:00:19. > :00:20.Hello and welcome to the Week In Parliament.
:00:21. > :00:24.As winter tightens its grip, there's a row in the Commons
:00:25. > :00:34.The only way we can ensure we've got funding
:00:35. > :00:37.for the National Health Service is a strong economy.
:00:38. > :00:40.With the Stormont assembly in crisis, we find out what's gone
:00:41. > :00:44.wrong in Northern Ireland's power sharing agreement.
:00:45. > :00:49.A damning indictment of the UK's approach to defence.
:00:50. > :00:51.We are short-sighted, penny-pinching,
:00:52. > :00:55.We are complacent and we are ostrich-like
:00:56. > :00:59.to the way in which the world has become interconnected.
:01:00. > :01:02.And, how can we get more women into parliament,
:01:03. > :01:05.a senior MP thinks it's time for action.
:01:06. > :01:07.In our committee sessions, we heard very
:01:08. > :01:10.warm words from all of the party chair and leaders.
:01:11. > :01:14.We didn't really hear very much detail.
:01:15. > :01:17.But, first, it was a Parliamentary week dominated by the stresses
:01:18. > :01:23.MPs returned to Westminster after the Christmas break to news
:01:24. > :01:26.that the National Health Service had been at full stretch
:01:27. > :01:31.The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the Commons that it had been
:01:32. > :01:33.a tough Christmas and that, with cold weather on the way,
:01:34. > :01:44.the winter pressures were likely to continue.
:01:45. > :01:46.The Tuesday after Christmas was the busiest day
:01:47. > :01:50.And some hospitals are reporting that A attendances are up to 30%
:01:51. > :02:03.However, looking to the future, it is clear we need
:02:04. > :02:06.to have an honest discussion with the public about the purpose
:02:07. > :02:09.There is nowhere outside the UK that commits to all patients
:02:10. > :02:12.that we will sort out any health needs within four hours.
:02:13. > :02:15.Since it was announced in 2000, there are nearly 9 million
:02:16. > :02:18.more visits to our A, up to 30% of whom are NHS England
:02:19. > :02:28.So, if we are to protect our four hour standard, we need to be clear
:02:29. > :02:31.it is a promise to sort out all urgent health problems
:02:32. > :02:42.within four hours, but not all health problems, however minor.
:02:43. > :02:45.Labour said the NHS was in a worse state than the Health
:02:46. > :02:52.Several hospitals have warned they can't offer comprehensive care.
:02:53. > :02:54.Elderly patients have been left languishing on hospital
:02:55. > :03:00.trolleys in corridors, sometimes for over 24 hours.
:03:01. > :03:05.And he says care is only falling over in a couple of places.
:03:06. > :03:09.I know La La Land did well at the Golden Globes last night.
:03:10. > :03:11.I didn't realise the Secretary of State was living there.
:03:12. > :03:19.Perhaps that's where he's been all weekend.
:03:20. > :03:22.He seems to be blaming the public for overwhelming A departments
:03:23. > :03:24.when he well knows the reason the public go to A
:03:25. > :03:26.is because they can't get to see their GP,
:03:27. > :03:35.So it was no surprise when the Labour raised the NHS
:03:36. > :03:40.at prime minister's questions a couple of days later.
:03:41. > :03:42.Earlier this week, the Prime Minister said she wanted
:03:43. > :03:46.More people sharing hospital corridors on trolleys.
:03:47. > :03:48.More people sharing waiting areas in A departments.
:03:49. > :03:52.More people sharing in excise duty created by this government.
:03:53. > :03:57.Our NHS, Mr Speaker, is in crisis but the Prime Minister is in denial.
:03:58. > :04:01.Can I suggest to her on the economic question cancel
:04:02. > :04:06.Spend the money where it's needed, on people in desperate need
:04:07. > :04:21.He talks to me about corporation tax, and restoring the cuts
:04:22. > :04:24.The Labour Party has already spent that money eight times.
:04:25. > :04:27.The last thing the NHS needs is a cheque from Labour that bounces.
:04:28. > :04:31.The only way we can make sure we've got funding for the National health
:04:32. > :04:36.Yesterday, the honourable gentleman proved that he's
:04:37. > :04:39.not only incompetent but that he destroy our economy,
:04:40. > :04:49.and that would devastate our National Health Service.
:04:50. > :04:57.Does the NHS have the money it needs? The head of the NHS said that
:04:58. > :05:00.spending in real terms would decrease.
:05:01. > :05:03.I think it would be stretching it to say the NHS
:05:04. > :05:05.has got more than it has asked for.
:05:06. > :05:09.Would you agree there's not enough money, that there is a clear gap?
:05:10. > :05:10.There are clearly very substantial pressures,
:05:11. > :05:13.and I don't think it helps anybody to try and pretend
:05:14. > :05:16.But that's not a new phenomenon, to some extent.
:05:17. > :05:18.It's a phenomenon that is intensifying.
:05:19. > :05:20.I think this debate, 2020 this, 2020 that kind
:05:21. > :05:22.of misses the point, actually, which is that
:05:23. > :05:24.in the here and now there are very real pressures.
:05:25. > :05:27.Over the next three years, funding is going to be highly constrained.
:05:28. > :05:29.And in 2018/19, as I've previously said in October,
:05:30. > :05:32.real terms NHS spending per person in England is going to go down,
:05:33. > :05:35.ten years after Lehman Brothers and austerity began.
:05:36. > :05:38.We all understand why that is, but let's not pretend that's not
:05:39. > :05:44.placing huge pressure on the service.
:05:45. > :05:48.A political crisis is threatening the future of the power sharing
:05:49. > :05:53.On Monday night Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness resigned
:05:54. > :05:56.as Deputy First Minister and in effect brought down the
:05:57. > :06:01.But what's going on and how did we get here?
:06:02. > :06:16.This has ostensibly been triggered because of the financial
:06:17. > :06:21.mismanagement of a green energy scheme. The incentive was set up in
:06:22. > :06:26.2012 and overseen by DUP ministers. It was supposed to encourage
:06:27. > :06:29.businesses to switch to environmentally friendly fuels.
:06:30. > :06:34.There was no upper limit on payments service scheme ran over budget. The
:06:35. > :06:39.overspend is expected to run to almost half ?1 billion. The Deputy
:06:40. > :06:43.first Minister, Martin McGuinness, asked Arlene Foster to stand aside
:06:44. > :06:47.as first Minister for an investigation but she refused to do
:06:48. > :06:51.so, so Mr McGuinness has now resigned himself. That puts Mrs
:06:52. > :06:54.Foster out of a job because under the power-sharing system the first
:06:55. > :07:00.and deputy first ministers cannot work in isolation. There are very
:07:01. > :07:05.many other disagreements on issues like Brexit, same-sex marriage and
:07:06. > :07:11.budgets. It has never been an easy relationship. Under the Stormont
:07:12. > :07:14.rules, if the posts aren't filled within seven days, the Northern
:07:15. > :07:18.Ireland Secretary must, by law, call the new election to the Stormont
:07:19. > :07:21.assembly. It's only been eight months since the last one.
:07:22. > :07:23.The crisis was raised at prime minister's questions
:07:24. > :07:26.by the SNP's Westminster leader, who thought the breakdown could have
:07:27. > :07:29.The Prime Minister has indicated that she wants to take the views
:07:30. > :07:31.of the elected representatives and the devolved institutions
:07:32. > :07:36.So it stands to reason then that if there is no
:07:37. > :07:39.Northern Ireland Assembly and no Northern Ireland Executive for much
:07:40. > :07:43.of the time before the March timetable that she has set
:07:44. > :07:49.for invoking article 50, she will be unable to consult properly,
:07:50. > :07:52.to discuss fully and to find agreement on the complex
:07:53. > :07:59.In these circumstances, will the Prime Minister postpone
:08:00. > :08:12.Or will she just plough on regardless?
:08:13. > :08:16.I am clear that, first of all, we want to try to ensure that,
:08:17. > :08:18.?within this period of seven days, we can find a resolution
:08:19. > :08:20.to the political situation in Northern Ireland,
:08:21. > :08:25.so that we can to see the Assembly government continuing.
:08:26. > :08:28.But I am also clear that, in the discussions that we have,
:08:29. > :08:32.it will be possible, it is still the case that Ministers
:08:33. > :08:36.are in place and that, obviously, there are executives in place,
:08:37. > :08:38.that we are still able to take the views of
:08:39. > :08:48.When Tony Blair swept to power in 1997 there was much fanfare
:08:49. > :08:51.about the number of women who'd become MPs.
:08:52. > :08:54.Nicknamed the Blair Babes they represented a big
:08:55. > :08:57.jump in the numbers, in large part due to Labour's policy
:08:58. > :09:03.In total 101 Labour women were elected in 1997,
:09:04. > :09:08.doubling the overall total of female MPs, from 60 to 120.
:09:09. > :09:14.Spin forward twenty years and there are now 195 women MPs,
:09:15. > :09:19.The Women and Equalities committee has been looking at how
:09:20. > :09:24.It's suggested that in future political parties should be fined
:09:25. > :09:28.if they don't ensure at least 45% of general election
:09:29. > :09:33.I asked the Committee chair, Maria Miller, if a system of fines
:09:34. > :09:38.wouldn't have a disproportionate impact on smaller parties.
:09:39. > :09:41.Well, clearly, you'd have to look at how smaller parties were dealt
:09:42. > :09:46.with but the lion's share of MPs are from the main parties,
:09:47. > :09:51.who contest all of the Westminster seats, and we feel very strongly,
:09:52. > :09:55.if you're going to put measures like a 45% vote
:09:56. > :09:58.on candidates in place, there needs to be teeth there
:09:59. > :10:05.In the end, doesn't this all come down to the local associations that
:10:06. > :10:07.you can say to the parties, this is what we want.
:10:08. > :10:10.But if you have local associations which have slightly older members,
:10:11. > :10:13.slightly old-fashioned views, they might just still cling
:10:14. > :10:16.onto this idea that they prefer to have a man doing the job,
:10:17. > :10:19.and that's what you've got to overcome.
:10:20. > :10:23.At the 2015 general election, only one in four candidates was female.
:10:24. > :10:27.So we're not really giving people the chance to be able
:10:28. > :10:33.Local associations may not be given enough choice from female
:10:34. > :10:39.So I think we've really got to look back at the root cause of this,
:10:40. > :10:41.which is getting more women to consider putting
:10:42. > :10:44.themselves forward to become a member of Parliament.
:10:45. > :10:46.A lot of that is about outreach by Parliament to get
:10:47. > :10:51.people to consider that, but also by the parties as well.
:10:52. > :10:54.What is it that puts women off putting themselves forward?
:10:55. > :10:58.I think we have in the past focused a great deal on things like child
:10:59. > :11:01.care and family friendly working, and the work that Sarah Charles has
:11:02. > :11:07.But I think it's more than that, that's really emerging now.
:11:08. > :11:12.And I think the dissuading effect of online abuse, sexual harassment,
:11:13. > :11:17.but also the murder of Jo Cox last year, I think really shows those
:11:18. > :11:22.intimidatory aspects also need to be dealt with.
:11:23. > :11:25.And Parliament is dealing with that at the moment.
:11:26. > :11:28.But, surely, those would be things that would put off
:11:29. > :11:31.But I think all of the research would suggest that women
:11:32. > :11:36.are disproportionately affected by, particularly, online abuse.
:11:37. > :11:38.And I applaud the work the police are doing
:11:39. > :11:41.on securing convictions there, but it is an element that I think
:11:42. > :11:48.But we also need to have more effective outreach to get more women
:11:49. > :11:52.to consider how important it would be to be able to represent
:11:53. > :11:56.the community but also improve the community in which they live.
:11:57. > :12:00.It's not for your committee to tell parties exactly
:12:01. > :12:05.Isn't the long and short of it that all women short lists have worked
:12:06. > :12:08.and that the Labour Party has increased more dramatically and more
:12:09. > :12:16.Just in the same way as having a female prime minister isn't
:12:17. > :12:18.the panacea for all evils, neither is all women short lists.
:12:19. > :12:20.I think different political parties have done different
:12:21. > :12:26.And they need to have a plan which is effective.
:12:27. > :12:29.And, whilst in our committee sessions we heard very warm words
:12:30. > :12:32.from all of the party chair and leaders, we didn't really
:12:33. > :12:39.So I think the most important thing is those parties have a clear plan
:12:40. > :12:46.How confident are you that things will be different this time around,
:12:47. > :12:49.but going into the next election, there will be more female
:12:50. > :12:54.I think that will only happen if the parties
:12:55. > :12:58.now take a hard look at the processes their following
:12:59. > :13:01.and make sure they've got clear plans in place to put women
:13:02. > :13:06.At the moment, we're not seeing those plans come through.
:13:07. > :13:09.And if we don't have plans in place, there will no
:13:10. > :13:13.It's highly likely at the next election, with the reduction
:13:14. > :13:21.of the number of constituencies, there will be fewer
:13:22. > :13:23.opportunities for women to come through or for new members
:13:24. > :13:27.So, those parties need to have a clear plan and,
:13:28. > :13:31.So, it doesn't sound to me like you're terribly optimistic.
:13:32. > :13:35.Only if we see, I think, a radical change in not just
:13:36. > :13:37.the warm words we're hearing from parties but actually
:13:38. > :13:39.the practical measures that are put in place,
:13:40. > :13:42.the funding they are putting in place will we see that change.
:13:43. > :13:45.Perhaps there's too many other things to think about at the moment.
:13:46. > :13:48.We've got a little bit of time before the next election, I hope.
:13:49. > :13:50.A little bit of time for real action.
:13:51. > :13:53.All right, we will get you back to see how it's going.
:13:54. > :13:55.Maria Miller, thank you very much indeed for coming
:13:56. > :14:00.Now let's take a look at some news from around Westminster in brief.
:14:01. > :14:03.There's was a big surprise in Westminster on Friday morning
:14:04. > :14:06.with the announcement that the Labour MP Tristram Hunt
:14:07. > :14:08.is to stand down to become the director of the Victoria
:14:09. > :14:13.His decision will trigger a by election in the Stoke-on-Trent
:14:14. > :14:18.In a letter to local party members, the former education spokesman,
:14:19. > :14:21.who resigned from the Shadow Cabinet when Jeremy Corbyn was elected party
:14:22. > :14:27.leader, said serving in Parliament had been "both deeply rewarding
:14:28. > :14:33.Financial jobs in London are bound to be affected by Brexit,
:14:34. > :14:36.but a lack of knowledge about the government's plans
:14:37. > :14:39.That was the message to the Commons Treasury Committee
:14:40. > :14:42.from leading financiers including the head of the London
:14:43. > :14:47.They called for the City to have its own transitional arrangements,
:14:48. > :14:50.known as "grandfathering", meaning new rules wouldn't apply
:14:51. > :15:00.Immigrants have to make more effort to fit in,
:15:01. > :15:09.Part of the uncertainty and the planning is how much you would need
:15:10. > :15:14.to move. Clearly, you would need to move the front part of the business.
:15:15. > :15:19.But the question would be whether the negotiation would allow the
:15:20. > :15:25.settlement, the risk management, the accounting and so on to the done
:15:26. > :15:32.outside of EU 27 or whether it is part of the negotiations. That is a
:15:33. > :15:37.political negotiation, as much as a technical negotiation.
:15:38. > :15:39.Immigrants have to make more effort to fit in,
:15:40. > :15:42.that's according to the author of last month's Casey
:15:43. > :15:45.Dame Louise Casey told MPs that Britain needed to be "less shy"
:15:46. > :16:10.about telling immigrants what was expected from them.
:16:11. > :16:13.I think that is a sound bite which people like to say, that
:16:14. > :16:17.I would say that if we stick with the road analogy,
:16:18. > :16:19.I think integration is more like you've got a bloody big
:16:20. > :16:22.motorway, and you have the slip road of people coming
:16:23. > :16:24.in from the outside, and what you need to do
:16:25. > :16:27.is the people in the middle in the motorway need to accommodate
:16:28. > :16:30.and be gentle and kind to people coming in from the outside lane.
:16:31. > :16:32.We're all in the direction and we are all heading
:16:33. > :16:36.We are getting to this place where we have decided
:16:37. > :16:41.To some degree, it is a two-way street but to some worry it is not.
:16:42. > :16:44.There is more give on one side and more take on the other.
:16:45. > :16:48.And I think that is where we have made a mistake which is we have
:16:49. > :16:54.The government was defeated in the Lords on Monday over plans
:16:55. > :16:56.to change the way England's universities are run.
:16:57. > :16:58.The legislation is designed to make it easier for
:16:59. > :17:01.Peers voted in favour of an opposition amendment
:17:02. > :17:03.to the Higher Education Bill to define the powers
:17:04. > :17:14.One of the aims is to extend the University title. This piece of
:17:15. > :17:19.legislation has made no attempt to define what a university is or its
:17:20. > :17:21.role in society more widely and particularly what do we expect these
:17:22. > :17:24.new universities to do. The government spokesman said
:17:25. > :17:28.there were dangers in setting out a definition of a university that
:17:29. > :17:36.could be challenged in the courts. Universities have never been defined
:17:37. > :17:38.in legislation before and we have not led to any problems in the
:17:39. > :17:40.system. Labour says plans to close dozens
:17:41. > :17:43.of local tax offices should be immediately scrapped
:17:44. > :17:45.after a spending watchdog found costs have spiralled
:17:46. > :17:47.The National Audit Office revealed HMRC has had to rethink
:17:48. > :17:49.the proposals after underestimating the expense and scale
:17:50. > :18:03.of disruption involved. The NA oh reports confirm our fears,
:18:04. > :18:08.first of all, it calls the original office closure plan unrealistic, the
:18:09. > :18:14.estimates of the cost of the move increased by 22%, ?600 million
:18:15. > :18:19.extra, further job losses, it finds the cost of redundancy and travel
:18:20. > :18:24.have tripled to 54 million and it says HMRC cannot demonstrate how it
:18:25. > :18:30.services cannot be improved and it hasn't even introduced a business
:18:31. > :18:35.plan. As we predict it, this is an emerging disaster. Given how clear
:18:36. > :18:42.and stark warnings that truly are, would it not simply make more sense
:18:43. > :18:47.to pause this, rip it up, and start again? For the public, this seems a
:18:48. > :18:52.better, more modern service, run by fewer staff, costing ?18 million a
:18:53. > :18:58.year less by the time that changes take effect. It's a plan to say
:18:59. > :18:59.goodbye to the days of manual assessing that can be done more
:19:00. > :19:03.easily with today's technology. The UK's Green Investment Bank could
:19:04. > :19:06.be killed off if the government goes ahead with plans to sell it,
:19:07. > :19:08.according to one MP. The bank supports offshore wind
:19:09. > :19:10.farms and other green projects. The government has announced plans
:19:11. > :19:12.to part-privatise it, with Australian bank Macquarie
:19:13. > :19:31.thought to be the preferred bidder. It has been widely recognised as an
:19:32. > :19:36.innovative project. And yet, this preferred it not only has a dismal
:19:37. > :19:37.and terrible environmental record, it also has an appalling track
:19:38. > :19:40.record of assets. The minister said he couldn't
:19:41. > :19:51.comment on the process, potential It is precisely because we want them
:19:52. > :19:54.to do more unfettered by the constraints of the state that we are
:19:55. > :19:58.seeking to put it into the private sector. The objectives we have set
:19:59. > :20:02.out in the cell could not be clearer. We have also been very
:20:03. > :20:06.clear that the reason we want to move into the private sector is to
:20:07. > :20:08.enable the business to grow and continue as an institution
:20:09. > :20:11.supporting investment in the green economy.
:20:12. > :20:14.A former Nato secretary general has warned against further defence cuts,
:20:15. > :20:16.saying the UK is sleepwalking into potential calamity.
:20:17. > :20:18.Opening a debate on the UK's armed forces capability the Labour
:20:19. > :20:21.former defence secretary, Lord Robertson, also
:20:22. > :20:30.questioned US President elect Donald Trump's attitude to NATO.
:20:31. > :20:33.During the US election campaign Donald Trump appeared to play down
:20:34. > :20:35.the importance of the military alliance which raised questions
:20:36. > :20:41.about Nato's commitment, known as Article five,
:20:42. > :20:44.which says members will support Nato countries if they're attacked.
:20:45. > :20:48.In his speech in the Lords, Lord Robertson warned the world
:20:49. > :20:50.was now seeing a "bonfire of the post cold war certainties."
:20:51. > :20:53.He told peers he'd recently been asked what was the biggest threat
:20:54. > :20:56.to the safety and security of the UK and the list of potential
:20:57. > :21:04.I considered some of the immediate and looming threats and challenges.
:21:05. > :21:21.Migration flows which have suddenly ended up on our shores.
:21:22. > :21:23.The spread of religious extremism and Jihadi violence plumbing
:21:24. > :21:33.But my answer to the question of what is the greatest threat,
:21:34. > :21:35.it is ourselves, we are ur own worst enemies.
:21:36. > :21:38.We are shortsighted, penny pinching, naively optimistic,
:21:39. > :21:42.we're complacent, and we are ostrich like to the way in which the world
:21:43. > :21:47.has become interconnected, more fragile, and more unpredictable.
:21:48. > :21:59.And Donald, with his Mexican wall, with new protectionism
:22:00. > :22:04.and isolationism, with a serious questioning of Nato solidarity,
:22:05. > :22:06.with a belief in torture and with Lieutenant General Michael Flynn
:22:07. > :22:09.as his chief security adviser, perhaps we don't need more
:22:10. > :22:36.I hope President Putin and his colleagues realised how easily that
:22:37. > :22:37.mobilisations and provocations, that accidents can happen,
:22:38. > :22:42.And we don't have to have the memories of the First World War
:22:43. > :22:45.and of the Second World War where wars were started by accident
:22:46. > :22:47.involving the wrong people, the wrong time, they weren't
:22:48. > :22:52.And I just do take that threat very seriously.
:22:53. > :22:56.In the face of Russian ambition, my lords, European can no longer
:22:57. > :23:01.It is an interesting reflection that whereas the word burden
:23:02. > :23:05.sharing used to be used, when I went to Washington, now,
:23:06. > :23:09.the assessment of Europe is my contribution is shall we say
:23:10. > :23:11.expressed in more in trenchant and perhaps less suitable terms
:23:12. > :23:33.We lack strength in numbers and are not well placed to deal with it.
:23:34. > :23:38.More independently minded we become, the more capability we need in a
:23:39. > :23:46.dangerous world. Surely, the two must go together. Defence standing
:23:47. > :23:51.is going up. When it increases by 5 billion, it is nonsense for anyone
:23:52. > :23:54.to suggest there is no new funding. I hope it is clear that the
:23:55. > :24:00.government fully recognises the breadth and severity of threats that
:24:01. > :24:04.face our country today. We know that in this is of uncertainty, we can
:24:05. > :24:09.take nothing for granted. The approach we have taken in the STS or
:24:10. > :24:12.is the right one for strengthening our security and it is the one to
:24:13. > :24:14.which this government is fully committed.
:24:15. > :24:18.Now for something very different, it's time to take a look at some
:24:19. > :24:21.of the other political stories making the news this week.
:24:22. > :24:23.With our countdown, here's Alex Partridge.
:24:24. > :24:26.New minister Lord O'Shaughnessy hasn't exactly made
:24:27. > :24:33.That might be why one was caught asking who he was while he made
:24:34. > :24:39.We are used to political U-turns but Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt
:24:40. > :24:42.ended up doing a real-life U-turn while looking for his car.
:24:43. > :24:46.Tuesday's Foreign Office questions clocked in at more than 70 minutes
:24:47. > :24:49.but it wasn't nearly enough for Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
:24:50. > :24:55.For two hours, the minister chunters from a sedentary position.
:24:56. > :25:01.Jeremy Corbyn's relaunch also involves chatting
:25:02. > :25:05.He offered to talk some sense into ITV's Piers Morgan
:25:06. > :25:07.on the subject of embattled arsenal boss Arsene Wenger.
:25:08. > :25:10.And on Thursday, Labour's Chris Bryant took an opportunity
:25:11. > :25:13.to send his best wishes to the Speaker
:25:14. > :25:18.Sorry, Mr Speaker, May I first of all wish
:25:19. > :25:22.Kiss A Ginger Day activity is probably perfectly lawful
:25:23. > :25:33.but I've got no plans to partake of it myself.
:25:34. > :25:37.Alex Partridge, bringing us to the end of this week's programme,
:25:38. > :25:40.but do join Joanna Shinn on Monday night at 11pm for another round up
:25:41. > :25:43.of the best of the day here at Westminster.