05/12/2017 Monday in Parliament

The main party in Northern Ireland,

the DUP, said it would not support

a deal which gave significant

concessions to the Irish Republic.

Now on BBC News it's time for a look

back at the Day in Parliament.

Hello and welcome to Monday in

Parliament. Our look at the best of

the day in the Commons and Lords.

Will Brexit meant taking back tales

from Scotland, Wales, and Northern

Ireland?

This bill tramples all over

the default competencies of the

Parliament in Edinburgh, Cardiff,

and Belfast.

We are grabbing the

powers back from Belfast and bring

them to London.

-- Brussels. Labour

peers described an unusual meeting

in the street.

Robert Plant, a

multibillionaire rock star of led

Zeppelin wanted to know, I have been

sent £300 by the government, why?

And has everything stopped for

Brexit? The social mobility

programme continues, despite

resignations of the Social Mobility

Commission.

While Brexit is an

important part of this government,

we are absolutely committed to

ensuring that we continue this

process.

But first, Theresa May and

the European Commission president,

Jean-Claude Juncker, have held talks

in Brussels, but fail to reach a

deal to allow the Brexit

negotiations to continue to trade

issues. Initially, it had appeared

that a deal was imminent, when

Northern Ireland was offered a close

relationship with the single market

and customs union. But the leader of

the DUP, Arlene Foster, said her

party could not accept any proposal

that would be to Northern Ireland

being treated separately to the rest

of the UK. In the Commons, a labour

MP reacted to the news of the

failure to reach a deal.

After

incessant briefing in the last two

days that Theresa May and the Prime

Minister and Governor Douglas to

deal, it has just emerged in the

last few seconds that she is going

to come home empty-handed, with no

deal. This is a shambles that into

perspective the constitutional

settlement for our country here. Can

we expect it to make a statement

tomorrow.

I'm about to say it was my

expectation that they would be a

statement to this house this week,

and although I cannot predict with

certainty, I thought there was

reason to believe it would be likely

to be tomorrow.

Between courses at

large, this afternoon, keep a

minister has gone from negotiating

an agreement to a set of texts to

throwing it in the bin alongside any

leftovers. It is clear that the

Democratic Unionist Party, ten

Members of Parliament, ten Members

of Parliament from Northern Ireland,

are holding this government to

account, art holding this government

by the neck, because it is much more

important for the Prime Minister to

hold onto power than it is to do

what is in the best interests of all

the nation.

Decay reports that a

planned statement by Theresa May had

been cancelled.

The speaker made it

clear, when asked, that the Prime

Minister was intending to make any

statement to this house that the

negotiations a discussion she had

been having with the DUP on Europe,

I gather that Downing Street is

notify the press, not this house,

that there will be no such statement

tomorrow, and the Prime Minister is

not intending to make a statement. I

wonder if there is any means of

making sure that Downing Street is

fully aware that this house would

expect, if we are taking back

control, that this house should be

kept informed of the negotiations

fully and appropriately at every

stage.

I will certainly pass on your

remarks to the speaker, but I think,

in the meantime, you have made your

point to the house.

Now, how Brexit

will affect the devolved

administrations of the UK has

dominated the letters air debate on

the EU withdrawal. Enda Brady

legislation is designed to avoid

leaving Britain in a legal limbo

when it leaves the EU. During the

fourth day of consideration of the

bill, MPs of Scotland and Wales in

particular claim the Brexit process

was going to result in a Westminster

power grab and the UK government was

in line to take functions back from

the devolved bodies in Edinburgh,

Cardiff, and Belfast. The shadow

Brexit minister want the government

not to use Britain as an excuse to

take powers back.

I sense that the

government's decision to withhold

retained EU powers in Whitehall is

not an anti- de- pollution stands,

but is instead one of the clearest

indications yet that the government

is not coping with the task of

Brexit. -- anti-devolution. The

government said we has not had the

ministerial had space or bandwidth

to engage with the consequences of

Brexit for the established, get

still young, devolution settlement

is now in place.

But does she accept

that those powers are not being

ripped away because they are not

there for the devolved

administration. Whether you think

that is right or not, just as a

matter of law, those powers are

vested in the EU, and therefore, if

they come back to the devolved

administrations, that is an

additional power, not one that has

been taken away.

The reality is that

this will be called a power grab. I

did not hear the phrase today, but

it will be. And I is a very good. It

is a power grab. Of course it is. A

wonderful power grabbers. We are

grabbing those powers back from

Brussels and bringing them to

London. Not only that, the next few

years, Juno at - the SNP can chat or

they want, I am waiting to want to

interrupt.

I believe 100% in the

ancient idea that the people are

sovereign. If he tells me that

ultimate sovereignty over Scotland

and is right.

That is a matter for

the Scots to decide. And they did

decide. And they decided that for

the time being that ultimate

sovereignty rests within the United

Kingdom Parliament in which the

Scots are very heavily and well

represented, or they may say so.

What is happening here is that

without agreement, Westminster is

taking back control over matters

that have a vault without showing to

respect and negotiating

appropriately with the devolved

administrations. We are willing to

compromise and reach agreement, but

we are some distance from that

point. The UK government has failed

to see a sense of urgency in

concluding anything with the

devolved administrations. That means

Scotland losing powers. I can hear-

coming from the other side. I

wouldn't let any member of the

government benches rise now and then

won power. One power that is coming

back to Scotland as a consequence.

And the two governments will bring

forward their proposals in due

course. This power grab talk, this

naming one power, it is pantomime.

What this government is involved in

is the reality of negotiating a way

forward on this matter.

Brexit must

be delivered in a way that respects

and is ceased to devolution,

ensuring that the UK can pull apart

the three centuries old market.

We

see the Mr Ismay is making of the

negotiations. We have seen as. She

has held - being held to account by

a small minority party, the DUP. We

have seen at this afternoon in the

negotiations. How Brexit or no deal

with challenge devolution, as well

as risking the union. As a

devolutionist who wants the UK to

stay together, these issues are

likely to cause the UK to begin to

unravel.

Some members have been in

here will roll. The Secretary of

State for Wales is completely

absent. For about 20 minutes of the

start of the bill. I don't think

that shows the level of respect for

the people of Wales, the members of

the assembly, that have been putting

these concerns were. I sincerely

hope that the government ministers

to listen. But they do, with pieces

to these problems. Because otherwise

I can tell you that they will have a

very rocky ride but it comes to the

report stage on this bill.

As part

of the EU withdrawal process,

Scotland's to government are

currently discussing where where the

power is taken back should be

vested. Just as those powers

relating to Scotland, as we have

heard about, are being discussed,

the Welsh government has a list of

£64 it feels could be vulnerable

this agreement.

Devolution demands

that all countries within the UK

have a say in the future, not this

one. Numbers will have the

opportunity to date to assess this

power grab. In the interests of the

devolved countries, we can have

these discussions about sovereignty

and put all four countries in the UK

on an equal footing.

In the deeper

consideration of the bill continues.

The bridge economy is stagnating,

and Brexit will only damage and

further, the view of Alistair

Darling. It has been contributing to

a general debate in the House of

Lords that followed the Chancellor's

budget statement at the end of last

month. The Darling said the latest

economic forecast showed that almost

one together from the great

financial crash of 2008, the UK

economy had still not returned to

its growth levels experienced in the

preceding years.

The economic

prospects that we thought by now

would have been given a lot better

at it to be stagnating at best, if

not deteriorating, and, of course,

that has indications for all of us.

But I think there is a real problem

in that our economy seems to be

stagnating. I think it is fantasy to

believe that if only we were free of

the European Union at the earliest

opportunity that somehow things

would get better. And indeed, I

would argue that at a very time when

the economy has been dipping a long,

the last possible thing we need is a

disruption to our economic prospects

since the Second World War.

Of

course our productivity is too low.

I welcome the steps to be Chancellor

is taking to improve matters. But

ethically concerned with the way in

which we make comparisons of our

productivity without mentioning the

level of employment in this country

altogether with the lower

unemployment, which, in a different

ways, are at record levels, and, I

believe, cannot be totally

dissociated from the levels of

productivity. Those are things which

in any civil society we should be

proud of.

George Osborne used to be

proud of squeezing the UK can be

tighter than any in the advanced

world, all in the name of ending the

budget deficit. But squeezing out of

the economy has left the Tories

short of a palace budget while

doubling national debt. Having

failed to end the deficit by 2015,

their original target, they say they

will only harboured by 2022, and by

that stage, the corpus will have

moved yet again to maintain the

illusion that their plan is still on

track and to justify still more

austerity. There has been much

handwringing in political circles

about the so-called austerity of the

last decade.

But in truth, it has

been to lack. Australian island,

where tough things were adopted. --

austerity in Ireland. In the UK,

concessions to this, in this or that

budget, the Chancellor feels obliged

to take a rabbit out of the hat, and

the political pressures which lead

to this should be seen against a

sombre background.

When it comes to

research and development and

innovation, cover the good news is

the garments as the UK will invest

more in this area, but what is

more,? And what is required? Germany

and America spend 2.7 2.8%. £2

billion a year is a good move. But

it is £20 billion a year that we

need the year just to catch up with

them level on the backlog.

Big

government, the media, and most

industry have all expressed

confidence that in the end they will

be a soft Brexit. But suppose they

are wrong and we end up with no

deal, or the hardest of hard

Brexits, if the financial market

should start to believe that this is

where we are heading, it is very

possible that there will be a panic,

the pound will sink, business and

consumer confidence will evaporate,

and investment will dry up. And then

we would be a very severe crisis.

And what prize then, the so-called

pessimism of present forecasts?

I was stopped in the street by

Robert Plant, a multibillion rock

star of Led Zeppelin, who wanted to

know, I've been sent £300 by the

government. Why? Why indeed. The

heating allowance for all the people

should be means tested. -- older

people. When I first received it I

tried to send it back, but I

received a message that it couldn't

be received. There was no facility

for taking it back. And I, like many

like me, and perhaps like you, give

that heating allowance to charity.

The budget take sensible actions in

light of revised forecast is to

address some of the key challenges

and opportunities that lie ahead.

And in doing so lay foundations

tried prosperous future. It invests

sustainable in our public services

for supporting people in businesses,

and continues to invest to secure a

bright future for Britain. And I

commend it to your logic's oust.

Lord Bates. You are watching our

round-up of the day in the House of

Commons and the House of Lords.

Still to come, the Speaker tells a

cabinet minister he is using

unparliamentary language. Four

members of the social mobility

commission were stood down at the

weekend. The commission's job is to

check on the government's progress

in bringing children out of poverty

and providing opportunities for all

communities. At the chairman, the

former Labour cabinet minister Alan

Milburn, resigned, saying he had

little hope that the current

government could make progress on

social mobility because it was too

focused on Brexit. It gave Lib Dem

leader Sir Vince Cable the

opportunity to ask ministers about

the resignations in the Commons.

I

don't think Conservatives have ever

claimed to be a party of equality,

but they have always claimed to be a

party of equality of opportunity, in

other words, social mobility. And

when the Prime Minister took office,

her first speech set out very

clearly the objectives to do

everything to help anybody, whatever

their background, to go as far as

their talents would take them. So

what does the resignation of the

commission tell us about the

government's success in achieving

that objective? The chairman of the

commission was very pointed. He said

the worst possible position in

politics is to set out a proposition

that you want to heal social

division, and then do nothing about

it. In conclusion, can I just ask

the minister whether he would agree

with the commission and shout's

point that Brexit is now sucking the

life out of government? --

commission shout's. And of the

biggest casualties of Brexit,

especially the extreme Brexit of

withdrawing from the single market

and the customs union, the biggest

casualties will be the 60 of the 65

social mobility seats that voted for

Brexit.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I

would not recognise the

characterisation that the right

honourable gentleman made, that we

have done nothing, in his words, to

address social mobility. If you look

at a number of our policies, look at

university entrance, where 43% of

disadvantaged children, they are 43%

more likely to go to university in

2009. -- then in 2009. We have 1.9

million more good or outstanding

skills compared to 2010. We have

more teachers in schools than ever

before. I wouldn't recognise that

characterisation. Could I also make

clear that while Brexit is very

important, this government can walk

and chew gum at the same time. We

are absolutely committed to ensuring

that we continue this process of

improving social mobility for

everybody in our country.

Many

people were inspired by what prime

ministers and on the steps of

Downing Street when she took office.

Would my honourable friend look at

the idea of using this opportunity,

would be social mobility commission,

reforming to create a social justice

commissioner of the out of Downing

Street, and using it to assess the

impact of every bit of domestic

legislation on social justice?

Well,

can I put on record our commitment

to maintain the social mobility

commission. It has done great work

over the last five years and I would

once again pay tribute to Alan

Milburn for his work as chair. We

intend to refresh the commission, we

need to bring in some new people,

some people that will hold us to

account, who will hold our feet to

the fire, to ensure that we get a

good spread of representation on

that particular commission.

Is the

government, if the government really

committed to the commission as an

independent body? And although the

government have just said they put

that on record, their commitment,

what do they see as its role? And

what will its remit be now? And how

much funding will be commission

have? Can he confirmed that in the

US and is the commission's pretty 16

report, the government has not

adopted a single one of its

recommendations? -- in the years

since the commission's 2016 report.

The report said that the UK had a

deep social mobility problem, and on

fairer education system, a two tier

labour market, and imbalanced

economy, and an unaffordable housing

market. So what are the government

doing about it? And was this a

factor in those resignations?

She

asked, is the government really

committed to this commission? The

answer is yes, absolutely. She asked

about the role of the commission.

That will not change. I pay tribute

to the commission for the work it

has done, and I pay tribute to Alan

for the working has done over that

time.

The debate of the social

mobility. Campaigners say government

plans for changes to the welfare

system could mean that victims of

domestic violence are made homeless.

Currently, women can use housing

benefit to pay for their stay at a

refuge. Ministers believe their

changes to the system will mean

vulnerable people will not have

defined their rent at a difficult

time. In Commons questions, Labour's

Housing spokesperson wanted to know

if funds for homeless shelters or

women's refuges would be cut between

now and the next general election.

Mr Speaker, the Secretary of State

tries to tell us the government has

a good record on homelessness. Since

2010, ministers have made 452

announcements of homelessness. But

47,000 more children are now

homeless. That is 100 more homeless

children for every Conservative

press release. What is needed now is

action to deal with the root causes

of the rising homelessness. Not more

warm words. A straight question to

the Secretary of State. Will there

be any further cuts in funding in

this Parliament for homeless hostels

and women's refuges under his plans

for short-term housing?

We have no

plans to cut the funding for women's

refuges or other support networks

providing for homelessness. Indeed,

what we saw in the budget from my

right honourable friend, the

Chancellor, just a couple of weeks

ago, was an increase in spending and

resources to fight homelessness.

The

tragedy is that we know what works

because we have done it before,

Labour was in government. So if he

wants to act cross-party, will he

backed Labour was Mac plan to end

rough sleeping homelessness within

Parliament, provide 4000 extra homes

for rough sleepers, review the

Social Security system and build a

new low-cost housing that is needed?

Secretary of State.

With respect, I

say to the right honourable

gentleman, he is being a bit

disingenuous with his use of those

figures and those so-called facts.

He will know that when it comes to

women's refuges...

Disingenuous

means dishonest. And that cannot be

said. That cannot be said without a

response. The Secretary of State is

a most versatile fellow, very

dextrous in his use of language, and

I'm sure he will withdraw and use

some other word. I cannot hear what

the honourable gentleman is seen

from this entry position but we can

have a cup of tea later.

Mr Speaker,

I withdraw the word disingenuous.

That we say, my right honourable

friend is not being as clear as he

could yet he wanted to be. When it

comes to women's refuges, we have

dedicated £20 million, which will

provide some 2200 additional bed

spaces. And in future years, it is

right to see what either there is,

and made sure we make appropriate

resources available.

Sajid Javid.

Should packets of sugary breakfast

cereals contain a free toothbrush?

That was the suggestion of a bid and

member of the House of Lords, when

peers turned their attention to

dental decay. It is show that the

number of children having to have

their teeth extracted because of

decay has risen for four years in a

row. Within a 12 month period,

33,000 children in England had to

have at least one tooth removed. An

independent PSO part of the problem

was getting parents to recognise the

importance of visits to the dentist.

-- independent review said.

My

Lords, in order to get children to

be seen by a dentist, their parents

have got to take them to the

dentist. Many parents are not very

happy themselves about going to the

dentist. How can this be overcome?

I

was probably not giving out lollies

to say well done for coming. The

noble lady makes an important point.

I should point out that 7 million

under-18s were seen by a dentist in

the last year for which data is

available, an increase on previous

years, citing things are improving.

It is not the case that research

evidence shows that milk helps to

protect the teeth of young children

as well as combating obesity?

I am

sure milk does have those benefits.

I should also point out that one of

the best things that you can do for

all bone health is to have vitamin D

and calcium supplements, which are

recommended for young children.

Asking manufacturers of sugary

cereals to include in the packets a

free toothbrush, which would cost

them very little?

That is one idea I

will certainly take away. I think

some of the impact we are having is

on reformulation, which is I inked

preventative, even more so than

putting toothbrushes in cereals.

There is a plan to reduce by 20%,

sugar in key foods, by 2020,

specifically for the benefit of

children.

Lord O'Shaughnessy. That

is it for this programme. This you

McCarthy will be here for the rest

of the week, for now, from me, Keith

McDougall, goodbye. -- Alicia

McCarthy.