30/06/2017 The Week in Parliament

Hello and welcome to the Week In Parliament.

Coming up, the government gets the Queen's Speech

through the Commons, but only after adopting a new policy

on abortions for women from Northern Ireland.

I am happy to withdraow the amendment today.

Let us send a message to women everywhere that, in this Parliament,

their voices will be held and their rights upheld.

I will be reporting on the first Prime Minister's Questions

And in the week that saw elections for Deputy Speakers

to help out John Bercow, we have got some top tips

But first, the Queen's Speech is the first business

It sets out the programme that ministers hope to put into law.

After the election left it without an overall majority,

the government finally agreed a deal with the DUP in the week, to make

But it came at a price - just over a ?1 billion to keep

the ten Northern Ireland MPs onside for the next two years.

So it was with a slender working majority of 13 that the government

launched the Queen's Speech into the Commons.

Labour put down an amendment, calling for an end to the pay cap

limiting increases for public sector workers to 1%

and called for an end to cuts in the funding of public services,

linking them to the recent terrorist attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire.

How long are they going to pursue austerity?

When any parent who has a child at school, anyone who has

been at an accident and emergency department, anyone who has an

elderly relative in need of social care can see for themselves that

cuts have consequences and that there is a human price

Amber Rudd rejected that and insisted public safety

was "an absolute priority" for the government.

She pointed to the response to the Grenfell fire.

With regard to her concerns about cuts to the Fire Service.

Let me just remind you of some fact - sorry,

Fire crews were on the scene within six minutes and over 200

Can the Shadow Home Secretary really suggest

that the numbers were inexcusably low?

We should remember that the number of fire incidents has halved

in the last decade, but the number of firefighters has fallen by

But at the end of the debate, Labour's amendment to end the pay

cap and public sector cuts was defeated.

The government seeing off that amendment to lift

the pay cap by 14 votes, although those cheers

from the Conservative side angered some.

Throughout the day, there had been suggestions - later rejected -

that the government might reconsider the 1% limit, but in the end,

But the next day, when the Queen's Speech returned

to the Commons for the final time, ministers did have to bring

in a new policy, to make sure their plan for

The government was facing three amendments -

one from the official opposition, calling for an end to austerity.

One from Labour's Chuka Umunna on Brexit and a third

from another Labour MP, Stella Creasy, on abortion rights

Health is a devolved issue and women who travel from Northern Ireland

to England for terminations currently have to pay for them.

Stella Creasy's amendment calling for an end to those payments had

And so it was that, during a debate about jobs and the economy,

that Chancellor Philip Hammond announced the government

My understanding is that my right honourable friend, the Minister for

women and equality is is just about to make an announcement by way of a

letter to members of to see that they would intervene to

provide finance for anyone coming from Northern Ireland. I hope this

is a willing compromise. It is good that the government is looking to

end this injustice, but the devil will be in the detail. Could he make

a commitment to meet with me and other organisations to look at how

we can turn this into a reality saw these women in Northern Ireland

today will finally have their voice here.

And at the end of the debate, Ms Creasy announced she would be

Let us send a message to women everywhere that, in this Parliament,

their voices will be held and their rights upheld.

Well, those arguments, which illustrated the challenges

facing a minority government, overshadowed the last day of debate

on the Queen's Speech, when the focus was supposed

Labour's Shadow Chancellor called for an end to austerity.

We have a government that cannot feed their people, house the people

adequately protect our children from poverty. It cannot ensure that when

people go to work the Ayr enough to live on, they cannot maintain basic

public services. That is a government which does not deserve to

remain in office. Just two years ago, Labour at least pretended that

its figures added up. It would pay for its plans. They would not

bankrupt the country. Not any more. Not only with the hate taxes, they

would embark on a massive expansion of borrowing and subject the country

to a catastrophic policy of nationalisation not seen since the

1970s. People are feeling the pain of the decade of wage stagnation.

They are feeling the effects of rising inflation, rising even faster

than was predicted in the budget. They are looking at how we can make

the household budgets last. This is a reality for people here. The

Conservatives feel repeatedly to understand this. The talk about how

great the economy is. People do not feel these things. That is not the

experience. There is an underlying malaise not just in this country but

another Western economies which is the long-term legacy of the 2008

financial crisis which destroyed government budgets and kill business

investment and depressed living standards. In this country, we are

just beginning to emerge from that panel. No, we have superimposed on

that the self-inflicted pain of Brexit.

Well, at the end of that last day of debate on the Queen's Speech,

the government saw off a Labour amendment on austerity.

It also defeated another on Brexit, which had been put down

He wanted the UK to remain part of the single market.

Labour members were told to abstain on that vote,

but 50 rebelled and later, Jeremy Corbyn sacked three

of his shadow ministers, for backing Mr Umunna's amendment.

So, Theresa May passed her first big Parliamentary test,

with the Queen's Speech approved by a majority of 14.

The previous day, she had faced her first PMQs

Political commentator James Millar was watching.

The first Prime Minister's Questions of the new Parliament and much has

changed since the last session back in April.

But, to almost everyone's surprise, given the expected election result

and the actual election result, the two protagonists

remained the same - Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn.

The Labour leader began the session in sombre and

statesman-like fashion with some questions about the Grenfell

fire tragedy, to which the Prime Minister

As of this morning, the cladding of 120 tower

blocks across the country in 37 local authority areas

had been tested and failed the combustibility test.

Given the 100% failure rate, we are very clear with

local authorities and housing associations that they should not

They should get on with the job of fire safety

checks and, indeed, they are doing that.

And they should take any necessary action and the government

But it did not take long for party politics to break out,

as Corbyn sought to connect the tragedy to austerity.

When you cut local authority budgets by 40%, we all pay

Fewer inspectors, fewer building control

inspectors, fewer planning inspectors.

And, Mr Speaker, those cuts to the Fire Service have meant

The public sector pay cap is hitting recruitment and retention right

Theresa May may be Prime Minister, but her position has changed.

She is considerably weakened by losing her majority at an

It looks like opposition MPs will not let her forget it.

Labour's Jo Stevens joked about the Prime Minister's gamble

I know the Prime Minister is well aware of the misery and suffering

And following her recent own experience, her own

experience and the turmoil it has caused to her friends and

colleagues, will she now commit to legislating against fixed odds

betting terminals, the cause of so much hardship

Conservative backbencher Philip Davies' pet subjects might not have

changed, this week it was overseas aid,

and he took a vicious swipe at that Tory election manifesto.

Spending more and more money on overseas aid each year does not

make us more compassionate to the public,

it makes us look idiotic when that money is needed in the United

Can she promise to slash the overseas aid budget, spend it on

I hope she doesn't have a strange aversion to

pursuing policies that might be popular with the public.

The SNP group in the Commons has a new

leader and he also made a reference to the fact

The Scottish Secretary insisted that Scotland would seek increased

funding of the DUP secured funding for Northern Ireland. I quote, I am

not going to keep anything which could be regarded as back door

funding for Northern Ireland. Did the Prime Minister received any

recommendations from her colleagues before that was sane?

I don't remember when the money was announced for Scotland the

honourable gentleman complaining about more money going to Northern

Ireland. But then of course he is a nationalist and not a unionist.

Theresa May is still standing and she came through relatively

unscathed but there was enough in the session to suggest she has a

hard time ahead of her in the years to come.

Well, as we saw there, the government's ?1 billion

deal with the DUP is hugely controversial.

At Prime Minister's Questions, the DUP's Westminster

and issues of severe mental health are some of the worst

in Europe and indeed in the developed world.

And clinicians and others have pointed to the legacy of

30 years of terrorism and violence and the awful effects of that.

Part of the money that we have for investing this week goes to

Extra investment in the health service.

Isn't it time that people recognised that this is

delivery for all of the people of Northern Ireland across all sections

of the community and it is going to help some of the most vulnerable

and disadvantaged people in Northern Ireland.

And people should get behind it and welcome it.

But in the Queen's Speech debate the following day,

one Conservative made clear she was far from happy.

I can barely put into words might anger at

the deal my party has done with the DUP.

I cannot fault the DUP for wanting to

achieve the very best for their residence

nor for their tough negotiating skills.

But I must put on record my distaste for the use of public funds to

Now, let's take at some of the other news from around

Over 700,000 pieces of NHS correspondence, rather

than being delivered, were put into a warehouse

by a company called NHS Shared Business Services, or SBS.

Correspondence which did not reach its intended destination

includes blood tests, cancer screening and

I was advised by my officials not to make the issue public last March

until an assessment of the risks to patient

The cost of this debacle could be at least ?6.6 million for

That is is the equivalent to the average annual

The family of the murdered Labour MP Jo Cox unveiled a memorial

It bears the motto "More In Common", a phrase from her maiden speech.

Nicola Sturgeon has abandoned her demands for a new Scottish

independence referendum before the Brexit deal is signed.

In the general election, the SNP lost a third

In Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon said she now wanted to give people

a choice at the end of the Brexit process.

I am, therefore, confirming today that,

having listened and reflected, the Scottish government will reset

We will not seek to introduce the legislation for an independence

Instead, we will, in good faith, redouble our

efforts and put our shoulder to the wheel,

in seeking to influence the Brexit talks in a way that protects

But the issue which we have had this last year is of a

First Minister who has tried to use the UK's decision to leave

the European Union to try and impose another referendum on independence

on Scotland at the earliest opportunity.

No Edinburgh Agreement of respecting the result.

Just a single vision drive to the line by Nicola Sturgeon,

to try and secure her place in history.

As her own MSPs have accepted, that decision cost her 21 seats

and the support of half a million Scottish voters in

The truth is, the threat of a unwanted second

independence referendum is dead and this did not happen

because Nicola Sturgeon wanted it to.

The people of Scotland have taken that decision for her.

If she wants to prove she has listen, the

first thing the First Minister should do is trigger a

vote in this chamber which would rule out another

independence referendum in this parliamentary term.

There was jubilation in the German Parliament after it

voted overwhelmingly to legalise same-sex marriage,

after the Chancellor, Angela Merkel, changed her position

and decided to allow MPs to vote according

The measure will grant gay and lesbian couples

full marital rights, including the right

Back to Westminster, where the long-stand tradition that

male MPs should wear a tie in the Commons chamber appears

The question came after one MP, Tom Brake,

appeared in the Chamber and asked a question without one.

It seems to me that as long as a member

arrives in the House in what might thought to be business-like attire,

the question of whether that member is wearing a tie is not absolutely

So, am I minded not to call a member simply because

that member is not wearing a tie? No.

Now, securing trade deals after Brexit will be

like "filling a swimming pool with a teaspoon",

according to one of the Government's top infrastructure advisers.

Labour's Lord Adonis, the head of the National

Infrastructure Commission, was moving an amendment

to the the Queen's Speech, regretting that it contained

in the customs union and the single market.

In total, more than 60%, 60% of our trade is with the EU or third

countries where we enjoy free and preferential access by virtue of

customs union and single market membership.

My Lords, the government's Brexit policy is

basically one of trying to fill a swimming pool with a teaspoon.

It is an interesting and very challenging

idea but don't jump in for about three centuries.

Taking back our own control over our own affairs

includes gaining control of our borders and setting out our own

We'll also clear that respect the referendum

outcome, we cannot enter being half in and half out of the EU.

So, my Lords, we will be leaving the single market and customs union.

I would approach her job with immense trepidation.

She is carrying a valuable vase across a

In the government's hands is the future of

And, thus, the well-being of our people.

How the government negotiates our future

with the EU will have immense consequences on businesses, workers,

Every time the minister attacks those who ask

questions about the detail of Brexit as unpatriotic, people on the

continent as well as here become more suspicious

that the government still does not know the answers.

To those who want to stop Brexit, and I have

heard one or two speeches which seem to say they would like to, we

must listen to the democratic decision of the people.

I was particular struck by Lord Adonis who

made a very good speech but it seemed to me that he was ignoring

Of course we will still with control be able

to import into this, people who

have come into this country as immigrants, people with the

necessary skills of the necessary unskilled people to fill certain

job, but the public have made it very clear that they wanted tighter

Once one has accepted that, once one has also

accepted free trade, the logic is inescapable

What I believe, and my nose which is close to the

ground, is that the future will have blood on the streets because up at

the level that we are, we cannot give the benefit of the doubt, we

cannot go to people who we know are not doing

as well as we could and say to them, let's work together.

And when Lord Oak said earlier that in fact the poor are

going to pay for Brexit, I say, OK, how can the House of Lords

and the House of Commons stop the poor playing for Brexit?

MPs elected a new deputy speaker on Wednesday.

Labour's former chief whip Rosie Winterton will serve alongside

Lindsay Hoyle and Eleanor Laing, who were both re-elected.

They will help John Bercow to keep order in the Commons.

Gabrielle O'Neill asked a former Deputy Speaker, Nigel Evans,

if he could pass on any tips to the new recruit.

We do have a little booklet, and it contains the

photographs and constituencies and names of every member of Parliament.

I think the trick for Rosie is to do what I used to do which is start

at the top left and work your way along the chamber and go back and

mentally say the name of the person you are looking at.

And if you can't get the name, then you look through

the book, and have a look at the photograph and then start again.

And just make sure that you remember

I used to do it even when I was in the tea room, and I

used to look at MPs, mentally I would say their names in my head.

And if I couldn't get the name, I would go and yet the book.

And how do you deal with a rowdy chamber?

Labour MP Ian Austin found out in 2012.

Ian was shouting at George Osborne as Chancellor of the

Exchequer and he wouldn't let it go, so the usual "Order! Order!"

And I just stood up and I yelled at Ian to shut up.

And I remember, actually, Glenda Jackson coming up

to me afterwards and saying, Nigel, I was in my office and had the TV on

and the Parliament channel and you yelled at Ian,

And just a reminder of the key phrases that all speakers and

Order! Order!

Some of the new MPs from the 2017 intake have been making their debuts

So, what are the key elements of a maiden speech?

The oldest constituency is the best place in the country

full of the best people, and this Liberal Democrat made

the bold claim for Abingdon in her Oxford West constituency.

Preview are more than just a career politician and tell the House

Conservative Damien Mooore clearly felt that his previous job

as a supermarket manager would be a huge help in his new role.

Only time will tell if my audience this afternoon is as receptive

Some say it is best not to be too political in your maiden speech.

But that is impossible to resist for many.

The only new SNP MP David Linden took the opportunity to lay

It is simply unacceptably that in Glasgow East,

6,234 children are deemed as living in poverty.

That is the burning injustice the Prime Minister must

Even if they came from the opposing party.

The DUP's Paul Girbin had warm words for the former UUP

Danny and I, although we were on opposite sides

during the election, we were the best of friends.

Now, I don't know whether Danny will still say that about me now,

And if you want to be sure of always catching the Speaker's eye,

it is a good idea to point out something unique and

Like Labour's new MP for Bristol North West.

And now, so I am told, Mr Deputy Speaker, I am the first

ever Darren Alex Tetty this House of Commons.

Bristol North West is an historic and fascinating constituency.

And that is it from us for another week, but do join Joanna Shinn

on Monday night at 11 for another round-up of the best of the day

here at Westminster, including questions

to the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd.

But for now, from me, Alicia McCarthy, goodnight.