. | |
why so many Jews join the Labour Party in the 1930s, so why has it | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
now become, in a small element on the left, such an issue? It is a | :16:28. | :16:33. | |
minority of people and I struggle to understand how people can hold those | :16:34. | :16:37. | |
sorts of views. I was really surprised recently when Luciano | :16:38. | :16:42. | |
Burge put something on twitter with a series of abuse she had faced -- | :16:43. | :16:49. | |
Luciana Berger. She was being subjected to the most appalling | :16:50. | :16:54. | |
content and images. Apparently she gets it on a daily basis, and I was | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
shocked. As somebody who is not Jewish, I don't face that, and I | :16:59. | :17:02. | |
didn't realise the extent of the problem, particularly on social | :17:03. | :17:05. | |
media. I go back to what I said earlier. I think none of us can | :17:06. | :17:08. | |
afford to be complacent, we need to be proactive. You are right on this | :17:09. | :17:16. | |
point, Andrew, it's always been associated recently on the far | :17:17. | :17:19. | |
right, but there is a far left element, and I was quoting Karl | :17:20. | :17:24. | |
Marx, written in the 1840s, saying the essence of Judaism and the | :17:25. | :17:32. | |
Jewish soul is expediency and. Judaism is the embodiment of | :17:33. | :17:36. | |
anti-social attitudes. There is an element in the left that has always | :17:37. | :17:40. | |
taken some of these views. It needs to be stamped out. Whether it comes | :17:41. | :17:43. | |
from right or left, it is fundamentally wrong and it degrades | :17:44. | :17:52. | |
our society. I think David Cameron ratcheted up the pressure on Jeremy | :17:53. | :17:58. | |
Corbyn. He said it was quite extraordinary that she still had the | :17:59. | :18:01. | |
whip was his quote. We should be watching this space through the | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
course of the day. There has been, and certainly in the first time that | :18:06. | :18:08. | |
I've been reporting on politics in 12 or 13 years based in Westminster, | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
it's the first time really that we have seen this bubble up as a | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
problem that affects the leadership of the party and where the | :18:18. | :18:20. | |
leadership of the party has been sometimes, by the critics, open to | :18:21. | :18:23. | |
the accusation of not acting swiftly enough when these things pop up. | :18:24. | :18:29. | |
Like you, it seems to have become an issue now and I can't unpick the | :18:30. | :18:33. | |
reasons, and the Labour leadership has tried. John McDonald was quoted | :18:34. | :18:36. | |
early as saying out, out, out, that is what we will do. When out, out, | :18:37. | :18:42. | |
out is not the immediate response it leaves the door open for people to | :18:43. | :18:46. | |
have worries, to have a question in their mind about why things are not | :18:47. | :18:50. | |
happening quickly enough. She is still a member of the home affairs | :18:51. | :18:54. | |
select committee which is currently carrying out an enquiry into | :18:55. | :18:56. | |
anti-Semitism, and people will make a judgment on that. | :18:57. | :19:06. | |
It's also worth noting that the whole selection process in Bradford | :19:07. | :19:11. | |
was a very messy, bruising situation with lots of Labour infighting. It | :19:12. | :19:14. | |
was something we noted in the general election campaign. It was | :19:15. | :19:19. | |
George Galloway. Yes but there was also Labour infighting to quite | :19:20. | :19:24. | |
some... Well, a very striking degree, having gone there and looked | :19:25. | :19:29. | |
at the story. There was an awful lot of upset into early in the Labour | :19:30. | :19:31. | |
Party over the whole selection process. When they defeated George | :19:32. | :19:37. | |
Calloway, many people in the Labour Party were delighted, "Oh, we come | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
to be sold are problems in Bradford now," but I think the way this has | :19:42. | :19:44. | |
popped up, by the end of the day we might be in a position where she is | :19:45. | :19:47. | |
suspended. I don't think a suspension means she should be | :19:48. | :19:50. | |
budget out of the party forever but I suspect there will have to be | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
further action on this. Before you go, Laura, there has been | :19:55. | :19:57. | |
speculation that some kind of U-turn or at least some kind of change of | :19:58. | :20:02. | |
the Academy policy was coming. So how are we to read the Prime | :20:03. | :20:08. | |
Minister saying there will be Academy is in the Queens speech? | :20:09. | :20:11. | |
That has been the question, whether or not the government would bottle | :20:12. | :20:14. | |
it on this policy to such an extent that they wouldn't even try to put | :20:15. | :20:19. | |
the power to force schools to become academies into the Queen's speech. | :20:20. | :20:23. | |
What Nicky Morgan is trying to juggle our knowledge of the moment | :20:24. | :20:27. | |
is to give guarantees about small, tiny happy rural schools, | :20:28. | :20:31. | |
particularly primary schools, where certain Tory MPs are worried. They | :20:32. | :20:37. | |
could soften the principal? Yes, and don't forget even last week Number | :20:38. | :20:44. | |
Ten was emphasising, "We've got six years to discuss all this so they | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
could put the power there but mitigate how the stick could be | :20:50. | :20:52. | |
wielded. So not a lot happening. Laura, are you taking the rest of | :20:53. | :20:56. | |
the week of? Taking the rest of the month. See you June 24? I a comeback | :20:57. | :21:02. | |
June 25. Not much will changed! When Jeremy Corbyn became Leader | :21:03. | :21:09. | |
of the Opposition back in September, he said he wanted to make PMQs less | :21:10. | :21:11. | |
aggressive, less confrontational - with the focus on policy, | :21:12. | :21:14. | |
not personal attacks. In a moment we'll speak | :21:15. | :21:16. | |
to an academic who says But, first, let's get a reminder | :21:17. | :21:20. | |
of how the Labour leader has been Many told me | :21:21. | :21:24. | |
that they thought Prime Minister's Question Time was too | :21:25. | :21:29. | |
theatrical, that Parliament was out of touch and too theatrical, | :21:30. | :21:32. | |
and they wanted things done differently | :21:33. | :21:35. | |
but, above all, they wanted their Can I welcome him to | :21:36. | :21:37. | |
the front bench and I had more than 1,000 | :21:38. | :21:43. | |
questions on tax credits. I'm sure we will have many strong | :21:44. | :21:59. | |
exchanges that where we can work together in a national interest, we | :22:00. | :22:02. | |
should do. I wish him well in his job. | :22:03. | :22:03. | |
Paul, for example, says this very heartfelt question. | :22:04. | :22:07. | |
Why is the Government taking tax credits away | :22:08. | :22:09. | |
The year six pupils were very interesting. | :22:10. | :22:14. | |
Hawan, Taznia, Eamon and Maryanne | :22:15. | :22:15. | |
asked me to say this to the Prime Minister... | :22:16. | :22:17. | |
Martin contacted me this week, who says... | :22:18. | :22:30. | |
OK, it's very funny for many members opposite. | :22:31. | :22:32. | |
I thought this was the new Question Time! | :22:33. | :22:40. | |
I'm not sure the message has fully got home! | :22:41. | :22:44. | |
We're joined now from Nottingham by Dr Peter Bull. | :22:45. | :22:46. | |
He has co-authored some research which shows that Mr Corbyn's | :22:47. | :22:48. | |
tactic of using questions from the public has had some effect | :22:49. | :22:51. | |
Welcome to the Daily Politics. So what is the impact been? Good | :22:52. | :23:04. | |
afternoon to you. We've done a study of Corbin's use of these questions, | :23:05. | :23:08. | |
which are sourced remember that the public, and we used two measures, | :23:09. | :23:13. | |
one of which we called reply rate. That's simply the extent to which | :23:14. | :23:15. | |
the Prime Minister answers the questions that are put in. In that | :23:16. | :23:21. | |
respect, we didn't find any effect. Cameron only gives direct replies to | :23:22. | :23:26. | |
about 20% of the questions and that doesn't matter whether they're | :23:27. | :23:28. | |
sourced from members of the public or not sourced from members of the | :23:29. | :23:32. | |
public. But where we did find an effect was when we looked at | :23:33. | :23:38. | |
personal attacks. Overall, David Cameron makes almost twice as many | :23:39. | :23:41. | |
personal attacks on Corbin is Corbin does on him but when you compare | :23:42. | :23:47. | |
questions from members of the public with those other questions, you find | :23:48. | :23:53. | |
his rate of personal tax drops quite significantly and it's quite similar | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
to that of Jeremy Corbyn. So it does seem that sourcing these questions | :23:58. | :24:00. | |
from members of the public seems to have a significant effect on the | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
personal attacks that Cameron is making. Not answering the question, | :24:05. | :24:08. | |
of course, is a common strategy amongst politicians that we serve me | :24:09. | :24:13. | |
experience here on a daily basis but it's interesting in terms of using | :24:14. | :24:17. | |
the personalised questions. Has it contributed to making PMQs more | :24:18. | :24:24. | |
grown-up and less confrontational? Well, personal attacks are | :24:25. | :24:26. | |
confrontational and the issue is whether you are actually making the | :24:27. | :24:32. | |
punch and Judy show, which David Cameron Atchley criticised when he | :24:33. | :24:36. | |
first became leader of the Conservative Party, or whether you | :24:37. | :24:38. | |
are discussing the actual issues concerned. There seems to be some | :24:39. | :24:41. | |
effect on these questions are sourced from members of the public | :24:42. | :24:45. | |
but there is a greater retention to the Michu rather than these Puncheon | :24:46. | :24:51. | |
Judy politics. You had to sit down and watch 20 sessions PMQs in a row. | :24:52. | :24:56. | |
Was that a depressing experience or an enlightening one? I found it | :24:57. | :25:00. | |
really rather interesting, unlike a lot of people. We've done quite a | :25:01. | :25:06. | |
lot of PMQs. We did 20 PMQs with Ed Miliband and David Cameron for | :25:07. | :25:11. | |
comparison purposes and I find the fine details of communication very | :25:12. | :25:17. | |
interesting. Lisa Nandy... It's like my worst nightmare! 40 episodes | :25:18. | :25:21. | |
PMQs! And the repeats are even better, as we heard today. Isn't | :25:22. | :25:27. | |
that the point of PMQs? It supposed to be adversarial. Whether you're | :25:28. | :25:30. | |
using personalised questions from the public doesn't seem to have had | :25:31. | :25:33. | |
that much of a dramatic change because the personal attacks are | :25:34. | :25:37. | |
still level stop I think it has changed. I've definitely noticed a | :25:38. | :25:40. | |
change in the field in the chamber. What hasn't changed is that Cameron | :25:41. | :25:45. | |
still doesn't answer the question but when Jeremy uses questions from | :25:46. | :25:48. | |
the public it makes it harder for him to be so personal and so brutal | :25:49. | :25:52. | |
and it's quite noticeable that every time Jeremy reference is a member of | :25:53. | :25:57. | |
the public, Tory MPs grown very loudly, so they obviously don't | :25:58. | :25:59. | |
really like it and they don't want to be held to account in that way. | :26:00. | :26:04. | |
And credit to him, all leaders of the opposition say they are going to | :26:05. | :26:08. | |
change PMQs. Cameron said when he was Leader of the Opposition. Jeremy | :26:09. | :26:12. | |
has actually done it. He has put his money where his mouth is, hasn't he? | :26:13. | :26:16. | |
I don't know if you are one of those who groans when he asks questions. | :26:17. | :26:22. | |
But the research doesn't look very good, does it, for the Conservative | :26:23. | :26:26. | |
Party or for David Cameron, with his high use of personal attacks? What | :26:27. | :26:31. | |
the study sheens to show is that politicians have more respect for | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
the public than they do fall on another. The thing about PMQs, and | :26:36. | :26:39. | |
it's interesting how Jeremy Corbyn moved away, is that it's one thing | :26:40. | :26:50. | |
to read at a question and be a postbox for the electric buggy art | :26:51. | :26:53. | |
of premises questions is to use the answer you get to take forward your | :26:54. | :26:57. | |
case and be able to probe a bit further. In the early days, I | :26:58. | :27:01. | |
thought he was ineffective because he would simply move on to another | :27:02. | :27:07. | |
question from a member of the public without any analysis. Dr Peter Bull, | :27:08. | :27:12. | |
thank you very much. 20 PMQs is nothing. I've just worked | :27:13. | :27:15. | |
out that I've covered 400 since 2003! In the last few minutes, the | :27:16. | :27:24. | |
Home Secretary has made a statement about Hillsborough. Yesterday the | :27:25. | :27:28. | |
jury inquest concluded 96 Liverpool fans were unlawfully killed. This is | :27:29. | :27:33. | |
what Theresa May has just said. The decision about whether any criminal | :27:34. | :27:35. | |
prosecution or prosecutions can be brought forward will be made by the | :27:36. | :27:40. | |
Crown Prosecution Service on the basis of evidence gathered as part | :27:41. | :27:44. | |
of the two ongoing investigations. That decision is not constrained in | :27:45. | :27:48. | |
any way by the jury's conclusions. The House will understand that I | :27:49. | :27:52. | |
cannot comment in detail on matters that may lead to a criminal | :27:53. | :27:57. | |
investigation. I can, however, say that the offences under | :27:58. | :28:01. | |
investigation include gross negligence, manslaughter, misconduct | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
in public office, perverting the course of justice and perjury, as | :28:06. | :28:09. | |
well as offences under the safety of sports grounds act 1975 and the | :28:10. | :28:16. | |
health and safety at work act 1974. I know that those responsible for | :28:17. | :28:20. | |
the police and IPCC investigations anticipate that they will conclude | :28:21. | :28:23. | |
the criminal investigations by the turn of the year. We must allow them | :28:24. | :28:27. | |
to complete their work in a timely and thorough manner and we must be | :28:28. | :28:31. | |
mindful not to prejudice the outcome in any way. That was the Home | :28:32. | :28:33. | |
Secretary. There's just time to put you out | :28:34. | :28:36. | |
of your misery and give Lisa Nandy, press that red button to | :28:37. | :28:47. | |
find the winner. Well done. | :28:48. | :28:51. | |
That's it for the Daily Politics today. We'll be back tomorrow on BBC | :28:52. | :28:56. | |
Two at noon as usual. I hope you can join us. | :28:57. | :28:58. |