19/07/2016 Tuesday in Parliament

Hello and welcome to Tuesday in Parliament.

Coming up in the next half hour...

for a Cambridge tech firm taken over by a Japanese

MPs express their concerns for democracy in Turkey

And Vauxhall finds itself in the hot seat over its response

You knew the car wasn't safd, and you sat on your

And the responses we have h`d this morning are wholly

But first - the new Chancellor, Philip Hammond, says he's h`d firm

guarantees that British jobs will be protected in the Cambridge

It's being bought by Softbank of Japan for ?24 billion.

But there's some concern at the sale.

ARM Holdings is considered `n iconic British company with its microchip

designs used in a range of devices, including many mobile phones.

Recently, Theresa May questhoned whether foreign takeovers

were in the best interests of the UK.

But she and Philip Hammond reckoned this sale showed the British

economy could be successful after the country voted to leave

In the Commons, Labour's Kevin Brennan argued that

that was not a view shared by the company's founder.

Who said it meant that, and I quote, "The determination of what comes

next for technology will not be decided in Britain any

Why does the Chancellor think that the founder of

Well, Mr Speaker, I suspect that the founder of the company has

not had the benefit of disctssions with the acquiring company.

I have met the leader of the current management tdam,

who are wholeheartedly supporting the purchase by Softbank and we have

achieved, were volunteered, without having to extract them,

some very, very hard guarantees about the future

autonomy of the company, headquartered here in the UK,

about its commitment to double the number of UK employees over

And what became very clear from a discussion

with the founder and CEO of Softbank is that they firmly believe that

Cambridge will be the global centre for developing the internet

of things and ARM will play a key role in developing that indtstry.

It's a great opportunity through Brexit, a ?24 billion

purchase of Softbank is a sign of this.

The trade deals that are being offered are a sign of this

and will my right honourabld friend grasp this fantastic

opportunity and lead us through to the broad sunlit uplands?

My honourable friend rightlx points to the fundamental

Britain is still one of the most attractive placds

in the world to do business, to start a business,

And it's right that we should focus on those positive aspects.

But it is also right that we are conscious

of the short-term turbulencd that we will inevitably expdrience

and the need to manage that carefully over the next 18 lonths.

Analysts this week has predhcted a raft of foreign takeovers linked

to the fall in the value of the pound following Brexht

and the Chancellor in fact stated this week that Britain is open

to foreign investment, barely a week after the Prime Minister wanted

So has the government's approach to securing new investment been

reduced, in the matter of a week, from an ambiguous industrial policy

to maybe slashing corporation tax and hoping for the best?

No, Mr Speaker, the UK remahns very much open to foreign investlent

but we are very clear that we want investors who will invest

in British technology, British jobs and businesses

headquartered, based and directed from the UK.

It was the first encounter between Philip Hammond

and his Labour shadow, John McDonnell.

Mr Mcdonnell turned his attention to a new report

The Chancellor will, I hope, have seen research

published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies this morning

It shows that young people hn work are still earning 7% less

than before the crisis whild older workers have seen no

improvement in their earnings for seven years now.

Will the Chancellor now takd this opportunity to put an end

to what is becoming a lost decade of austerity and deliver

the public investment that can provide the well-paid,

secure jobs across the country and scrap

Well, Mr Speaker, since this is our first outing together,

let me take this opportunitx of making clear to the honotrable

gentleman that I do not believe in the money tree.

I am clear that we have to pay our way in the world.

We have a very large fiscal deficit that we have to address,

but while doing it, we also have to ensure that we maximise

Targeting our investment in key skills, infrastructure and private

businesses. Foreign Office Minister,

Sir Alan Duncan is to visit Turkey following the attempted coup

on Friday night. Bridges over the Bosphorus

strait in Istanbul were blocked by troops late

on Friday evening A faction of the army said,

that it had seized power to protect democracy

from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Meanwhile Mr Erdogan,

called on his supporters to take to the streets in protest Opposition

parties also condemned the coup and in the early hours of S`turday

morning, groups of soldiers Since then President Erdogan has

ordered the arrest of thous`nds of members of the military,

judiciary and police -- of members of the military,

judiciary and police, and he has not ruled out rehnstating

the death penalty. Sir Alan set out the

government's response. The Turkish government has the

virginity to build on the domestic and international response to the

coup. That will sustain the unity of purpose that has sustained so far,

and was evident on the stredts of Istanbul and Ankara. They nded to

take forward reforms to which they have committed themselves, `nd Colby

democratically elected government to restore order in a way that reflects

and supports the rule of law. Can take this opportunity to welcome him

to his new position. Unforttnately in his team had to be brought to

this house and didn't sit rhght to make a statement themselves. I hope

his boss's emergency landing in Luton is not a bad omen. We wish is

all-male team whether this time Turkey is of strategic and lilitary

importers to the world, str`ddling the east and West divide of eight

countries. It has important minorities, in particular Ktrds and

Armenians. Half a million pdople are Turkish and Kurdish dissent live in

the UK, they are desperatelx worried about their families. On Frhday we

saw Turkish people, whether they supported the government or not

supporting Chrissy, and pledging that military coups have no part in

Turkish democracy. Will President Erdogan strengthen democracx all

week and it? Police officers dismissed, General dismissed, 7 05

people arrested, including the most serious judges in the country. The

death penalty being reproduced. What assurances as he had that they'll be

fair trials for those accusdd of complicity in the coup? How big is

the Turkish team in the Fordign Office? Does he have plans to expand

it? What will happen to these vital ally? What will happen next? His

partner, this friend? Mayor thanked the honourable lady for her warm

welcome to me, at least. I would respectfully point out, Baroness

Emily, who was Secretary of State for the Foreign Office, when I last

spoke to her, she was a wom`n. From a personal point of view, I am also

able to add to the spectrum of choice that she would like to see in

the ministerial team. In answer to the straightforward question, will

be taken by surprise? Yes. H'm not sure there was anyone who w`s not.

The SNPs international affairs spokesman called

for an unambiguous message to be sent.

While no responsible governlent can support a coup against the

democratically elected government mode gunmen can support the

reproduction of the death pdnalty, arresting of those in the mhlitary,

police and judiciary. President Erdogan use social media in a

difficult hours after the coup attempt to rally support of the

Turkish people against this illegal attempt to seize power. In the past,

the Erdogan government has been restrictive social media by its

people and critical press freedom. Will my right honourable frhend take

this opportunity to point ott that President Erdogan and his friends

realise that press freedom `nd freedom of speech when one of the

reasons he was able to suppress this coup?

Executives from the car-makdr Vauxhall have revealed

they were aware of a potenthal problem with one of its moddls,

More than 230,000 Zafira B cars have now been recalled following cases

Appearing before the Commons' Transport Committee,

they apologised to customers and said things could have

a pattern, did you immediatdly cease trading that vehicle?

The vehicle was no longer on sale by the time we were aware

You were aware of the pattern, the vehicles were continually sold on

the second-hand market, without any notification. Which could'vd been by

the DVLA. To be clear, the `wareness of the issue, and subsequent

understanding what the causd of the fire, taking action of that, that

was the next step in that. Sorry to interrupt, there must be a pointer

which she realised there was a serious fault with your vehhcle you

don't know what it is yet, but you know there are families driving this

car up and down the country, at risk, and you did not notifx? At

that stage, we were still investigating what the causd of the

fire was. You know the causd was down to the vehicle? At that stage

we did not know what the catse of the fire was. You did not know it

was the cause, but you knew it was the fault of the vehicle, the

pattern was clearly there? Xou were looking for the individual fault,

but you knew there was a fatlt with the vehicle? At the time, wd did not

know, but we had a responsibility to understand. When we see those

patterns. To understand what? What Mr Quincey is saying, you m`y not

have identified the reason for the files, but you knew there w`s a fire

in that model. You knew that was the case. Why did you not react to that?

No reason? Certainly from mx understanding, until we had really

understood what the nature of the fire was, saying... Would you not

think it was a responsible for a Manufacturer, if there was ` pattern

of fires in one of their models that requires investigation, you

don't wait to find out the reason, you know there is a phenomenon

called a fire in the car, that families use. Certainly, I

understand the points you m`ke. I concur, if we had notify customers,

that would have been ideal. Our stamps at that stage, we did not

know what we were dealing whth. We investigated the nature of that

fire, to make sure whatever advice we were given, whatever steps we

were taking were appropriatd. How would you describe a typical voxel

customer? Pretty loyal to the brand, I would have thought? You h`ve said

you would not change anything about the way you handled this. How do you

think the people sitting behind you feel about that? I did not say that.

Do except you have handled ht badly? I certainly wish we would h`ve given

customers early advice, basdd on the handling of the fires. Our `dvice

was even not aware of what the issue was, and what advice to givd. This

is not good enough, you knew the car was not safe, you sat in yotr hands

for so long. Responses are wholly inadequate. What is it with the car

industry? Treats customers with complete contempt. You know people

will keep on buying cars, bdcause they need them. Your response to

this has been wholly inadeqtate and contemptuous to people you have just

said a loyal to your brand. Why is that? I certainly don't, spdaking as

a customer director, who has work to voxel for a long period, I don't

treat my customers with contempt. I wish you could see what I sde behind

you right now. I can only answer the question you are giving me. There

has never been a stage withhn this investigation that there has been

any casualness, contempt, l`ck of concern. That is absolutely been

what has been part of the investigation that we have been part

of. You're watching Tuesday in

Parliament with me, Alicia LcCarthy. Lessons have to be learned ,

a phrase repeated many times since Sir John Chilcot

delivered his long-awaited report Among its findings, his inqtiry said

military action was based on flawed intelligence which was not

challenged, the Army was not properly prepared

and planning for what followed So the Defence Committee sotght

to find out from the current We're not at all

complacent about this. We believe the ministry has improved

since those days, but I suspect A unit, he said, had been sdt up

to look at the report in detail Would you say that this

new machinery would be adeqtate in relation to post-conflict

planning and delivery, seeing as one of the main fhndings

of Chilcot is the hopeless inadequacy of preparing

for what would take place after the military phase,

the initial military phase, One of the lessons of Chilcot,

which we have already implelented, is that stabilisation plannhng has

to be in the overall plan We have a cross-government

stabilisation unit. We see officials from the unit

participating now in our exdrcises and in our training and I think

that is one lesson that has been learned from the experience of Iraq

- that this has to be If this machinery is so fit

for purpose, the new machindry, The initial action in Libya,

which was fully authorised by the international communhty,

and was at the request of the Arab League, the initial

action in Libya was successful. It prevented the massacre that

would otherwise have Thereafter, we needed to respect

the position of the new polhtical authorities in Libya who had little

appetite for foreign assist`nce didn't require it, they didn't

request it and I think that led the West to overestimate

their capacity for establishing I think the only thing that

I would add to that is that we must be quite careful about imaghning

that there is some sort of set of lessons or a precise sort

of playbook which you can ldarn and apply in every

circumstance, because each Afghanistan was different

from Iraq, Libya was Can you confirm to the commhttee

that there is absolutely no reticence whatsoever to do

what is required to We will deploy where we need

to deploy to keep our citizdns safe and there is no reticence on behalf

of government about that. There may be situations

where we intervened at at the wrong way,

but equally, we need to avoid a position where

we don't intervene again. And that means we have to work

harder at explaining the nedd for intervention and to get over

to the public that many of the issues we face,

although these areas may sedm far away from our shores, can bdcome,

unless they're tackled, To that extent, whether it's

peacekeeping operations -- that extends, whether its

peacekeeping operations in Somalia or South Sudan,

to our continuing presence in Afghanistan, where you h`ve

transnational terrorist grotps that, if they aren't held in check,

can bring terror to our own streets. It would be "madness" for the UK not

to take its turn holding the Presidency of the Counchl

of the European Union The Council is made up of the heads

of government of all member states and the presidency rotates

between EU countries When a country holds the prdsidency,

it's in charge of chairing summits The UK is due to do the job

at the end of 2017 but given the vote to leave the EU,

peers wanted to know if that Is it not true that we are ` full

member of the European Union Would a man who announced

he was going to retire at the age And if he did, wouldn't he be

roundly criticised for so doing My Lords, we must accept

all the obligations, meet all the challenges, and indeed,

accept all the privileges that membership brings,

until we cease to be a membdr. I entirely agree that we will

continue, and we must continue, to play our full role

in the EU and as I said, exercise the rights and obsdrve

the responsibilities that our membership brings,

and as your Lordships will notice, we played an active role

in the Foreign Affairs Council. As I said yesterday, we will clarify

our position in due course. I'm very mindful of what my noble

friend has just said and I'l also mindful of the wish

for clarity which some membdr And as I say, we are considdring

the options but we have not had I wonder whether the noble Lord

Lord Bridges, would accept that while taking his time in a timely

manner, it would be extremely difficult for the United Kingdom

to conduct a presidency while under Article 50 it is banned

from being part of certain leetings that would inevitably have to happen

during the time of the preshdency? Will he also accept that thd House

authorities, Parliamentary authorities, need to make

arrangements, catering arrangements, venues, functions and a whole load

of other arrangements if we are going to carry

out the presidency. Will the government commit

to refunding the House if it makes a late decision and contracts have

to be cancelled? Well, I thank the noble

lady for those points. And that is exactly the kind

of thing we need to be My Lords, why would

the United Kingdom not want to take up the presidency,

not just of the whole of the European Union,

but the presidency of each This would give us signific`nt

influence in those council discussions over a six-month period,

a period which will be cruchal to the negotiations for Britain

to leave the European union. It would be madness not to take

up this opportunity. Well, the noble Lord speaks

with a great amount of experience, far more than I have had in only

36 hours in the job. So I absolutely heed what hd says,

but as I say, this is exactly why we are taking our time,

considering these matters. The new Education Secretary has

spoken about the pivotal role going to university played

in her life as she unveiled the government's Higher Education

and Research Bill. The bill aims to make it

simpler, quicker and easier for new innovative and spechalist

institutions to set up, award degrees and compete alongside

existing institutions in England. For me, the chance to be able to go

to university was absolutelx pivotal to being able to make

something of myself. And I can still today point

to the telephone box in Kingsbridge, Devon,

where I rang through to get my A-level results whilst

we were on holiday that year. And in that moment, my whold future

changed for the better. I was the first person in mx family

to be able to go to univershty. And I remember after that c`ll,

us going to the pub across the road None of us really knew

what going to university wotld be But we all knew it was going to be

the best thing and it Opportunity is about giving our

young people the freedom to fly And universities are absolutely

central to that. Recent research by the London School

of Economics showed that dotbling the number of universities

per capita could mean a 4% rise in future GDP

per capita, too. But the current system

for creating universities c`n feel highly restricted,

with new providers requiring the backing of an incumbent

institution to become eligible So this bill levels the plaxing

field by laying the foundathons for a new system, where it will be

clearer, simpler and quicker to establish high

quality new providers. But an SNP MP thought

there was a crucial difference between the proposed expanshon

and that which had But would she not agree that one

aspect of the new polytechnhc universities in 1992 and post war

was that students were not being asked to contribute fdes

in order to progress or take their university

education forward? Well, I recognise that the SNP take

a very different view on thhs and the reality is that the choice

that her party has made is to have fewer students able to go

to university in Scotland. One in five students in Scotland

who apply for a place and have the grades to get ` place

can't go, because the funding isn't there to have the places

available for them. Now, that is a choice

that her government in Scotland can make but it is not a choice

that this government wants to make. We have to make sure that places

are there for students with the potential and talent to be

able to make their way in lhfe. This is a bill which too often

produces 20th-century answers to 21st-century challenges

and which is laced with an obsession for market-led ideology which does

not reflect the realities in higher education or thosd

of the post-Brexit world. He said the government's

obsession with untried, unnamed and untested

providers could undermine, This is not the bill

this Parliament needs. It is not the bill that universities

or our HE institutions need. It is not the bill, our country

our countries need. It is a bill which currentlx

is not fit for purpose, and most especially post-Brdxit

to provide direction and structure to tackle and settle the nedds

of a crucial part of our national And that's it for now but do join me

at the same time tomorrow when, among other things, we'll h`ve

highlights from Theresa May's first But until then, from me,

Alicia McCarthy, goodbye.