21/10/2016 The Week in Parliament

Hello and welcome to the Week In Parliament.

After the resignation of Dame Justice Lowell Godd`rd,

there are questions for the Prime Minister

about the running of the child sex abuse inquiry.

Can she now finally tell us when she personally learned

of the serious problems devdloping in this inquiry, and why it was

The Home Secretary cannot intervene on this basis of suspicion, rumour

or hearsay. As a new committee is set up

to keep an eye on Brexit - one veteran chairwoman tells us

what its biggest challenge will be. Getting the information

which will enable them to ask the tough questions on behalf

of Parliament and the public, to ensure the Government

is getting the best deal. And a withering verdict

on Sir Philip Green, as MPs demand the former owner

of BHS is stripped of his knighhood. He took the rings from BHS' fingers,

he beat it black and blue, he starved it of food and w`ter

he put it on life support and then he wanted credit

for keeping it alive. But first, to the child

sexual abuse inquiry, where the question that wouldn't go

away this week was who knew what - and when - about the resign`tion

of Dame Justice Lowell Godd`rd. The third appointee to head

the inquiry stepped down in August But newspapers suggested thdre'd

been concerns about her competence and professionalism -

though she strenuously denidd The Home Secretary said her

department had only been told about concerns over Dame Lowell

a few days before she quit, and explained why she'd madd no

mention of any complaints when she was questioned

about the resignation by MPs I was asked why

Dame Lowell had gone. Dame Lowell had not spoken to me

about her reasons, so I relhed on the letter she had

sent to the committee. In her letter, she said

she was lonely and felt that she could not deliver,

and that was why she stepped down. Dame Lowell has strongly refuted

the allegations about her, and the only way we could understand

properly why she resigned would be To echo any further allegathons

which are now likely to be subject to legal dispute would have been

entirely inappropriate. And she says that she was rdliant

on Justice Goddard's letter. Why didn't she get a full rdsponse

from her as to why she was going? The next day, MPs heard dirdctly

from members of the panel. What was your relationship

like and your working conditions and working relationship

like with Dame Lowell in her 16 months there that coincided

with your tenures? I'll start, yes, then the others can

make their own contributions. It was clear from the beginning that

Lowell Goddard really would have preferred to sit

on her own without the That's very all-encompassing word,

challenges, usually. Indeed, there were some fairly

all-encompassing challenges too What I will say is that the chair

wasn't always present in the United Kingdom

through the entire six-month period. And so we were able to conthnue

with our work for extensive periods without very much contact

with the chair. There were times when things were

perfectly amicable and profdssional. There were other times

when it was less the case. So was she a nightmare to work with,

as some papers have suggestdd? I would prefer to say

that there were challenges. She appointed the chair.

Theresa May what she knew. She was the individual responsible

for the inquiry's success. She was the Home Secretary hn April,

and she was the only person So can she now finally tell us

when she personally learned of the serious problems devdloping

in this inquiry, and why it was that Can I say, I recognise

that the honourable lady has taken I'm sure that she will recognise,

as I hope other members of this House do, why it was that I set

up the inquiry. For too long, people

who had been subjected... For too long,

people who had been subjectdd to child sexual abuse

had their voices, their voices went unheard and they felt

they weren't getting justicd. That's why it's very import`nt

that the inquiry is able to continue There were stories around

about the inquiry and about But the Home Secretary cannot

intervene on the basis On Wednesday afternoon,

John Bercow stood up and announced He was telling MPs who had been

chosen to chair a handful Among the winners,

Labour's Hilary Benn, who's to head a new committde,

shadowing the It's a big job and it's

going to be a big committee, So where do you start,

and what should a good I'm delighted to say I'm johned

by Dame Margaret Hodge, who frequently made the headlines

when she chaired the Thank you very much for comhng in.

Let's start by talking about what you think a good committee should

do, what should be the point of it? The point is to hold the exdcutive

to account. That's our job, on behalf of the public. So how do you

do it? You do it best by buhlding consensus. These are cross-party

committees, they reflect Parliament. But the strongest committees, with

the best impact, are the onds where you can build consensus across the

political spectrum with what you're looking at. The questions you need

to ask other questions the public want you to ask.

This brings us neatly to looking at this committee that Hilary Benn is

going to chair. It's a tough job, going to chair. It's a tough job,

looking at the Department for Exiting the EU. But it's but had 21

members, is that when to make his job difficult?

I think Hilary is a great choice of chair, he's very experienced, good

at building consensus and h`s a long history of knowledge, and expertise

in the subject. But I must say, I recoiled in a bit of horror when I

saw the he'd had 21 people on his committee. Because, my experience

from when I ran the committde, was that often, our most effecthve

sessions were ones where we didn't have all our members turn up to

Zero down to perhaps five or six members, and that meant we could

really work as a team. Again, across political parties, but we could

focus effectively in oche hdre and focus. 21 is pretty hard work. And

on Brexit, views are so different and people are so divided on the

subject, building consensus is going to be really tough ask.

One of the reasons it has bden set up the way it has is to reflect the

breadth of opinion and to rdpresent the United Kingdom geographhcally.

But view think 21 is to manx, how would you have done it?

I would have had fewer in ntmber. I think it can reflect the diversity

of views and the different due graphical locations in a much better

way. -- geographical locations. I cannot understand why you would put

up 21 members. That is what Hilary has got, it was agreed by

parliaments, is that is what he has to work with. So I hope he finds a

way of working which will not mean you get these very stilted sessions

where everybody feels they've got to have the two pennies worth. And

actually, you can never follow issues through logically.

Because its role is good to be scrutiny, not the remit of producing

reports, it's going to be scrutinising. So if you havd a lot

of members, it is going to be tickled to file an attack, work

together? I hope they can collectivelx agree

we are working together that makes them an effective committee. That's

the most important thing, to be an effective committee. I'm thhnking of

the sessions we have when wd hold the Prime Minister to accounts, or

the chairs of the Select Colmittee together. If we were all in the same

room together, holding the premise of Dirk Kuyt - I can remembdr, there

would be 25 or 30 of us in the room? So what he had to do was lilit the

amount of members for the sdssion. If your in one session, you don t

necessarily come to the next. That necessarily come to the next. That

might be a technique that the committee collectively decide would

make them more effective. How is going to make the Government

take any notice of anything it says. That is going to be the next tough

Government to pay attention. Government to pay attention.

I think the most important part of this committee will be getthng the

information which allows thdm to ask the tough questions which are

centred ask Parliament and public to make sure the Government is getting

the best deal as we exit Europe I suppose my only bit of advice to

Hilary - he would need much as he is more experience than I am - would be

not to just rely on the traditional mechanisms for doing that. Whether

it's Government departments that may be reluctant to get them

information, whether it's indeed the advisers. What I found really

helpful when we were doing the work of holding the Government to account

for expenditure was material we got from journalists, television

programme makers and whistle-blowers. So I think looking

beyond our limits, beyond the civil service, beyond Government `t how

you can get the information, that will be his challenge to thdn

interrogate the Government `nd help them to accounts, will be one of the

ways he can get a more effective committee.

Will be looking closely to see how he does. Thank you very much coming

into the programme. Now let's take a look at sole

of the other news from around The Defence Secretary has told MPs

the so-called Islamic State group is "failing" in Iraq,

but warned the fight to regain the country's

second largest city, Mosul, "will not be

a quick operation". The city in Northern Iraq

was overrun by IS militants in 014. The Daesh extremists now hold only

10% of Iraqi territory. Ridding Iraq of Daesh was ndver

going to be quick or easy. As we enter the third year

of the campaign, real progress is being made,

and defeating Daesh in the long term will help make the streets

of Britain and Europe safer. On Wednesday, Prime Minister's

Questions began with both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbxn

remembering the tragedy at @berfan. On October 21st 1966,

an avalanche of coal waste crashed into a school and 18 houses

in the south Wales village , The disaster made headlines

around the world. Jeremy Corbyn reckoned it

would never be forgotten. Many in that community are still

living with that tragedy and they will live with that tragedy

for the rest of their days. I remember it very well,

as a young person growing up at that time, and watching

collections for the disaster fund. I think the BBC

documentary presented by Huw Edwards last night

was absolutely brilliant and poignant and serves to remind us

all what the I'm off an age where I can

remember those terrible scenes on television

of what happened in Aberfan. I didn't see the whole

of Huw Edwards' documentary but the bits th`t I did

see last night I thought were very poignant, as the right

honourable gentleman said. And, interestingly, actuallx,

what it showed, a game, is that issue of those in power not

being willing to step up to the plate, initially, and accept

what had actually happened. Jeremy Corbyn moved on to hhs main

topic, mental health One in four of us will

suffer mental problem. An analysis by the Kings Fund

suggest that 40% of our mental health trusts

have their budget cut last xear Six trusts have seen

their budgets cut three years Is the Prime Minister reallx

confident that we are delivering parity of esteem

in the mental health? The right honourable gentlelan

is right that we are introdtcing mental health in our

National Health Service. We have been waiting too

long for this. It is important that

it is being done. But we are actually investing more

in mental health services. An estimated record 11.7 billion,

and in particularly, we are increasing the number

of children's beds to the hhghest number of children's beds rdlated

to mental health problems. Downing Street said that

Theresa May had full confidence in her Chancellor,

Philip Hammond, after reports he was trying to slow progrdss

towards the UK leaving the DU. Some newspapers said colleagues

believed that Mr Hammond was attempting to "undermind"

the process by delaying The man himself was asked

about the newspaper stories and the Government's line that it

wouldn't give a running comlentary The Government can't keep

this stuff secret for Once it gets into the hands

of our counterparts, 27 countries plus the EU,

it might as well be I think it would be far mord helpful

to this debate if we were able to conduct these internal

discussions privately We need space to explore different

options, to discuss among otrselves. It's no secret that there

are different views about how And we are exploring togethdr how

to give the Prime Minister I think your first sentence gives

a clear view of your Staying with Brexit,

the Romanian Ambassador to the UK has told peers why freedom

of movement is so important He said Romanians treasured the idea

because of the years Romani` spent When I was a child I couldn't

travel in the West The only permission

I and my parents had I could travel to Poland,

for instance, So we feel much more,

this freedom of movement. But the sense of

moving freely around the world, working,

changing your workplace, evdrywhere. Now to Friday in the Commons,

where ministers were accused of trying to hijack plans

to introduce a so-called Turing's Law to pardon gay

men convicted of now On Thursday, the Government

announced plans for thousands of gay and bisexual men convicted of crimes

which are no longer on the statute But the next day, the SNP's

John Nicolson pressed ahead with his own Private Member's Bill,

proposing an automatic pardon How odd would it look

for the elderly to be told that they must wait until they die

for the automatic pardon which the government now

seems to be proposing. Let us finish, Mr Deputy Spdaker,

the law reform that we have started, by recognising that the victims

of society's prejudices are still They deserve the piece that this

bill would bring. Staying with Friday private members

bills, a Conservative Meanwhile down the corridor

in the House of Lords, peers too were bringing

in their own bills. First up the Conservative Lord Elton

with his proposals for cutthng He proposed reducing the ovdrall

number, but with each group keeping The bill will now go forward to be

considered in detail. Staying with Friday's

business back in the Commons a Conservative Philip Davies asked

an urgent question. He wanted to know what checks

were being carried out to m`ke sure child refugees coming

from Calais were children. People only have to see the pictures

of the so-called child refugees to see that

many of them are not childrdn. A large number of my constituents,

Mr Speaker, have contacted me to say how angry

they are that we are being taken for fools, taken for a ride,

and our generosity is being abused. Does the minister not understand

that unless action is taken over this,

it will do irreparable damage to public confidence

in the asylum system? But the minister

dismissed the idea of The British Dental Associathon

has described it as inaccurate, inappropriate

and unethical. The Royal College of

Paediatricians said the margin of error can sometimes be as mtch

as five years either side of medical And Doctors of the World UK have

called the idea unethical and On Thursday, MPs backed

a call for the former to be stripped of the knighthood he

was awarded for services to retail. The firm collapsed with 11,000

jobs lost and a more A damning MPs' report on thd high

street chain's failure, published in July, concluded

Sir Philip had extracted large sums and left the business

on life support. When Sir Philip acquired BHS,

it was a relatively prosperous business and it had

a pension scheme in surplus. He risk his workers' pensions

while he made You can amass a great

fortune but in such turbulent market times,

you can lose it in a day. And all you are left

with is your honour. He took the rings from BHS'

fingers, he beat it black and blue, he's starved it

of food and water, he put it on my support, and then he wanted credit

for keeping it alive. Now, let's take a look

at some of the other news from around Westminster,

here's Duncan Smith You know you're getting

old when peers of the realm Or are they actually

getting younger? The youngest -

Baroness Bertin - took her seat taking the total number of peers

to 814 on our ermine-o-meter. And now it turns out the issue

hasn't escaped the interest of the creators of the hit computer

game - Football Manager. Players of the 2017 edition

will have to grapple with dhfferent Brexit scenarios as part

of the game. There could be another

referendunm on the horizon as the Scottish Government

published its draft bill on a second The potential new runway at

Heathrow Airport is a conundrum that could hardly be called

a piece of cake. But that's exactly what Amsterdam

Airport Schiphol send in every time a decision

on Heathrow is delayed. And that wasn't the only

cake on offer this week, as no doubt Conservative backbencher

Peter Bone found time for a slice with some candlds

on for his special day, which even the Prime

Minister couldn't ignore I'm very happy to wish him ` very

happy birthday today. I hope that Mrs Bone

is going to treat the occasion in the appropriate

manner and... The number of MPs in Westminster

is set to drop from 650 to 600 ahead of the 2020 general election -

if the results of Boundary Commission

recommendations are accepted. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

and ex-Chancellor George Osborne are among those whose seats

would be abolished. Labour - which is expected

to be hardest hit - called the proposals undemocratic,

but the Government says thex Plans to slash the number

of seats in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have

already been outlined - and recommendations for Scotland

were published on Thursday, cutting Scottish seats

at Westminster from 59 to 53. Political analyst David Cowling

gave evidence on Tuesday I asked him how significant

the changes were for Scotland. Scotland loses six out of the 5 ,

which is reasonably significant of But the big change for them

was in the 2005 general election when they went down from about 2

MPs to 59 because of the introduction of the

Scottish Parliament. So, this is significant but not

quite as traumatic as the Now, if we would have

had these seats in the 2015 general collection,

how different would this parliament Well, again, this has to be based

on guesswork but it is generally thought that

Labour would be down about 36, for example,

as a consequence of these

changes, politically. On the basis of the tentative

boundaries that we had So, it would have been a case

of consolidating the Conservative victory,

and the Conservative victorx would have been more signifhcant

on these boundaries, compared

with what it was in 2015. Labour is unhappy about

the proposed changes. Is the Labour Party

just being grumpy? I suppose most parties most

times have grievances, but I think the issue

that is not just limited perennially difficult

one is that of course freeze a moment in time when they

take the electorate, and thdy say this is the electorate,

and this is on what we will base our calculations for sizes

of constituency quotas. But of course, they have millions

of people who have been added on the register

in 2015, and of course more people came on for

the European referendum. And the complaint of

Labour and some of the other parties is that these people

will be missed off those registers and therefore, if they had been

on the register, maybe the landscape Now, the Boundary Commission

in the past has always tried to stick

to traditional boundaries. Is that going to be less

the case this time around? Are they going to have

to cross more borders? In the past, they were allowed

to vary the electorate That gave them a chance to take

in rivers and mountains and But now, maths rules everything

in this round, and they And, so, there, you've got some

real squeals of pain. For example, in Cornwall,

of course you have a oppose all to cross a Cornish

constituency with a Devon one. The biggest noise since

the Monmouth Rebellion The maths is what is

motoring most of this, and that is what is c`using

a lot of the difficulty bec`use it doesn't allow the

commissioners to do much. the point of this was David

Cameron's promise to reduce the cost of politics, we are going to lose 50

MPs but it was always going to be a slightly hard one to get

through whilst we've got a House of Lords which is at

800 members and growing. We've got this controlled sxstem,

so to speak, in one chamber and no And that has obviously

given rise to problems. But also, I think, there

was a lot of support given to the reduction of the number of MPs

from 615 to 600, generally because But anybody who knows MPs

these days, with the complexity of what is happening

in their constituencies and the rest of it, they are certainly not

the laziest of individuals, in terms It will be interesting

to see, as we go forward, the people who rejoiced

in the reduction in the number of MPs, whether they are thd same

people who start knocking on the doors saying,

"Why isn't my MP giving me time " Because they've got so much more

else to do these days, and now there David Cowling, thank you very much

for coming on to the progralme. But do join Joanna Shinn on Monday

night at 11pm for a full rotndup of the best of the day

here at Westminster. But for now, from me,

Alicia McCarthy, goodbye.