06/05/2016 The Week in Parliament

Hello and welcome to the Week In Parliament.

Swings, landslides, gains, losses, changes of power.

The people have spoken, in elections across the UK.

But in amongst the polling, Parliament continued, and the Leave

EU campaign took the referendum battle direct to the Prime Minister.

If this doesn't change, Prime Minister, expect a letter

before action, and if we can raise the funds, expect a writ.

Right, there we are, I better...

Moving on, the Trade Union Bill...

LAUGHTER

Also on the programme, foreign correspondents

describe their fears for the future of Syria and Iraq.

Given how the fight will go, both from the defenders

and the attackers, Mosul, I believe, will be pretty bloody awful.

And left-wingers, right-wingers.

No, not the politicians.

The footballers of Leicester win the league,

and Foxes fanaticism reaches the Commons.

Does he accept that, rather than call it red Leicester anymore,

it's actually blue Leicester?

But first, the polling stations were in place,

the electors came out,

and voting took place at a brisk pace across the Kingdom.

But that's not the end of it this summer.

We'll be doing it all again in six weeks' time, when the nation decides

whether Britain stays in or departs from the European Union.

The lively campaigning on both sides of the referendum debate

will soon get a great deal livelier.

The Prime Minister is firmly part of the Remain camp,

and on Wednesday he faced questioning

from the combined chairs of all the Commons committees.

First, a Conservative who's in the Leave camp

asked David Cameron about government websites

that are advocating Britain staying in the EU.

I now have advice from the Speaker's counsel that it is, and I quote,

abundantly clear that an electronic communication of the contents

of the website amounts to publication for the purposes

of Section 125 of the Political Parties Referendums Act.

What is your response to this?

It seems to me the right thing to do is to make sure

that if there is a website, a government website,

then it is not refreshed or updated during the period of purdah.

But I would just ask whether it's absolutely necessary

to take something down.

It seems to me that it is a...sort of rather an extreme position.

But I want to understand your concerns about that.

Well, in the case of Burn versus Dean in 1937,

the court ruled... That was pre-internet, I think.

Leaving a notice on a golf club notice board is a continuing act

of publication, and in other, more recent rulings,

every time the server is hit by another request

for a page, that constitutes republication of the material.

So I think you'll find you cannot keep up that website.

We will look at our legal advice, we will respond to your letter.

If this doesn't change, Prime Minister, expect a letter

before action, and if we can raise the funds, expect a writ.

Right, there we are...

Moving on, the Trade Union Bill...

LAUGHTER

Better get back to the office fast, then!

I was hoping for a sort of reasonable...

It seems to me, taking down a website is a bit like saying

you have to remove publications

that people might already have from the Government.

That is correct. We'll move on, Prime Minister.

In the event of Brexit, one of the concerns I would have

is that the UK would not be able to continue to share important data

on things like air passenger information and other data sharing

which is really vital to the security of our citizens.

Have you thought about what the consequences would be

of that and how we would ameliorate that if there was a vote to leave?

I'd say one area where I've definitely changed my opinion

is that I think I used to believe, you know,

Nato, partnership with America, police, intelligence services,

that is how we deliver security, Europe has got nothing to do

with security I think I probably would have argued

five or ten years ago.

There's no doubt in my mind that it has changed.

Those things that I just mentioned, they are all still unbelievably

important, and they are the most important things,

but there's no doubt in my mind that passenger name records,

criminal records data, fingerprints, DNA, terrorist

information, border checks, board information, those things,

taken together, are incredibly powerful and important

at protecting our security.

What is your answer to Michael Gove's crucial point,

I think, the most powerful point he makes, that, slowly,

our sense of identity is being eroded by our continuing

membership, that it is weakening our sense of identity,

and that our self-respect as a country

demands that we recapture self-government?

I don't feel any less British for being in the European Union,

you know, we are a different country, we are special.

We don't believe in having some ever closer political union,

we don't want a European army, we don't even want to join

the single currency.

You know, we're Britain, we are proud, we are independent,

we are strong, we can be bloody-minded, we get things done,

we are an amazing country, but we don't give up our national

identity by being part of this organisation, just as we don't give

up our national identity as being part of Nato or the G7

or the Commonwealth.

You know, we are the most connected, most effective nation,

I would argue, in the world.

You are long-standing supporter

of Turkey becoming a full member of the European Union.

I'll be absolutely frank with you - I don't think the accession

of Turkey to the European Union is remotely on the cards.

I don't think it will happen for decades.

I think, if you look at the facts,

the fact that it requires unanimity of all European members.

The French, for instance, they would have a referendum on it.

And so I'd say very clearly to people, if you're vote in this

referendum is being influenced by considerations about Turkish

membership of the EU, don't think about it,

it's not remotely on the cards, it's not an issue in this

referendum, and it shouldn't be.

Five hours before that, the Prime Minister had taken part

in robust exchanges in the Commons with the Labour leader

at the weekly round of PMQs.

David Cameron sought to make maximum political capital

out of Jeremy Corbyn's difficulties

over the claims of anti-Semitism within his party.

I'm going to press him on this point, because he did say this.

He said, "It will be my pleasure and my honour to host an event

in Parliament where our friends from Hezbollah will be speaking."

"I've also invited friends from Hamas to come and speak as well."

Now, Hamas and Hezbollah believe in killing Jews.

Not just in Israel but around the world.

So will he take this opportunity, because if he wants to clear up

the problem of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party,

now is a good time to start! Withdraw that they are your friends!

Jeremy Corbyn!

Mr Speaker, I made very clear Labour is an anti-racist party

and there is no place for anti-Semitism within it.

We have suspended any members that have undertaken any anti-Semitic

activities or work or statement

and have established an inquiry led by Shami Chakrabarti.

The points...

The points he was making earlier relate to a discussion

I was hosting in order to try to promote a peace process,

and it was not an approval of those organisations.

I absolutely do not approve of those organisations.

I'm going to have to do this one more time.

He referred to Hamas and Hezbollah as his friends.

Now, he needs to withdraw that remark.

Let me give him another chance, are they your

friends, or are they not?

Because those organisations, in their constitutions,

believe in persecuting and killing Jews.

They are anti-Semitic organisations, they are racist organisations.

He must stand up and say they are not his friends.

Jeremy Corbyn!

Mr Speaker, obviously, anyone that commits racist acts

or is anti-Semitic is not a friend of mine,

it's very clear about that.

Not exactly the finest exchanges between the leaders at PMQs.

A few minutes later, the Prime Minister signalled

a climb-down by the Government on the question of unaccompanied

Syrian child refugees who've reached Europe.

The Prime Minister disclosed talks were under way

with the Save the Children charity about what Britain

could do more to help.

David Cameron had been facing a serious Conservative rebellion

over the refusal up till then of the Government to allow the child

refugees to come to Britain.

The SNP's leader at Westminster quoted Sir Eric Reich,

chairman of the Kindertransport Association of Jewish Refugees.

He wrote, "The echoes of the past haunt many of my fellow Kinder

and I whose fate rested with members of the British Parliament."

"I feel it is incumbent on us to once again demonstrate our

compassion and humankind needs to provide sanctuary

to those in need."

Why has it taken so long, and the threat of a Parliamentary

defeat, for the Prime Minister to begin changing his mind?

Prime Minister!

We are already taking child migrants in Europe with a direct family

connection to the UK, and we'll speed that up.

I'm also talking to Save the Children to see what we can do

more, particularly with children

who came here before the EU-Turkey deal was signed.

Because as I say again, what I don't want us to do

is to take steps that will encourage people to make

these dangerous journey, because otherwise our actions,

however well-meaning they will be, could result in more people dying,

rather than more people are getting a good life.

Last week, I accused the Prime Minister of walking

by on the other side when he stoutly defended his then policy opposing

further help for unaccompanied refugee children in Europe,

so if we are hearing now the beginnings of a U-turn,

I very much welcome it,

as I'm sure do members on all sides of the house.

Could I encourage him to think more about what could be done, given,

of course, that the Kindertransport helped 10,000 children from Europe?

I will ask the Prime Minister finally to take the opportunity

to thank Lord Alf Dubs and all campaigners who have worked

so hard for the UK to live up to the example and the spirit

of the Kindertransport.

I certainly think that all those people deserve recognition

for the work they've done to put these issue so squarely

on the agenda.

But let me just say again, I do reject the comparison

with the Kindertransport, and for this reason.

I would argue that what we're doing, primarily, which is taking

children from the region, taking vulnerable people

from the camps, going to the neighbouring countries,

and taking people into our country, housing them, clothing them,

feeding them, making sure they can have a good life here, that, to me,

is like the Kindertransport.

To say that the Kindertransport is taking today children

from France, Germany, Italy, safe countries that are democracies,

I think that is an insult to those countries.

But as I've said, because of the steps that we are taking,

place, the amendment does not now mention a number of people.

We are going to go round the local authorities and see what more we can

do, but let's stick to the principle that we should not be taking

new arrivals to Europe.

Later, outside the chamber, Downing Street explained that

children registered in Greece, Italy or France before the EU-Turkey

deal was signed last month would be eligible for resettlement.

Well, as fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo continued unabated

despite the ceasefire agreed in February, experienced foreign

correspondents have been talking about Britain's military involvement

in both Syria and Iraq.

The journalists faced the questions of the Commons Defence Committee.

Their answers gave little room for optimism.

The last time I went, I went to a school, a girls' school

that had been bombed on sports day in Aleppo.

And one bomb had hurled a girl against

the wall and blasted in black her outline.

So at the end of the school corridor there was the outline of a girl of

about 9-10 years old.

Just blasted her silhouette into the wall of the

school corridor.

That sort of stuff happens the whole time.

It is a terrible vision, It's really difficult to explain

to people here, because it's so extreme.

And there was a warning that worse was to come if Mosul,

the stronghold of so-called Islamic State, fell.

I think you should also prepare yourself for how bad

Mosul will probably be.

The word Stalingrad is bounded around far too

much by the media and elsewhere, but Mosul

really has the potential to

be really quite catastrophic, given how the fight will go both for the

defenders and the attackers, Mosul will mostly be

I reckon, pretty bloody

awful.

To you think Russia's action has assured that Assad will remain

in power?

And should we accept that it's the new norm, accept him as

being in power?

Putin has ensured Assad cannot lose.

Once Assad cannot lose, eventually, the other

side, I believe, it will filter down, that means we can't win.

There was also criticism that the politicians had approached

the conflict in the wrong way.

We had had Egypt, we had had Libya.

Two leaders had gone and the political class looked

about, grandstanded, left right and centre,

demanded Assad should go, and that put his back

against the wall and gave him nowhere to go whatsoever.

I

think it was a mistake for us to shout go, go,

go and it is a mistake we have been repeating for five or

six years and we have now got ourselves into a position where we

say, he could go, yes, sort of, but not necessarily right now.

As if it's a policy.

Forgive me for the extended rant, but it was a

political mistake and the political class needs to think much harder

about when this happens again, do what you really want to push this

person into a corner?

Be sure before you push.

And now a look at some of the other stories in Parliament

in the last few days.

The Health Minister Alistair Burt has told MPs he's not ruled out

holding a public inquiry into deaths at units run by the Southern Health

NHS Foundation Trust.

An inquiry last year found it had failed to investigate hundreds

of deaths since 2011.

The chairman of the Trust has now resigned.

Labour said the anger of patients and families was fully justified.

We should be angry that Connor Sparrowhawk was left

to drown in a bath.

We should be angry that Angela Smith took her own life.

We should be angry that David West died in the

care of his NHS Trust.

His father was repeatedly ignored when he raised

his concerns.

All of them were denied the care they so desperately needed.

Will he listen to all the pleas of the victims' families,

campaigners and all of us who are demanding

a full public inquiry

into Southern health.

I'm not ruling out some form of further inquiry,

but remember, the inquiry is physically being done now.

What needs to follow is urgent action to

respond to what is said, not a long drawn-out

public inquiry, which is

not necessarily the right answer.

It was called a kids' strike.

Protest against tests for 7-11-year-olds, tests containing

questions about English grammatical terms that some say have only

limited long-term use.

Was it a preposition too far?

The Prime Minister got tested on his grammar.

For the benefit of the House, and for 10-11-year-olds up down the

country, will the Prime Minister explain what the past progressive

tense is?

Will he differentiate between a subordinating conjunctive

and a coordinating conjunctive?

And finally, will he set out his definition,

please, of a modal verb?

I could say to the honourable lady, the whole point of these changes is

to make sure that our children are better educated than we are.

And that's why am delighted that

children at state schools are going off to do these tests, I'm

absolutely delighted they're going to be.

A possible breakthrough in

the junior doctors dispute over new working contracts.

The Government said it would pause the introduction

of the contract in England for five days to allow talks.

News that was well received in the House of Lords.

My Lords, I am surprised but the delighted after the initial news

this morning that the Department of Health has agreed to undertake

discussions with the junior doctors.

Is my noble friend aware that the public

will greatly welcome the

magnanimity of Her Majesty's Government in a willingly going

forward to have further discussions over a short period.

What he said this morning, welcome though it may

be, it's really rather too late.

Trust is the most important element when

it comes to provision of medical services and they've lost the trust

already, not only of the junior doctors, but a very large percentage

of the general public.

What I will say today is that we have an

opportunity over the next five days for the BMA and the Government to

find a resolution to this.

Meanwhile, another source of friction in the health service.

Nurses and midwives will no longer be funded with bursaries, but

instead, by a system of loans, the same as student loans.

Labour says it is not right.

My concern about these proposals is that we ultimately end

up with those who are best placed to

pay becoming nurses and midwives and not those best placed to care.

The evidence base for these proposals is at best uncertain

and at worst...

And the great benefit of bringing in

apprenticeship routes and nursing associate roles, of

diversifying the skill mix, of creating quicker

and more numerous routes into a

nursing profession is that we can create a more diverse more flexible

and more agile, trained workforce.

All of that will be possible as a result of

the reforms of which this bursary reform is part.

And the minister's cup runneth over, or at least her

cereal bowl does.

The Environment Secretary was given food for thought

when she was asked a question by the MEP for the town where they make

Weetabix.

Will she ensure that at all the Defra breakfast meetings and

international trade symposiums that her department organises around

the world, that Weetabix is always served at these breakfast meetings?

And not only is it exported around the world,

all of the wheat grown is

from 50 miles of the Weetabix factory, so it is a real example of

linking farm through to fork.

And I proudly display my own box of Elizabeth Truss Weetabix

on my desk at Defra for all visitors to see

when they arrive at my office.

Liz Truss, the Minister for promoting Weetabix.

Other cereals are available, of course.

"Britain is levitating on a flow of dirty money."

That was a claim made at a committee session on Tuesday

by the American-born financial mogul Bill Browder.

Mr Browder's firms used to invest in Russia,

but he then became an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin.

The Home Affairs Committee is investigating how the UK deals

with the proceeds of crime.

It seems likely that in terms of money

laundering going through the

UK system every year, it is at least ?100 billion

of which a portion is

corrupt.

In terms of way goes, some of it uses the

UK as a destination, some of it flows to other destinations and

clearly one of the things that makes the UK attractive as a centre for

money laundering is historic links with overseas territories and

Crown Dependencies.

Because you can move the money very quickly to

jurisdictions that are very well linked and your

bank of lawyers and accountants will have very close connections and

can easily set up companies and so on.

The system that we have at the moment is just shot full

of holes, it is very patchy.

One of the other big supervisors that has quite a

lots of different bodies and is meant to be

supervising is HMRC and

as far as we can see, they're not doing a very good job.

For example, they supervise the estate agents and

if you take the thought that a lot of corrupt money goes into London

property, there is the question of why aren't the estate agents

reporting this to anybody?

We have filed over the course of five

years, and we have now filed six complaints.

We filed a complaint with the Metropolitan Police, 2010,

to investigate the organised crime group and their response was that

the responsibility to investigate fraud does not lie within the

Metropolitan Police Service.

We filed a complaint in 2012 with SOCA,

and they wrote back to us saying they are not the appropriate body

for the job.

We filed a complaint with the Serious Fraud Office in

2012 to investigate this crime.

They said the matter did not fall within

the remit of the Serious Fraud Office.

So what you are saying is

that when you approached the Government agency about a serious

crime you say has been committed, each one

of them said it was not in

their remit?

I think this country is levitating on the flow of dirty

money and I think that if there was a...

If that money was stopped, then

certain people would find themselves without businesses and I think those

people have some political...

It's a very serious charge.

Well, I can't explain it any other way, because

I've been to France, and I've spoke very intimately with the French

police and the Department of Justice, I'm working with the

Luxembourg police.

Why is it so hard?

You think it's a fair judgment that quite an amount of dirty money

is going into property, and particularly in London?

Correct.

So clearly, it is not working, the situation at the moment?

I would merely wish to repeat that I don't

think there's any problem with the rules

and regulations, it's just that

nobody is interested in enforcing them or

appears to be interested in

enforcing them.

Yes.

If you look at most estate agents in London,

certainly a year ago, still probably today,

the majority think they are

responsible only for their clients, the seller.

The investigation into money laundering.

Leicester City's unlikely achievement in winning football's

Premiership has been recognised in Parliament.

Celebrations in the East Midlands city began on Monday

night when the challenge of Spurs fizzled out.

One of the Leicester MPs, Keith Vaz, appeared in the Commons on Tuesday

draped in the official scarf of the Foxes.

And on Wednesday he was still wearing it.

Keith Vaz.

Can I thank the Prime Minister for joining Leicestershire

MPs and the rest of the planet in congratulating Leicester City

football club on their brilliant and historic success in the Premier

League.

During this amazing season, the local Leicester hero, Gary

Lineker, thought the idea of Leicester winning was so

far-fetched, that he said if it did win,

he would present Match Of The

Day in his underwear.

Don't join him!

As an Aston Villa supporter, and my commiserations to the Prime

Minister on their season, does he agree that

in politics, as well as

in football, when you make a promise, you should keep it?

I absolutely agree.

I've been watching everything Gary Lineker has said

since.

He's not quite answering the question, something no one

quite gets away with in this House.

And so I welcome what he said.

Obviously, I hope it's just the start of him

joining the Blue team.

David Cameron keeping the terraces happy in the Commons.

But has he moved the goalposts?

It'll be full-time for Parliament in a few days' time.

MPs and peers will, in the language, prorogue

ahead of the State Opening of Parliament a week on Wednesday.

Alicia McCarthy will be here with our daily round-up

at 11pm on Monday night.

Until then, from me, Keith Macdougall, goodbye.