17/03/2016 Newsnight

Could George Osborne's budget be unravelling over disability cuts?

Discontent is brewing among Tory backbenchers.

I think it takes a backward step from where we

So I, with other colleagues, the urging

So I, with other colleagues, are urging

the government to press the pause on it.

We ask - what will the impact be on those effected?

Also, tonight a runnning Newsnight investigation -

another Labour figure, this time an MP, calls

for an inquiry into bullying of Muslim women within the party.

What experiences have you had that are similar? I have had members of

the Labour Party having meetings from which I have excluded from.

And Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, has been laying

out her big vision for the future of schools.

We'll be grilling the schools minister on what it means

With the dizzy political high afforded by the so-called sugar tax

now dissipating, serious scrutiny of some of yesterday's more

substantive budget announcements increased today.

And cuts to support payments currently available to disabled

people could well prove to be the most problematical

Some Conservative MPs have already broken ranks and yet more have

privately expressed concern that George Osborne's plan to save over

?1 billion in Personal Independence Payments unfairly targets some

The Chancellor was getting a lesson in how to change direction with a

bit of elegance. Pupils in this leads school showing him skills that

would be handy for politicians dash getting over daunting obstacles and

bending over backwards. The Chancellor, make himself need to

perform a nifty backflip in the coming days over disability welfare

payments. There is growing disquiet on Conservative benches. We are on

the side of trying to get vulnerable people to be independent, get into

work or continue in work. That is the government is macro agenda, to

improve their life chances. It is a backward step. I would urge other

colleagues to press pause on it. The PIP, brought in in 2013 to replace

the disability living allowance, on Friday the government announced the

way it is calculated for some people, starting next January. We

are looking at the government trying to save more than a billion pounds a

year. It is a relatively small minority of those who are receiving

PIP will lose. But those who will lose will lose significant amounts,

more than ?3000 a year each. In 2013, this was the projection the

new PIP system would save 2.5 Oleon and remove 600,000 claimants. Those

savings never came. Every subsequent forecast has seen the costs rising

and savings further. Without changes to the PIP, this is what the latest

rejection was. With changes, the cost comes down a bit, but rises

again from 2018. In 2010 when the government first introduced the

fiscal consolidation programme, one of the things they did to make the

sums add up, was pencil in a 20% cut in what was then disability living

allowance, which is now the personal independence payment. They never

planned how they would deliver to 20% cut and indeed, they haven't

delivered it. The cuts have been announced in the last week and is a

way of the government finding the money from PIP it promised to cut in

2010, but never delivered. Today, the Chancellor was hinting there may

be some flexibility in the government's position. We have got

to make sure we have a system that works. We have set out proposals to

do that. We are always happy to listen to proposals others may have

on how we can improve on that. But we have got to make sure we control

our disability budget, so as it rises, it absolutely goes to the

people in our society who need it most. Today's photo opportunity was

supposed to project a positive image of the Chancellor and his budget.

That is now in danger, since the savings from disability welfare

payments are set against cuts in capital gains tax, which will almost

exclusively help the better off. It is hard to see who the beneficiaries

to changes to capital gains tax are. But there will be people close to

the top of the income and wealth distribution. In general, these are

going to be right towards the top of the income and wealth distribution.

More Conservative MPs are worried this juxtaposition of tax cuts to

the rich and benefits cuts to some disabled people is poisonous but the

government's reputation. We are more generous than previous governments

in relation to disability. The PIP payments now is much better than the

way Atos callously treated people. But this puts us on the back foot,

when we should be looking at more long-term reform. It is a short-term

fix and looking at other priorities, it doesn't sit so well. As the

Chancellor sat down for breakfast, Whitehall sources were trying to

untangle his budget and the benefit changes, which they insist nothing

to do with it. The reforms to PIP, they say, have come after

consultation an independent review. Nevertheless, it seems likely a

rethink all have to be served up soon.

Joining me now is disability rights campaigner Kaz Aston.

It is tempting to see every cut as callous but the Chancellor is keen

to see money reached the right people. It is not an infinite supply

of money, what is the problem with the proposed changes to PIP? It is

looking at over 200,000 people who will potentially lose ?3000 a year.

You are on a reduced income anyway because you are quite often unable

to work. It will take more pressure to take people to try to earn more

money, or how they will manage, is a big question. But it is putting

pressure on their health. We have got to remember they have a

disability and stress isn't good. It will push them under the knife. What

sort of things will they be spending the ?3000 on a moment? They could be

spending it on extra care and extra support to manage their health. Also

they can go to work and try to do more with their lives or education.

People with a disability don't want to give up, but look at a more

sustainable way to carry on and take an active role in society. The

supply of money isn't infinite, it has been pointed out the overall

expenditure is going up. As a country we spend more on looking

after disabled people than on defence. There is nothing wrong with

that, but there must come a point when every government has the right

to say, we should save a bit there. If you have got to cut money, you

have got to cut many. But for people trying to maintain their health and

be as well and as independent as they can, they need support to do

that. If you put more stress and pressure on them, it is a negative

knock on. We are looking at 44% of the 5.5 million working age

individuals in the UK who have a work limiting health condition,

being in work, being employed. You mentioned people might have to find

ways to raise more money, I don't want to sound like the child catcher

out of Chitty, Chitty bang bang, but working might be the way? A lot of

people don't want to give up work, people with MS, like I have got,

quite have to return earlier because they cannot maintain the pace of

work. With MS, more women have it than men, they have to look after

children and extra pressures as well. So a lot of extra pressure

going on the body, which for example, MS, finds it really hard.

It is difficult to live with. Of course, a couple of Conservative MPs

breaking ranks. I am hearing a few more might we waiting in the wings.

Who is speaking for you politically at the moment, who is speaking for

the recipients? There is a lot going on, a lot of good charities doing

some good work, but this seems to have been rushed through quickly.

Yes, of course, we need to be cutting costs all the time to keep

the country going. However, sometimes you need to put a bit more

thought into it. Is anyone championing disabled people? I know

Jeremy Corbyn is waging war on them, who is defending them? We are having

to fight for ourselves because there are so many agendas. It is quite

lonely. When you are trying to manage your health and your

lifestyle and keep as well as you can, you do feel alone. Many thanks

indeed. Every state school in England

will become an Academy and be removed from local authority

control by the end of 2022, This unprecedented change

to the education system was confirmed in a white paper

unveiled by education Rather than the situation

which existed before in which schools were islands

and stronger heads were unable The weaker schools were left

to languish under the monopoly We now have a system

where the best leaders can take control of those weaker

schools, turn them around, and in doing so, transform the life

chances of young people Outstanding sponsors,

great heads, successful trusts, aren't constrained by

geographical borders. They can extend their reach

to where ever they're needed, whether they can make

that difference. The proposals have already been

criticised by teaching unions, opposition politicians

and educational charities. So why, in the cases

of thriving schools, is the Government apparently

eschewing the age old adage that if it ain't broke, you don't fix it

and what does the future hold School Minister Nick Gibb joins me

now, along with Newsnight's Chris Nick Gibb, the last Labour

government introduced academy status for schools judged to need it. The

Coalition Government extended academy status to schools who really

wanted it. Your government is now imposing it on schools that neither

need or want it? It is an extension of the successful policy of the last

five years. We want to give professionals the autonomy to run

their own school. They do already have that? This is giving them more

autonomy and successful headteachers flourish when they are given the

freedom academy status has brought. That is why we are seeing these good

schools that have become academies, seven percentage points better than

other schools. It gives the headteachers the freedom to run

their own school, but extend the winning formula to other schools, so

they can take what they are doing and apply it to weaker schools in

the area. We want educational excellence in every part of the

country and we leave the helm of those outstanding and teachers to do

that. What does the look of freedom look like at the moment. What are

you targeting? It means freedom over the curriculum, freedom over what

they pay their staff. They have control over the day-to-day running

of the school. The teachers who have had that freedom, they love it.

There are plenty of academies that aren't flourishing? There are, but

the academies programme takes swift action to underperformers. We

enabled the regional school Commissioners around the country to

take action, even changing the sponsor of an academy. This was my

original point, the powers are already in place to help the schools

that need it, the invitation is already in place. Why this

compulsion, why are you forcing it on schools who are already

performing extremely well? Your own department's figures shows me that

of the school body is improving and most successful, it is an

overwhelming majority of them are local authority run. The laws of

logic would suggest you take the massive majority of excess and make

everybody else emulate that is, you are doing it the other way around.

When you look at the figures on the local authority, we have taken out

the worst performing schools. So you can play with statistics. I am not

playing with statistics, the figures dictate every school is included,

the worst performing, the best performing, the slow performing. I

can take you to an academy sponsor... They have taken schools

underperforming and in special measures and transformed them into

or three years to outstanding schools. We want that approach to

happen across the country. Even when teachers don't want it and haven't

asked for it. We want those headteachers to help across the

country. These are the headteachers of some of the best schools in the

country? We want them to help us with the underperforming schools in

their area. It is about spreading the excellence. Only child gets one

chance at education and we have to work together collaboratively and

spread things that are working in those high performing schools. Where

is the evidence? They are improving at twice the

rate. Where is the evidence that taking a primary school already very

good, the one my children go to, for example, and forcing them to become

an Academy is going to make a good school even better? Those schools

that have become voluntarily Academies, the results are 7%

better. I am not asking about the voluntarily changing schools, but

those quite happy with the situation as it is who had been told today

they cannot carry on quite happily and successfully and have the change

for reasons I fail to grasp. This is a five-year plan, we want schools to

be part of a collaborative system, the multi-academy trusts system, to

take what is working in successful schools and spread it to

underperforming schools. There should not be underperforming

schools in Alice Stem and in teaching and in education, we have

to work together to make school every work or school, that is what

parents want -- in our system. I am a parent and my children's school is

brilliant, why do you need to change it? Because we want at school to

help those that are not brilliant. Your children are lucky but many

children go to schools... And failing schools can have Academy

status imposed upon them? We need them to help the other schools. You

broke this story, you would be education correspondent on the

financial Times, have you dug into the detail of these proposals? Yes,

there are big risks that the Minister I am sure will be aware.

One of the biggest is that the Academy chains are just not that big

and not that good at the moment. Especially outside London. The

research shows that are only three chains that reliably, on the

department's figures, improve results faster than the national

average and better. They are all in London, that no Academies outside

that position outside London. This will put enormous power on the

Department of education and will require an enormous amount of

implementation and administration to change the 15,000 schools from one

status to another and the Department of education is a sort of

catastrophe. One of the worst apartment in Whitehall. It was

money, it struggles with budgets, it is very bad at doing basic

administrative things and this is a big implementation risk. Over the

last five years, that 1.4 million more children in good and

outstanding schools today than in 2010. We have formed the primary

curriculum, children are reading better, 120,000 six-year-olds this

year reading more effectively than without the reforms. Emanating from

the Department for education. We have reformed the GCSE

qualifications, putting them on a par with the best in the world. As a

consequence, more young people receive a better of it -- a better

education. This white Paper ensures we take the successes of the last

five years so they apply in every part of the country where for years

they had been languishing with some underperforming schools, that is

what this is about. The successes of the last five years point to the

current system being effective, surely? And not in need of root and

branch change. It is not just GCSE is your department is changing,

A-levels, league tables, funding formulas, cuts. Your own department

describes the workload crisis teaches base. Tenders -- changes

have been mooted for primary assessment. And against that epic

change in difficulty, you insist, incest, Minister, that every single

state school in the country undergoes quite contemplated legal

process that many of them have no desire to undertake whatsoever. You

say Kotze, ?1.6 billion of extra funding. There is a one West! You

can pick one word! We will have a much fairer system of funding. There

has been a lot of change in terms of the curriculum and exam system in

five years and in what is coming to fruition now. Premier schools are

preparing Muslims years. In a time of change, which impose such a

complicated legal process? -- preparing for the last five years.

There will also be a period of stability for the curriculum as the

changes begin and teachers learn how to teach the new curriculum. We have

promised that. But we have to make sure that the excellence we have in

successful schools in this country spreads to every part of the country

and that is why we are changing the teacher training system and

qualification system so every school is a good school. While I have the

pleasure of your company, you saw the film we made about the

disability cuts and some of your Parliamentary colleagues expressing

grave misgivings. It is a while since I did maths, but the

calculations I have done see about ?4.4 billion being taken from

disabled people and about ?5.5 billion being given back to

relatively high earners. This is the return of the nastier party. Not at

all, the PIPs will go up in real terms in every year of this

Parliament and there are more people in receipt of disability benefits as

a consequence of what has happened in the last couple of years than

before. We spent ?50 billion a year on disability benefits. There has

been judicial cases in recent years that have extended PIPs that we

introduced to help disabled people deal with the extra costs of

day-to-day life as a consequence of their disability. Some of those

cases have extended PIPs the people who do not have two incur extra

costs as a consequence of their disability and that is why the

government has consulted on how to address that issue and we will be

consulting disability groups and Members of Parliament as we can

comment those reforms. Many thanks indeed.

The Labour MP for Bradford West, Naz Shah, has revealed details

of what she claims are attempts by members of her local party

She decided to speak out after a Newsnight investigation

into the blocking of women entering politics in wards with high numbers

Last week, the Luton MP Gavin Shuker told Newsnight's Katie Razzall

that he had felt extremely pressured by elements within the party to stay

silent about things he knew to be true.

Labour's National Exectuive Committe has already taken over control

Tonight, Naz Shah has been talking to Katie about her own experiences.

But first, a quick reminder of the story.

Six weeks ago, we broadcast claims by Muslim women

that the Labour Party had a problem in its ranks.

The charity Muslim Women's Network UK wrote to Jeremy Corbyn,

talking of systematic misogyny by Muslim men in his party.

We spoke to women who told us they had been sabotaged and blocked

People were just turning up at my family home and trying

Because I didn't have my father's consent and support,

Labour officials must be allowing this to happen.

After that report, more women approached us with experiences

they said they'd had of the so-called biraderi,

a kind of patriarchal clan politics that's often seen as an import

These included councillors and ex-councillors from the party.

I had phone calls to say, your son is five, do you want him

Stuff was posted through my letterbox and when I opened it,

a picture of a Page Three nude model and a picture of my

Throughout our investigation, we've heard allegations of threats,

pressure put on families and other tactics used against women,

Though up till now, nobody in this town felt willing to go on camera.

That was until our second report aired last Friday night.

After watching it, the Labour MP for Bradford West, Naz Shah,

wrote a stinging piece in the Huffington Post,

saying the women's testimonies resonated with her because she'd

experienced similar bullying and intimidation.

She's agreed to talk to me exclusively about what's

going on in the Labour Party, in seats like these.

What experiences have you had that are similar to the women we have

spoken to our investigation? I have had members of the Labour Party

having meetings I have been excluded from. When those meetings have

happened, I have been discussed and it has been agreed, somebody had a

printed picture of me, somebody had an article printed of me and it was

agreed they would look for further evidence to desecrate my character

because I am a Muslim. In Muslim woman living in Bradford, that would

really be very damaging for me culturally. What kind of picture? A

picture of me and a friend at a party. Was it. There was a bar

behind. I have not got a drink in my hand, I do not drink alcohol, but it

was damaging. I was asked in my campaign between Labour members in

one campaign office whether I was in a relationship with a serving MP at

the time. I said, no, and I said, why? You would not ask a man that

question. I challenged them and it was interesting. It was the kind of

misogyny that exists, it is shocking. How does it work? The

women from the communities we have spoken to say they are blocked and

the selection process is dubious. Yes, it is because what happens is

you have people, you have people that are agreed you will be selected

and you will tell people how the boat and they will vote that.

Amongst my six wards, there are some very dubious practices in some of

those wards, not all sex, I must say. There is a higher number, I

hired volume of Pakistani membership, that is a fact. -- a

higher number. Where there is a higher number of Pakistani

membership, it is a culture of gatekeeping and power politics for

the sake of having power and that power resides with the men. How do

this small number of men have the power? They control the electorate,

it is family loyalties, climbed loyalties, a Pakistani model of

doing things, which means you will follow your parents and your family,

how your family will support that person. I have had good guys from

the community who have said, please, please lot will never let you win

another election, they will ruin you, just back down. Do you think

that is true? A lot of women claim they were deselected because they

were too vocal as councils. Could you be ousted? Absolutely. Because

they control the electorate. And it is cultural, not religious? Let us

be clear, this is not a Muslim issue. If anything, I get my

strength from my religion to address this because inequality is not

accepted in my religion. I get strength to challenge this had on

through my faith. It is a difficult issue. People worry about appearing

racist if they talk about it, do they? Let us be clear, there are

times when you cannot address something because you will be seen

as attacking that community. Never so much as now because of

Islamophobia and the rise of that, do we tackle it, does it look like I

am attacking my own community? No, I am doing the right thing, whether

you are Muslim, white, black, Asian, pink, it does not matter, what is

wrong is wrong. That has to be our starting point. It has to be for

democracy, politics needs women. And women deserve better. Do you think

the Labour Party is doing enough in this area? In terms of my

experiences, I have had the most support from the Labour Party

leadership. I am meeting with Jeremy Corbyn next week to look at these

issues. I have had support from fellow women MPs, male MPs, I really

have been supported, I have not had, experienced anything to stop what I

am trying to do. Muslim Women's Network UK want an Independent

enquiry by the Labour Party in this and they have Britain to Jeremy

Corbyn scheme for it, do you support that? Absolutely. Do you think they

will get that? Yes, I do not see why not, Labour being transparent in

terms of fairness and justice and equality, we stand for that. I put

that in my article, it is in my DNA and the Labour Party DNA and we

should be transparent and open and if we need to be doing anything

including an enquiry, we should do that. Why have you spoken out now?

It is incumbent upon me, there is more reason to speak about it

because I have come through the system. I have a responsibility to

other women behind me and those women that do not help women, they

say there is a special place in hell for them and I do not want to be

there, simple. Naz Shah talking to

Katie Razzall there. And the Labour Party have given us

the following statement. "The Labour Party has been

at the forefront of the fight We have transformed

the representation of women in politics and championed equality

for women in the workplace. Any complaints or evidence

of sexism, intimidation, received by the Labour Party

are dealt with fairly, according to our

procedures and the law." EU leaders are tonight

desp Party erately It's an urgent task,

nnot just because a tidal wave of humanity continues

to wash up on Greek shores, but also because the 28 heads

of member states need to establish a united front before presenting it

to the Turkish Prime Minister While the Dutch Prime Minister has

spoken of the crisis being curtailed within a month of a deal

being reached, his Lithuanian and Belgian counterparts have

questioned the morality and even the legality of a plan to see

all migrants travelling to Greece Damian Grammaticas is at

the summit in Brussels. any sign of that deal? As we are

talking now, the world filtering out is a leaders seem to be dotting the

eyes and crossing the tea on that consensus. One thing is legal

safeguards to guarantee that any refugee landing in Greece will get a

hearing of their asylum claim before they could be returned. The second

thing, is dealing with the concerns of Cyprus, which has a very troubled

relationship with Turkey. I'm trying to progress Turkey's membership bid

for the EU while keeping Cyprus's concerns in view as well. Turkey

doesn't acknowledge or recognise the Cypriots government, so that is a

stumbling block. Any others? If the leaders wrap up this deal, as we are

hearing now, in the morning the Turkish Prime Minister will be here

and it will be put to him. He will have two signed off on it as well.

That is when you might see the most difficult negotiations, particularly

over the EU saying they would take around 70,000 refugees from Turkey

directly to the EU, in return for all of those being sent back to

Turkey. That might not be acceptable to the Turks. They have said they

don't want to become a holding pen for huge numbers of refugees heading

for the EU. So many, many people might not be covered by these talks.

Difficult talks ahead. Staying with the EU,

the Polish Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was in London

earlier this week and was interviewed by Evan Davies,

who began by asking him how worried he is by the prospect of Britain

voting to leave the EU. I hope that the UK will remain

as part of the European Union We have some geopolitical

turbulence around us. In particular, when you look

at the eastern border lines of the European Union,

they are not as secure We have the situation in the Ukraine

and in Russia and it is better to be Can we talk about

the migrant crisis? Because you talk about these

geopolitical differences. It is an agreement that will be

taking probably quite a lot of Syrians from Turkey for putting

into the European Union, And I am wondering how many

Poland is happy to take? In Poland, we have a very specific

situation because of the war We actually have accepted

355,000 refugees. Not only refugees, but migrant

workers, different people. In this figure, we also find many

people who escape from the situation And with regard to the refugees,

we also agreed to a figure to accommodate a specific number

of refugees from the Middle East. For a country of more

than 50 million people. And I wonder whether you'd be much

better defending the rights of Poles to go to Britain, or the rights of

Poles to get benefits in Germany... First, I would love those Poles

to come back to Poland. You're very good at defending,

if you like, migrants' rights when they're Polish migrants,

but you have been very much less... Migrants coming to Spain and Italy

from Northern Africa. We have people, refugees

from the Middle East. I think the European Union has

to take all those three elements of the whole refugee

jigsaw into consideration. And we have helped to accommodate

lots of refugees from the Ukraine. When we look at the clash of values,

Western Europeans are frankly very worried about some of the things

the Polish government They're worried about the commitment

to what they would think Does it worry you that there

is clearly a division? There is a split, but

the split is obvious. We have been left after

the Second World War and we have not Because of a frozen economy,

some economists say. And we are now catching up

in terms of the economy. In terms of the democratic

standards, we are actually up to the standards which

are in Western Europe, Look at the level of corruption,

for instance, which is Corruption has actually

been dropping. Poland is on a very strong global

compared to countries like Italy or Spain, which are probably viewed

by many Western Europeans How long do you think it will be

before Poland reaches an income level, a wage level,

that means Polish workers will not want to be leaving and going

to richer countries in Western Well, I hope this level,

we will be able to reach quite soon. Our current predictions

for the average salary level in the European Union

are around 2030. They are now on the level of 70%,

69-70% of average EU. But you don't have to be

on 100 not to migrate. I hope it will happen over the next

five to seven years. Deputy Prime Minister,

thank you very much indeed. Optogenetic treatment of neurons

spawning dendritic spines This is neither a Scrabble crib

sheet nor a sesquipedalian's fantasy sequence, but a process

by which memories previously believed to have been banished

by Alzheimer's disease can New research at the Picower

Institute of Memory and Learning at the Massachusetts Institute

of Technology has been conducted on mice with Alzheimers-like

symptoms, but the ramifications for humanity could

prove considerable. Dr Susumu Tonegawa is the research

leader and a former winner Professor, what have you been doing

and what are you most excited about? With Alzheimer's disease, it is well

known that before the signature of this disease appears, there is a

period of a few years where patients already show mammary impairments. --

memory. Many researchers hoped is because these patients cannot form

new mammary. We have shown in mouse models, these mice can form new

memory very well. But they cannot retrieve the memory. That is the

most exciting finding. The second exciting finding is we could cure

this impairment of memory recall by increasing the connection of spines

on the memory holding cells. Just a natural recall, the mouse showed

normal, retrievable memory. I am going to embarrass myself, but you

create these spines by shining a special type of light onto them?

Yes, that is exactly what we did. It is a technology called Optogenetics.

These memory sells, apply strength of Lou light, -- bluelight, we could

increase the spine density of these memory bearing cells. The extension

of this technology to human beings is within reach? It depends on

technological development. Among the experts, the opinion is not the

same. Some optimistic people will say some kind of a cure will be

based on this type of principle can be done within the next few years,

maybe three or four years. But more conservative engineers and

researchers would say, it will take longer than that. What would you

say, professor? I am not really an expert on this. I am not an

engineering person. But I would be cautious. I make sure this type of

research will provide us with precise information about where in

the brain the brain cells should be activated. So I would be

conservative, but eventually I think this type of experimental results

will help engineers and surgeons to target specific small areas of the

brain to simulate, to reduce the disorder. Many thanks indeed.

Congratulations. Thank you very much. That is all we have time for

tonight. Good night. Cloud is going to be a feature in

the weather story over the next few days and a lot of it. It has been

spilling into the North Sea and will continue