Browse content similar to 13/05/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to the Week In Parliament, | :00:30. | :00:30. | |
where this session comes to a close with a final battle over | :00:31. | :00:33. | |
As the Education Secretary faces questions about the Government's | :00:34. | :00:50. | |
This is now under scrutiny. Anna is enough. | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
As the Education Secretary faces questions about the Government's | :00:55. | :00:56. | |
latest U-turn, we hear from two Westminster watchers on what makes | :00:57. | :00:59. | |
When you see announcing things as doing things you are in real | :01:00. | :01:09. | |
trouble. And the Culture Secretary | :01:10. | :01:10. | |
unveils his blueprint Commissioning editors should ask | :01:11. | :01:21. | |
consistently if you are programming is this idea sufficiently innovative | :01:22. | :01:25. | |
and high quality, rather than simply how will it do in the ratings? | :01:26. | :01:28. | |
But first, at the end of every session of parliament there's a bit | :01:29. | :01:31. | |
of political horse trading between the Commons and the Lords | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
as the last few bits of government legislation are argued over. | :01:35. | :01:36. | |
This time round, there was a gritty determination by some peers to force | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
change to the Housing and Planning Bill. | :01:41. | :01:41. | |
There'd been concessions on starter homes and on plans to increase rents | :01:42. | :01:44. | |
for those in social housing on higher incomes. | :01:45. | :01:46. | |
But there was one part of the Bill on which peers wouldn't budge, | :01:47. | :01:49. | |
guarantees that one new affordable home would be built for each high | :01:50. | :01:52. | |
I understand the reluctance that some in This House will have other | :01:53. | :02:08. | |
pressing this issue again. I have thought long and hard about these | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
issues and I would not put this forward unless I thought it was of | :02:13. | :02:18. | |
such vital importance. Unless we get this replacement policy right now, | :02:19. | :02:23. | |
funding and discretion, we will inevitably see fewer genuinely | :02:24. | :02:26. | |
affordable homes available. The Lords backed Lord Kerslake's | :02:27. | :02:29. | |
amendment on Tuesday night, sending the bill back | :02:30. | :02:31. | |
to the Commons, where a Labour MP took up the cause | :02:32. | :02:33. | |
at Prime Minister's Questions. Last April he launched his manifesto | :02:34. | :02:44. | |
promising to replace its own council houses with affordable homes in the | :02:45. | :02:49. | |
same area. Wipe them is he proposing amendments to the Bill this | :02:50. | :02:52. | |
afternoon which effectively implement the manifesto commitment? | :02:53. | :02:59. | |
I would put the question back, our housing Bill meant every high value | :03:00. | :03:03. | |
property sold will mean to new affordable homes in London. Why is | :03:04. | :03:08. | |
it that the Labour Party and the other place are opposing what will | :03:09. | :03:15. | |
mean more houses, more affordable housing, more home ownership. That | :03:16. | :03:19. | |
is the truth. They talk a good game but they are the enemies of | :03:20. | :03:20. | |
aspiration. And when MPs came to discuss | :03:21. | :03:22. | |
the bill later in the day, the Housing Minister made it clear | :03:23. | :03:25. | |
it was time for the It would have scrutinised this Bill | :03:26. | :03:36. | |
adequately but this is now under scrutiny and this is a wrecking | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
amendment. Enough is enough. It is time to stop. | :03:41. | :03:41. | |
Lord Kerslake did have support in the Commons from Labour | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
Council housing assets should not fund the right to buy for housing | :03:45. | :03:54. | |
association tenants and in the housing crisis we should not adopt | :03:55. | :03:58. | |
this top-down policy of forcing the sell-off of assets. | :03:59. | :03:59. | |
But in the end, when the Commons sent the bill back to the Lords | :04:00. | :04:02. | |
again, Lord Kerslake reluctantly climbed down. | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
In the end, any contest between This House and the other place will be an | :04:08. | :04:13. | |
unequal one. That is as it should be. They are elected and we are not. | :04:14. | :04:23. | |
However, that should not dissuade us from making our case clearly and | :04:24. | :04:26. | |
forcibly on issues that really matter. In this case, the matters | :04:27. | :04:36. | |
involved matter a great deal. The underlying concerns about this Bill | :04:37. | :04:41. | |
have been about its fairness, its commitment to localism and its | :04:42. | :04:46. | |
delivery ability. Most of all, they have been about whether it will | :04:47. | :04:50. | |
deliver the additional houses of all types, all types and ten years that | :04:51. | :04:54. | |
this country so desperately needs. And with that the Lords | :04:55. | :04:57. | |
withdrew their opposition - clearing the way for the Housing | :04:58. | :04:59. | |
and Planning Bill to While there was much wrangling over | :05:00. | :05:01. | |
the Housing Bill and many concessions along the way, | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
there was a straight forward U-turn On the day the election | :05:06. | :05:07. | |
results were coming in, the Education Secretary Nicky Morgan | :05:08. | :05:11. | |
announced that the Government was abandoning plans to force | :05:12. | :05:14. | |
all schools in England The proposal had many critics - | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
including some Conservatives. On Monday Ms Morgan appeared | :05:19. | :05:25. | |
in the Commons for the first time since that change of heart | :05:26. | :05:28. | |
and insisted that although there will be no blanket requirement | :05:29. | :05:31. | |
to become an academy - the change will be | :05:32. | :05:34. | |
forced on some schools. We always intended this to be a six | :05:35. | :05:46. | |
year process in which good schools should take their own decisions | :05:47. | :05:50. | |
about their future as academies. We understand the concerns raised about | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
a hard deadline and legislating for a blanket powers to issue Academy | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
orders. That is why I announced on Friday that we have decided it is | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
not necessary to take back the powers to convert good skills in | :06:03. | :06:05. | |
strong authorities to academies at this time. Despite her best effort, | :06:06. | :06:12. | |
this U-turn is getting the error in it deserves. Watch announced on | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
Friday was a significant and welcome climb-down. However she wants to | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
dress it up, dropping her desire to force all schools to become | :06:21. | :06:24. | |
academies quite arbitrary deadline of 2022 he is a key concession. | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
School leaders should take it as a clear signal that the food is often | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
the throat and they should not be the need to jump before being | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
pushed. Those of us concerned with this issue have expressed concerns | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
about compulsion, of course, but also about planning for school | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
places, transport across changing catchment areas and what happens | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
when there is a failing school with no suitable Academy to take it over. | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
Can I just say aye think the House is grateful to the Secretary of | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
State for having listened and we would urge to listen to these vinyl | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
pieces in the academisation jigsaw. We appreciate the tone and | :07:08. | :07:09. | |
constructive nature of statement afternoon. Will the Minister | :07:10. | :07:16. | |
acknowledge that the teachers, the Labour Party, the students and | :07:17. | :07:19. | |
parents were right and she was wrong? I think she let herself down | :07:20. | :07:27. | |
like that patronising question. The truth is that if any government | :07:28. | :07:30. | |
minister that any proposals forward then we add comment but that doesn't | :07:31. | :07:33. | |
mean we should not put proposals forward. When I said I was not going | :07:34. | :07:39. | |
to leave the job have done, I will not leave the job half done. | :07:40. | :07:41. | |
Nicky Morgan, performing a U-turn on her academisation policy. | :07:42. | :07:43. | |
In recent weeks we've had handbrake turns on tax credits, | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
So, political pragmatism or political feebleness? | :07:48. | :07:51. | |
Earlier I spoke to two Westminster watchers, journalist and author | :07:52. | :07:54. | |
John Rentoul and deputy director of the Institute for Government | :07:55. | :07:58. | |
and former deputy director of the Prime Minister's Strategy | :07:59. | :08:01. | |
I began by asking Julian McCrae when pragmatism started | :08:02. | :08:06. | |
I think it always matters what the consequences are of what you have | :08:07. | :08:19. | |
done and how quickly you readjust. Some of the things we have seen, | :08:20. | :08:24. | |
customisation of skins, it was clear fairly early on they did not have | :08:25. | :08:27. | |
the support among their own backbenchers. Once you are in that | :08:28. | :08:33. | |
situation, dropping that policy is important. Other things like tax | :08:34. | :08:37. | |
credits, that mattered because there was a lot of money to achieve the | :08:38. | :08:41. | |
mission of getting to a surplus by the end of the tournament and they | :08:42. | :08:45. | |
are expecting conveys a lot of money from that. They hung on to that for | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
four months and had to give it up and in that circumstance, the | :08:51. | :08:53. | |
question became what else do you now need to do to make that gap. It is | :08:54. | :08:59. | |
pragmatism, it is just being shifted of your agent and have to figure out | :09:00. | :09:05. | |
what the next thing to do is. He mentioned the Academy programme. The | :09:06. | :09:09. | |
government had an idea to force schools to be academies, it is you | :09:10. | :09:13. | |
turned, but it is still the direction of travel. Most schools | :09:14. | :09:17. | |
with the academies. The government is kind of getting what it wants. It | :09:18. | :09:26. | |
probably will. We have changed the government of schools and a lot of | :09:27. | :09:29. | |
times in the UK. We did it by providing financial incentives, | :09:30. | :09:32. | |
people volunteer to follow those incentives. We do not have to do it | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
by legislation that forces them to do it on the floor of the House. | :09:37. | :09:42. | |
There was an interesting calculation that they wanted to legislate and we | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
want to say it will be forced, that is no choice. For schools, it wasn't | :09:47. | :09:52. | |
clear that would be something they needed to do to achieve their ends. | :09:53. | :09:58. | |
The government would hate to admit this but are they missing the | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
liberal Democrats? We had a lot of negotiations behind the scene and we | :10:04. | :10:05. | |
didn't see where there were compromises. That is one of the big | :10:06. | :10:12. | |
problems David Cameron and George Osborne have had in adjusting to | :10:13. | :10:15. | |
single party government because they had assumed that once things were | :10:16. | :10:18. | |
negotiated with the Liberal Democrats would happen because the | :10:19. | :10:22. | |
coalition, together, had a huge majority where is now David Cameron | :10:23. | :10:29. | |
only has a majority of 16. You only need to lose eight Conservative MPs | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
from a policy and he cannot get it through the Commons. This is what | :10:34. | :10:39. | |
majority for me to be pragmatic? It should force you to the more | :10:40. | :10:45. | |
thoughtful before you put bright shiny policies in your budget like | :10:46. | :10:50. | |
forced academies. Whether you can actually get the numbers in the | :10:51. | :10:53. | |
House of Commons and beyond that in the House of Lords which will always | :10:54. | :10:58. | |
be a problem until it is reformed. Is the biggest point that policies | :10:59. | :11:05. | |
are not thought about properly? The big issue is that the government has | :11:06. | :11:09. | |
a huge agenda. It wants a surplus by the end of the tournament, it want | :11:10. | :11:14. | |
to contain and improve the quality of public services. The premise was | :11:15. | :11:18. | |
focused on the things he needed to do early on, his devolution plans, | :11:19. | :11:23. | |
some of the stuff about digital technology and how you can use it. | :11:24. | :11:27. | |
That has disappeared and it is still not permitted. They have a make that | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
work and yet we have a tendency to do a new announcement because we | :11:33. | :11:37. | |
have a budget for a speech,. That tendency is dangerous to government. | :11:38. | :11:41. | |
It is part of politics, it likes the new and shiny, but delivering as a | :11:42. | :11:48. | |
government focusing is critical. All governments like to be seen to be | :11:49. | :11:52. | |
doing things. Mr Ashworth Mrs Thatcher, Tony Blair, were they | :11:53. | :11:57. | |
pragmatic? They had large majorities. David Cameron doesn't. | :11:58. | :12:06. | |
He keeps forgetting that. When the issue of unaccompanied children | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
refugees came up for example, he thought the sensible thing to do was | :12:11. | :12:14. | |
to deal with the problem at source and if you took them from Calais | :12:15. | :12:17. | |
that would create an incentive for people to send their children ahead | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
of them. That is a sensible argument but it is not one you could persuade | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
his own party in the House of Commons to abide by and he certainly | :12:28. | :12:30. | |
could not persuade the House of Lords. | :12:31. | :12:37. | |
Do you think the Government will carry on and will the be forced into | :12:38. | :12:48. | |
this? It is a small majority. You have to pick your battles very | :12:49. | :12:52. | |
carefully and you have to prepare for them. When you think about the | :12:53. | :12:56. | |
prison reform that Michael Gove is talking about, can they build on | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
that, can they consult their backbench and make sure they have | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
the votes to get that through and be pragmatic that is central to the | :13:06. | :13:09. | |
current agenda? They settle on those things that is great for government | :13:10. | :13:14. | |
but when you see and mounting things as doing things, you're in real | :13:15. | :13:17. | |
trouble. If they start announcing lots of new things and not focusing | :13:18. | :13:21. | |
on delivering things they have already announced that will be | :13:22. | :13:25. | |
problem. That seems a good note on which to leave it so thank you for | :13:26. | :13:28. | |
coming into the programme. Now let's take a look at some | :13:29. | :13:30. | |
other news from around On Tuesday, the Prime Minister | :13:31. | :13:34. | |
was caught on camera telling the Queen that Nigeria | :13:35. | :13:38. | |
and Afghanistan were "possibly the two most corrupt countries | :13:39. | :13:41. | |
in the world." Both states were about to attend | :13:42. | :13:45. | |
an anti-corruption summit in London. No surprise then that | :13:46. | :13:47. | |
David Cameron's indiscretion was raised the next day | :13:48. | :13:49. | |
at Prime Minister's Questions. Has the Prime Minister read the | :13:50. | :14:01. | |
appeals from Nigerian campaigners who say our efforts are sadly | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
undermined if countries such as your own are welcoming our corrupt to | :14:06. | :14:12. | |
hide their ill gotten gains in your luxury homes, department stores, car | :14:13. | :14:15. | |
dealerships, private schools and anywhere else that will accept the | :14:16. | :14:19. | |
cash with no questions asked? The whole point of holding the summit in | :14:20. | :14:24. | |
London is to save the action is necessary by developed country as | :14:25. | :14:25. | |
well as developing countries. The Labour leader meanwhile | :14:26. | :14:26. | |
wanted to know what the PM UK administered tax havens which | :14:27. | :14:36. | |
received large sums of money from dodgy sources which should and must | :14:37. | :14:43. | |
be closed down, as should any tax evasion in the City of London. This | :14:44. | :14:48. | |
government has done more than any previous government to deal with | :14:49. | :14:52. | |
this issue of making sure that our overseas territories and Crown | :14:53. | :14:55. | |
dependencies are not tax havens but behave in a responsible way. | :14:56. | :14:57. | |
A spelling, punctuation and grammar test taken by 600,000 primary school | :14:58. | :14:59. | |
children in England on Tuesday was nearly jeopardised | :15:00. | :15:02. | |
MPs were told that the Key Stage Two test had been "mistakenly uploaded" | :15:03. | :15:10. | |
onto a secure website, and someone with access to the site | :15:11. | :15:12. | |
It was the second time in three weeks a primary school exam | :15:13. | :15:17. | |
This was clearly a mistake which should not have been possible. I | :15:18. | :15:29. | |
have asked that all records are examined and all information | :15:30. | :15:35. | |
interrogators that the cob but -- culprit who leaked this information | :15:36. | :15:36. | |
can be identified. Researchers at Oxford University say | :15:37. | :15:38. | |
findings backing the Government's push for a seven-day NHS in England | :15:39. | :15:40. | |
are based on flawed data. The study disputed that there | :15:41. | :15:43. | |
was a "weekend effect" when death If we expand, if we say we can have | :15:44. | :15:55. | |
everything every day, if they're not the danger that in actual fact we | :15:56. | :15:59. | |
will admit what people saw the ratio will look better but in actual fact | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
exactly same number of people will have died? They won't have prevented | :16:05. | :16:07. | |
any debts, we will have just made the mortality rate look better. -- | :16:08. | :16:13. | |
deaths. We can get into discussions about the different studies are they | :16:14. | :16:17. | |
thinking is comprehensive study of the study that was published last | :16:18. | :16:20. | |
September but was a huge international... More comprehensive? | :16:21. | :16:25. | |
It is the same dataset only they included all of the eight Andy | :16:26. | :16:31. | |
attendances and the guilt that into the paper. And it included in that | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
paper there is a weekend effect, and that the standard of care we give at | :16:38. | :16:40. | |
weekends is different because she had to be more ill to get a decision | :16:41. | :16:46. | |
to admit you, that is a big reason why we believe we should have a | :16:47. | :16:50. | |
seven-day NHS because we don't believe there should be a difference | :16:51. | :16:53. | |
in the criteria for admission at the weekend is in the week. | :16:54. | :16:58. | |
Two new MPs arrived in the Commons on Monday. | :16:59. | :17:04. | |
Border. Order. Will members wishing to take their seats please come to | :17:05. | :17:08. | |
the table? Gill Furniss is now the Labour MP | :17:09. | :17:09. | |
for Sheffield Brightside She won the seat in a by-election | :17:10. | :17:11. | |
caused by the death of her And Chris Elmore is the new Labour | :17:12. | :17:15. | |
MP for Ogmore - he took over from Huw Irranca Davies, | :17:16. | :17:20. | |
who stood down from Westminster to stand for election | :17:21. | :17:22. | |
to the Welsh Assembly. And while we're on the subject, | :17:23. | :17:24. | |
the election of Sadiq Khan as mayor of London means there's to be | :17:25. | :17:27. | |
a by-election in the South West Mr Khan comfortably defeated | :17:28. | :17:30. | |
the Conservative Zac Labour's chief whip moved the writ | :17:31. | :17:34. | |
initiating the by-election The party says it expects | :17:35. | :17:39. | |
the contest to take place The Culture Secretary has unveiled | :17:40. | :17:43. | |
the Government's blueprint for the future of the BBC, | :17:44. | :17:49. | |
saying the broadcaster needs to focus on distinctiveness | :17:50. | :17:51. | |
and diversity. John Whittingdale dismissed earlier | :17:52. | :17:56. | |
reports of plans to reduce the BBC's independence and funding | :17:57. | :17:59. | |
as the "hysterical speculation of left-wing luvvies." Under | :18:00. | :18:02. | |
the plans, the licence fee will continue at least | :18:03. | :18:06. | |
for the next 11 years. People watching BBC programmes | :18:07. | :18:11. | |
online will have to The BBC will be overseen | :18:12. | :18:13. | |
by a new "unitary board" and regulated by the | :18:14. | :18:17. | |
broadcasting watchdog Ofcom. Commissioning editors should ask | :18:18. | :18:31. | |
consistently if new programming, is this idea sufficiently innovative | :18:32. | :18:33. | |
and high quality rather than simply how will it two in the ratings? So | :18:34. | :18:39. | |
we will place a requirement to provide distinctive content and | :18:40. | :18:42. | |
services at the heart of the BBC's overall core mission of informing, | :18:43. | :18:48. | |
educating and entertaining in the public interest. For the last few | :18:49. | :18:52. | |
weeks Mr Speaker we have had to read and increasing avalanche of briefing | :18:53. | :18:57. | |
to Conservative supporting newspapers. Especially those | :18:58. | :19:00. | |
newspapers hostile to the BBC which appears to have been emanating from | :19:01. | :19:05. | |
his department. The fact that most of his wilder proposals appear to | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
have been watered down or dumped or delayed by the Government is a | :19:10. | :19:13. | |
reflection of his diminishing influence and lack of clout. He has | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
not got his way in most things and I welcome that. | :19:18. | :19:18. | |
A Conservative welcomed the commitment to increasing diversity. | :19:19. | :19:25. | |
The BBC has struggled with diversity on screen and off screen for far too | :19:26. | :19:33. | |
long. I absolutely welcome the enjoyment of diversity into the new | :19:34. | :19:37. | |
charter. It is the right and wise thing to do. Does the Secretary of | :19:38. | :19:40. | |
State agree with me that attracting the brightest and most diverse | :19:41. | :19:44. | |
talent will actually improve the content of the BBC's offering and | :19:45. | :19:47. | |
also ultimately the ratings? Many of us are very concerned that | :19:48. | :19:58. | |
this is the thin edge of the wedge that will prevent the BBC from | :19:59. | :20:02. | |
competing in prime time with commercial broadcasters and is | :20:03. | :20:05. | |
deliberately designed to do so. What assurance can the Minister give to | :20:06. | :20:09. | |
this House that that is not the intention and that that will not be | :20:10. | :20:15. | |
the case? I think I can assure him that that is not the intention. It | :20:16. | :20:21. | |
is something the BBC has fully recognised and embraced. The BBC's | :20:22. | :20:25. | |
director-general has been a driving force here. He has highlighted that | :20:26. | :20:30. | |
he wants to see a system that firmly holds our feed to the fire on | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
distinctiveness and that to my mind is what the white paper proposals | :20:35. | :20:45. | |
will deliver. The register declares major interests I was going to say | :20:46. | :20:50. | |
is a nightmare of an endangered species but now a condemned species, | :20:51. | :20:55. | |
namely the BBC Trust. -- is a member of an endangered species. Knowing | :20:56. | :21:02. | |
the great interest that is in this House, I welcome the Government | :21:03. | :21:05. | |
commitment in the white paper to ring fencing of the BBC World | :21:06. | :21:09. | |
Service. I think that is very important indeed. That presents a | :21:10. | :21:13. | |
solid guarantee for the years ahead as well as a certainty provided by | :21:14. | :21:19. | |
an 11 year charter. My concern is however are that the proposals to | :21:20. | :21:24. | |
protect the BBC's independence do not cover enough. Will the Minister | :21:25. | :21:27. | |
assure the House that the Government will provide sufficient guarantees | :21:28. | :21:33. | |
that its future decisions about the BBC and in particular about funding | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
appointments to the board are made clearly and transparently and | :21:40. | :21:41. | |
without compromising the BBC's independence? That statement about | :21:42. | :21:47. | |
the BBC came on the last day of this session of Parliament which ended | :21:48. | :21:51. | |
with the traditional ceremony of prorogation. | :21:52. | :21:54. | |
Here's Duncan Smith with five things you need to know. | :21:55. | :22:01. | |
The Royal Commission - five peers - acts on behalf of the Queen, | :22:02. | :22:05. | |
and instruct Black Rod to summons the Commons. | :22:06. | :22:15. | |
Since it last banged on the door is on the House of Commons... | :22:16. | :22:19. | |
During this session, Parliament has sat for 151 days in total, | :22:20. | :22:21. | |
The Speaker, The Clerk and the Serjant at Arms officially | :22:22. | :22:25. | |
greet The Royal Commission with a ceremonial doff | :22:26. | :22:27. | |
of the hat on one side, and a bow in return on the other. | :22:28. | :22:31. | |
The last monarch to do so in person was Queen Victoria in 1854. | :22:32. | :22:38. | |
Royal Assent is formally announced to all legislation not already | :22:39. | :22:42. | |
With the Norman French words La Reyne le vault - | :22:43. | :22:47. | |
MPs return to the Commons and file out past the Speaker, | :22:48. | :22:55. | |
Duncan Smith, with fun facts on prorogation marking the end | :22:56. | :23:08. | |
of this session of the Westminster Parliament. | :23:09. | :23:11. | |
MPs and peers will return on Wednesday for the state | :23:12. | :23:14. | |
opening and Queen's Speech, setting out the bills | :23:15. | :23:17. | |
the Government wants to introduce in the next 12 months. | :23:18. | :23:20. | |
But while we're saying goodbye, it's hello from the new look | :23:21. | :23:23. | |
First to Northern Ireland, where the Democratic Unionist Party | :23:24. | :23:29. | |
remains the largest in Northern Ireland | :23:30. | :23:31. | |
Its leader, Arlene Foster, will continue as First Minister. | :23:32. | :23:37. | |
Of the 108 assembly seats, the DUP has 38 - | :23:38. | :23:41. | |
while the second largest party, Sinn Fein, has 28. | :23:42. | :23:44. | |
The result means the DUP holds the same number of seats | :23:45. | :23:47. | |
Meanwhile, in Scotland, MSPs have been sworn | :23:48. | :23:53. | |
in for the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament. | :23:54. | :23:57. | |
All 129 members took either an oath or an affirmation in the well | :23:58. | :24:00. | |
The leaders of Holyrood's five political parties | :24:01. | :24:07. | |
were sworn in first - starting with SNP leader | :24:08. | :24:11. | |
and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and the new Leader Of | :24:12. | :24:13. | |
The Opposition, the Conservative Ruth Davidson. | :24:14. | :24:15. | |
The Parliament also elected a new presiding officer, | :24:16. | :24:18. | |
The Labour MSP for West Scotland paid tribute to his predecessor | :24:19. | :24:25. | |
Tricia Marwick and reminded fellow Parliamentarians of the "promise | :24:26. | :24:29. | |
offered by devolution." But the big surprise of the week | :24:30. | :24:31. | |
On Wednesday, newly elected Ukip, Conservative and Plaid Assembly | :24:32. | :24:35. | |
Members flexed their collective muscles and blocked | :24:36. | :24:38. | |
the re-election of Labour's leader Carwyn Jones as First Minister. | :24:39. | :24:43. | |
Our Political Editor for Wales, Nick Servini, explains what's been | :24:44. | :24:45. | |
There have been extraordinary developments here at the Senate. | :24:46. | :24:57. | |
What happened after the election is that Labour emerged as by far the | :24:58. | :25:00. | |
biggest party but they don't have an overall majority and they need the | :25:01. | :25:04. | |
support of Plaid Cymru in particular. But we have had is a | :25:05. | :25:08. | |
vote to nominate the next First Minister. We thought it would be | :25:09. | :25:11. | |
something of a formality with the Labour leader Carwyn Jones becoming | :25:12. | :25:16. | |
the next First Minister. What happened was that Plaid Cymru is | :25:17. | :25:22. | |
Labour from wartime to discuss potential deals and they refused. As | :25:23. | :25:27. | |
a result they nominated their own leader Leanne Wood and with the | :25:28. | :25:31. | |
support of UKIP and the Tories they manage to get 29 votes, exactly the | :25:32. | :25:36. | |
same as Labour did. So we have a dead heat. There would have to be | :25:37. | :25:42. | |
another vote in the future. As a result all sorts of talks are taking | :25:43. | :25:45. | |
place. The main focus of discussions to try and break the deadlock is | :25:46. | :25:48. | |
between Labour and Plaid Cymru. Nick Servini, on dramatic times | :25:49. | :25:50. | |
at the Welsh Assembly. And that's it from us for now, | :25:51. | :25:52. | |
but do join me on Wednesday when MPs and peers return to Westminster | :25:53. | :25:56. | |
for the pomp and ceremony | :25:57. | :25:59. |