25/11/2016 The Week in Parliament

Hello and welcome to The Week In Parliament.

The Chancellor says the economy has to be prepared for Brexit.

We have also to rise to the challenge of getting

ourselves match fit to seize the opportunities that

this country will have after we complete that process.

It was Philip Hammond's first Autumn Statement,

but he won't be doing any more - he's abolished them.

We say farewell to the Autumn Statement.

It was a great shop window for the Chancellor, let's be honest.

You know, if you are a Chancellor, most

of the time, if you're doing your job properly, you are not seen.

You're behind the scenes, you're actually only emerging, submarine

like, like perhaps George Osborne, when you are needed.

And will we really need to show our passports before we can

The last census showed us that nine and a half million people in this

For many years, there has been a concern

But first, Hammond Builds For Brexit summed up

the reaction of the financial experts to this Chancellor's first

and, as it turned out, last Autumn Statement.

Philip Hammond said that Britain would need to borrow ?122 billion

more than expected over the next five years to cope

His speech followed a report from the Office for Budget

Responsibility that scaled down its forecast for UK economic

Anticipation of Mr Hammond's speech had been plentiful as the Chancellor

took the familiar route on Wednesday from 11 Downing Street

Today's OPR forecast is for growth to be 2.1% in

In 2017, OBR forecast growth to slow to 1.4%,

which they attributed to lower investment and a weaker

consumer demand, driven respectively by greater uncertainty and by higher

inflation - resulting from sterling depreciation.

And that is slower, of course, then we would wish.

So today I can announce that the national

living wage will increase from ?7.20 to ?7.50 in April next year.

That is a pay rise worth over ?500 a year to a full time worker.

There was a new way to improve productivity.

I can announce that we are forming a new national productivity

investment fund of ?23 billion to be spent on innovation and

infrastructure over the next five years.

We will focus Government infrastructure investment to unlock

land for housing with a new ?2.3 billion housing infrastructure fund

to deliver infrastructure for up to 100,000 new homes in areas of high

The Shadow Chancellor said the Statement had failed to help

Mr Speaker, today's statement places on the record the

abject failure of the last six wasted years and offers no hope for

OBR tells us on page 19, Mr Speaker, this ?58

billion of the worsening of the public finances is due

Isn't this a salutary warning to us about the decisions we

And isn't it a very strong argument for us remaining as close

as possible to our largest trading area, the single market, and inside,

There is of course going to be a period of

uncertainty as we go through the process of exiting

That has, as OBR has identified, had a dampening effect

We have also to rise to the challenge of getting

ourselves match fit to seize the opportunities that this country

will have after we complete that process

and I would urge him to think about that longer term challenge,

The Chancellor did give us plenty of information today,

but with no more than a glib reference to being match

fit at the beginning and a bit of deflection.

Very little actually on

the elephant in the room, which is Brexit.

It is not as if the Treasury don't know what the consequences

Their own assessment tells us that tax yields could be down 66

The Chancellor's Autumn Statement suggests yet more public borrowing,

with total public debt due to increase to ?1.6 trillion in the New

Year and ?1.9 trillion by 2020, four times what it was in 2005.

Rather than a reflection on Brexit, is the

accumulation of these unsustainable levels

the failure of his predecessor to match his

work with deeds and get a

Disappointingly, this Chancellor has joined his

predecessor in failing to

mention the words climate change even just once anywhere in this

That in the year that is the hottest on record, set to be the

hottest on record and when parts of the country are under floodwater.

The innovation of the condition of working people has always been a

priority of the Conservative Party and in that vein, I particularly

welcome the fiscal changes in the Autumn Statement,

particularly fuel duty, tax allowances and the

national living wage, which campaigned for her many years.

There is actually not one single mention

in the 72 page Autumn Statement document of the words

The Chancellor cannot ignore the fact

that our health and social care services are in crisis, facing

The biggest surprise of the day has come

This is my first Autumn Statement as Chancellor.

After careful consideration and detailed

discussion with the Prime Minister, I have decided that it will also be

Mr Speaker, I am abolishing the Autumn Statement.

No other major economy makes

hundreds of tax changes twice a year and neither should we.

The spring budget in a few months will be the

Starting in Autumn 2017, Britain will have an

autumn budget announcing tax changes well in advance

From 2018, there will be a spring statement responding to the

May I congratulate the Chancellor on averting to the extremely

sensible practice of only having one budget a year, which

Gordon Brown abandoned in order to try to buy votes twice

So a few moments there from Wednesday's Autumn

I am joined in the studio now by Paul Wall, who's the executive

This was a bit of a rabbit out of the old hat.

No-one anticipated that the Chancellor would actually

What do you think is the thinking behind this?

Well, I think it's been said for a long time, think tanks like

the IFS and lots of others have for many years said it makes much

more sense if you are going to anticipate the next year 's tax year

to do it actually a few months in advance.

Maybe in November, give yourself time and business time to

set out what they are going to do for tax changes

year, which starts at the end of March.

And also, legally, they do need to have an update on other

things, sort of a general health check on the economy.

So that is also another event in the year and

they are going to start doing that in the spring.

Of course, budgets, parliamentary budget, date back to

the year dot, but the Autumn Statement

What is the actual history of the Autumn

Well, Ken Clarke had the smart idea of actually making sure

that this was all going to happen in the autumn.

He thought that actually, yeah, there is a logic to

Let's make sure that we get a run into the tax year.

He had something called a Summer Statement,

which was the statutory stuff you need to do to update Parliament.

Then Gordon Brown decided, oh, let's tear all that up.

Let's go back to having a normal spring budget,

a traditional budget and then we will turn the Autumn

Statement into a thing called the prebudget report.

That was a very Gordon Brown device, because,

effectively, it was two budgets a year.

It wasn't just a normal update on what the figures were, it was

And now of course, we saw Kenneth Clarke

there referring to Gordon Brown rather enjoying buying votes twice

for the convenience of Government popularity?

Well, it was a great shop window for the Chancellor, let's be honest.

You know, if you're a Chancellor, most

of the time if you're doing your job properly, you are not seen.

You are actually only emerging, submarine like, like

perhaps George Osborne, when you are needed.

To reassure the markets or

to send out a strong signal to business and say

Gordon Brown could not resist the lure of the limelight and

he was deeply, deeply political as the Chancellor.

He wanted to make sure he had his fair share of

airtime when Tony Blair was in power.

bit of an archaic point, but the Budget is actually replied to not

buy the Shadow Chancellor, but by the opposition leader.

So the Autumn Statement actually gave the Shadow

Chancellor that extra little bit of a platform.

One year ago, John MacDonald used it to wave about

It does actually give the Shadow Chancellor

It does and the Shadow Chancellor is often,

you know, even less seen than

So they are desperate to get some sort of impact

It was traditionally, the way in which it

was founded, it was that he answered in the House of Commons and

therefore he got his own chance to set out his store.

Whereas, normally it is the Leader of the Opposition

who applies to the Budget and that actually can get leaders of the

opposition into trouble, because they are not as au

fait with the figures, let's be honest, as their

So that is why it is actually pretty good grounding

They have to get across all the figures,

just as they would for Prime Minister's Questions.

The Prime Minister, once they become Prime

Minister, doesn't have to do any of this.

Now the Budget going out to

the autumn, does that reaches the prospect of a pre-election

giveaway just before a general election,

which presumably will remain in the spring?

Well, that is some of the thinking behind it.

Because we are going to have two budgets next

year, we are not quite whether or not there

does mean there will be a

There is certainly that temptation for every

Chancellor and every Prime Minister, will we go for some very nice crowd

Just on the eve of an election in the summer.

Philip Hammond's performance on Wednesday,

relaxed performer at the Commons dispatch box.

Yes, I thought it was actually quite fresh in, because he

He wasn't like George Osborne at all.

There weren't gags masquerading as policy.

He had the odd gag, that was fine, but most

And I think the public actually quite like

The Alistair Darling period wasn't actually unsuccessful.

People forget he dealt with the financial

crisis at the time and he had a steady hand on the tiller.

I think that's the whole raison d'etre of Philip Hammond.

Paul Wall, thanks very much for joining us

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

The demands that Britain's EU departure will

place on Whitehall has been looked at by a committee of MPs.

A leaked memo from a consultancy firm said an

extra 30,000 civil servants might be needed

to deliver a Brexit, but a

former Cabinet Secretary had an upbeat assessment.

I think this is a terrific opportunity for the civil service

and I haven't often, since I retired, wanted

Because I think that this is a very exciting time and I think

there's an opportunity to rise to it and I am confident that on past form

The task facing the government and facing the

We shall have to run domestically policies that have previously been

This man's not impressed by Britain's Foreign Secretary.

The German MEP Manfred Weber called Boris Johnson provocative

and arrogant after meeting both him and David Davis,

Clearly a problem to be put to the Prime Minister.

The Brexit secretary and the Foreign Secretary

are described by a senior German politician as having no idea

The Times reports today that EU ambassadors think the Foreign

Secretary's more colourful outbursts are damaging our

When is the Prime Minister going to get a grip on her ministers

and when is she going to demonstrate to the country,

and to our EU colleagues, that she has a coherent,

We will be leaving the European Union, and we will be

triggering Article 50 by

the end of March next year and that is when the formal

Tasers, sometimes called electro-shock weapons.

Are they a suitable way of controlling potentially violent

incidents when police are called to mental health units?

Will the government look at the possibility that better

training for police officers in how to deal with people suffering

from mental health illness might alleviate the need

for them ever to use Tasers, because they might

In situations in the community where someone, others

is becoming very violent, it is appropriate to call the police

and inappropriate to expect ambulance and other staff to attempt

to use any form of restraint because the police are trained

and are therefore safer than people using restraint who are not

If somebody experiences behaviour that is both a danger

including staff within these mental health settings,

Of course these situations are rare, there may be no other option

than for police restraint to be used.

Soldiering on despite mounting setbacks.

Professor Alexis Jay's troubled independent inquiry into historic

allegations of child sex abuse keeps going, despite senior

Labour says there's a crisis of credibility.

Why is it that nobody from the government sought

to proactively come to this house and provide reassurance

about the serious events that have unfolded over the last week as this

enquiry has unravelled in front of our eyes.

The Honourable Lady is really quite wrong in asserting that there

is some sort of smoke screen and hiding behind independence.

It's absolutely essential that this enquiry is an independent enquiry.

The terms of reference of this enquiry were shaped with the voices

Military medals, honouring acts of valour and heroism.

But what happens when people wear medals they're not entitled to wear?

The Government supports a backbencher's Bill

I think what we really concerned about here are people who

go strutting around, wearing decorations which they were not

So-called Walter Mittys, parading themselves at remembrance

service parades and elsewhere, sporting medals they have not

earned, is not only insulting to undermines

earned, is not only insulting but it undermines those veterans

We firmly believe that anyone impersonating a veteran

by wearing medals that they have not earned should face legal sanctions.

Someone might have a mental health issue but they might not be suitable

The fact they have simply worn medals that were not their

medals to wear, even if no gain was made could mean

to a custodial sentence, and that, in my opinion,

And is it time to bring in electronic voting in Parliament?

MPs say they prefer the time-honoured walk

through the voting lobbies every time there's a vote,

During the higher education Bill report on Monday we spent nearly an

hour trooping through division lobbies. Has there ever been a

calculation of the cost to the taxpayer of that dead time in terms

of staff security. This system provides ministers an opportunity to

nobble ministers when they arbour rest of their heavies and their spin

doctors. Four members of the opposition it gives an opportunity

for team building. Will he do everything he can to keep this at

the bottom of the in tray? I thank the honourable lady for her

intervention and of course it gives me the opportunity to underline how

important, particularly for her party, the opportunities for team

building in the lobby must be. When you you go along to your local

polling station and they give you a ballot paper, no

questions are asked. You don't even need to have your

polling card with you. A Conservative MP believes there's

real potential for fraud. He introduced a backbencher's Bill

that would require electors always to have proof

of identity when voting. This is not a move to create

a national identity card or a way to keep checks on people,

it's simply a moved to add voting into the list of many things that

require identification. It will involve a lot of extra

work and it will also increase delays at polling stations

because people will be having an argument about it all,

or they would have to go back and queues would increase

at the polling stations. We have had problems

at many of those. And it would prevent a number

of voters, particularly elderly It's petty, political,

partisan proposal But the Bill did clear its first

parliamentary hurdle. Later, Chris Green told me that

bringing ID to polling stations would make voting

a more secure process. I think the electorate

want that reassurance. If you pick up a parcel

from Royal Mail office, you To vote in democracy,

such an important part of our society, I think people won't

see that is too much of a burden. Do you think you'll get

the government to look Eric Pickles did a really important

report over the summer about wider I have taken one piece of this,

so I think by the conversation being there, this national debate

about security in our democracy, making sure that people

who vote legitimately I think this momentum is gathering

behind it and I certainly want Well, from one identity

issue to another. On Monday a senior civil servant

at the Department of Health said he was looking at making hospitals

check out patients' identity to find out whether or not they should be

paying for treatment. Chris Wormald said passport checks

were already taking place at a hospital in Peterborough,

a hospital that serves He was facing the questions

of Parliament's spending watchdog, On Wednesday the Labour leader

Jeremy Corbyn raised The practicalities are that

you would have to ask somebody what country they are from and perhaps

have identification via passport. We are looking, as I said earlier

at whether Trusts should do more The general question are we looking

at, whether Trusts should proactively ask people

to prove identity, yes, and there are individual Trusts,

like Peterborough, who are doing that and are reporting

that it makes a difference. There you are, say, please bring two

forms of identity - your passport and your address

and they use that to check whether That is obviously quite

a controversial thing to do, to say to the entire population

that they have to prove identity. What he said was you would have

to separate the sheep from the goats

in order to determine you're a foreigner, and essentially

you need to go down the ID card route to separate out

who are entitled and not entitled. I don't think I would

debate ID cards with On Wednesday the Labour leader

Jeremy Corbyn raised the passports for treatment issue

at Prime Minister's Questions. The last census showed us that nine

and a half million people in this country don't

have passports. Rather than distracting people

with divisive and impractical policies, could the Prime Minister

provide the NHS and social care with the money that it needs to care

for the people who need the support? Over the course of this Parliament

the government will be spending half a trillion pounds on the

National Health Service. The Right Honourable gentleman asks

about a process to ensure that people who are receiving

NHS treatment are entitled to For many years there has

been a concern about health tourism, about people turning

up in the UK, accessing health We want to make sure

that those who are entitled to use the services are,

indeed, able to see those free at the point of delivery,

but that we deal with health tourism and those who should be paying

for the use of our health service. Now with a look at some

of the week's more off-beat political stories, here's Alex

Partridge. Government Chief Whip Gavin

Williamson revealed the secret It's not the traditional little

black book full of their darkest secrets, it's a big black

spider he keeps in his Donald Trump's suggestion that

Nigel Farage be the UK's ambassador to the US raised eyebrows,

especially in Brussels, where the Ukip leader

was famously undiplomatic. Here's European parliament Brexit

negotiator Guy Verhofstadt. I think one clown in

Washington is more enough. Revelations from the release

of former Tory Chancellor Geoffrey Howe's official

files include the fact that he spent months badgering Margaret Thatcher

for cash to renovate his kitchen at Tory Scottish Parliament Member

Douglas Ross missed a meeting of the Justice Committee this week

to help referee Real Madrid's 2-1 Predictably opponents

are calling for him to be And the wave of new SNP members

elected to the Commons Sales of Scotland's

other national drink Irn-Bru on the parliamentary estate

are up 60% on last year. Of course, other soft

drinks are available Alex Partridge enjoying

some liquid refreshment. A busy few days coming up

in the Commons and the Lords, with more argument expected over

prison safety and over the contents of the Digital Economy Bill that

deals with the sharing Alicia McCarthy will be here

for the next Week In Parliament. But for now, from me

Keith Macdougall, goodbye.