Browse content similar to 15/03/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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pushing into Scotland and Northern Ireland. | :00:00. | :00:39. | |
A Conservative MP has been interviewed under caution by police | :00:40. | :00:50. | |
as part of the ongoing investigation into allegations of overspending | :00:51. | :00:52. | |
Nicola Sturgeon says Brexit has put Scotland at a crossroads. | :00:53. | :00:58. | |
But does the UK's departure from the EU make Scottish | :00:59. | :01:04. | |
Plenty of issues as we approach the weekly bout of Prime | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
And do you fancy taking a tour of the Palace of Westminster | :01:10. | :01:16. | |
Parliament launches its 360 degree virtual view | :01:17. | :01:19. | |
All that in the next 90 minutes and with us for the duration, | :01:20. | :01:32. | |
the International Development Minister, Rory Stewart, | :01:33. | :01:33. | |
and the Shadow Business Minister, Bill Esterson. | :01:34. | :01:40. | |
Now it was once rumoured that Hollywood was interested in making | :01:41. | :01:42. | |
a film based on the life of Rory Stewart and that | :01:43. | :01:45. | |
Orlando Bloom was being lined up for the lead role. | :01:46. | :01:47. | |
The film is yet to be made and we'll let the viewers decide | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
It's as yet unclear who Hollywood executives have in mind for the film | :01:52. | :01:55. | |
version of the life of Bill Esterson. | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
If Mr Spielberg is watching, Bill is waiting for your call. | :01:59. | :02:06. | |
We are just hearing reports, in fact from David Davis, the minister for | :02:07. | :02:14. | |
the UK leaving the EU, in a royal assent, which means that the Brexit | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
Bill will be passed into law, it'll get its royal assent tomorrow. That | :02:19. | :02:21. | |
was being commented on by David Davis yesterday. We were expecting | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
it yesterday when in fact Theresa May stood up in the House of Commons | :02:26. | :02:29. | |
to give her report back fre. U summit last week, that she might | :02:30. | :02:33. | |
then say - royal assent has been given and I'll trigger Article 50 | :02:34. | :02:36. | |
but it didn't happen. And the talk now is that the | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
triggering of Article 50 may not happen until the final week of this | :02:41. | :02:44. | |
month, which is up to the wire. It may not happen until the very end | :02:45. | :02:49. | |
of March. That was her deadline, of course, but it was felt because it | :02:50. | :02:52. | |
had passed through both Houses of Parliament in plenty of time she | :02:53. | :02:55. | |
might have gone ahead and triggered it anyway and started the two years | :02:56. | :02:59. | |
of negotiations and the firing gun on our departure from the EU, but | :03:00. | :03:04. | |
no, not yet. Royal assent. It'll pass into law tomorrow, if David | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
Davis is correct and then we'll have to wait and see when number ten | :03:09. | :03:13. | |
decide to trigger Article 50. Snr very well. Why the delay? The Prime | :03:14. | :03:17. | |
Minister always said the end of March. I think the Prime Minister is | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
going to take her time and I don't think that's very long to wait. But | :03:22. | :03:25. | |
there was a lot of speculation at the weekend, which wasn't | :03:26. | :03:28. | |
discouraged by Downing Street, that it could be happening yesterday, or | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
this week. And yet it was only in the last 24 hours that we were | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
talked down from the top of the hill. Something has gone on? Andrew, | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
essentially she said the end of March. I think it will be done by | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
the end of March. I don't think it is a big issue. Why do you think | :03:45. | :03:50. | |
there is a delay? I think she was spiking Sturgeon's guns for the | :03:51. | :03:52. | |
announcement yesterday. You may be right. We don't know. So that's the | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
end of it. So the Brexit Bill is set to receive | :03:56. | :04:00. | |
Royal Assent tomorrow - It's by far and away the biggest | :04:01. | :04:09. | |
item in the Government in-tray. But, if you thought | :04:10. | :04:12. | |
Brexit was the only game Ministers have plenty of other | :04:13. | :04:14. | |
issues to deal with. Indeed, for both the Conservatives | :04:15. | :04:17. | |
and Labour, there has been something of a hangover from last week's | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
Budget. Let's go into it. Are you | :04:22. | :04:30. | |
comfortable about fighting the next election on a clear breach of the | :04:31. | :04:34. | |
last election manifesto? As you have pointed out there is clearly an | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
issue here which is we had in our manifesto commitment not to raise | :04:40. | :04:42. | |
National Insurance and some people feel, as you do, that the change to | :04:43. | :04:48. | |
the class 4 National Insurance is a breach of that manifesto. Well, I | :04:49. | :04:51. | |
don't feel anything. I'm just asking questions. But there were no caveats | :04:52. | :04:55. | |
in the manifesto. You mentioned it four times that there would be no | :04:56. | :05:00. | |
increase in national insurance contributions, the class of | :05:01. | :05:03. | |
contributions wasn't mentioned, and in the Queen's Speech, you repeated | :05:04. | :05:08. | |
the manifesto commitment. O so five times we had it, no increase in | :05:09. | :05:11. | |
national insurance. And you've increased national insurance. If | :05:12. | :05:15. | |
that's not a clear breach of a manifesto promise, I don't know what | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
is. Absolutely. I think it is also important putting the other side of | :05:20. | :05:24. | |
the argument which is that it is important eventually to simplify | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
this. It is important to deal with the fact that self-employed people | :05:29. | :05:31. | |
have got a very different treatment from employed people and that's also | :05:32. | :05:34. | |
their pension benefits have gone up over time. So the reason for the | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
discrepancy is gone. But you are right. You didn't promise that. That | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
may be the case. You have a Commission reporting into national | :05:43. | :05:45. | |
insurance at the moment as well, with all these anomalies. Indeed the | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
whole status of self-employment and so on, you could have waited for | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
that and started a debate on that and headed into the 2020 election | :05:54. | :05:58. | |
saying - we have now thought about all this, we are keeping to the | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
promise we made you but starting in the next decade there will have to | :06:04. | :06:06. | |
be changes, you did not do that. You simply went against a promise you | :06:07. | :06:10. | |
had made. If you were self-employed and you voted Conservative in the | :06:11. | :06:13. | |
last election on the basis of that promise, you voted on a false | :06:14. | :06:22. | |
prospect us. Let me go back to self-employed. The majority of | :06:23. | :06:25. | |
self-employed people will not be worse off as a result of this | :06:26. | :06:30. | |
measure. If you are on, for example, ?17,000 a year like the majority of | :06:31. | :06:34. | |
my constituents, you would be ?309 better off in terms of your tax tend | :06:35. | :06:38. | |
of this. You were going to be better off anyway because the class 2 | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
contributions were going for these people, so they already had that | :06:43. | :06:48. | |
banked Absolutely. But if you compare 2015-16 to 2019-20, ?309 | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
better off at ?17,000 and if you are on ?25,000, you would be about ?158 | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
better off. Right and the people on ?17,000 to ?it 25,000, I would | :07:00. | :07:05. | |
suggest are what the Prime Minister calls the "just about managing" | :07:06. | :07:07. | |
classes. The people who are not the poorest of the poor but they are not | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
even middling of a fluent, they are just about managing and you have | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
just increased their tax. If you look at their overall tax burden, | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
compare how much they pay in ?2015-16, with how much they pay in | :07:23. | :07:27. | |
2019-20, they would be better off. You have to be earning over ?32,900 | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
to be worse off. But you nevertheless increased their tax, if | :07:34. | :07:36. | |
you hadn't done this they would be a bit better off. These people don't | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
have much money in the first place. Why are you taking it from them, yet | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
if you inherit a lot of money you are now given a massive tannings | :07:47. | :07:54. | |
benefit. Why would you do this at this time? One of the reasons is you | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
used to as a self-employed person get a lower rate of basic pension. | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
Your basic pension will now go up, you will get about ?1,800 more than | :08:03. | :08:05. | |
you would have got in real terms and we feel it is fair that people who | :08:06. | :08:08. | |
are self-employed should contribute as much as people who are employed | :08:09. | :08:11. | |
by employers. Except you never told us that to get elected. What you may | :08:12. | :08:16. | |
be saying may be sensible. It may have been stupid that your manifesto | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
promise not to raise income tax, VAT or national insurance, in other | :08:21. | :08:23. | |
words, you basically counted out most of the tax base, that may all | :08:24. | :08:28. | |
be true but a promise is a promise, at a time when trust in politicians | :08:29. | :08:32. | |
is pretty low to begin with, have you not just undermined that even | :08:33. | :08:36. | |
more? So, Andrew, I agree with you, we need to explain very, very | :08:37. | :08:41. | |
clearly what we are doing. This isicallicated, class 1, 2, 3, class | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
4 national insurance. And we need to make sure we absolutely sure we go | :08:46. | :08:51. | |
into the next with people comfortable with the manifesto and | :08:52. | :08:55. | |
election proimss. You don't seem comfortable. You have said you agree | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
and I see your point. You don't seem comfortable? The honest answer is | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
the Government is thinking about this very hard. The Government is | :09:03. | :09:05. | |
considering this and we are looking at exactly these issues you raised, | :09:06. | :09:09. | |
we take our manifesto commitments very seriously. We understand the | :09:10. | :09:13. | |
Chancellor is going to be making a statement about national insurance | :09:14. | :09:19. | |
this afternoon. I probably hear the grinding sound of some kind of | :09:20. | :09:21. | |
u-turn. And he has written a letter... Not | :09:22. | :09:28. | |
to me. So how am I meant to know. To Conservative MPs, to also explain | :09:29. | :09:31. | |
the national insurance changes. Let's come on to Labour and its | :09:32. | :09:36. | |
spending plans. A lot of the way you say you will finance the increased | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
spending is from corporation tax. What will - at the moment the | :09:42. | :09:47. | |
corporation tax is 20%. And it's due to fall to 17 under this Government. | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
What would it be under a Labour Government? Well, to start with, | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
people who are self-employed, who are trying to start or grow a | :09:58. | :10:00. | |
business, which is what the Prime Minister said she wanted Britain to | :10:01. | :10:03. | |
be the best place in the world to do, are not feeling the love from | :10:04. | :10:06. | |
the Conservative Government. I understand that. I have done that | :10:07. | :10:10. | |
with the minister. I think you can agree the minister was pretty | :10:11. | :10:12. | |
robustly interviewed. I'm now coming on to Labour's plans. What would the | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
corporation tax be under Labour. That's a the question I'm answering. | :10:17. | :10:21. | |
I don't think targeting those people who are trying to start or grow a | :10:22. | :10:26. | |
business is the right way to support our economy, to help intren airs. I | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
understand that. -- entrepreneurs. That's why we wouldn't be making the | :10:33. | :10:37. | |
cuts to corporation tax. The reason is we already have some of the most | :10:38. | :10:43. | |
competitive corporation tax rates in the developed world. So we wouldn't | :10:44. | :10:53. | |
go to 20%. Would you raise it from 20%? ? Well 2017, there are | :10:54. | :10:59. | |
three-years plus to a general election, according to the six-term | :11:00. | :11:03. | |
Parliament Act. I think you will have to wait a little bit longer to | :11:04. | :11:07. | |
find out what Labour's plans are for that election. We don't. We need to | :11:08. | :11:10. | |
know how. You have promised ?12 billion a year extra for the health | :11:11. | :11:13. | |
service and social care. ?5 billion a year extra by 2020 on changes to | :11:14. | :11:16. | |
Universal Credit and employment support. ?7 billion a year by taking | :11:17. | :11:24. | |
away the public sector pay freeze. ?1 billion on maintenance grast | :11:25. | :11:29. | |
grants, ?1 billion on waspy women, their pensions giving them justice. | :11:30. | :11:32. | |
?7 billion getting rid of tuition fees. On a yearly basis by 2020 that | :11:33. | :11:39. | |
comes to ?33. A 5 billion of spending. I ask you again - how | :11:40. | :11:43. | |
would you raise corporation too, and how much would it contribute towards | :11:44. | :11:47. | |
that? Well, as I was saying, you wouldn't be starting from here, we | :11:48. | :11:53. | |
wouldn't have made the cuts since 2010, that have seen living | :11:54. | :11:56. | |
standards fall. But that's where we are. We have seen living standards | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
fall whilst the economy has become... This is all just nonsense. | :12:00. | :12:05. | |
It is the truth. Is there anything untrue in what I said? It may well | :12:06. | :12:12. | |
be true, nothing to do with the question I'm asking, which is given | :12:13. | :12:16. | |
you have commitments of over ?33 billion spending per year, how much | :12:17. | :12:20. | |
would you raise corporation tax by to pay for that? And at the moment | :12:21. | :12:25. | |
we are developing the ideas towards our manifesto in 2020. We wouldn't | :12:26. | :12:33. | |
make the 73.6 billion worth of tax cuts that were in the manifesto from | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
corporation tax and from other tax... But you have committed to ?33 | :12:39. | :12:44. | |
billion and you have, in your private calculations, most of the | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
extra money comes from corporation tax, but you cannot tell me today | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
what that rate would be and how much it would raise? Well if you tell me | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
what the economy is going to be like in three years' time I'll tell you | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
what our manifesto might look like. I can tell you now corporation tax | :13:02. | :13:05. | |
brings in just shy of ?50 billion a year on the basis of 20%. How much | :13:06. | :13:11. | |
would you raise it by to bring in ?33? And ?7 o 0 billion by 2022, | :13:12. | :13:18. | |
would be the money for social care. Right, are you telling me the | :13:19. | :13:21. | |
corporation tax would bring in ?70 billion. No I said it is ?73.6 | :13:22. | :13:28. | |
billion by 2022 when you add in inheritance tax. But it is nearly | :13:29. | :13:33. | |
all corporation tax. Yes, it is. And you add in the ?70 billion a dubious | :13:34. | :13:39. | |
figure, ?63 billion of that comes from corporation tax. The figure | :13:40. | :13:42. | |
from the Office for Budget Responsibility, the independent body | :13:43. | :13:44. | |
set up by the Conservative Government is a daubous figure. It | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
is dubious in the sense that it goes back in time to work out what losses | :13:50. | :13:54. | |
might have been. What I'm trying to find out from you is that | :13:55. | :13:58. | |
corporation tax at the moment it 20% it brings in by about ?50 billion by | :13:59. | :14:04. | |
how much would you increase it to get your ?33 billion you need? I can | :14:05. | :14:09. | |
tell you we will be voting against the cut in corporation tax in the | :14:10. | :14:12. | |
Finance Bill when the Government brings it forward and we would start | :14:13. | :14:18. | |
with the ?73 billion by 2022 in not cutting those taxes. Let me | :14:19. | :14:22. | |
interrupt you, we have heard as we have been on air and as I was | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
interviewing the two politicians, the Chancellor has announced that | :14:27. | :14:30. | |
there will be no increases in national insurance in this | :14:31. | :14:32. | |
Parliament. So, the Budget was - what JoCo | :14:33. | :14:43. | |
today. A weak ago? Well you said you could hear the grinding of a U-Turn. | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
He has said in a letter to Tory MPs "I've delighted not to proceed with | :14:49. | :14:51. | |
the class 4 national insurance contributions." They were the ones | :14:52. | :14:54. | |
talked about by the Chancellor a week ago. He is not going to | :14:55. | :15:00. | |
increase them as he had set out. There will be no increases NIC rates | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
in the Parliament. "We will continue with the abolition of class 2." | :15:06. | :15:09. | |
Which had already been announced. "The cost of the changes will be | :15:10. | :15:13. | |
funded by measures to be announced in the autumn Budget." What is it | :15:14. | :15:18. | |
about this Government and their chancellors, why are they so uses? | :15:19. | :15:21. | |
Under George Osborne they announced a massive cut in tax credits for the | :15:22. | :15:26. | |
work poor in the end I think Mr Osborne, in his final Budget had to | :15:27. | :15:30. | |
get rid of it all, Mr Hammond announces increases in national | :15:31. | :15:33. | |
insurance contributions, a week later, oh, it is not going to | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
happen. Why are your chancellors so useless? Firstly, we have some very | :15:39. | :15:47. | |
serious chancellors. But to go back to the bigger issue, you put your | :15:48. | :15:50. | |
finger on it. This was a difficult decision. On the one hand, these | :15:51. | :15:54. | |
were sensible changes that a lot of economists have been asking for many | :15:55. | :15:58. | |
years. On the other hand, there was a manifesto issue. It sounds to me | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
as though the government has made a difficult decision, which is the | :16:04. | :16:05. | |
right decision, which is that we have to keep to the spirit of the | :16:06. | :16:09. | |
manifesto. So you're happy with this? I think this is the right | :16:10. | :16:14. | |
decision. It sounds from the way you answering like this is the way you | :16:15. | :16:18. | |
want it to go. This is a dilemma here. This is a good policy that the | :16:19. | :16:23. | |
Treasury came up with. It would have been a sensible reform. Within the | :16:24. | :16:26. | |
letter of the manifesto, you could argue with what we did in 2015, plus | :16:27. | :16:32. | |
one applied. But the spirit of the manifesto means this is the right | :16:33. | :16:36. | |
way to go back. This is exactly what the Chancellor says, complied with | :16:37. | :16:38. | |
the spirit. Does that mean he finally got round | :16:39. | :16:42. | |
to reading the manifesto? Duke and that when you speak to him. | :16:43. | :16:53. | |
Support for Scottish independence is at its highest level. Scottish | :16:54. | :16:59. | |
social attitudes survey has recorded the highest level of support for | :17:00. | :17:08. | |
independence since it began in 1999. The research also suggest that the | :17:09. | :17:11. | |
popularity of the European Union has fallen among voters. | :17:12. | :17:14. | |
We're joined now by one of the authors of the report, | :17:15. | :17:17. | |
Does that mean that Nicola Sturgeon can win a second referendum? I think | :17:18. | :17:24. | |
if you are going to use the verb can only answer for that must be yes. | :17:25. | :17:30. | |
Our survey has shown 46% support for independence, given at an average of | :17:31. | :17:39. | |
the moment the opinion poll -- it certainly means that any second | :17:40. | :17:43. | |
independence referendum held either before spring 2019 or sometime | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
thereafter is going to be launched against a very different backdrop | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
for the first referendum in 2014. It will be against a backdrop where | :17:52. | :17:57. | |
nearly half of Scotland is already apparently convinced of the case for | :17:58. | :18:02. | |
independence. To that extent, at least, we have therefore to bear in | :18:03. | :18:04. | |
mind that the Scotland we are talking about now is very different | :18:05. | :18:08. | |
politically than the Scotland we were talking about four years ago. | :18:09. | :18:13. | |
How does that compare to the YouGov poll in the Times today suggesting | :18:14. | :18:16. | |
57% of Scots would reject independence? As always, you need to | :18:17. | :18:21. | |
be very careful about quoting individual polls that happen to be | :18:22. | :18:25. | |
the exception. If you take the average of one of the opinion polls | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
done so far this year, including another that came out this morning | :18:30. | :18:35. | |
that had it at 53%, on average it is 53% for no and 47% for yes. But | :18:36. | :18:41. | |
remember that Scotland is a different animal from most of the | :18:42. | :18:44. | |
opinion polls. This was done over six months in the second half of | :18:45. | :18:49. | |
last year. We're not trying to measure the short-term weather. | :18:50. | :18:50. | |
We're trying to measure the long-term climate. The crucial thing | :18:51. | :18:55. | |
about our reporters that we show how the climate of public opinion in | :18:56. | :19:00. | |
Scotland has changed dramatically in the wake of the first referendum. It | :19:01. | :19:04. | |
particularly happened most strongly amongst younger voters. I think this | :19:05. | :19:09. | |
raises questions about whether the UK Government will necessarily be | :19:10. | :19:12. | |
wise and wanting to play a long game, rather than a short game. | :19:13. | :19:18. | |
Simple demography could mean that a majority for independence may well | :19:19. | :19:21. | |
emerge in Scotland in the future, even if frankly nothing else | :19:22. | :19:27. | |
happened. What about Brexit? Against Abe backdrop Brexit negotiations, | :19:28. | :19:32. | |
and the timing is being argued over, Nicola Sturgeon has picked a time | :19:33. | :19:35. | |
when there is a lot of uncertainty around. Howard Brexit play out when | :19:36. | :19:39. | |
you look at those who voted yes to independence last time? The | :19:40. | :19:43. | |
difficulty that emerges for the SNP is that it's not obvious that they | :19:44. | :19:47. | |
should want to fight the second independence referendum, focused on | :19:48. | :19:50. | |
the issue of whether or not Scotland should remain inside the European | :19:51. | :19:54. | |
Union. The first reason is one third of those people who voted yes on | :19:55. | :19:58. | |
September 2014 voted to leave in June 20 16. The second is that over | :19:59. | :20:04. | |
half of those people who voted to remain are and nearly two thirds of | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
those who voted to remain having voted to stay in the union in 2014 | :20:09. | :20:13. | |
go on to say that perhaps we should remain inside the European Union, | :20:14. | :20:17. | |
but the powers of the EU should be reduced. In other words, they are | :20:18. | :20:22. | |
relatively unenthusiastic, lukewarm supporters of the EU. There may be a | :20:23. | :20:27. | |
lot of them. 62% of Scotland may have voted in favour. But it's not | :20:28. | :20:31. | |
clear that they are so committed to the EU that they will change their | :20:32. | :20:34. | |
minds as a result of the Brexit secretary. Indeed, that's been the | :20:35. | :20:39. | |
message of the opinion polls. Having an average of 53% for no and 43% for | :20:40. | :20:44. | |
yes are exactly where they were before the Brexit referendum. John | :20:45. | :20:45. | |
Curtice, thank you. We're joined now by the SNP | :20:46. | :20:47. | |
MP, Kirsty Blackman. Nicola Sturgeon called the second | :20:48. | :20:54. | |
referendum on the basis that Scotland is being taken out of the | :20:55. | :21:01. | |
EU... K. I were! Thank you. What is the SNP's position on EU membership? | :21:02. | :21:06. | |
The people of Scotland voted to stay in the EU. In terms of our manifesto | :21:07. | :21:11. | |
commitment, we said that we would hold another referendum in these | :21:12. | :21:14. | |
circumstances and would reserve the right holiday referendum. Do you | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
want to be full members of the EU? In terms of the proposition that | :21:19. | :21:23. | |
would be put to the Scottish people, in the fullness of time you'll see | :21:24. | :21:33. | |
what that is, and. ... So you're not sure? That'll be made absolutely | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
clear, we're committed to the EU. We supportive of Scotland being | :21:40. | :21:43. | |
members. In terms of the proposition, will become trustingly | :21:44. | :21:46. | |
two. We'll look at the cliff edge Brexit and the opportunities. That's | :21:47. | :21:50. | |
just not clear to me. And probably not too many of our viewers. Are you | :21:51. | :21:55. | |
going to be campaigning on the basis of an independent Scotland applying | :21:56. | :22:00. | |
to either remain, if you can do that, ought certainly applying to be | :22:01. | :22:04. | |
a full member of the European Union? Certainly, that's the intention. So | :22:05. | :22:08. | |
you want to serve as part of the single market, hence the full | :22:09. | :22:13. | |
membership. Would you take the euro as your currency? What we've done is | :22:14. | :22:16. | |
happy growth commission look at this and the opportunities for an | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
independent Scotland, and what currency would be best for Scotland. | :22:21. | :22:26. | |
That proposition will come out later. In due course we will publish | :22:27. | :22:30. | |
that of butter to the Scottish people. How confident are you that | :22:31. | :22:34. | |
countries like Spain, worried about their own separatist movement, would | :22:35. | :22:37. | |
be to your membership to be full members of the EU? We've had pretty | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
good comments made by members of the ruling party, saying recently that | :22:43. | :22:49. | |
they would veto Scotland's application for membership. So we're | :22:50. | :22:56. | |
pretty confident that. They said you couldn't seamlessly apply? We have | :22:57. | :23:03. | |
been told we would have two join the queue. That has been made very | :23:04. | :23:08. | |
clear. There have been people who talked about AQ, that everybody | :23:09. | :23:11. | |
knows that the queue in terms of the EU membership is pretty fluid. You | :23:12. | :23:16. | |
have to fulfil the criteria. You would have to apply a gain? That's | :23:17. | :23:20. | |
what some people in Spain have been saying. Including the Government? | :23:21. | :23:26. | |
Some have been saying that. Just be Prime Minister, the Foreign | :23:27. | :23:28. | |
Secretary and the Secretary of State for Europe. Spain doesn't | :23:29. | :23:34. | |
necessarily have... Than 27 member states. It does have the to veto. | :23:35. | :23:40. | |
Has the SNP accepted that they couldn't just have an independence | :23:41. | :23:44. | |
referendum if you were to win it, and then remain in the EU? You would | :23:45. | :23:48. | |
have to come out and reapply as a new member? I don't think that's | :23:49. | :23:52. | |
clear. Given what Jean-Claude Juncker said, he said Scotland has | :23:53. | :23:56. | |
the right to be heard and listened to in terms of the Brexit | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
settlement. I don't think it's clear that is the case. You've made it | :24:01. | :24:04. | |
clear that your independence campaign is going to be about | :24:05. | :24:09. | |
reapplying to become full members of the EU. How will you keep on board | :24:10. | :24:14. | |
the 27% of US voters, those who voted for independence last time | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
round? But also voted to leave the EU? -- 27% of yes voters. They | :24:20. | :24:27. | |
thought I was going to be extra money for the NHS. They voted | :24:28. | :24:34. | |
without full information. When faced with the realities of a hard Brexit | :24:35. | :24:38. | |
cliff edge, quite a number of people will look at this and say small | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
businesses will be hit with customs charges, individuals will see | :24:43. | :24:47. | |
inflation in their shopping. Except the figures, from recent polls, have | :24:48. | :24:52. | |
shown that 43% of people in Scotland to voted yes to independence and | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
voted leave have now abandoned their pro-independence position. 28% now | :24:58. | :25:02. | |
say they will -- 28% now say they will vote to stay in the union. | :25:03. | :25:08. | |
People who have voted the other way, and who was staunchly no, really | :25:09. | :25:12. | |
value the freedoms that they get as members of the European Union and | :25:13. | :25:15. | |
wanting to protect those freedoms thank you. | :25:16. | :25:16. | |
Tomorrow it's expected the Brexit Bill will finally | :25:17. | :25:19. | |
receive Royal Assent, passing into law and formally giving | :25:20. | :25:21. | |
Theresa May the authority to trigger Article 50. | :25:22. | :25:26. | |
We know a little bit about royal approval here | :25:27. | :25:28. | |
In fact, it might be just about now the Queen is settling down | :25:29. | :25:32. | |
with a gin-and-dubonnet to watch the best and the brightest | :25:33. | :25:35. | |
But with a second independence referendum in Scotland | :25:36. | :25:40. | |
in the offing, Northern Ireland's power-sharing arrangements in chaos | :25:41. | :25:43. | |
and, perhaps worst of all, the prospect of another | :25:44. | :25:46. | |
40-minute-long PMQs, all we'll say is, Your Majesty, | :25:47. | :25:52. | |
You've got time! She is our favourite viewer, you know. She | :25:53. | :26:10. | |
watches us every day. Spoke to Princess and last night, she's | :26:11. | :26:17. | |
another fan of the show. -- Princess Anne. | :26:18. | :26:18. | |
Indeed, grab yourself one of these beauties and fill it to the brim. | :26:19. | :26:21. | |
And if you're keen for a Daily Politics mug to help keep | :26:22. | :26:24. | |
you steady in the months ahead, just tell us when this happened. | :26:25. | :26:29. | |
# All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth | :26:30. | :26:55. | |
REPORTER: 4,000 London dockers went on strike. | :26:56. | :27:06. | |
# D, you're a darling and E, you're exciting | :27:07. | :27:28. | |
# G, you look good to me, H, you're so heavenly | :27:29. | :27:36. | |
To be in with a chance of winning a Daily Politics mug, | :27:37. | :27:50. | |
send your answer to our special quiz e-mail address - | :27:51. | :27:52. | |
Entries must arrive by 12:30 today, and you can see the full terms | :27:53. | :27:56. | |
and conditions for Guess The Year on our website - | :27:57. | :27:58. | |
It's coming up to midday here - just take a look at Big Ben. | :27:59. | :28:08. | |
Yes, Prime Minister's Questions is on its way. | :28:09. | :28:11. | |
And that's not all - Laura Kuenssberg is here. | :28:12. | :28:18. | |
This Tory expenses investigation. It is getting serious. Craig Mackinlay, | :28:19. | :28:26. | |
the MP for Thanet South, now questioned under the caution. Tory | :28:27. | :28:31. | |
MP, Carol McCartney, he's turning on Conservative Central office. This | :28:32. | :28:36. | |
has been rumbling on for months, partly due to the investigative | :28:37. | :28:40. | |
efforts of Channel 4 News and the Mirror. As you suggested, in the | :28:41. | :28:44. | |
last few days it has taken what appears to be a new turn with one MP | :28:45. | :28:49. | |
being questioned under caution. At the core of this is whether or not | :28:50. | :28:54. | |
in election battles around the country, the activities of national | :28:55. | :28:57. | |
activists who were on a big battle driving around in a properly | :28:58. | :29:03. | |
declared on local campaign expenses. That is what the Routier. It's all a | :29:04. | :29:09. | |
bit technical, but it goes to something really important. Because | :29:10. | :29:13. | |
it goes to who pays to get somebody to be elected, which is an important | :29:14. | :29:19. | |
question. Every political party makes a step up now and again. But | :29:20. | :29:22. | |
it could become extremely important because there are 17 forces | :29:23. | :29:27. | |
investigating this now. It could be a pretty small micro, what CC HQ | :29:28. | :29:34. | |
have described as an administrative error, to something that suddenly | :29:35. | :29:37. | |
could theoretically end up questioning the results of many MPs' | :29:38. | :29:42. | |
elections around the country. We need to keep an eye on this, it's | :29:43. | :29:48. | |
getting serious. Absolutely. It could get very serious. Senior | :29:49. | :29:51. | |
sources were suggesting to colleagues that BBC Newsnight that | :29:52. | :29:54. | |
it would be more likely to end up as some sort of fine. For this to be a | :29:55. | :29:58. | |
criminal situation is something that is just absolutely not... It could | :29:59. | :30:06. | |
happen in one or two places. The background to this is that Theresa | :30:07. | :30:10. | |
May's majority is wafer thin. So a seat here or there really matters. | :30:11. | :30:15. | |
If you remember the Thanet election... I was there. Happy | :30:16. | :30:21. | |
memories for you! It's a state where Ukip felt that they really had a | :30:22. | :30:25. | |
good chance. The majority was very narrow. Craig Mackinlay the Nigel | :30:26. | :30:33. | |
Farage. The national campaign, they spent ?18,000 on accommodation at | :30:34. | :30:40. | |
the Royal Harbour Hotel. For the constituency, ?16,000. Questions the | :30:41. | :30:43. | |
Tories will have to answer here. Another day, another Tory Chancellor | :30:44. | :30:48. | |
U-turn. What a week this has been. Seven days ago we were sitting in | :30:49. | :30:51. | |
this studio waiting for the Chancellor to do his first budget. | :30:52. | :30:56. | |
And a screeching U-turn has been performed just in time for Prime | :30:57. | :30:59. | |
Minister's Questions, so that the Prime Minister does not have to | :31:00. | :31:02. | |
defend the most controversial policy that came out of the budget. It's | :31:03. | :31:06. | |
important to say in the last half-hour, just as this has broken, | :31:07. | :31:11. | |
I've spoken to people on both sides of the argument and one senior | :31:12. | :31:14. | |
Conservative told me it was madness, they had to drop it. Somebody asked | :31:15. | :31:19. | |
me they were absolutely livid. Think of would be difficult thing is that | :31:20. | :31:22. | |
this government has to do over the next five years, and at the first | :31:23. | :31:28. | |
hint of trouble over an issue of the ?145 million, the net gain of the | :31:29. | :31:33. | |
Treasury, they've backed away. It's an interesting thing and does not | :31:34. | :31:35. | |
sentiment on one side of the argument. Some were very upset | :31:36. | :31:39. | |
coming out of the argument, only to find within days it's been dropped. | :31:40. | :31:43. | |
You think it might have dawned on them before the budget. This is a | :31:44. | :31:46. | |
question. Some people turned on Philip Hammond. The idea that Philip | :31:47. | :31:57. | |
Hammond should have specifically flagged it in the cabin... You kind | :31:58. | :32:01. | |
of wonder if shouldn't every cabinet minister have been aware of what was | :32:02. | :32:05. | |
in the Tory manifesto? Lets go and see what happens now as these | :32:06. | :32:06. | |
stories break. I am sure minsters will want to join | :32:07. | :32:20. | |
me in wishing people around the world a happy St Patrick's Day on | :32:21. | :32:27. | |
Friday. This morning I had ministerial meetings with my | :32:28. | :32:29. | |
colleagues and will have further today With my Irish blood can I also | :32:30. | :32:34. | |
wish a happy St Patrick's Day. Mr Speaker, I welcome the announcement | :32:35. | :32:37. | |
from this Government that we will abide by the letter of our manifesto | :32:38. | :32:48. | |
and also the spirit. CHEERS AND JEERS. MR THE Prime Minister AGREE | :32:49. | :32:54. | |
WITH ME, THAT IN BALANCING THE BOOKS WE MUST SURE THAT WE HAVE A | :32:55. | :33:00. | |
sustainable tax system in place. I would like to thank my honourable | :33:01. | :33:03. | |
friend for this question. We made a commitment not to raise tax and we | :33:04. | :33:07. | |
put our commitment into the tax lock. The measures we put forward in | :33:08. | :33:11. | |
the Budget last week were consistent with those locks. | :33:12. | :33:23. | |
But, as a number of my parliamentary colleagues have been pointing out in | :33:24. | :33:30. | |
recent days, there is... THE SPEAKER: Order. This is intolerable, | :33:31. | :33:35. | |
the answers from the Prime Minister... | :33:36. | :33:41. | |
SHOUTS AND JEERS I do take a view on the importance | :33:42. | :33:46. | |
of hearing the questions and the answers from the Prime Minister As a | :33:47. | :33:50. | |
number of my Parliamently colleagues have been pointing out the trend | :33:51. | :33:54. | |
towards greater self-employment creates a structural issue on the | :33:55. | :33:57. | |
tax base on which we will have to act and we want to ensure that we | :33:58. | :34:01. | |
maintain, as they have said, fairness in the tax system. So we | :34:02. | :34:05. | |
are going to awhich the the report from Matthew Taylor on the future of | :34:06. | :34:10. | |
employment, we will consider the Government's overall approach to | :34:11. | :34:13. | |
employment status and rights to tax and entitledment. We will bring | :34:14. | :34:19. | |
forward further proposals but we will not bring forward increases to | :34:20. | :34:30. | |
ni. -- NICs later this this Parliament Can I wish everyone a | :34:31. | :34:39. | |
very be happy St Patrick's Day for the 17th in my constituency, in | :34:40. | :34:43. | |
Ireland and around the world. We have just heard the Prime Minister | :34:44. | :34:48. | |
is about to drop the national insurance hike announced only a week | :34:49. | :34:53. | |
ago. It seems to me like a Government in a the bit of chaos | :34:54. | :35:01. | |
here. SHOUTS AND JEERS A Budget that unravels in seven | :35:02. | :35:04. | |
days, a Conservative manifesto with a very pensive Prime Minister on the | :35:05. | :35:10. | |
front page saying there would be no increase, a week ago an increase was | :35:11. | :35:15. | |
announced. If they are to drop this increase, as they are indicating, | :35:16. | :35:20. | |
then this is a time that she should thank the Federation of Small | :35:21. | :35:24. | |
Businesses and all those that have pointed out just how unfair this | :35:25. | :35:30. | |
increase would be. But, also, how big business evades an awful lot of | :35:31. | :35:34. | |
national insurance through bogus self-employment. I have to say to | :35:35. | :35:41. | |
the right honourable gentleman, I don't think he actually listened to | :35:42. | :35:46. | |
the answer I gave to my honourable friend, the member from Bexhill and | :35:47. | :35:52. | |
Battle. I normally stand at this despatch box and say I don't take | :35:53. | :35:57. | |
any lectures from the honourable gentleman, when it comes to lectures | :35:58. | :36:00. | |
on chaos, he'd be the first person I would turn to. Mr Speaker, I think | :36:01. | :36:07. | |
the Prime Minister should offer an apology for the chaos that her | :36:08. | :36:10. | |
Government has caused during the past week and the stresses caused to | :36:11. | :36:15. | |
the 4.8 million self-employed people in this country. Will she offer that | :36:16. | :36:23. | |
apology? Her friend, the member for Conway said so a week ago. It's time | :36:24. | :36:28. | |
she joined in and said that as well. This measure, if carried through, | :36:29. | :36:32. | |
will create a black hole in the Budget, what is she going to do to | :36:33. | :36:42. | |
fill that black hole? If the right honourable gentleman is so concern | :36:43. | :36:48. | |
about balancing the books, why is it Labour Party policy to borrow half a | :36:49. | :36:56. | |
trillion pound and bankrupt Britain? ? Mr Speaker, Mr Speaker, coming | :36:57. | :37:09. | |
from a Government that proposes to borrow more between now and 2020, | :37:10. | :37:15. | |
than the entire borrowing of all Labour governments put together, we | :37:16. | :37:18. | |
don't need lectures from them on this. I hope that in his statement | :37:19. | :37:26. | |
later today, the Chancellor will address the question of injustice of | :37:27. | :37:32. | |
many people forced into bogus self-employment by unscrupulous | :37:33. | :37:55. | |
companies. Because many of them force their workers to become | :37:56. | :37:57. | |
self-employed, thus avoiding employers' national insurance | :37:58. | :37:58. | |
contributions. It is a grossly unfair system, where those in | :37:59. | :38:00. | |
self-employment pay some national insurance, employers do not benefit | :38:01. | :38:03. | |
from it. That is a gross injustice that has to be addressed. The right | :38:04. | :38:05. | |
honourable gentleman obviously hadn't noticed that one of the first | :38:06. | :38:08. | |
things I did when I became Prime Minister was to commission Matthew | :38:09. | :38:11. | |
Taylor from the RSA to conduct a review to look at the employment | :38:12. | :38:15. | |
market, to look at employment rights and status, precisely because we | :38:16. | :38:18. | |
recognise that the employment market is changing. He talks about the | :38:19. | :38:22. | |
self-employed. Let's look at what we have done for the self-employed. Our | :38:23. | :38:26. | |
increase in personal allowance means they now keep more of their | :38:27. | :38:30. | |
earnings. They will have access to both tax-free childcare and 30 hours | :38:31. | :38:34. | |
of free childcare, just like employees and now they have access | :38:35. | :38:39. | |
to the new state pension worth over ?1,800 more a year. But what we know | :38:40. | :38:44. | |
from the Labour Party's policies is that their policies would bankrupt | :38:45. | :38:47. | |
Britain, they put firms out of business and people out of jobs. We | :38:48. | :38:55. | |
have a Government U-turn, no apolicy and we have a Budget that -- apology | :38:56. | :39:01. | |
and we have a Budget that falls most heavily on those with the least | :39:02. | :39:05. | |
broad shoulders. Cuts to schools, cuts to social care and cuts to | :39:06. | :39:09. | |
people with disbabilities. That is the agenda of her Government and | :39:10. | :39:20. | |
everybody knows it. I'm not sure - I don't think the right honourable | :39:21. | :39:23. | |
gentleman has quite got the hang of this. He is supposed to ask | :39:24. | :39:31. | |
questions to me when he stands up. Let's talk... THE SPEAKER: Order. | :39:32. | :39:36. | |
Order. Let's hear the answer, Prime Minister. He talks about schools. | :39:37. | :39:47. | |
What have we done? We've protected the core schools budget. We | :39:48. | :39:52. | |
introduced the pupil premium. This budget delivers money for over 100 | :39:53. | :39:56. | |
new schools, delivering on good school places for every child this. | :39:57. | :39:59. | |
Budget delivers on skills for young people. We want them to be equipped | :40:00. | :40:05. | |
for the jobs of the future. The Budget delivers ?500 million for | :40:06. | :40:09. | |
technical education and on social care, we recognise the pressure on | :40:10. | :40:15. | |
social care. This Budget delivers ?2 billion more funding for social | :40:16. | :40:18. | |
care. Funding that wouldn't be available with Labour's economic | :40:19. | :40:24. | |
policies. Mr Speaker, it would be a very good idea if the Prime Minister | :40:25. | :40:29. | |
listened to headteachers all over the country, desperately trying to | :40:30. | :40:34. | |
work out how to balance the books in their schools, losing teachers, | :40:35. | :40:39. | |
losing teaching assistants, losing support for their children because | :40:40. | :40:43. | |
the schools' budgets are being cut. She knows that, we all know that, | :40:44. | :40:48. | |
everybody out there knows that. They also know that according to IFS | :40:49. | :40:54. | |
figures, average working families will be 1,400 pounds worse as a | :40:55. | :40:59. | |
result of her Budget that was produced last week. Can she say what | :41:00. | :41:03. | |
she is doing to help the worst-off and poorest in our society, rather | :41:04. | :41:08. | |
than continuing cutting local government expenditure, schools | :41:09. | :41:09. | |
expenditure and underfunding social care? I'll tell the right honourable | :41:10. | :41:15. | |
gentleman what we have delivered for the low paid. We have frozen VAT and | :41:16. | :41:22. | |
fuel duty and every basic rate taxpayer have had a tax cut of at | :41:23. | :41:26. | |
worst ?1,000 and we have taken 3 million people out of paying income | :41:27. | :41:30. | |
tax altogether. That's what we have done for the low paid. On schools we | :41:31. | :41:35. | |
now see 1.8 million children in good or outstanding schools. I want a | :41:36. | :41:39. | |
good school place for every child. We have done it with free schools | :41:40. | :41:43. | |
and academies and the changes we have brought forward in edge | :41:44. | :41:46. | |
education, all opposed to the Labour Party. Now they want to oppose us | :41:47. | :41:50. | |
giving a good school place for every child. What do we know about the | :41:51. | :41:53. | |
Labour's policies? Let's see what the former Shadow Chancellor, the | :41:54. | :41:58. | |
member for Nottingham East said, "Labour's policies would mean | :41:59. | :42:01. | |
doubling national insurance, doubling VAT and doubling council | :42:02. | :42:06. | |
tax as well." That wouldn't help the low paid or ordinary working | :42:07. | :42:12. | |
families. Mr Speaker, the difference is, we | :42:13. | :42:18. | |
want a good school and a good place for every child in every school in | :42:19. | :42:26. | |
every community. Selective education, reintroduction of grammar | :42:27. | :42:30. | |
schools does not achieve that. We want a staircase for all. Not a | :42:31. | :42:36. | |
ladder for the few which is what the Conservatives policies actually are. | :42:37. | :42:40. | |
What she hasn't addressed, also, is the unfairness of a Budget that cuts | :42:41. | :42:48. | |
tax at the top end, continues to introduce corporation tax, | :42:49. | :42:50. | |
encourages bogus self-employment. What she has to do is address the | :42:51. | :42:55. | |
issues of injustice and inequality in our society and a Government that | :42:56. | :43:00. | |
is dedicated towards widening the gap, not helping the hard-up or | :43:01. | :43:04. | |
those that are working self-employed to try to make ends meet and not | :43:05. | :43:08. | |
getting access to any benefits at the same time. Inequality has gone | :43:09. | :43:16. | |
down under this Government. This Budget shows that the top 1% of | :43:17. | :43:22. | |
earners will actually be contributing 27% in terms of the | :43:23. | :43:25. | |
income they are providing. But let me address the issue, also, of | :43:26. | :43:29. | |
schools. You see the problem with what the right honourable gentleman | :43:30. | :43:33. | |
says is that on every single education policy that this | :43:34. | :43:52. | |
Government has brought forward, that has been delivering more good school | :43:53. | :43:55. | |
places for children, the Labour Party has opposed it and they | :43:56. | :43:57. | |
continue to oppose it. Because the Labour Party's approach is that | :43:58. | :44:00. | |
parents will take what they are given, good or bad. We believe in | :44:01. | :44:03. | |
listening to parents. If he looks ahead to what his policies would | :44:04. | :44:05. | |
produce for this country, half a trillion pounds of borrowing, 500 | :44:06. | :44:07. | |
billion more borrowing under the Labour Party. More taxes, more | :44:08. | :44:13. | |
spending, more borrowing, a bankrupt Britain that wouldn't give money for | :44:14. | :44:16. | |
public services or help ordinary working families. It's the | :44:17. | :44:20. | |
Conservative Party that is helping ordinary working families. It is the | :44:21. | :44:24. | |
Labour Party that is failing to address the needs of the people of | :44:25. | :44:30. | |
this country. Inhe is just sitting there and going on protest marches. | :44:31. | :44:40. | |
Thank you, Mr Speaker. As the tax changed, I changed my question. May | :44:41. | :44:45. | |
I congratulate my right honourable friend on proposing the most radical | :44:46. | :44:59. | |
reform of technical education in a generation and also delivering fair | :45:00. | :45:02. | |
funding for all our schools but may I also her, as part of that | :45:03. | :45:07. | |
consultation, to ensure a minimum level of appropriate funding for all | :45:08. | :45:10. | |
schools? I thank my honourable friend, | :45:11. | :45:18. | |
because he's raised an important point. One of the issues with | :45:19. | :45:21. | |
addressed in the budget is to put more money into skills training, | :45:22. | :45:26. | |
further education and technical education for young people. I think | :45:27. | :45:29. | |
one of the most important things we can do is equip young people for the | :45:30. | :45:32. | |
jobs of the future so they can get on in life. We are investing an | :45:33. | :45:37. | |
extra half ?1 billion a year in England's technical education system | :45:38. | :45:42. | |
to do this. My honourable friend has referred to the issue of a minimum | :45:43. | :45:46. | |
funding levels. The Education Secretary confirmed last month that | :45:47. | :45:49. | |
the DFE have heard representations on this issue and are considering | :45:50. | :45:53. | |
the issues. But in relation to the funding formula, it is complex and | :45:54. | :45:58. | |
has needed addressing for some time. We will look at it carefully. | :45:59. | :46:03. | |
We once had a Prime Minister who said that the lady's not for | :46:04. | :46:10. | |
turning. My, goodness. Isn't it welcome that the Prime Minister | :46:11. | :46:17. | |
today has announced that she is returning with her screeching, | :46:18. | :46:25. | |
embarrassing U-turn? Only days remain until the Prime Minister is | :46:26. | :46:30. | |
going to invoke Article 50 on leading the European Union. And last | :46:31. | :46:35. | |
July, she promised to secure a UK wide approach - an agreement between | :46:36. | :46:42. | |
the devolved administrations between Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland | :46:43. | :46:45. | |
and the UK Government before triggering Article 50. So when will | :46:46. | :46:49. | |
be Prime Minister announced the details of the agreement? | :46:50. | :46:57. | |
As I said to the Right Honourable gentleman yesterday, and to others | :46:58. | :47:01. | |
asking the questions on the timetable, we will trigger Article | :47:02. | :47:05. | |
50 by the end of March. There will be an opportunity for further | :47:06. | :47:07. | |
discussions with the devolved administrations over that period. | :47:08. | :47:11. | |
When the right honourable gentleman looks at the issue of membership of | :47:12. | :47:15. | |
the European Union, and his view of Scotland not being a member of the | :47:16. | :47:19. | |
United Kingdom, I say this to him. He is comparing membership of an | :47:20. | :47:23. | |
organisation that we've been a member of four 40 years with our | :47:24. | :47:29. | |
country. We have been one country for over 300 years. We have fought | :47:30. | :47:33. | |
together, we've worked together, we've achieved together. And | :47:34. | :47:39. | |
constitutional gameplaying must not be allowed to break the deep bonds | :47:40. | :47:44. | |
of our shared history, and our future together. | :47:45. | :48:00. | |
The Prime Minister can wag her finger as much as she likes. Last | :48:01. | :48:06. | |
year, she made a promise. She promised an agreement. I asked her | :48:07. | :48:12. | |
about it yesterday. She didn't answer. I asked her about it now. | :48:13. | :48:18. | |
She hasn't answered. When will she reach an agreement? Not discussions, | :48:19. | :48:25. | |
an agreement with the Scottish Government before triggering Article | :48:26. | :48:32. | |
50. HECKLING I recognise the passions. | :48:33. | :48:42. | |
Calm yourself, I'm perfectly capable of doing that without your | :48:43. | :48:46. | |
assistance. The right honourable gentleman will be heard, however | :48:47. | :48:49. | |
long it takes. Carry on, Mr Robertson. | :48:50. | :48:54. | |
The Prime Minister promised an agreement. There is not an | :48:55. | :48:58. | |
agreement. When will there be an agreement? Because does she not | :48:59. | :49:01. | |
understand that if she does not secure an agreement before | :49:02. | :49:08. | |
triggering Article 50, if she is not prepared to negotiate on behalf of | :49:09. | :49:11. | |
the Scottish Government and secure membership of the single European | :49:12. | :49:15. | |
market, people in Scotland will have a referendum, and we will have | :49:16. | :49:20. | |
our... We have been in discussions with the | :49:21. | :49:33. | |
Scottish Government and other devolved administrations about the | :49:34. | :49:37. | |
interest that they have. As we prepare as the United Kingdom | :49:38. | :49:41. | |
government to negotiate a deal on behalf on the whole United Kingdom. | :49:42. | :49:46. | |
A deal which will be a good deal, not just for England, Wales and | :49:47. | :49:49. | |
Northern Ireland, but for the people of Scotland as well. And as we go | :49:50. | :49:55. | |
forward in negotiating that deal, I think the right honourable gentleman | :49:56. | :50:00. | |
should remember this - Scotland will be leaving the European Union. It | :50:01. | :50:04. | |
will leave the European Union either as a member of the United Kingdom, | :50:05. | :50:09. | |
or were independent, it's very clear with the document that it would not | :50:10. | :50:13. | |
be member of the European Union. What we need now is to unite, to | :50:14. | :50:18. | |
come together as a country and to ensure that we can get the best deal | :50:19. | :50:29. | |
for the whole of the United Kingdom. This government is working with | :50:30. | :50:34. | |
councils and other partners to grow the economy. But despite being in | :50:35. | :50:41. | |
the prosperous south-east, the Isle of Wight is 339th out of 379 in the | :50:42. | :50:50. | |
UK competitive index. Will my right honourable friend ensure that more | :50:51. | :50:58. | |
growth funding is targeted at rural areas, like the islands, with many | :50:59. | :51:04. | |
small and micro businesses, to deliver a country that works for | :51:05. | :51:10. | |
all? My honourable friend speaks well on | :51:11. | :51:14. | |
behalf of his constituents, and he's right to do that. I know that he has | :51:15. | :51:19. | |
consistently put forward the unique characteristics of the Isle of | :51:20. | :51:22. | |
Wight. We've already been able to support the island's economy through | :51:23. | :51:30. | |
the local growth deal for the Solent, and supporting the Isle of | :51:31. | :51:37. | |
Wight rural SME programme. I want to make sure that we make the best of | :51:38. | :51:41. | |
the diverse strength of Britain's cities, regions and Islands. I'm | :51:42. | :51:45. | |
sure that on the island, the business community will work | :51:46. | :51:48. | |
together to create the best possible conditions. | :51:49. | :51:54. | |
It is our two single market that are the backbone for our economy. And | :51:55. | :51:58. | |
yet the Prime Minister wants to rip us away from one, and they want to | :51:59. | :52:03. | |
break up the other. Can she tell me, is it really a price worth paying, | :52:04. | :52:07. | |
the risky and reckless approach she is taking to Brexit, to foster the | :52:08. | :52:14. | |
break-up of Britain? The honourable gentleman is wrong | :52:15. | :52:17. | |
when he uses the term that I want to rip the United Kingdom away from the | :52:18. | :52:20. | |
single markets. What we wanted you... No, this is... I'm sorry to | :52:21. | :52:29. | |
say to honourable members on the Labour benches, this is the same | :52:30. | :52:32. | |
answer that I have given consistently in this house. We want | :52:33. | :52:35. | |
to ensure that we get a good free trade agreement which gives us the | :52:36. | :52:41. | |
maximum possible access to the single market to enable us to trade | :52:42. | :52:44. | |
with the single market and operate within the single market. | :52:45. | :52:50. | |
Can I welcome the support of business rates, which is being given | :52:51. | :52:54. | |
by the budget to local high streets, which also crucially valued in | :52:55. | :52:58. | |
places like my constituency in Barnet. With the Prime Minister | :52:59. | :53:02. | |
agree that we can give more help to small businesses if we can secure | :53:03. | :53:05. | |
the international agreement that we need to ensure that all big | :53:06. | :53:09. | |
businesses pay their taxes? This is a very important issue. It's | :53:10. | :53:14. | |
one on which I think this government has a record of which we can be | :53:15. | :53:17. | |
proud. Of course, there's more to do. We have, since 2010, in the work | :53:18. | :53:24. | |
we've done on tackling tax evasion, avoidance and noncompliance, we have | :53:25. | :53:29. | |
secured an additional 140 billion in compliance yields since 2010. | :53:30. | :53:32. | |
Internationally we've driven the global agenda and we now have | :53:33. | :53:36. | |
several companies signed up to the global exchange. -- global exchange | :53:37. | :53:40. | |
information. We have pushed for the G7 nanograms eight. -- G7 and G8. | :53:41. | :53:49. | |
There is more to be done and I want to see an economy that works for | :53:50. | :53:52. | |
everyone. That means that the company should be paying their tax | :53:53. | :53:58. | |
as well as everybody. An answer to my honourable friend | :53:59. | :54:02. | |
from Murray, the Prime Minister called for respect. But that is a | :54:03. | :54:10. | |
two-way street. The Scottish Government's compromise proposal has | :54:11. | :54:14. | |
been ignored in these negotiations. Where is your respect? | :54:15. | :54:19. | |
The proposal has not been ignored. It has been discussed by ministers. | :54:20. | :54:23. | |
There are many areas within that proposal on which we agree. As I've | :54:24. | :54:29. | |
said before, such as on ensuring our securities and maintaining and | :54:30. | :54:34. | |
protecting workers' rights. Colchester Hospital's A department | :54:35. | :54:42. | |
has excellent staff but suffers from poor layout and patient flow. Does | :54:43. | :54:46. | |
the Prime Minister agree with me that the ?100 million set aside for | :54:47. | :54:50. | |
triage in the budget last week will allow hospitals like mine to address | :54:51. | :54:53. | |
this issue and improve patient outcomes? | :54:54. | :54:57. | |
My honourable friend is right to recognise, and we should all | :54:58. | :55:01. | |
recognise, the hard work and dedication of our excellent staff | :55:02. | :55:05. | |
throughout the NHS. What we're seeing in the NHS is that A are | :55:06. | :55:09. | |
treating more people than ever before. We are spending half ?1 | :55:10. | :55:14. | |
trillion on the NHS in England during this Parliament. The NHS will | :55:15. | :55:18. | |
see that increase in its funding of ?10 billion in real terms. But there | :55:19. | :55:25. | |
is an issue about the consideration of A, and enabling changes to take | :55:26. | :55:30. | |
place to help the flow, and to help in dealing with patients as they | :55:31. | :55:33. | |
come in. That's why my right honourable friend the Chancellor | :55:34. | :55:38. | |
announced last week 425 million in new capital investment in the NHS, | :55:39. | :55:42. | |
which includes 100 million to help manage the demand on A services, | :55:43. | :55:47. | |
enabling hospitals to make changes to ensure that people are treated in | :55:48. | :55:53. | |
the most appropriate way possible. Over 200 staff at the pension fund | :55:54. | :55:57. | |
in my constituency face an uncertain future as they have been told they | :55:58. | :56:00. | |
have to relocate to other areas over the next few years. Does the Prime | :56:01. | :56:05. | |
Minister realise the impact this has on staff and the local economy? Will | :56:06. | :56:09. | |
she meet me and representatives of the workforce to see what can be | :56:10. | :56:15. | |
done to save the pension centre? I recognise the concern raised for | :56:16. | :56:19. | |
staff at that particular pension office. I recognise this is an | :56:20. | :56:32. | |
issue. I'm sure it is an issue which the Secretary of State for Work and | :56:33. | :56:34. | |
Pensions will look at very closely. But of course the Government is | :56:35. | :56:38. | |
looking to ensure that we both use our resources effectively, but also | :56:39. | :56:42. | |
provide the proper and appropriate service for the recipients of those | :56:43. | :56:48. | |
particular benefits. Last weekend, thousands of people | :56:49. | :56:52. | |
across Lincolnshire came to the races in my constituency to enjoy | :56:53. | :56:57. | |
the racing and the delicious local food - including award-winning | :56:58. | :57:01. | |
Lincolnshire sausages. As the Government prepares to strike new | :57:02. | :57:07. | |
trade deals, international trade deals, will my right honourable | :57:08. | :57:09. | |
friend ensure that the high standards we expect of our food | :57:10. | :57:16. | |
producers and farmers will be met and maintained in these deals, and | :57:17. | :57:20. | |
will this government continued to back British farming? | :57:21. | :57:26. | |
I can assure my honourable friend that we will certainly do that. I | :57:27. | :57:31. | |
remember when I visited her prior to the general election in 2015, | :57:32. | :57:35. | |
sampling some of the excellent Lincolnshire sausages that has come | :57:36. | :57:39. | |
from her constituency. But we do have an opportunity to build a new | :57:40. | :57:42. | |
future for our food and farming industry when we leave the European | :57:43. | :57:46. | |
Union. We will maintain high standards of food safety and animal | :57:47. | :57:50. | |
welfare, that will be a priority. Any trade deals we enter into will | :57:51. | :57:55. | |
need to be right for consumers, businesses, farmers. They will need | :57:56. | :57:59. | |
to ensure our food safety, environmental protection and the | :58:00. | :58:01. | |
animal welfare standards I've just referred to. We recognise the need | :58:02. | :58:07. | |
for certainty for businesses and have provided guarantees for support | :58:08. | :58:11. | |
for farmers up to 2020. We will continue to back British farmers. | :58:12. | :58:16. | |
The UK has one of the worst performing currencies in the world. | :58:17. | :58:21. | |
It has a trade deficit of ?133 billion, and a national debt | :58:22. | :58:28. | |
approaching ?1.7 trillion. Does the Prime Minister really believe that | :58:29. | :58:30. | |
the UK can afford to be an independent country? | :58:31. | :58:45. | |
If he wants... Honourable members on those benchers | :58:46. | :58:49. | |
are very overexcited individuals. I want to hear the Prime Minister's | :58:50. | :58:53. | |
reply. If he wants to talk about figures in | :58:54. | :58:59. | |
relation to the UK economy, the UK economy is the world's sixth-largest | :59:00. | :59:03. | |
economy. The Government has reduced the deficit by two thirds. If he | :59:04. | :59:08. | |
cares to look at the employment figures we see today, employment at | :59:09. | :59:11. | |
a record high, and unemployment which hasn't been lower since 1975. | :59:12. | :59:23. | |
Today is the Ides of March. Yet again, Brutus opposite missed badly. | :59:24. | :59:31. | |
So can the Prime Minister take the opportunity to stick the knife into | :59:32. | :59:35. | |
the ridiculous European Court that ruled yesterday that employers can | :59:36. | :59:38. | |
ban their staff from wearing signs of religious or political belief, | :59:39. | :59:43. | |
and reiterate that reasonable freedom and expression should never | :59:44. | :59:51. | |
be snuffed out politically. We have a strong tradition in this country | :59:52. | :59:55. | |
of freedom of expression. It's the right of all women to choose how | :59:56. | :59:58. | |
they dress, and we don't intend to legislate on this issue. He's raised | :59:59. | :00:03. | |
to be broader issue of symbols, but this case came up in relation to the | :00:04. | :00:08. | |
wearing of the Vale. There will be times when it's right for Israel to | :00:09. | :00:12. | |
be asked to be removed, perhaps in border security law courts. | :00:13. | :00:15. | |
Institutions can make their own policies, but it is not for | :00:16. | :00:19. | |
government to tell women what they can and cannot wear. We want to | :00:20. | :00:23. | |
continue the tradition of freedom of expression. | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
Our First Minister was voted with the largest vote in Scottish | :00:29. | :00:35. | |
parliamentary history on a manifesto which stated that the Scottish | :00:36. | :00:39. | |
Parliament... THE SPEAKER: The question will be heard. Thank you, | :00:40. | :00:45. | |
Mr Speaker, I will start again. Our First Minister was elected with the | :00:46. | :00:50. | |
largest vote in Scottish parliamentary history, on a | :00:51. | :00:52. | |
manifesto pledge which stated that the Scottish Parliament should have | :00:53. | :00:58. | |
the right to hold an independence referendum if there was a | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
significant and material change of circumstances like Scotland being | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
taken out of the EU guest our will. My question to the Prime Minister is | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
simple - does she agree that Government's should stick to their | :01:10. | :01:14. | |
manifesto promises and if so, she cannot object to the First Minister | :01:15. | :01:19. | |
sticking to hers? I, of course, recognise that there | :01:20. | :01:23. | |
was a vote that took place in the Scottish Parliament and the First | :01:24. | :01:29. | |
Minister was returned as the First Minister of a minority Government. | :01:30. | :01:38. | |
But I would refer the honourable lady to two other votes that took | :01:39. | :01:44. | |
place. The Scottish people were given the opportunity to vote to | :01:45. | :01:54. | |
whether or not they wished to remain in the United Kingdom. They choose | :01:55. | :02:00. | |
that Scotland should remain part of the United Kingdom. That was | :02:01. | :02:02. | |
described by the right honourable member for Gordon, as a once in a | :02:03. | :02:05. | |
generation vote. And the other vote to take note of is that on June 23rd | :02:06. | :02:09. | |
last year, the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European | :02:10. | :02:13. | |
Union, and that is what we are going to do. Mr Speaker, with 80% of SMEs | :02:14. | :02:19. | |
reluctant to export, does my right honourable friend agree that the | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
prospect of Brexit gives those firms a golden opportunity to use the | :02:25. | :02:29. | |
great British entrepreneurial spirit to go out into the world, | :02:30. | :02:33. | |
particularly those firms in Scotland, to go out into the world | :02:34. | :02:37. | |
and to sing? My honourable friend is absolutely right about this. Small | :02:38. | :02:41. | |
businesses and the intren airs are essential for an economy that is | :02:42. | :02:43. | |
working for everyone. -- entrepreneurs. But the opportunity | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
that comes from Brexit is to see those firms going out across the | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
world, exporting across the world and doing the trade deals that will | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
be of benefit to them and their communities and of benefit to our | :02:57. | :02:59. | |
economy. We divoont to encourage more businesses to go out there. | :03:00. | :03:05. | |
That's exactly what my right honourable friend the Secretary of | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
State for International trade is doing. This is anp important part of | :03:10. | :03:12. | |
building a stronger, fairer Britain for the future. -- an important | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
part. Thank you, Mr Speaker. HRMC employed over 1,000 staff in my | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
Livingston constituency. Despite widespread criticism from the NEO or | :03:23. | :03:25. | |
Public Accounts Committee and the staff at Livingston being most | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
engaged and productive this Prime Minister's Government is determined | :03:30. | :03:32. | |
to move jobs from Livingston toad inborough whose staff don't want to | :03:33. | :03:37. | |
move and rental costs would be higher. And to compound this, | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
another 400 jobs are to go at another Livingston site. Will the | :03:42. | :03:47. | |
Prime Minister change her mind on the is jobs in Livingston and meet | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
with me to make sure that vital public sector jobs to Livingston | :03:52. | :03:58. | |
will stay there. The HRMC are relocating 170 outdated offices to | :03:59. | :04:01. | |
13 large and modern regional centres. These new centres will be | :04:02. | :04:05. | |
equipped with the digital infrastructure and facilities needed | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
to build a more highly-skilled and flexible workforce to enable | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
modernisation of ways of working, to make tax collection more efficient | :04:14. | :04:18. | |
and effective and it'll bring significant improvements to HMRC's | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
customer services. -- HRMC's. | :04:24. | :04:31. | |
People moo my can constituent voted in favour of Brexit and I was proud | :04:32. | :04:47. | |
to be here in the House on Monday to vote no sport withdrawal of the EU | :04:48. | :04:58. | |
bill. Can my honourable friend, the Prime Minister confirm that she | :04:59. | :05:00. | |
shares my commitment that Brexit should work in the best interests of | :05:01. | :05:02. | |
everyone in our country? THE SPEAKER: Prime Minister? | :05:03. | :05:05. | |
I think, I have to say be... THE SPEAKER: Order. I say to the | :05:06. | :05:07. | |
honourable gentleman for pert and North pertshire. Order, order, the | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
for Perth ander North Perthshire. The honourable gentleman was | :05:13. | :05:15. | |
shouting from beyond the bar, which is very disorderly, on top of the | :05:16. | :05:20. | |
fact that a few moments ago he was gesticulating in a most eccentric | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
manner. I'm becoming concerned about the honourable gentleman, he must | :05:26. | :05:27. | |
now calm himself. The Prime Minister. | :05:28. | :05:30. | |
Thank you, Mr Speaker. My honourable friend is absolutely right. She had, | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
as she said a condition constituencicy that voted | :05:35. | :05:36. | |
overwhelmingly to leave the European Union. The point is that the people | :05:37. | :05:41. | |
of the United Kingdom voted by a majority to leave the European | :05:42. | :05:44. | |
Union. As we do, that we will be ensuring that the deal we achieve in | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
our negotiations, will be the right deal for the United Kingdom, the | :05:49. | :05:52. | |
whole of the United Kingdom and for people across the UK, England, | :05:53. | :05:54. | |
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. | :05:55. | :06:03. | |
Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister's just done a ?2 billion Budget U-Turn | :06:04. | :06:09. | |
in the space of a week. Last year the Government did a ?4 billion | :06:10. | :06:13. | |
U-Turn in the space of five days. Is that why they want to abolish Spring | :06:14. | :06:18. | |
Budgets? Because they just keep ripping them up? | :06:19. | :06:31. | |
I welcome the measure that is were in this Spring Budget, to improve | :06:32. | :06:35. | |
school places for children in this country, to ensure that we put | :06:36. | :06:42. | |
money... THE SPEAKER: Mr Fabricant you are another eccentric fellow | :06:43. | :06:45. | |
shouting loudly but you mustn't shout down your own Prime Minister. | :06:46. | :06:49. | |
Let's hear the Prime Minister. Thank you, Mr Speaker, I welcome the | :06:50. | :06:52. | |
measures in the Spring Budget to ensure that we are putting money... | :06:53. | :06:56. | |
LAUGHTER Money into schools, into skills and | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
into social care and I would've thought The Right Honourable lady | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
would accept that money into schools, skills and social care is | :07:05. | :07:11. | |
good for this country. Thank you Mr Speaker, would the | :07:12. | :07:15. | |
Prime Minister join with me in welcoming the news today that | :07:16. | :07:19. | |
Sergeant Blackman's murder conviction has been downgraded to | :07:20. | :07:22. | |
manslaughter, in part, thanks to the release of previously unheard | :07:23. | :07:25. | |
evidence. This is fantastic news for his wife Claire, who lives in my | :07:26. | :07:33. | |
constituency and who has complained so unstintingly on this and my | :07:34. | :07:35. | |
honourable friend the member for South Dorset who I believe is | :07:36. | :07:39. | |
turning to the chambers provided a very worthy advocate for this case | :07:40. | :07:42. | |
and I commend his hard work. And would the Prime Minister agree with | :07:43. | :07:46. | |
me that within the correct legal framework, those who defend our | :07:47. | :07:50. | |
peace, protect our world from evil, be treated with fairness and | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
understanding and given the adequate resources, including for mental | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
health support they deserve. THE SPEAKER: I'm extremely grateful. | :08:01. | :08:04. | |
Prime Minister. We respect the court's decision, the Ministry of | :08:05. | :08:07. | |
Defence will be looking closely at the judgment but I can assure the | :08:08. | :08:11. | |
House that the Ministry of Defence has cooperated fully at each stage | :08:12. | :08:14. | |
of Sergeant Blackman's case and will continue to provide support to the | :08:15. | :08:17. | |
family as they have done since the charges were first brought. What I | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
would just say on a generalp point is that our Royal Marines have a | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
worldwide reputation as one of the world's elite fighting forces. They | :08:25. | :08:28. | |
make an incredible contribution to our country and we should pay | :08:29. | :08:33. | |
tribute to them all for that. The Disasters Emergency Committee have | :08:34. | :08:35. | |
launched its East Africa crisis appeal. In the context of that | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
crisis, does the Prime Minister share my concern that President | :08:41. | :08:43. | |
Trump is considering major cuts to spending by the United States on | :08:44. | :08:50. | |
aid? Will this Government take every opportunity to press the Americans | :08:51. | :08:53. | |
to remain fully part of the global humanitarian system? I can assure | :08:54. | :08:58. | |
the right honourable gentleman we recognise the severity and urgency | :08:59. | :09:01. | |
of the crisis that is taking place in the East Africa. More than 20 | :09:02. | :09:04. | |
million people face the risk of dying from starvation because of war | :09:05. | :09:08. | |
and drought and again it is this country that is leading the way in | :09:09. | :09:12. | |
delivering life-saving support. We've announced we'll match pound | :09:13. | :09:16. | |
for pound the first ?5 million donated by the public to the | :09:17. | :09:23. | |
Disasters Emergency Committee's new appeal and I can assure him we take | :09:24. | :09:27. | |
every opportunity to ensure that countries around the world recognise | :09:28. | :09:31. | |
the importance of international aid, the importance of supporting | :09:32. | :09:38. | |
countries when we see terrible, terrible disasters like this famine | :09:39. | :09:41. | |
coming to place and it is the UK's record on what we do on this, that | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
enables us to say to others that they should do more. | :09:46. | :09:51. | |
Henry Smith? It is my honour to chair the all parliamentary group on | :09:52. | :09:57. | |
blood cancer and today we launched an inquiry into greater awareness of | :09:58. | :10:02. | |
the condition can I take assurance from my honourable friend that the | :10:03. | :10:05. | |
additional ?10 billion going into the NHS in this Parliament will in | :10:06. | :10:10. | |
some way be spent on ensuring we tackle this third biggest cancer | :10:11. | :10:12. | |
killer? High honourable friend is right to raise a subject like that, | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
which is a cancer of which many people have not heard much and | :10:18. | :10:20. | |
probably are not awhich are of that as a particular issue. I can assure | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
him that -- aware of that particular issue. I I can assure him what the | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
NHS is doing. Over recent years we have seen a significant improvement | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
in cancer survival rates. We have seen significant improvement in the | :10:34. | :10:40. | |
increase of the number of people who are being referred on because of | :10:41. | :10:45. | |
potential cases of cancer and the number of people being treated for | :10:46. | :10:46. | |
cancer and Now, here is what happened. Jeremy | :10:47. | :11:00. | |
Corbyn came to the House with questions about the increase in | :11:01. | :11:02. | |
national insurance contributions. The problem was, just before PMQs | :11:03. | :11:07. | |
began, the Chancellor announced he wasn't proceeding with the increase | :11:08. | :11:10. | |
in national insurance contributions and this has happened before. It | :11:11. | :11:14. | |
caught the Leader of the Opposition on the hop and he was unable to | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
adjust his questions very much to take account of the new | :11:19. | :11:22. | |
circumstances. So, in a way, we didn't get very far on that. The | :11:23. | :11:30. | |
cost to the Government, or to the Treasury, looks to be, by not | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
proceeding with the higher national insurance for the self-employed, to | :11:36. | :11:40. | |
be about ?2 billion, but over four years. It starts at under ?400 | :11:41. | :11:46. | |
million and gets to ?600 million at one stage and comes down. Now ?2 | :11:47. | :11:50. | |
billion, obviously a lot of money, but it is over four years, half a | :11:51. | :11:54. | |
billion a year. I guess the Chancellor will wait for his | :11:55. | :11:56. | |
November Budget, which is meant to be the big one, to see whether he | :11:57. | :12:00. | |
needs to do anything about that or whether the Office for Budget | :12:01. | :12:02. | |
Responsibility has been too pessimistic on the size of the | :12:03. | :12:07. | |
deficit. So it is a problem for the Chancellor but hardly a huge one. | :12:08. | :12:10. | |
Other news was happening while we were on air, a second Conservative | :12:11. | :12:16. | |
MP has been interviewed by police over his general election expenses. | :12:17. | :12:21. | |
Will Quince MP for Colchester but he has been told by Essex Police no | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
further action will be required after voluntary saying that he did | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
that. For me, the billing story is that actually that a leftist dating | :12:31. | :12:35. | |
site has split due to different positions on the 1936 Spanish Civil | :12:36. | :12:37. | |
War. So glad you raised that. How do you | :12:38. | :12:46. | |
know? A popular dating site for socialists Communists and anarchists | :12:47. | :12:49. | |
are splitting into four factions due to adealing onical disagreements | :12:50. | :12:52. | |
over the Spanish Civil War in 1936. So it looks like I'll have to resign | :12:53. | :12:57. | |
from this particular dating site. From the board. | :12:58. | :13:01. | |
What did viewers say? They didn't say much about that leftist dating | :13:02. | :13:05. | |
site. They will now They might. But I took the comments before you made | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
that announcement. They were concentrating on the U-Turn and | :13:10. | :13:13. | |
actually I pulled out some political tweets in response, in terms of | :13:14. | :13:15. | |
politicians giving their views. So this was from John McDonnell, the | :13:16. | :13:22. | |
Shadow Chancellor who says that the Chancellor Philip Hammond's | :13:23. | :13:26. | |
authority is "she redded only a week after his first Budget after being | :13:27. | :13:29. | |
forced to U-Turn under Labour pressure." This from Tim Farron, the | :13:30. | :13:33. | |
Liberal Democrat leader "So the Chancellor has U-Turned after | :13:34. | :13:36. | |
breaking a promise in the Conservative manifesto, perhaps he | :13:37. | :13:39. | |
will now U-Turn on another broken election commitment, to keep us in | :13:40. | :13:44. | |
the single market." This from Ed Vaizey a Tory MP, a backbencher who | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
said "Blimey I have been vigorously defending it." He wasn't alone, | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
there were quite a view, one who also said he hoped they weren't | :13:56. | :13:59. | |
going to change their minds so he didn't look stupid. I think this | :14:00. | :14:02. | |
comes from Matthew Taylor who carried out the view. Is carrying | :14:03. | :14:07. | |
out the review. It is still going on. And it will he be discussed | :14:08. | :14:14. | |
later on in the summer, he said "Let's hope big political learning, | :14:15. | :14:22. | |
is there a danger of trying to make big tax promises to try to embarrass | :14:23. | :14:29. | |
opponents." Here is the headline on the Evening Standard - Hammond | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
U-Turn on Budget fees a quo. More bad headlines for the | :14:34. | :14:36. | |
Chancellor, as if he didn't have enough last week. But I would guess | :14:37. | :14:42. | |
if it caughterises the issue now, he will probably take that on the chin? | :14:43. | :14:47. | |
I was struck watching PMQs with you, although that was a very difficult | :14:48. | :14:50. | |
moment, in the end I think the House accepted it and I think they made | :14:51. | :14:54. | |
the right decision and they were vindicated by the response they got, | :14:55. | :14:56. | |
actually from the Labour benches as well as Conservative. | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
It leaves them with a 2 billion hole, but they don't necessarily | :15:02. | :15:08. | |
have to fill it. It would only take the OBR to have slightly | :15:09. | :15:12. | |
underestimated the growth rate. One Conservative MP described it to me | :15:13. | :15:16. | |
as a rounding error and questioned why they got themselves into such a | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
mess in the bigger context of a government budget of 700 billion or | :15:22. | :15:25. | |
so. But what people may take away from this is that normal people, in | :15:26. | :15:33. | |
normal political times, for a screeching U-turn just before Prime | :15:34. | :15:36. | |
Minister's Questions would have been disaster for the Prime Minister. | :15:37. | :15:41. | |
They would normally have had a terrible, relentless grilling. It | :15:42. | :15:45. | |
would have been a real punishment greeting at the dispatch box. | :15:46. | :15:50. | |
Instead, one shot of the House of Commons was extremely striking. | :15:51. | :15:53. | |
After her questions from Corbyn, Theresa May was seen sitting back on | :15:54. | :15:58. | |
the bench, head back, huge grin. I think there will be big concern on | :15:59. | :16:03. | |
the Labour benches that despite an enormous government U-turn, which is | :16:04. | :16:07. | |
normally seen as humiliating, as John McDonnell suggested, it is | :16:08. | :16:13. | |
Philip Hammond's credibility in tatters, today Jeremy Corbyn | :16:14. | :16:16. | |
couldn't land those blows. He was asking long questions. He couldn't | :16:17. | :16:20. | |
wield the knife. It didn't seem that he was able to think on his feet and | :16:21. | :16:23. | |
respond to what had already happened. I'll come to you win a | :16:24. | :16:27. | |
second. It does leave the Chancellor a diminished figure. Wannabe | :16:28. | :16:32. | |
challenges a financial challenge. As you say, there's probably 0.0% -- | :16:33. | :16:42. | |
0.07% of the national budget. The difficult decision was weighing the | :16:43. | :16:45. | |
fact that this is a fair, good reform. It will be concluded that | :16:46. | :16:52. | |
there is a lot of sense and sorting of discrepancies between employed | :16:53. | :16:55. | |
and self-employed people. I agree with Laura that in the death was the | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
right decision. It's also possible, apart from the question about Jeremy | :17:01. | :17:03. | |
Corbyn, that public use of these things was changing. -- I with Laura | :17:04. | :17:10. | |
that this was the right decision. Rather than ploughing on regardless, | :17:11. | :17:14. | |
when you get a clear message that people feel the manifesto has been | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
broken, that politicians respond. Therefore there is some forgiveness. | :17:20. | :17:22. | |
Angus Robertson, who leads the Scottish Nationalists in | :17:23. | :17:28. | |
Westminster, in Parliament, said it was a screeching embarrassing | :17:29. | :17:33. | |
U-turn. It was an effect of intervention by Mr Robertson. Why | :17:34. | :17:41. | |
didn't Jeremy Corbyn say that? To hear a Conservative MP described the | :17:42. | :17:44. | |
self-employed as a rounding error is frankly insulting. Don't you think | :17:45. | :17:50. | |
-- I don't think that's what they did, they said. Last week, Philip | :17:51. | :18:00. | |
Hammond was cracking jokes. He had a whale of a time announcing the | :18:01. | :18:03. | |
increase in National Insurance will stop one of those strokes was that | :18:04. | :18:09. | |
the last Chancellor to make similar comments was sacked a few weeks | :18:10. | :18:14. | |
later. So perhaps he should have been a little more careful in what | :18:15. | :18:17. | |
he said last week, both in cracking jokes and also in bringing forward | :18:18. | :18:23. | |
something he would have two reverse. He's not cracking jokes now, is he? | :18:24. | :18:28. | |
He and the Prime Minister were, as Laura pointed out. His arrogance and | :18:29. | :18:31. | |
complacency is really not what is needed when we have the country in a | :18:32. | :18:38. | |
position where since 2010 we have faced falling living standards, | :18:39. | :18:40. | |
whilst the overall economy has grown. We are the only country in | :18:41. | :18:44. | |
the developed world where that is the case. I think a little more | :18:45. | :18:49. | |
thought the head of the budget wouldn't have gone amiss. I'm | :18:50. | :18:53. | |
pleased he's maybe U-turn. But it does put a huge question over his | :18:54. | :18:59. | |
future. Can I come in on this? I think it's tempting to focus | :19:00. | :19:02. | |
everything on Jeremy Corbyn. But the bigger question of why Parliament | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
responded quite positively to that decision must be about bigger | :19:07. | :19:11. | |
things. And one of those things is, I believe, obviously, I would | :19:12. | :19:14. | |
believe, is that if they vote a basic confidence in Theresa May's | :19:15. | :19:18. | |
government. It is basically felt but Theresa May and the Chancellor are | :19:19. | :19:23. | |
competent and the economy is going in the right direction. That's the | :19:24. | :19:26. | |
context in which people can be forgiving about these kinds of | :19:27. | :19:30. | |
things. Laura, Mr Hammond has his enemies in ten Downing St. No names. | :19:31. | :19:36. | |
And of course they would dispute that! He's not even -- I've not even | :19:37. | :19:44. | |
named them. But I don't get the impression that the Prime Minister, | :19:45. | :19:48. | |
although she has had some ups and downs, with the Chancellor, I don't | :19:49. | :19:51. | |
get the impression that she has any interest in getting rid of him. I | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
don't think that's a potential at this stage at all. I think Theresa | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
May, her political style, frankly, people say she doesn't trust very | :20:01. | :20:04. | |
many people. One of the people that she does broadly trust, it said, is | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
Philip Hammond. They're not necessarily best of friends but they | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
have dinner every week, they talk a lot, they have a businesslike, | :20:13. | :20:17. | |
professional relationship. While they're not bosom buddies, it is a | :20:18. | :20:21. | |
relationship that despite tensions, particularly with the wider teams, | :20:22. | :20:26. | |
always the case between the Treasury and Downing Street, I think at this | :20:27. | :20:29. | |
stage in the game, we're not in a place where there are suggestions | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
that somehow he may be moved out. This, however, of course may have a | :20:35. | :20:38. | |
longer-term impact. Whatever the politics of today, it is a very big | :20:39. | :20:42. | |
deal for a Chancellor seven days later to back down. To drop a! To | :20:43. | :20:50. | |
drop a huge part of his budget. That is a really significant thing. | :20:51. | :20:54. | |
Normally it takes months. More on that thought, Rory Stewart? Lets get | :20:55. | :20:58. | |
more reaction. You may remember last Thursday, the day after the | :20:59. | :21:04. | |
announcement, we spoke to Stephen McPartland who joins us again. He's | :21:05. | :21:09. | |
in central lobby. He is smiling, presumably because of the screaming, | :21:10. | :21:14. | |
screeching U-turn, to use Angus Robertson's words. Is that what you | :21:15. | :21:18. | |
would call it? I'd certainly call it a U-turn. I said last week he needed | :21:19. | :21:22. | |
one and needed to do it quickly. I believe it shows he's a strong | :21:23. | :21:27. | |
Chancellor in the sense that he's admitted he's made a mistake and now | :21:28. | :21:31. | |
can move forward. Does he look like a strong Chancellor, or does he look | :21:32. | :21:35. | |
like someone forced into it by backbenchers like yourself, and | :21:36. | :21:38. | |
Number 10, who didn't want to have to explain all allowed the Prime | :21:39. | :21:41. | |
Minister to take a beating over this policy in the House? I think it | :21:42. | :21:46. | |
demonstrates that he is strong having stood up and said that he | :21:47. | :21:50. | |
holds his hands up. That's good news for me. It also demonstrates the | :21:51. | :21:55. | |
power of the back channels, and how backbenchers can actually go in | :21:56. | :21:58. | |
there and make a difference. He has listened and changed his mind. I'm | :21:59. | :22:01. | |
delighted about that. This was going to be punitive. I thought this was | :22:02. | :22:06. | |
going to be an attack on those families who had taken a risk to | :22:07. | :22:11. | |
setup their own business, and you are the backbone of our economy. So | :22:12. | :22:16. | |
I'm absolutely delighted he's done the. Did you speak to the Chancellor | :22:17. | :22:23. | |
yourself? I spoke to the Chancellor and a number of people. We certainly | :22:24. | :22:28. | |
made our views clear. There was lots of communication, blogs are back | :22:29. | :22:31. | |
channels and we got the message across. It was something I wasn't | :22:32. | :22:34. | |
going to be voting for and we will had been campaigning against. We had | :22:35. | :22:39. | |
decided this was a mistake and would move forward. Seven days after | :22:40. | :22:44. | |
standing up in the same place where Theresa May is today, and then | :22:45. | :22:48. | |
completely dismissing and you turning on a fairly key part of your | :22:49. | :22:58. | |
budget statement, it does smack of not strength, but we can. From my | :22:59. | :23:04. | |
point of view, I'm very pleased about the results. He's admitted | :23:05. | :23:12. | |
he's made a mistake. Instead of trying to create a fudge which would | :23:13. | :23:15. | |
have let everybody disappointed, he's listened and moved forward. I | :23:16. | :23:19. | |
called for a quick U-turn and we got a quick U-turn. To some extent, | :23:20. | :23:24. | |
Theresa May has ruled it out. How saw were people about the fact that | :23:25. | :23:28. | |
it did breach the manifesto commitment or no tax rises? Quite | :23:29. | :23:33. | |
strong. We all stand a manifesto. One of the things that you're going | :23:34. | :23:36. | |
to do a new rebel against the Government is actually not rebel on | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
anything stated in the manifesto, because you stood on that manifesto. | :23:41. | :23:45. | |
Effectively something being in a manifesto was taken very, very | :23:46. | :23:48. | |
seriously inside the Parliamentary party. Thank you for joining us | :23:49. | :23:53. | |
again almost a week later. Laura, before you go? Fascinating hearing | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
that. Polls suggest Theresa May is strong in the country, but we've | :23:58. | :24:00. | |
just seen she is not necessarily very strong in Parliament. Steve | :24:01. | :24:06. | |
McPartlin, rebel MP, saying very clearly there that backbenchers won | :24:07. | :24:12. | |
the day. Thank you very much. It's been a very eventful PMQs. I need to | :24:13. | :24:13. | |
lie down. Today a virtual tour of Parliament | :24:14. | :24:15. | |
was launched so people can experience the famous building | :24:16. | :24:17. | |
in all its glorious 360 degrees. We sent our reporter, | :24:18. | :24:20. | |
Emma Vardy, to take a look. You don't need to come | :24:21. | :24:22. | |
in all the way to London Now you can do it with your | :24:23. | :24:25. | |
mobile phone - and one of these. Now I'm standing exactly where | :24:26. | :24:34. | |
the PM would be stood for PMQs. Parliament has run guided tours | :24:35. | :24:39. | |
in real life for a number of years. The hope is this will encourage | :24:40. | :24:51. | |
people from all over the world to take a walk through the corridors | :24:52. | :24:54. | |
of power in virtual reality. You can go inside some | :24:55. | :25:00. | |
of the most famous rooms, The tour goes live online today, | :25:01. | :25:15. | |
and the 360 images will also be available to explore | :25:16. | :25:25. | |
on Google Street View, alongside Well, it has been said | :25:26. | :25:28. | |
that some MPs are living So now there's one for | :25:29. | :25:39. | |
the rest of us to enjoy. Joining me now is Penny Young, who's | :25:40. | :25:46. | |
Director of Information Services Why have you done this? Is part of | :25:47. | :25:59. | |
the way we're reaching out to the public, and that the public and find | :26:00. | :26:03. | |
out more about Parliament. You do need a virtual reality headset. This | :26:04. | :26:08. | |
is mobile and tablet friendly. With the best will in the world, not | :26:09. | :26:12. | |
everybody is going to be able to get to the Houses of Parliament to see | :26:13. | :26:16. | |
those fabulous sites. This is one way they can do it. Is it about | :26:17. | :26:19. | |
trying to attract more people, if they can make it to parliament, to | :26:20. | :26:23. | |
come and have a look around? It's partly if you can't get there, so | :26:24. | :26:28. | |
you can see it for yourself. It's also if you're coming, you may want | :26:29. | :26:31. | |
to be preview. Or if you've been, you may want to learn more. It is of | :26:32. | :26:35. | |
course only one way of engaging Parliament. You can contact your MP, | :26:36. | :26:41. | |
you can go on a members' tour, you can pay to go on a richer | :26:42. | :26:45. | |
experience, if you like. Schoolkids can come on education visit. You can | :26:46. | :26:49. | |
go in the gallery yourself and see what's going on. So there is a whole | :26:50. | :26:54. | |
range of ways, and this opens it up. Picon with the same as the real-life | :26:55. | :27:01. | |
experience of going round with you? -- it can't be the same as the | :27:02. | :27:06. | |
real-life experience. You can now get into very dangerous countries | :27:07. | :27:09. | |
and the beautiful buildings, and it also preserves things for the | :27:10. | :27:16. | |
future. In years' time, it will be able to see what the houses of | :27:17. | :27:21. | |
Commons looked like. Will you buy one? I've got my glasses at home. | :27:22. | :27:26. | |
It's an amazing place to work and it's a privilege for us to be there. | :27:27. | :27:30. | |
It's important to remember it. But for Rory and I come our constituents | :27:31. | :27:33. | |
are hours away from London and sometimes it's difficult to get it. | :27:34. | :27:38. | |
Why has it taken so long to do it? We've had a version, but it is now | :27:39. | :27:43. | |
mobile friendly and tablet friendly. You can look at it on Google maps, | :27:44. | :27:47. | |
and so on. That point about your constituents living hours away, | :27:48. | :27:51. | |
that's an important one. That's why things like the petitions committee | :27:52. | :27:54. | |
and digital debate on important so people can tweet at you and you can | :27:55. | :27:58. | |
comment on that in the chamber. There are many ways now of engaging | :27:59. | :28:05. | |
and it's important that you know the relationship -- it is important | :28:06. | :28:07. | |
because we know the relationship with the public is not as strong as | :28:08. | :28:10. | |
we would like. They don't necessarily think Parliament is | :28:11. | :28:13. | |
working for them, so it's one of the many ways to reach out and | :28:14. | :28:16. | |
strengthening relationship. Just before they move out! We may not see | :28:17. | :28:19. | |
it in everyone will be kicked out. There's just time to put you out | :28:20. | :28:21. | |
of your misery and give 1949, a very important year. | :28:22. | :28:33. | |
Desperate to press that buzzer. And it's Peter Thomson in Warrington. | :28:34. | :28:37. | |
Well done, you got 1949 as the correct answer. | :28:38. | :28:40. | |
The one o'clock news is starting over on BBC One now. | :28:41. | :28:43. | |
Jo and I will be here at noon tomorrow with all the big political | :28:44. | :28:47. |