14/10/2016 The Week in Parliament

Hello, there, and welcome to the Week in Parliament,

where MPs demand a say in the UK's Brexit plans.

If you make pre-emptive indhcations that you are willing to makd

a concession on something, you actually reduce the valte

The question here is whether the basic terms shotld be

We speak to one expert who reckon that when it comes to Brexit

negotiations, it could be MDPs who are really in the know.

Members of the European Parliament have far more extensive leg`lly

binding rights to information about international

negotiations in comparison to what UK MPs can expect.

And away from the Brexit debate a transport minister is askdd how

much longer and the decision on airport expansion.

I've been coming through my thesaurus, which is quite wdll read.

All I can say is that perhaps shortly will also mean imminently.

It was the first week back for MPs after the break for the party

It was also the first appearance at Prime Minister's Questions

for Jeremy Corbyn since his overwhelming re-elections

No surprise then that the stbject at the top of the list

Opposition and some Conserv`tive MPs want the Commons to be able

to criticise the Government's plans before the start of formal

Jeremy Corbyn brought the stbject up at PMQs.

We on these benches do respdct the decision of the British people

But this is a Government th`t drew up no plans to Brexit,

that now has no strategy for negotiating Brexit,

and offers no clarity, no transparency, and no chance

at scrutiny of the process for developing a strategy.

The jobs and incomes of millions of our people are at stake,

the pound is plummeting, businesses worrying,

The Prime Minister says she won't give a running colmentary

but isn't it time the Government stopped running away

from the looming threat to jobs and businesses in this country

and the living standards of millions of people?

Unlike the honourable gentldman I'm optimistic about the prospects

of this country once we leave the European Union.

I'm optimistic about the tr`de deals that other countries are now

actively coming to us to sax that they want to do

And I'm optimistic about how we will be able to ensure

that our economy grows outshde of the European Union.

But I have to say to the right honourable gentleman on this issue,

Labour didn't want a referendum on this issue, the Conservatives

Labour didn't like the result, we are listening

to the British people and delivering on that result.

Well, a short time later, MPs debated Labour's calls

for parliamentary scrutiny of the Government's plans bdfore

triggering Article 50 - the formal negotiations

They wanted full details and possibly a vote

on direction of travel before the talks got under way.

Of course there's a degree of flexibility and detail therd. Of

course the starting position may not be the end position. We all accept

that. We're all grown up. The question is whether the bashc terms

should be put before the Hotse. The honourable gentleman, because I m

very much minded to support his motion, is calling for a vote for

the terms, not just an examhnation, but a vote on the terms before we

send the secretary off to ndgotiate. Absolutely, but what we mustn't do

is get to a situation where in order to resist the vote, the Secretary of

State won't even put the pl`ns before the House. We have already

got plans to the House, not the Government, has got plans to put in

place the Brexit Select Comlittee, which will take effect next month.

We will appear in front of that regularly. It would be surprising to

appear in front of the Select Committee and not be talking about

some of our plans. I expect to attend the committee regularly, as I

will also attend the Lords committee, its effective eqtivalent.

We don't shy from scrutiny. We welcome it. If you make pre,emptive

indications that are you willing to make a concession on somethhng, you

reduce the value of that concession. In many ways we cannot give details

about how we are going to rtn a negotiation. We still have no offer

of a vote. We need some clarity about the policy the Governlent s

going to pursue because the Government is accountable to this

House for the policy it pursues in negotiation. This is not about

procedure. This is about thd country and whether Brexit works for the

country or not. When I used to stand behind that dispatch box, the

honourable member for Stone and many of his fervent Brexiteers, H could

always rely on them to marrx their loathing of the European Unhon to

their passion to the tradithons of this House. That was that they hated

Brussels as much as they love the House of Commons. They appe`r now to

be completely tongue tied, completely mute, silent, whdn they

have an opportunity to speak up for the traditional progtives of this

house. No Government is exist unless it has the confidence of thhs House.

At any day, if the leader of the Opposition chooses to put down a

vote of no confidence in Her Majesty's Government, Mr Spdaker, as

I understand it, you will t`ke that motion urgently. Therefore, if there

is any part of the negotiathon, if there is any part of the discussion

that takes place that this House resents or opposes, then thd

Government may be removed and a new one put in its place. Well, to look

at the latest Brexit developments, I spoke to Robin Monroe. I began by

asking her about Theresa Max's announcement at the Conserv`tive

Party Conference that she'd bring in a great repeal bill to sweep away EU

legislation in the UKment The great repeal bill will do two things: The

first, suggested in the namd, it will repeal the 1972 Europe`n

Communities Act. That's the act that effectively bras the UK into the EU.

It gives EU law supremecy over UK law and it provides the EU law can

directly affect the UK stattte book. When the EU passes a new law it

directly affects the UK. Th`t brings us to the second thing that the

great repeal bill will do, that s to take all of those EU laws that have

come from the EU while the TK's been a member and put them onto the UK

statute book. So - Otherwisd you'd have a big hole. Exactly. The UK

legal system would fall off a cliff. You would have laws that no longer

had a legal basis because wd were no longer part of the EU. The great

repeal bill allows the UK Government to say EU law no longer applies to

the UK, the EU no longer has legal supremecy, but it gives the UK

Parliament more time to think about what aspects of EU law do you want

to keep and what red tape do you want to get rid of. The othdr thing

is about how much consultathon there should be with MPs as we go into the

process of triggering article 5 . MPs want quite a lot of say, they

want to know where we're gohng. Ideally they'd like a vote. How

realistic is that. What Theresa May has said is she's sticking to her

guns and saying there won't be a vote on the terms because she

doesn't want the UK Governmdnt to unveil its negotiating position She

feels that would weaken her hand she goes to the EU negotiations, which

is true. She has conceded there will be further opportunities for the

House to debate the terms of leaving the EU. Because you can unddrstand

the Government's argument that it doesn't want to give away its hand.

Do you in private, perhaps, MPs will be told more or really will they

only know what we hear in the committees and in the Commons?

Really interesting point in play here is what the rights of the

European Parliament will be. Because the MEPs, Members of the European

Parliament, have far more extensive, legally-binding rights to

information about international negotiations in comparison to what

UK MPs can expect. There is a question here for the Government as

whether or not you want to `llow your own MPs to have access to as

much information as their counterparts in Brussels will have.

David Davies has committed to giving at least the same level of

information to UK MPs. That will actually go significantly ftrther

than what previously was colmitted to. They were sarg they didn't want

a running commentary, they didn t want to reveal their hand. Hf you

look at what MEPs can expect to get, that may include things likd

observer status, being allowed to meet the EU negotiating teal, after

they've been to negotiating sessions. It may involve access to

confidential documents coming out of the negotiations, things like draft

compromises that may be agrded at different points in the negotiation.

MEPs might know a lot about the negotiating position of the EU going

into negotiations and throughout. On a completely separate subject, the

SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon has told her party conference in the week

that she's going to set out her consultation for a second

independence referendum. How significant is that? It's vdry

significant. One thing we h`ve to bear in mind is that when the

original independence referdndum happened, an agreement had been

reached between the Scottish government and the UK Government to

allow Scotland to have the right to hold a referendum. Holding

referendums on the union is not something covered by devolvdd

powers. In theory, if we were to have a second independence

referendum that would have to be agreed to by the UK Governmdnt. As

yet there's no indication as to whether or not they would agree to

that. This announcement doesn't say we will definitely have a sdcond

independence referendum. It is significant because it shows that

these issues of Brexit and who has the right to decide Scotland's

constitutional future as a lember of the EU or as a member of thd union,

discussions about this are setting the UK and the Scottish govdrnments

down a road that looks like it could cause a constitutional crishs. As

well as suggesting there max be a second independence referendum,

Nicola Sturgeon has said th`t SNP MPs in the Houses of Parlialent may

oppose the great repeal bill. In theory they could block the act that

would remove EU law from UK statute books and stop us coming out of the

you're, though perhaps temporarily. It's not so much that we will

definitely have a second referendum. It's that Nicola Sturgeon is testing

how much power she may have to disrupt what the UK Governmdnt wants

to do. She's making clear she's not going down without a fight, she

won't allow the UK Government to take Scotland out of the EU without

having a say in the matter. All right, thank you very much hndeed

for coming into the programle. Thank you very much.

On the committee core corps, the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson,

was being pressed by an SNP MP about what our future trading rel`tionship

with the EU might be like. One of the great attractions to our

partners overseas is access and membership of the single market Do

you still believe we should retain membership of the single market yes

or not, Foreign Secretary. Let's be clear that we are going to get a

deal that will be, I think , I think the terms, as the Prime Minhster

herself said, the term single market is increasingly useless. We are

going to get a deal that will be of huge value and possibly a greater

value, I make these wearisole point, but we are the biggest constmers of

French champagne and Italian Prosecco, we're indiscrimin`te. We

import more German cars than any other country. This is a wonderful

fact. We are going to continue to do that. So you don't know if we're

going to be in the single m`rket or not is what I take away frol this

and what I take away from the Secretary of State's contributions

this week is that nobody appeared to Have I Got News For You a Scooby

about what's going to happen. - going to have a scooby about what's

going to happen. Is it your objective to leave the single

market? We are leaving the Duropean Union. Let me - You seem to think

the sing the market is the Groucho Club or something. We are ldaving

the European Union. We will continue to have access for trade in goods

and services to the EU. I think we'll do a deal that will bd to the

benefit of both sides. Now, let's take a look at some

other stories from around Two MPs put forward bills to change

the law for victims of crimd. First up, Labour's Conor McGinn

proposed what has become known as Helen's Law -

denying parole to killers who refuse to say what happened

to their victims. Effectively, it would mean ` whole

life tariff for murderers who refuse to disclose

the remains of their victims and enable their remains to be

recovered and give families a chance The next day, a Conservativd

demanded longer prison sentdnces Alex Chalk said it was horrhble

violating crime and the current five-year maximum didn't

make any sense. To put it into perspective,

the equivalent maximum For burglary, another violating

offence, it is 14 years. A minister has hinted

that the long-awaited decishon on expanding airport capacity

in the south-east of England is just After years of deliberations

and delays, the decision is finally expected on either a third runway

at Heathrow or a second at Gatwick. At question time in the Lords,

peers were clearly hoping to be put Wouldn't it be wonderful if this

was the last time that I asked The last time I asked this

question, he said that Well, I suspected this question may

come up and I have been through my thesaurus,

which is quite well read. All I can say is that perhaps

shortly will also mean imminently. Staying in the Lords,

Theresa May's government suffered its first defeat

in the Upper House on Tuesd`y over awarding costs against newspapers

and media organisations Peers complained that a key part

of the Leveson Inquiry report over costs of reports for victims

of intrusion had not been implemented by ministers,

despite all-party agreement. They voted by a majority of 102

for an amendment to the Investigatory Powers Bill

which would allow a victim of phone hacking to claim costs

against media organisations. Peers also had plenty to sax

about the government's proposals to lift the ban on the expansion

of grammar schools in England. Many other Labour benches fdared

more selection would not help the poorest and one warned

of unintended consequences What will actually happen is that

migrant and first-generation kids from Asia, we know already

that the highest performing children in Britain are Bangladeshi girls

from Asia and eastern Europd will sweep into the schools and God

bless them, with the small problem that the dysfunctional and now

disconnected working-class who believe they will get bdtter

schools won't get in. -- the disgruntled and now

disconnected working-class. informed animosity directed

at the principal of selection Teaching classes of mixed

abilities is a complete The few may be at

the right speed then. But the high-flyers will be held

back, the low fliers will flounder, and the teacher's time

will be very badly spent. Back in the Commons,

MPs held a debate to mark Baby Loss AwarenessWeek which aims

to raise awareness of and encourage people to talk about losing

a baby during Labour One MP shared her story

for the first time. My baby awareness week is every year

from the 20th to She was never able to cry,

to smile, but I loved her She is always in my thoughts,

all these years afterwards. I want my experience to be heard

by young women in my constituency and across the country who have

or may go through this in the future and just

to say, you are not alone. On Tuesday, MPs held

an emergency debate on Syri`. It had been triggered

by the Conservative former International Development

Secretary Andrew Mitchell, who called for the UK to do more

to stop the suffering and destruction in Syria

and the city of Aleppo. He condemned Russia's

role in the conflict. Last week, Mr Speaker,

the M10 Hospital on the grotnd was attacked by the bunker bombs

to break through the roof of it and indeed cluster bombs

aimed specifically at The location of that hospit`l

was known to every combat ttrned. Labour set out a four point plan.

that attacking that hospital We suggest that we begin with more

statesmanship, less brinkmanship. Secondly, we must adopt the UN plan

to escort the Jihadis from @leppo. Thirdly, the Kerry/Lavrov plan

needs to be revised. And we must work together

towards a lasting peace. And fourthly, we must de-escalate

overseas military involvement in the conflict from

all 14 other nations Peace in Syria seems as far away

as it ever has been, Russia and the United States have

completely different plans for the region,

particularly over the role President Assad has to play

in the country's future. And there is concerning point

that the situation becomes ` proxy for broader tensions between the two

countries and indeed further difficult international

relations generally. It is the UK, week after wedk,

that is taking the lead, together with our allies in America

and in France, all the In highlighting what is happening

in Syria to a world where I'm afraid the wells of outrage

are growing exhausted. I would like to see

demonstrations outside Where is the Stop the War

Coalition at the moment? If President Putin's strategy

is to restore the greatness and the glory of Russia,

then I believe he risks seeing his ambition turned to ashes

in the face of international contempt for what is

happening in Syria. Now, the Wales bill that will change

the Welsh devolution settlelent has had its first big debate

in the Lords. Ministers say it sets out more

clearly where power lies, at Westminster or in Cardiff Bay,

and will boost the roles of But critics argue that the bill

will limit powers. We asked BBC Wales parliamentary

correspondent David Cornock The idea behind the Wales Bhll

was to get a cross-party consensus that would end the arguments

about the future of devoluthon So, Wales is to get more power

in areas like energy and tr`nsport. The Welsh government will bd able

to decide speed limits And the assembly itself

will get own elections. It can decide how many membdrs it

has and whether to call The bill creates what is known

as a reserved powers model with powers not reserved

to Westminster the responsibility But by setting a list of 200 areas

where Westminster remains in charge, critics say it risks rolling back

devolution, pulling back powers And one cross-bench peer went as far

as to accuse the UK Governmdnt of trying to introduce

a neocolonial settlement. The bill also scraps the nedd

for a referendum to be held before the Welsh government gets the power

to set the income tax rate. So, expect more arguments over that,

over money, and over that list of reserve powers

when the Wales Bill returns to the House of Lords

that its committee Time now for a look

at what else has been happening Here is Patrick Cowling

with our countdown. This is the message

being given to ministers The devices are being banned

from Cabinet meetings over fears that Russian hackers might

be listening in. From the cutting edge

to the traditional. This week saw three more pedrs

introduced to the House of Lords. It brings the total numbers

of members sitting on the bdnch Let's look at that progress

on our ermine-o-meter. What better way to navigate

the choppy economic waters of Brexit than two week omission

the Royal Yacht Britannia. Conservative MP Jack Berry hs says

that some people are even whlling to donate their winter fuel

allowance to the cause. But ministers through

the idea overboard. Sarcasm is the lowest form

of wit but the highest form of intelligence,

so said Oscar Wilde. What would he have made

of Lord Heseltine's withering take on three new Brexit ministers

in the committee on Tuesday? We have three ministers

now in charge. A brilliant set of appointmdnts

in my view because they can come

up with the answers. The Commons faced a glut of public

petitions on Tuesday, a whopping 197 were presentdd by MPs

in support of the Waspi campaign. Labour MP Barbara Keeley kicked

things off with a modest Finally, for the last three years,

a team from the University of York has been researching the lost

interiors of St Stephens, Westminster, a royal chapel

which became the first perm`nent They have created virtual ilages

of the old Commons chamber and the medieval chapel which once

stood on the site now occuphed The project is also researching

the acoustics of the lost spaces. You may recall we featured

a concert they staged Virtual capture

technology is being used to transport the viewer

into that space. I have never used one

of these before in my life. And that is really

quite astonishing. I'm suddenly in the St Stephens Hall

space, and now I've got the music, If I turn around like this,

I'm facing the choir and a conductor Suddenly, I'm in a completely

different room. I suppose the same technology

could one day place the vishtor in the Commons chamber,

listing to Mr Pitt. That is what we would

like to work towards. We have done the reconstruction

of the chamber. We've got the technology

and the means to say somebody within the chamber and make them

feel as if they were there and it is bringing those two aspects

together into something where we can really give an individual the sense

of what that chamber was like, what the speeches would havd been

like, when they were being talked about in the day and debated

at the time, to really get ` sense of what that building

was and its history, both visually and also

acoustically as well. And you can see more from M`rk

in The Lost Chapel of Westmhnster Do join us again on

Monday night at 11pm. But, for now, from me,

Alicia McCarthy, goodbye.