20/10/2017 The Week in Parliament

Hello and welcome to the Week In Parliament,

as more pressure is piled on the Government over

the welfare benefit, Universal Credit.

Will the Prime Minister now pause Universal Credit and fix

the problems before pressing ahead with the roll-out?

Why have we introduced Universal Credit?

It is a simpler system, it is a system which encourages

We talk to two Parliamentary experts about the battles ahead

In the Commons there's a call for an end to the use

Women in their 30s, 40s, 50s are telling us that

they're struggling to walk, they have lost their sex lives

and suffer from horrendous pain day in, day out.

And we hear from the MP who wants stiffer penalties for assaults

I think that since they are there to protect us and save our lives,

any attack on them is an attack on all of us.

The Government ordered Conservative MPs not to take part

in a vote on Thursday, on a Labour motion to pause

the roll-out of the new welfare payment, Universal Credit.

It's designed to simplify the system by putting different benefits,

including housing and unemployment benefit, into a single payment.

But that means new claimants often have to wait six weeks

MPs, including some on the government's own side,

and charities have said that's leading to debt and rent arrears.

At Prime Minister's Questions the previous Wedensday,

Jeremy Corbyn had urged the Government to think again

and at least scrap the 55 pence a minute charge for calling

And with the issue sure to come up again, the Work

and Pensions Secretary, appearing before a committee of MPs,

Contrary to the Sun reports, these are not premium lines,

the DWP does not make a profit from these lines.

Nonetheless, given the recent attention and concern this

could place a burden on claimants, I have decided this will change

to a freephone number over the next month.

Well, a short time later Jeremy Corbyn raised the benefit

Mr Speaker, last week I asked the Prime Minister

to scrap the unfair charges on the Universal Credit helpline.

Today she has finally bowed to that pressure.

But the fundamental problems of Universal Credit remain.

The six-week wait, rising indebtedness,

Will the Prime Minister now pause Universal Credit and fix

the problems before pressing ahead with the roll-out?

I want people to know they can ring in, they can get their advice and do

That is exactly what we are going to do.

The right honourable gentleman talks about Universal Credit and talks

Why have we introduced Universal Credit?

It is a simpler system, a system that encourages people

It is a system that is working because more people are getting

into work, and pausing Universal Credit will not help those

people who will be helped by going to Universal Credit,

getting into the workplace and bringing home more

Well, all of that came just before a debate,

put forward by Labour, calling for the roll out

Among the first backbenchers to speak, the former Conservative

leader who was the original architect of the scheme.

Universal Credit is the single biggest change to the welfare system

and those who really care about this, as I said,

as I read out from the jaws of Rowntree foundation,

It is something my party should be proud of. I want to say to the

benches opposite, none of us are lying about our experiences, we are

not making things up. We are coming with genuine problem is that the

government is failing to address. The DWP figures show one in four new

claimants wait longer than six weeks to be paid. That is a 25% failure

read. Food store needs to be put on the table and the heating still

needs to be paid. I went to a school bottom of the league table, my

father died at an early age, we had bailiffs on the door. We had no

support and we understand about supporting those in poverty. I don't

want Universal Credit pause because it offers a transformational

opportunity for people. At the end of that debate, labour forced a

division but the government didn't take part meaning the motion was

carried by 299-0 although that result was not binding. Immediately

after Labour objected to the government's tactics. The Prime

Minister and Tories cannot command a majority in the House of Commons.

The Prime Minister is in office but not in power.

And next day a Conservative MP expressed unease,

pointing out it wasn't the first time this government had abstained

It may be in the future that there is a minority Labour government.

They may produce policies which we think are deeply contrary

We may muster a majority parliament against it.

What happens then if a future Labour government says, "I'm sorry,

Frankly, the road to tyranny is paved by executives

But the Leader of the Commons denied a precedent had been set.

This government is very clearly listening to Parliament and has very

clearly taken action as a result of concerns raised in this House,

and thirdly I have also given an assurance that DWP ministers

will come back to this chamber to update members across the House

on progress with rolling out Universal Credit.

Now, there's a bit of legislation everyone was expecting around

about now, but which has yet to pop up in the Commons.

It's the crucial bit of legislation that takes EU law and moves it

But there's been concern that the Government is going to make

extensive use of what are called Henry the eighth powers

to change acts of Parliament with little scrutiny.

And that's before we get on to the actual content of the bill.

So far 300 amendments have been put down!

So, to find out what was going on I caught up with two

parliamentary experts, Dr Hannah White from the Institute

for Government and Lord Lisvane, who before moving to the Lords

I began by asking Hannah White why the bill was so important.

This is really the significant bill relating to Brexit

and it is going to transfer all the existing EU legislation

on to the UK statute book and what the Government is doing

to enable that process to go smoothly is giving itself quite

extensive powers to amend the legislation once

Either to make it make sense or to make more substantive policy

changes and that is why Parliament, lots of people in the Commons

and the Lords, are concerned about the extent of the powers

That all sounds perfectly reasonable.

The Government has got to get EU law into British law to stop the train

coming off the track after Brexit, so what particularly is the problem?

It is the sheer scale and scope of the powers.

The idea that under several clauses in the bill,

ministers could amend or repeal any Act of Parliament which has ever

been passed, including indeed the act which will result

So there is concern about the scope of what the Government is giving

itself the power to do, but what choice does it have,

I don't think anybody would argue that ministers don't need some

really quite extensive powers but when you have powers to make

delegated legislation, particularly the Henry VIII powers

which affect primary legislation, which has already been passed

and subject to extensive parliamentary scrutiny,

then several things have to happen in order to make that acceptable.

First, the purpose for which those powers can be used has got

Second the period over which those hours can be used

We are told that the powers in this bill are sunsetted.

In fact, when you look at the bill in detail,

it is incredibly easy to get round the sunsetting limitations.

The Government says one of the ways it is addressing this is to give MPs

eight days in committee of the entire House so everybody can

talk about this to try to iron out some of these concerns.

It is not really a lot if you look at some of the previous EU

There was a greater length of time spent on the bill to implement

And we have already seen 300 amendments to date have been put

down in the Commons and 57 new clauses proposed.

There are really a lot of different issues that MPs want to explore

and I'm sure when the bill moves to the House of Lords

So it is just a question of making sure that all the concerns MPs

Part of the problem really is that the Government is trying

to come up with a bill that will give a solution when it hasn't

got the final Brexit deal and doesn't know

I think the reason some of the powers they are seeking

to give themselves are very widely drawn is because they need

potentially to use those powers at very short notice to implement

And they don't know what that withdrawal agreement might look

like and that is why some people are arguing it would be more

appropriate to implement the withdrawal agreement

using it is of primary legislation rather than relying on these

secondary powers to do that, which is the Government's

When the Government gets this through the Commons,

it then has to get it through the Lords.

I think the Government will have to work very hard.

Of course it depends whether amendments are made

in the Commons, whether the bill is slightly less worrying when it

gets to the Lords and, as you know, the Delegated Powers Committee,

which I am a member of, although I am speaking

I started with an impossible question to you.

I'll finish with an impossible question for you.

The EU Withdrawal Bill is just the first of the bills

the Government has to get through to get Brexit done.

Is it even realistic to think that they are going to get all this

How much coming together and compromise is going to be?

We are already seeing a delay in the timetable

for the withdrawal bill, had it been expected to come

into the Commons sooner, now we are not sure if it

will arrive next week or not, because behind the scenes

the Government is negotiating over some of these amendments

I think before we had an election last year,

the Government was hoping the bill would probably be through both

Now it is looking like it won't get to the House of Lords

As you say, on top of that there are a number of different other

bills which the Government is going to want to get through.

Parliamentary time is limited and it is beginning

Thank you both very much for coming onto the programme.

Well, staying with Brexit, on Tuesday Boris Johnson told MPs

the UK's "friends and partners in the EU" need to "get serious"

His comments came after the Prime Minister travelled

to Brussels on Monday to try to break the impasse

Theresa May and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed

But Labour reckoned the government's position was chaotic.

Let me just quote again from the last session

of Foreign Office questions, when the Foreign Secretary told

the House, "There is no plan for no deal."

Five days ago, he said that, "We must make the right preparations

We know that the Cabinet cannot stop fighting

about the Brexit that they want, but it would be a start

if our flip-flopping Foreign Secretary could stop

It is up to our friends and partners in the EU to look seriously

at the offer we are making, particularly on citizens,

Everybody wants to make progress, and everybody wants to give

the 3.2 million EU citizens in this country the maximum possible

That can only happen once our friends and partners

decide to get serious in these negotiations.

Well, a short time later the Brexit secretary, David Davis,

He too was pressed over what the Government wanted.

The Secretary of State assures us that he has never talked up no deal,

but he has not talked it down, either.

Other influential voices in his party talk up

The Prime Minister still has not withdrawn her claim that no deal

Rather than just not talking up no deal, will the Secretary of State

absolutely rule out no deal today as the worst of all possible

deals?? We are intending, setting out and straining every

That will be the best outcome, but for two

reasons we need to prepare for all the other alternatives.

The first is that it is a negotiation with many people

and it could go wrong, so we have to be ready for that.

The second is that in a negotiation you always have to have the right

to walk away: if you do not, you get a terrible deal.

A little later, appearing before a committee of MPs,

the Home Secretary said it was "unthinkable"

that there would a "no deal Brexit", and said she remained optimistic.

If there were no deal of any form do you believe Britain would continue

to be as safe and secure as we are now?

I think it is unthinkable that there would be no deal

because it is so much in their interests as well as ours,

and their communities' and families' and the interests of their tourists,

We will make sure there is something between them and us

At the end of the week Theresa May went to Brussels again

Afterwards European Union leaders agreed to let officials prepare

for the second phase of the Brexit negotiations, looking at a future

But the summit concluded that there had not been enough

progress in the first phase of talks to move on to trade yet.

Let's take a look at some of the other stories making

Here's Gary Connor with our countdown.

The curtain has come down on a parliamentary career this week.

Andrew Lloyd Webber is stepping down from the House of Lords

after voting only 42 times since he joined in 1997.

New peers might have their time in the chamber curtailed as well.

Rather than having a seat for life, reports suggest a 15-year term limit

In a bad-tempered debate on Universal Credit,

a Labour MP compared the benefit to an Amazon review

Frighteningly bad, rubbish, utter drivel, hilariously awful,

and an outstanding compendium of bottom gravy.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson is swapping

She will be appearing on the charity special of Channel 4's

Great British Bake Off later in the year.

And the MP Tim Lawton has revealed he spends up to one hour in the bath

each morning to compose his thoughts for the day ahead.

Now to some other Westminster news in brief.

Inflation is at its highest level for five years,

But the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney told

the Treasury Committee it would carry on rising,

We expect that inflation will peak around October,

November figures and so peaking potentially above 3% level.

The Business Minister has said the news that 400 jobs are to be

lost at the Vauxhall car plant in Ellesmere Port is

Vauxhall is owned by a French company, PSA.

The factory in Cheshire makes the Astra model.

A spokesman for the company said the move was nothing to do

with Brexit, but down to a fall in sales.

On Tuesday MPs debated the plight on the Rohingya.

Hundreds of thousands of the mainly Muslim ethnic group have fled

from Myanmar to neighbouring Bangladesh after clashes

Any news stories that have been put out in the newspapers

that the Rohingya are doing this to themselves are lies,

No woman wants to trek with eight small children,

having had one of her sons stabbed through the chest, her breasts dried

up because she can't feed her child, and only some semolina for days

And the world, if the world sups up that nonsense,

that lie, that fabrication, then we are complicit.

Labour has accused the Government of breaking a series of promises

made after the Grenfell Tower fire in London in June.

The Shadow Housing Minister, John Healey, said Theresa May had

promised people would have a new home by early August.

But the Communities Secretary, Sajid Javid, defended

the government's approach and said it was shame Labour was treating

the issue as a political point scoring opportunity.

A former Health Minister is calling for a Hillsborough-style panel

or inquiry to be set up to investigate an epilepsy drug

and the harm caused to unborn babies during pregnancy.

Norman Lamb also called for compensation for those affected

He said about 20,000 babies were estimated to have been

In the general population there is a risk of foetal

But if valproate is taken during pregnancy that goes up to 11%.

There is a case for an inquiry or for a Hillsborough style panel

to understand how on earth this outrageous scandal could ever have

happened, how it has gone on for so many decades,

letting down so many families across our country.

The warnings now on the packaging include a very specific warning

which I will read which says, "Warning for women and girls.

This medicine can seriously harm an unborn baby.

Always use effective contraception during treatment.

If you're thinking about becoming pregnant or you have

become pregnant, talk to your doctor straightaway."

Staying with medical matters, the Government has rejected

calls for the banning of surgical mesh implants.

They're offered to patients to treat a number of conditions in women,

and men, such as internal organ prolapse and incontinence.

But high numbers of women have begun to come forward claiming

the procedure has left them in debilitating pain.

Women in their 30s, 40s, 50s are telling us

that they are struggling to walk, they have lost their sex lives

and suffer from horrendous pain day in day out.

Some are even suffering from post traumatic stress disorder

following the horrific impact the mesh has had

One consultant who has written to explain the problems in mesh

removal stated that once stuck, the mesh is never fully removed

and failure of implanting means that the mesh will fuse,

erode, stick and adhere to organs, nerves and blood vessels,

The Conservative who chairs the Health Select

I don't agree that we should ban mesh because for some women

the symptoms of stress urinary incontinence or prolapse can

themselves be life altering, so we should retain this

as an option where in fact alternative procedures may give

worse outcomes or potentially worse convocations, but there must be

adequate consultation with women about the risks so they can weigh

I think the most important aspect of this debate are the women

And the most important thing we can do, and my priority,

is to make sure we are ensuring they get the support and care

and treatment they need to alleviate a debilitating condition.

But there was unhappiness in the chamber when the minsiter

told MPs the advice she'd been given.

Mesh still is the best product for treating stress incontinence.

But the evidence regarding prolapse is rather more mixed.

But I can give that advice to members today but we will await

the Nice guidelines before the end of the year.

And she rejected calls for a public inquiry,

provoking an angry response from Emma Hardy as she

The reaction you have just given is simply not good enough at all.

I am extremely disappointed because I completely disagree with you.

It is not just about the procedure, it is also about the product,

and I hope the weight of evidence from all the women that we can see

there, all the women who have e-mailed, all the constituents,

all the people that have contacted Sling The Mesh,

will be enough evidence to show you that this is more than

Finally for now to the Commons on Friday where Labour MP

Chris Bryant put forward a bill to increase the penalties

Mr Bryant topped the annual Commons ballot for the right

He'd consulted his constituents on what the issue should be,

and they'd overwhelmingly favoured this proposal.

Just ahead of the debate he told us why he wanted change.

I think that since they are there to protect us and save our lives,

any attack on them is an attack on all of us and that is why I think

the law should come down more heavily on them.

Just as we have for racially and religiously aggravated assaults,

a special category, an enhanced aggravated offence,

for hate crimes as well, I think it is appropriate we do

Most importantly, up until now, the maximum you can get for common

assault is six months only triable in a Magistrates' Court.

I think that should be extended, it could be either in a Magistrates'

Court or a Crown Court, and should be up to 12 months,

and I want to say to those magistrates who have all too often

said to police officers or even ambulance crews,

"A degree of violence is part of your job," I am sorry,

We should have a zero tolerance attitude towards violence

Well, his bill had cross party support in the Commons,

Every day, emergency workers across the country show quite

remarkable courage simply in carrying out their duties.

They save lives, protect communities and uphold the law.

We owe each and every one of them a debt of gratitude and they deserve

Tougher sentences for these despicable attacks on emergency

workers sends the clearest possible message that this cowardly behaviour

will not be tolerated and that is why the Government

All of which means Chris Bryant's bill will now go forward for more

detailed consideration and, unlike most Private Members'

Bills, stands a good chance of becoming law.

And that's it from us for now but do join Keith Macdougall on Monday

night at 11 for a full round up of the day here at Westminster,

when we're expecting a statement from Theresa May on the latest