11/05/2016 Prime Minister's Questions

This morning, I had meetings with ministerial colleagues

and others and, in addition to my duties in this House,

I shall have further such meetings later today.

Even "fantastically corrupt" Nigeria is asking Britain to clean

up its act and introduce beneficial ownership registers

in the overseas territories.

Will the Prime Minister achieve that tomorrow at the anti -

corruption summit?

First, I had better check that the microphone

is on before speaking.

It is probably a good idea.

I thank the honourable Gentleman for his question.

The answer is yes.

We have asked three things of the overseas territories

and Crown dependencies: automatic exchange of tax information;

a common reporting standard for multinational companies;

and central beneficial ownership registries so that UK enforcement

can know who really owns the companies that are based there.

They have delivered on the first two, and they will be following

and delivering on the third.

That is what he asked for, and that is exactly

what he is getting.

In Banbury and Bicester, we have unprecedented housing growth.

Does the Prime Minister agree that we must build sufficient

starter homes so that the dream of home ownership becomes

something to which everybody can really aspire?

I thank my constituency neighbour and honourable Friend

for raising that question.

The fact is that we are building more houses, including

more affordable homes, right across England.

The legislation going through this House and the other place

will ensure that we deliver on our manifesto pledge

of 200,000 starter homes.

Those are the homes that we want to see - affordable

for people to buy.

I hope that, even at this late stage, the Labour party

and the House of Lords will stop blocking this Bill.

Since we often celebrate great national events in this House,

will the Prime Minister join me in wishing Sir David Attenborough

a very happy 90th birthday and thanking him for the way

in which he has presented nature programmes on television

and awakened the ideas of so many people to the fragility

of our ecosystem?

He has educated a whole generation.

On this side of the House, we are fully aware? I haven't asked

a question yet.

We are fully aware that the European Union has strengthened

workers' rights in many ways.

In March, while the Prime Minister was trying to undermine workers'

rights with his Trade Union Bill, the European Commission put forward

proposals to close loopholes in the posting of workers directive

that would stop employers exploiting foreign workers and undercutting

national rates of pay.

Will the Prime Minister confirm that his Government will protect

workers and back these reforms to stop the undercutting

and the grotesque exploitation of many workers

across the continent?

First of all, I certainly join the right honourable Gentleman

in wishing a very happy birthday to David Attenborough.

Many of us in this House feel that we grew up with him

as our teacher about the natural world and the environment.

He is a remarkable man.

I am proud to say that the royal Arctic survey ship will be named

after David Attenborough.

There was strong support for Boaty McBoatface.

I think the submarine on the boat will be named

Boaty McBoatface but, quite rightly, Attenborough

will take top billing.

On the posted workers directive, we are looking at this matter

closely and working with our partners.

We see some merit in what is proposed.

I can tell the right honourable Gentleman today that the yellow card

procedure has been invoked by national Parliaments over this,

demonstrating the importance of these sorts of safeguards,

even more of which we achieved in my renegotiation.

The best thing that we can do for workers' rights in this

country is to celebrate the national living wage,

introduced by a Tory Government.

The national minimum wage was introduced by Labour.

The national living wage proposed by the Prime Minister's

friend the Chancellor is, frankly, a corruption

of the very idea.

It is not, in reality, a proper living wage.

My question was about the posting of workers directive proposals,

which would prevent the grotesque exploitation by unscrupulous

employers of workers being moved from one nation to another

to undercut wages in the second nation.

Will the Prime Minister be absolutely clear: will

the British Government support this very important reform

to stop this exploitation?

As I have said, we are working with the Dutch presidency.

We think there is merit in a lot of the proposals,

but we want to make sure we get the details right.

Let me pull the right honourable Gentleman up on something: he has

just described the national living wage as "a corruption".

The national living wage is ?7.20 an hour -

a ?20 a week pay rise for some of the poorest

people in our country.

I really think he ought to get up and say that he supports

the national living wage, and thank the Government

for introducing it.

I support a wage rise, obviously.

The point I am making is that it is not a living wage,

as it is generally understood.

Yes seems to be one of the hardest words for the Prime Minister to say.

For the third time, will he just say whether or not he supports

the posting of workers directive?

He might be aware that Patrick Minford, a former economic

adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said that the European Union has

a negative effect on the City of London and that he wants

the "shackles" of European regulation removed.

Does the Prime Minister believe that our membership hurts the City

of London or does he believe that European Union regulation

of the finance sector in Britain and British -

administered tax havens helps curb the sort of bad practice exposed

by the Panama papers and underlined by my honourable Friend the Member

for Wythenshawe and Sale East his earlier question?

This is an area where we basically agree with each other

about the European Union, so I will try to identify a question

in that lot and answer it as positively as I can.

First, I completely disagree with the economist Patrick Minford.

He wants to see manufacturing industry in our country obliterated.

It would be a disastrous step if we followed the advice

that he gives.

On the City of London, we need the right regulation

for the City of London to continue its massive rate

of job creation and wealth creation in our country,

but we also need to remain members of the single market

because it is absolutely vital for this important

sector of our economy.

I hope that on that, as on the issue of the national

living wage, we can find some agreement between us.

The question that I also put to the Prime Minister,

which perhaps he was not listening to, was what he was going to do...

I asked what he was going to do about the UK -

administered tax havens that receive large sums

of money from dodgy sources, which should and must be closed

down, as should any tax evasion in the City of London.

We need a British Government who are prepared to chase down this

level of corruption.

This Government have done more than any previous Government to make

sure that our overseas territories and Crown

dependencies are not tax havens, but behave in a responsible way.

As I said earlier, they are now taking part in the automatic

exchange of tax information - that did not happen before;

they have signed up to a common reporting standard for multinational

companies - that did not happen before; and they are getting central

registries so that we can find out who owns the companies

in each territory.

All these things are real progress.

Of course, we would like them to go further and have public registries

of beneficial ownership, as we are introducing in this

country, not because of anything a Labour Government did,

but because of a decision by a Conservative Prime Minister.

I urge the right honourable Gentleman to be fair on those

territories and Crown dependencies: many of them have gone much further

even than many developed countries.

Indeed, you get more information now out of some of our Crown

dependencies and overseas territories than you would get out

of the United States - for example, Delaware.

So let us be fair on the territories for which we have an obligation

and a responsibility.

We are making them improve their record and the right

honourable Gentleman should acknowledge that.

A month ago the Prime Minister informed the House that he welcomed

the European Union proposals on country - by - country tax

transparency reporting.

We agreed with that, yet on 26 April Conservative Members

of the European Parliament voted against these proposals.

Did they not receive a memo from him or what?

People expect that people pay their tax in this country.

Tomorrow the European Parliament will be voting again on country -

by - country reporting.

Can the Prime Minister assure the House that Conservative Members

of the European Parliament will support these measures,

as he told us they would a month ago?

The most important thing is that we support these measures.

This Government support the measures.

These measures have come forward only because it has been

a Conservative Government here in the United Kingdom

proposing them.

The only area of disagreement, I suspect, between the right

honourable Gentleman and myself is that I do not think we should

set a minimum tax rate for these countries.

It has always been a position of Labour Governments and previous

Conservative Governments that although we want to make sure that

all these territories behave properly, we do not make them set

a minimum tax rate.

That is the difference between us.

If he wants to swap voting records of Labour MEPs and Tory MEPs,

let us have a whole session on it.

I have plenty of material here.

That was a very long answer?The Prime Minister could simply have

said whether or not he supports the proposals

and whether his Conservative MEPs are going to vote for them.

The Prime Minister will be very well aware of the concern

across the whole country about the question of unaccompanied

child refugees across Europe.

Their plight is desperate and they are in a very

dangerous situation.

Everyone's heart reaches out to them, but we have to do more

than that and we have to be practical in our help for them.

I got a letter this week from a voluntary worker with child

refugees by the name of Hannah.

She wrote to me about these children, some of whom have family

members in this country.

Can the Prime Minister confirm that in response to Lord Dubs' amendment,

there will be no delay whatsoever in accepting 3,000 unaccompanied

child refugees into this country to give them the support

they need and allow them to enjoy the childhood

that they and all our children deserve?

We will follow the Dubs amendment - that is now the law of the land.

The Dubs amendment says that we have to consult very carefully with local

authorities to make sure that, as we take these children in,

we are able to house them, clothe them, feed them and make sure

they are properly looked after.

So we need to look at the capacity of our care system,

because if you look at some councils, particularly in Kent

and southern England, you see they are already struggling

because of the large number of unaccompanied

children who have come in.

Just two figures for the right honourable Gentleman,

to put this in context.

Last year 3,000 unaccompanied children arrived and claimed asylum

in the UK, even before the scheme that is being introduced.

The second figure is, under the Dublin regulation,

children with a connection to the UK can already claim asylum in France

or Italy and then come to the UK, and we have accepted 30 such

transfers since February.

What I can say about Dubs is that there will not be any delay -

we will get on with this as fast as we can - but in order to follow

the law, we have to talk to our local authorities first.

During President Obama's recent visit, was the Prime Minister able

to talk to him about the Chinese dumping of steel and the robust

action he has been able to take in the United States to address it,

including introducing tariffs of 288%?

If so, was his advice, "Keep backing British steel,

increase the tariffs and tell the Chinese to go to the back

of the line"?

I did discuss this issue with President Obama,

and both the US and the European Union have taken action

against Chinese dumping.

If you look at the figures, the excess capacity in China

is around 25 times higher than the UK's entire production.

The anti - dumping tariffs we have produced in the EU have been very

effective and, in some categories, have reduced Chinese

exports by as much as 98%.

So my honourable Friend should not believe some of the figures put

around that the EU action does not work; it does work,

and if we were outside the EU we might be subject

to those tariffs ourselves.

The Prime Minister's Government were elected with 37% of the vote,

so I am sure he would acknowledge the success of Nicola Sturgeon

and the SNP in being returned victoriously, for a third time,

with 46% of the vote - the highest figure currently of any

political party in national elections anywhere

in western Europe.

On the anti-corruption summit, has the Prime Minister read

the appeals from Nigerian campaigners who say that their

"efforts are sadly undermined if countries such as your own

are welcoming our corrupt to hide their ill -

"gotten gains in your luxury homes, department stores, car dealerships,

"private schools and anywhere else that will accept their cash

"with no questions asked.

"The role of London's property market as vessels

"to conceal stolen wealth

"has been exposed in court documents, reports,

"documentaries and more"?

What is the Prime Minister going to do about this?

I am delighted to congratulate Nicola Sturgeon on her victory

in the Scottish elections, as I am sure the right

honourable Gentleman would want to congratulate

Ruth Davidson on her stunning performance.

We have something in common, because the SNP has gone

from majority to minority, while the Conservatives have gone

from coalition to majority.

Next week he can get up and ask me how we are getting on with ordering

some more pandas for Edinburgh zoo - I think that would be

a very positive development.

The question the right honourable Gentleman asks about the corruption

summit is absolutely right: the whole point of holding this

summit in London is to say that action is necessary

by developed countries as well as developing countries.

One of the steps we are taking - to make sure that foreign companies

that own UK property have to declare who the beneficial owner is -

will be one of the ways we make sure that plundered money from African

countries cannot be hidden in London.

It would be helpful if the Prime Minister confirmed that

that list will be publicly available and not just accessible

for the police.

Seeing as how he is prepared to lecture other countries

on corruption and probity, will he explain why seven police

forces in the UK have launched criminal investigations

into Conservative MPs for potential electoral fraud?

That is very serious, so how is it that a Conservative

police and crime commissioner can serve in such a role while being

under police investigation?

First, let us be clear about this anti - corruption summit.

Nobody is lecturing anybody.

One of the reasons this issue does not get addressed is that countries

and politicians are too worried about addressing it knowing that no

country is perfect - nor, indeed, is any politician.

But I think it is right for Britain to take this lead,

not least because we meet our 0.7% contribution on aid.

I think we are entitled to raise this incredibly important issue.

As to what the right honourable Gentleman says

about the Electoral Commission, the whole point is that in this

country the Electoral Commission is independent.

When it comes to operational decisions by police forces,

they are independent too.

Long may that be the case: that is the hallmark

of an incorrupt country.

I know my right honourable Friend will want to join me

in congratulating Katy Bourne, who was reelected as the Sussex

police and crime commissioner last week, topping the poll

in Crawley for her work in helping victims.

In that respect, will the Prime Minister commit

to introducing a British Bill of Rights as soon as possible?

I am happy to make that commitment and let me join him

in congratulating Katy Bourne and all successful candidates.

I think what we saw in the police and crime commissioner elections?

In a minute.

What we saw in the police and crime commissioner elections was a very

large increase in turnout, sometimes as much as a 25

percentage point increase.

I think this new role is bedding in well.

For the sake of completion, I am very happy to congratulate

Carwyn Jones, who I spoke to over the weekend, and Arlene Foster,

who will be First Minister of Northern Ireland.

I spoke to her and the Deputy First Minister yesterday.

And I congratulate Sadiq Khan, who won a very clear

victory in London.

We all look forward to working with him for the benefit

of Londoners.

When Hull was left out of the Government's plans

for the rail electrification of the north, Hull businesses got

together and produced a privately financed scheme to do the work

for the city of culture 2017.

It has been with the Department for Transport for two years.

Does the Prime Minister think that the Department for Transport's

attitude shows incompetence or indifference to the scheme that

has been put forward with private money?

I think the honourable Lady is being slightly

unfair on the Department, not least because passengers

will benefit from 500 brand new carriages,

and the removal of the outdated and unpopular Pacer trains.

Some ?1.4 million of investment is going into Hull station to be

delivered before it becomes the UK city of culture.

I understand that the Department for Transport is considering the case

to complete the electrification between Selby and Hull.

We make these investments because we have a strong economy

and we are investing in our infrastructure.

I recently visited Silentnight in Barnoldswick.

Its award-winning apprenticeship scheme

has now created 40 full-time jobs.

Will the Prime Minister join me in congratulating Silentnight

on the success of its scheme, which has helped the company

to expand, and allowed it recently to award all of its more than 1,000

employees with an additional ?250 thank you bonus?

I am happy to join my honourable Friend in

congratulating Silentnight.

I remember visiting it with him in 2014.

Back then, it employed 800 people.

It now employs 1,100 people.

That is a good example of a business expanding under this Government.

It is a big backer of apprenticeships.

Of course, our target is 3 million apprentices in this Parliament.

Already in 2016, at least 46 women have been murdered in the UK.

Already in 2016, at least 46 women have been murdered in the UK.

This number would be much higher if not for specialist refuges.

I am standing to beg the Prime Minister to exempt refuge

accommodation from the changes to housing benefit beyond 2017.

This will certainly close services.

I do not want to hear a stock answer about the ?40 million over

the next four years.

He knows and I know that that will not stop refuges shutting.

Will he exempt refuges?

Will he choose to save lives - please?

The honourable Lady raises an important point.

That is why we delayed the introduction of this change

so that we could look at all the possible consequences

and make sure we get it right so that we help vulnerable people.

HIV infection rates in the UK are on the rise.

My right honourable Friend will be aware that NHS England has

refused to fund a pre-exposure prophylactic treatment.

Will he agree to meet me and leading AIDS charities so that we can review

this unacceptable decision?

It is right that my honourable Friend raises this.

My understanding is that NHS England is considering its

commissioning responsibility.

I want it to reach a decision on this quickly -

this month, if possible - because there is no doubt,

as he says, that there is a rising rate of infection,

and that these treatments can help and make a difference.

We are planning trial sites that are already under way,

and we are investing ?2 million to support them over

the next two years.

But he is right to raise this, and I will make sure he gets

the meetings he needs to make progress with it.

In my first year as an MP, every other person coming

In my first year as an MP, every other person coming

to my constituency advice service surgery has been an anxious council

tenant, usually mum, dad and two or three children living

in a one - bedroom flat, and they are often in tears.

They cannot afford to rent in the private market, they cannot

afford to buy their council flat, and they absolutely cannot afford

a starter home.

Can the Prime Minister explain in practical and meaningful terms

that I can read to them from Hansard when I go

to my surgery on Friday why, in his view, the Housing

and Planning Bill will not make their intolerable situation worse?

I would say to the honourable and learned Gentleman's constituents

that there is a series of things that I believe will help them.

First, making sure that the right to buy is there for housing

association tenants as well as council tenants,

with the full discounts, makes a difference.

Added to that, Help to Buy means that people need a smaller amount

of equity to buy their house, and that helps too.

Further to that, starter homes will make a difference

because they will be more affordable.

Added to that, shared accommodation homes means that

where you previously needed a deposit of ?30,000 to buy a house,

you may be able to buy a house now for a just a few

thousand pounds' deposit.

All of those things make a difference.

And for those in estates that need regeneration, we are backing that

regeneration, which never happened under a Labour Government.

I am proud that this Government have delivered unemployment levels

in my constituency at a record low of 1.6%.

I am doubly proud that this Government have delivered

the Cardiff city deal - a ?1.2 billion investment

in infrastructure.

Does the Prime Minister agree, and does he share my eagerness now

to see the M4 relief road, the eastern bay link,

and electrification of the City and Valley lines delivered in Wales?

My honourable Friend is absolutely right to raise these issues,

because the money is there, and now, frankly, with

a new Welsh Government in place, we need the action, particularly

on the M4, which is a vital transport artery.

We have given the Welsh Government ?500 million in increased

borrowing powers.

The delay in upgrading the M4 is damaging business in south Wales,

and frankly it is high time that the Welsh Government

got on with it.

The "Why young Syrians choose to fight" report claims

that it is money rather than religious fervour that acts

a recruiter for Daesh.

While the Syrian army pays about $100 per month, often late,

Daesh can pay $300 a month, on time, due to its funding

and sophistication.

Does the Prime Minister agree that much more needs to be done to offer

alternative economic avenues for Syrians, to disrupt flows

of funding, and to undermine the brains behind Daesh?

I agree with what the honourable Gentleman says about the importance

of economic development and aid, and that is why we have a very

generous aid budget, but clearly right now in Syria

it is very difficult to get aid support and development through.

Where I take issue with him is that if we see this purely

as Daesh recruiting people because it is paying them,

we would miss the point that the cancer of Islamist

extremist violence is damaging our world and our country not just

in Syria but in other places too, and we have to understand the nature

of that extremism if we are going to defeat it.

Havant's new Dunsbury Hill Farm business park will create

about 3,500 new jobs.

Will the Prime Minister join me in congratulating its first

new tenant, Fat Face, and support job creation

across Britain?

I certainly join my honourable Friend in congratulating business

in his constituency on its expansion.

The claimant count in his constituency has fallen

by a staggering 52% since 2010, and we need to keep on with this

by making sure that we are expanding the training and the apprenticeships

that help people to get the jobs that are being created.

The Prime Minister said as Leader of the Opposition that the UK

was fast becoming a "surveillance state" with powers that would "cause

concern under the most oppressive regimes",and he promised to "sweep

the whole rotten edifice away."But he has completely U - turned,

and his Investigatory Powers Bill proposes to retain a record of every

website visited by anyone in the UK.

Why has the Prime Minister changed from being the self-proclaimed

defender of civil liberties in opposition

to championing ineffective mass surveillance in government?

I completely disagree with the honourable Gentleman,

and I hope that he will follow and listen to the debates that take

place on this vital Bill.

The fact is that if we want to make sure that we can keep our country

safe, just as we have been able to see the communications data

when two people talk to each other on a mobile phone or a fixed phone,

the same has to be true if that conversation is taking

place between people visiting an internet site.

Is he happy for plots to be hatched, terrorism to be planned and murders

to be arranged because people are using an internet site

rather than a telephone?

My answer to that would be no.

We have got to modernise our capabilities to keep our country

safe, and that is what this Bill is about.

My right honourable Friend said in November 2015:

"Access to the internet shouldn't be a luxury; it should be a right".

The accompanying press release went on to say that

every home and business could

"have access to fast broadband by the end of this Parliament."

Will my right honourable Friend say today, unequivocally -

no ifs or buts - that this commitment will be honoured?

I am afraid my honourable Friend is going to have to wait

for the Queen's Speech, in which we will be setting out

the next steps of how we make sure that access to this absolutely vital

highway is there for all our citizens.

Will the Prime Minister give me a personal commitment to work

with the Scottish Government to deliver funding for a Tay

city deal for Dundee and the surrounding area?

I am very happy to give that commitment.

I think city deals are working.

They are working in Scotland, and I was very proud to be

there with the Aberdeen city deal.

I make the point that, obviously, city deals

between the Scottish Government, the UK Government and the city

concerned can only work if we are all part of one happy

United Kingdom.

Respected journalist Laura Kuenssberg has been subjected

to an online hate campaign, which appears to be a sexist witch

hunt to silence her.

Increasingly, this is a tool used against people in public life

by those who take an opposing view.

Will my right honourable Friend condemn this kind of harassment,

and will he work with media and social media platforms

to preserve the right to speak freely without intimidation or hate?

We must be able to speak freely and we must have a robust

and lively democracy, but some of the things that

people say on Twitter, knowing that they are in some way

anonymous, are frankly appalling.

People should be ashamed of the sort of sexist bullying that

often takes place.

Last week, London elected a new Mayor with an overwhelming

mandate to tackle London's housing crisis.

It is a crisis that many of us fear the Housing and Planning

Bill will make worse.

Last April, the Prime Minister launched his manifesto,

promising to replace sold council houses with affordable homes

in the same area.

Why, then, will he oppose an amendment to the Housing

and Planning Bill this afternoon that would effectively implement

last year's manifesto commitment?

Let me again congratulate Sadiq Khan on his victory and say how much

we are looking forward to working with him on the issues that

matter to Londoners, whether it is transport,

housing or keeping London safe.

I put the question back to the honourable Lady:

our Housing and Planning Bill means that every high -

value property sold will mean two new affordable homes in London,

so why is it that the Labour party here and in the other place

are opposing something that will mean more houses,

more affordable housing and more home ownership?

That is the truth.

They talk a good game, but, in the end, they are

the enemies of aspiration.

During military operations in Afghanistan, British forces

were heavily reliant on locally employed interpreters,

who constantly put themselves in harm's way alongside our people.

I saw with my own eyes during Herrick 9 just how brave

these interpreters were.

Does the Prime Minister agree that it is a stain on our country's

honour that we have abandoned a large number of them to be

threatened by the Taliban?

Some have been murdered and others have had to flee their homes,

in fear of their lives.

We owe the interpreters a huge debt of gratitude and honour,

and we must provide safety and sanctuary for them here.

We debated and discussed around the National Security Council table

in the coalition Government and then announced in the House of Commons

a scheme to make sure that those people who had helped our forces

with translation and other services were given the opportunity

of coming to the UK.

We set up two schemes: one to encourage that,

but also another scheme, a very generous scheme,

to try to encourage those people who either wanted to stay or had not

been translators for a long enough period to stay in Afghanistan

and help to rebuild that country.

I think it is important to have both schemes in place,

rather than simply saying that everyone in any way involved can

come immediately to the UK.

Let us back Afghans to rebuild their own country.

The Prime Minister has confirmed to me that should we leave the EU,

the European convergence funding for the very poorest parts of Wales

would of course cease.

Will he now confirm that in such a case the UK Government

would make up the difference?

The point I would make to the honourable Gentleman,

as I would to anyone asking a question about what happens

were we to leave, is that I do not think you can give a guarantee.

I am a profound believer in our United Kingdom.

I want to go on making sure that poorer regions

and parts of our country are properly supported.

If, as I think is the case, we find that our economy would be

hit by leaving and our tax receipts would be hit by leaving,

that is obviously going to impact the amount of funding that we can

put into agriculture, research or, indeed,

poorer parts of our country.

That is why I think the safe, sensible and right option is to vote

to remain in a reformed European Union.

May I support the Prime Minister on his comments about Nigeria

and Afghanistan, and ask him to stop pouring hundreds of millions

of pounds of taxpayers' money into those and other corrupt

countries until they have cleaned up their act?

While he is at it, will he tell us where he has the European Union

in his league table of corruption, given that it has not

had its accounts signed off for 20 years?

I thank, as ever, my honourable Friend for his help and support,

and for his tips on diplomacy as well, which are useful

given the past 24 hours.

I would say to him that the leaders of countries such as Nigeria

and Afghanistan are battling hard against very corrupt

systems and countries.

In both their cases they have made some remarkable steps forward,

and that is why I am so keen to welcome them to the

anti-corruption conference in London.

Where I part company with my honourable Friend is that

I do not think it would be right to withdraw the aid

that we give because, frankly, problems in those countries

come back and haunt us here, whether they are problems

of migration or problems of terrorism and all the rest of it.

We are a country involved in a dangerous global world,

and I see our aid budget, at 0.7%, alongside our defence budget,

at 2% of our GDP, as ways of keeping us safe and prosperous

in a dangerous world, as well as ways of fulfilling our

important moral responsibilities.

Order.

I am afraid the amount of noise regularly in the Chamber makes it

necessary to outdo Barclays premier league matches

in the provision of injury time.

It is a pleasure to call Gill Furniss.

Twenty seven years ago in my constituency,

we saw the country's biggest sporting disaster.

It is clear that we will not have the full truth about

Hillsborough until we have the full truth about Orgreave and

the policing of the miners' strike.

Will the Prime Minister accept the call by the Orgreave Truth

and Justice Campaign and initiate an inquiry?

My right honourable Friend the Home Secretary has met that

group, is considering the points they have put forward

and will come to her conclusions at the right time.

Business leaders in Cornwall, and indeed up and down the country,

are awaiting news of progress on the decision about airport

expansion in the south-east.

Following this morning's announcement by Heathrow

airport that it now accepts all the Airport Commission's

recommendations, will the Prime Minister update the House

on when we can expect a decision?

Does he agree with me that a third runway at Heathrow offers the best

opportunity for growth, jobs and the future

prosperity of our country?

May I first - one of my many unforced errors in the past 24 hours

- apologise to the honourable Member for Sheffield,

Brightside and Hillsborough?

I should of course have welcomed her to the House of Commons

and congratulated her on her by-election victory.

She has lost no time in speaking up for her constituents in a very

powerful and very accomplished way.

Let me say to my honourable Friend the Member for St Austell

and Newquay that, as we announced earlier this year, there are air

quality issues that need to be resolved.

We are on our way to working out how to resolve them, and when we do,

we can come back to the House and announce what will happen next.

My constituent's mother was killed in 1981.

At the time, it was covered up as a suicide pact, but 18 years

later it was uncovered that she had actually been murdered

by my constituent's father and his mistress.

I do not think that anyone in this House will be able to imagine

the pain and suffering that she and her family have

had to endure.

They are now having to relive that pain, because ITV

is dramatising their whole ordeal, completely against her wishes,

using not only the real names of her family but her own real name.

I have raised this with ITV and with Ofcom, and,

as far as I can see, no rules have been broken,

but does the Prime Minister agree that victims' voices should

have a far greater role in any account of their tragedy?

Will he meet me and my constituent to discuss what more could have been

done in this case and how we can strengthen regulation in future

to protect victims?

I was not aware of the case that the honourable

Lady rightly raises.

I remember from my time working in the television industry

that there are occasions when decisions are made that can

cause a huge amount of hurt and upset to families.

I will discuss this case with the Culture Secretary to bring

it to his attention and see whether there is anything more -

apart from the conversations that she has had with ITV

and with Ofcom, which is a powerful regulator - that can be done.

Yesterday Lord Prior spoke up for vaping as a way of getting

off cigarettes; so has the Royal College of Physicians.

Why are we bringing in the Brussels diktat that says that we must

include vaping in the tobacco directive?

I am happy to look at this issue closely.

It is necessary to differentiate between smoking and vaping,

because they have very different health effects.

I actually think that that is what is being achieved,

but I will look into this carefully and will write to my

honourable Friend.

Lastly, Mr Tim Farron? Order.

However irritating the honourable Gentleman may be to

However irritating the honourable Gentleman may be to

Government Back Benchers, he has a right to be heard

and he will be heard.

I am fantastically grateful to you, Mr Speaker.

I heard the Prime Minister on two occasions this afternoon

congratulate the new Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan,

and I would like to repeat those congratulations myself.

The Prime Minister did not, however, apologise for the disgraceful racist

campaign the Conservative party chose to run in that election.

Will he take the opportunity to apologise for deliberately

dividing communities in order to win cheap votes?

It is a great way to end the Session - getting a lesson in clean

campaigning from the Liberal Democrats.