Browse content similar to 22/11/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to Tuesday in Parliament. | :00:19. | :00:20. | |
On this programme: What's the future looking like for US-UK relations? | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
Boris Johnson comes in for some mockery over his new policy | :00:26. | :00:27. | |
The Foreign Secretary, in the space on the last few weeks, has gone from | :00:28. | :00:42. | |
not going to New York in case he is mistaken for Mr Trump to saying his | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
key opportunity for the Western world. | :00:46. | :00:46. | |
Not a bit of it, says a former | :00:47. | :00:49. | |
I think this is a terrific opportunity for the civil service, | :00:50. | :00:58. | |
and I haven't often, since I retired, wanted to be back in the | :00:59. | :01:00. | |
civil service, but I do now. And MPs return to the debate over | :01:01. | :01:01. | |
selection in education. We take the children at quite a | :01:02. | :01:10. | |
young age that we think are going to be the most talented musicians and | :01:11. | :01:13. | |
we give them a lead special training so that they can play to the highest | :01:14. | :01:15. | |
standards in the world. But first, a fortnight is a long | :01:16. | :01:15. | |
time in international politics. It's only two weeks since the voters | :01:16. | :01:18. | |
of the United States Donald Trump's victory has prompted | :01:19. | :01:21. | |
a huge volume of comment As he's slowly assembled his | :01:22. | :01:24. | |
new team, the speculation has been intense over what his presidency | :01:25. | :01:31. | |
means for America's relations with the rest of the world, | :01:32. | :01:33. | |
not least with the United Kingdom. Donald Trump tweeted that | :01:34. | :01:36. | |
Ukip's Nigel Farage would be an ideal choice to be Britain's next | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
ambassador to the US, a comment that made for some | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
interesting exchanges at Foreign Office questions, | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
starting with a former Conservative Minister well known | :01:49. | :01:51. | |
for his support for the unsuccessful Although there is no vacancy, | :01:52. | :01:53. | |
would the Foreign Secretary think this is extremely generous | :01:54. | :02:06. | |
of Donald Trump, to suggest who should be our ambassador | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
in the United States, and in that measure of fraternity, | :02:11. | :02:16. | |
might he suggest that the best person to fill the vacancy | :02:17. | :02:22. | |
for the ambassador to the United Kingdom next year | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
would be Hillary Rodham Clinton? Though I suspect the last thing | :02:27. | :02:32. | |
she'd want to do is be associated I think the Right Honourable | :02:33. | :02:38. | |
Gentleman might want to be Well, all right, Mr Speaker, | :02:39. | :02:44. | |
you anticipate what Because, of course, | :02:45. | :02:52. | |
my Right Honourable Friend would be On the other hand, | :02:53. | :02:58. | |
as the House knows full well, we have a first-rate ambassador | :02:59. | :03:05. | |
in Washington, doing a very good job of relating both | :03:06. | :03:07. | |
with the present administration and the administration to be, | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
and there is no Diplomats require diplomacy, | :03:11. | :03:13. | |
and would my Right Honourable Friend agree with me that there should be | :03:14. | :03:23. | |
no place for anyone who expresses inflammatory and what sometimes | :03:24. | :03:27. | |
could be considered to be bordering on racist views in representing | :03:28. | :03:30. | |
this country in discussions I am grateful to my Honourable | :03:31. | :03:32. | |
Friend, and I think he catches the mood of the house, | :03:33. | :03:39. | |
Mr Speaker, and I think we have We have an excellent ambassador | :03:40. | :03:42. | |
in Washington doing a first-rate I think we are all relieved | :03:43. | :03:47. | |
that the Foreign Secretary has In this post-truth world, | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
we might have assumed that he might have been sympathetic, | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
given they had campaigned together But can the Foreign Secretary | :03:57. | :03:59. | |
perhaps outlined to the house his But can the Foreign Secretary | :04:00. | :04:08. | |
perhaps outline to the house his thinking in terms of what he is | :04:09. | :04:11. | |
going to say when he visits the United States of America | :04:12. | :04:14. | |
about our future relations, given that we have always been | :04:15. | :04:19. | |
the conduit between Europe I think my Honourable Friend asks | :04:20. | :04:22. | |
a thoughtful and a very important question, because it is vital | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
that we get our message over about, as I have said to the member | :04:28. | :04:33. | |
opposite, the vital importance of Nato, of free trade | :04:34. | :04:36. | |
and free enterprise, and of the sticking up | :04:37. | :04:43. | |
for the values that I believe unite our two countries, | :04:44. | :04:46. | |
and that is the message that I know that the Prime Minister will be | :04:47. | :04:51. | |
getting across when she goes there, and certainly, it is the message | :04:52. | :04:53. | |
that we will be delivering at all levels from | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
the UK Government. Mr Speaker, as we meet today | :04:58. | :04:59. | |
on the 53rd anniversary of John F Kennedy's death, | :05:00. | :05:02. | |
we have this prospect of a very different president about to enter | :05:03. | :05:05. | |
the White House in just Nevertheless, the Secretary | :05:06. | :05:08. | |
of State said last week, and he has said again today, | :05:09. | :05:13. | |
that this new president is, I quote, "a liberal guy | :05:14. | :05:16. | |
with whom he shares many values". We have, he tells us, | :05:17. | :05:19. | |
and I quote again, "every reason "to be positive | :05:20. | :05:27. | |
about a Trump presidency". So can the Secretary of State tell | :05:28. | :05:29. | |
us what reasons there are to be positive on the attitude | :05:30. | :05:32. | |
of the new president to the issue I think it is vital | :05:33. | :05:38. | |
that we are as positive as we can possibly be | :05:39. | :05:49. | |
about the new administration-elect, and as I have said before | :05:50. | :05:52. | |
to the house, I believe that the US I believe that the UK-US | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
relationship is of vital importance. I think that President-elect Trump | :05:57. | :05:59. | |
is a deal-maker, and when it comes to climate change, when it | :06:00. | :06:02. | |
comes to climate change, this is something that the UK has | :06:03. | :06:05. | |
led on globally. We have had outstanding success, | :06:06. | :06:08. | |
and yes, I am very open with the House, it is something, | :06:09. | :06:12. | |
it is a message we will be taking to the administration to be, | :06:13. | :06:16. | |
that we believe it to be important, we believe it to be in the interests | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
of the United States, Mr Speaker, the reality | :06:21. | :06:23. | |
is that we have a new president who says that climate change | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
is a hoax invented by the Chinese, who has repeatedly promised | :06:29. | :06:34. | |
to scrap the Paris treaty, a president whose top adviser | :06:35. | :06:37. | |
on the environment cause global a president whose top adviser | :06:38. | :06:40. | |
on the environment calls global warming "nothing to worry about", | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
and there is no doubt that this is a hugely dangerous development | :06:45. | :06:47. | |
for the future of our planet, so let me ask the | :06:48. | :06:50. | |
Secretary of State. When the Prime Minister goes to see | :06:51. | :06:52. | |
the new president in January, will she have the moral backbone | :06:53. | :06:55. | |
to tell him that he is wrong on climate change, and that he must | :06:56. | :06:58. | |
not scrap the Paris treaty, and will she lead the world | :06:59. | :07:01. | |
in condemning him if he does? I really must say to the right | :07:02. | :07:06. | |
on the lady that I believe I really must say to the Right | :07:07. | :07:18. | |
Honourable Lady that I believe she is being premature | :07:19. | :07:21. | |
in her hostile judgments of the administration-elect, | :07:22. | :07:23. | |
and any such premature verdict, I believe, could be damaging | :07:24. | :07:25. | |
to the interests of this country. The Foreign Secretary, | :07:26. | :07:27. | |
in the space of the last few weeks, has gone from not going to New York | :07:28. | :07:30. | |
in case he is mistaken for Mr Trump, to saying | :07:31. | :07:33. | |
he is the opportunity for the Western world, | :07:34. | :07:35. | |
which is a political pirouette Can the Foreign Secretary | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
realise what we're dealing with in the new President | :07:39. | :07:45. | |
of the United States, and wouldn't this country's policy | :07:46. | :07:48. | |
be helped by coherence, consistency, and a bit | :07:49. | :07:50. | |
of common sense? I think that what the world needs | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
now is the UK to build on its relations with the United States, | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
which I think most people in this house would axe at our fundamental | :08:01. | :08:03. | |
importance for our security, house would accept | :08:04. | :08:12. | |
are of fundamental and that I have said very candidly | :08:13. | :08:14. | |
to honourable members, those are the three essential points | :08:15. | :08:17. | |
that I will be making to our friends, the vital importance | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
of the transatlantic alliance and of Nato, the importance of free | :08:21. | :08:22. | |
trade and free enterprise, and of jointly promulgating | :08:23. | :08:25. | |
the values that unite our two countries. | :08:26. | :08:27. | |
That is the message. A former head of the civil service, | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
Lord Kerslake, has warned that there aren't enough civil | :08:32. | :08:36. | |
servants to cope with the demands of His remarks follow a leaked memo | :08:37. | :08:39. | |
last week from the consultants Deloitte, which said the civil | :08:40. | :08:43. | |
service would have to recruit an extra 30,000 personnel | :08:44. | :08:46. | |
to deliver Brexit. The Prime Minister's official | :08:47. | :08:49. | |
spokesman said the consultant who wrote the memo had not been | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
working for the government. Another former senior civil servant | :08:54. | :08:56. | |
was enthused by the whole thing. How much do you think | :08:57. | :08:59. | |
the government is making an increasingly impossible ask, | :09:00. | :09:01. | |
particularly of departments in the present climate, | :09:02. | :09:02. | |
with reducing the civil service, but overlaying more and more | :09:03. | :09:10. | |
tasks, and now Brexit? Well, I think you have raised | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
the big issue here, really, and I think within my personal view, | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
there is a genuine issue about capacity to manage both | :09:19. | :09:22. | |
the demands of Brexit, which is huge, complex and with big | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
stakes, and at the same time, taking forward a set of other policy | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
initiatives that government I think it is not possible to do | :09:34. | :09:39. | |
that when the civil service is at its lowest number | :09:40. | :09:45. | |
since the Second World War Another former civil servant wasn't | :09:46. | :10:05. | |
used by the whole thing. -- was infused. | :10:06. | :10:07. | |
and facing the civil service is definitely huge. | :10:08. | :10:10. | |
We shall have to run domestically, policies that have been | :10:11. | :10:12. | |
If we leave the customs union, we will need an awful lot more | :10:13. | :10:17. | |
However, I don't think that should stop making the efficiencies | :10:18. | :10:21. | |
in other areas which the government has set out to make. | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
I think there probably will be a net increase in the size of the civil | :10:28. | :10:30. | |
service as a result of this, and the government ought | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
first of all to look to redeploying people. | :10:35. | :10:38. | |
But they shouldn't stop trying to make efficiencies | :10:39. | :10:43. | |
which are possible. I entirely agree. | :10:44. | :10:51. | |
Go back to the remarks that the civil service helped win | :10:52. | :10:53. | |
And of course, that is very reassuring. | :10:54. | :10:59. | |
But there is something about the civil service in | :11:00. | :11:01. | |
peacetime that lacks the same pace and urgency that the civil service | :11:02. | :11:04. | |
How should ministers inculcate that sense of pace and urgency? | :11:05. | :11:14. | |
I think this is a terrific opportunity for the civil service, | :11:15. | :11:17. | |
and I haven't often, since I retired, wanted to be back | :11:18. | :11:22. | |
in the civil service, but I do now, because I think | :11:23. | :11:26. | |
that this is a very exciting time, and I think there's an opportunity | :11:27. | :11:30. | |
to rise to it, and I am confident that, on past form, | :11:31. | :11:35. | |
The civil service was in excess of a million in 1944. | :11:36. | :11:43. | |
So we've seen a drastic change in size and composition. | :11:44. | :11:53. | |
The second point I'd make is that of course the civil service | :11:54. | :11:58. | |
carry on seeking to be more efficient, but what we've really got | :11:59. | :12:00. | |
to resist is letting good people go and then finding we recruit them | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
Meanwhile, the Lords has held a general debate on different | :12:05. | :12:15. | |
The Prime Minister has maintained Britain will get the best exit deal | :12:16. | :12:20. | |
so long as the Government doesn't provide a running commentary | :12:21. | :12:22. | |
But some of her opponents say the policy is too secretive. | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
A Conservative peer said keeping all your cards close to your chest | :12:27. | :12:29. | |
But it's not always wise to clutch all your cards | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
Occasionally, you need to play one to draw other cards out. | :12:34. | :12:42. | |
And the whole process of negotiation, in my view, | :12:43. | :12:44. | |
is one of creating a favourable atmosphere by gradually | :12:45. | :12:47. | |
exposing your hand, and if, in doing that, you have the express | :12:48. | :12:53. | |
endorsement of a sovereign Parliament at your back, | :12:54. | :12:55. | |
you'll be much stronger in your negotiating position. | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
I do not believe that, given the magnitude of the matters | :13:01. | :13:03. | |
which are to be decided in this Brexit issue, that it could be right | :13:04. | :13:08. | |
that Parliament has no involvement until the end of the negotiating | :13:09. | :13:12. | |
process or that its role should be reduced to merely debating | :13:13. | :13:16. | |
the situation and asking questions in a vacuum. | :13:17. | :13:20. | |
And I do think the government should come clean before | :13:21. | :13:23. | |
I think the government should be telling the country | :13:24. | :13:28. | |
what the choices are - what are the upsides and downsides | :13:29. | :13:31. | |
Lord Inglewood said that Brexit will be a long-drawn-out process. | :13:32. | :13:38. | |
It's going to take, My Lords, 2-10 years! | :13:39. | :13:43. | |
The elements of this are not as simple as exiting | :13:44. | :13:46. | |
What about the treaties, whether it's staying in the single | :13:47. | :13:52. | |
market or in the customs union, doing trade deals? | :13:53. | :13:56. | |
Now, when Britain goes, the pressure will move to Berlin. | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
Berlin will no longer be able to stand in the centre. | :14:02. | :14:05. | |
It will have to take a much stronger role and a role which - | :14:06. | :14:08. | |
let me tell you know, having recently been there - | :14:09. | :14:12. | |
is not one that they are looking forward to taking. | :14:13. | :14:17. | |
We can take a strong role and the worst they'll say, | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
"Oh, the Brits throwing their weight around." | :14:23. | :14:24. | |
Unlike us, if Germany tries to take a strong role, | :14:25. | :14:26. | |
it brings out all the animus of years ago. | :14:27. | :14:30. | |
And that's why the Germans do not like it and that's why the Germans | :14:31. | :14:33. | |
are very unhappy at us leaving, because we have been the sensible | :14:34. | :14:36. | |
people who have helped to deliver a European Union that works. | :14:37. | :14:41. | |
Why is it that the government have been so desperately anxious to cut | :14:42. | :14:45. | |
Parliament out of the loop over Article 50? | :14:46. | :14:51. | |
Nobody has given an explanation of that, the public is entitled | :14:52. | :14:53. | |
to know, and the proceeding is quite extraordinary. | :14:54. | :14:57. | |
I hope we won't be told that it's in order to save time, | :14:58. | :15:01. | |
because it really would be the most terrible insult to Parliament | :15:02. | :15:04. | |
to be told that to consult Parliament is a waste of time. | :15:05. | :15:07. | |
And, anyway, it would be an untrue explanation, because the government | :15:08. | :15:09. | |
now, by appealing the decision of the High Court, have lost more | :15:10. | :15:12. | |
time, perhaps six or seven week at least, precisely in order | :15:13. | :15:15. | |
to be able to prevent Parliament from getting in on the action. | :15:16. | :15:21. | |
You're watching our round up of the day in the Commons and the Lords. | :15:22. | :15:24. | |
A plea for better financial help for people who donate organs. | :15:25. | :15:34. | |
A strong defence of selection in education has been mounted | :15:35. | :15:36. | |
in the Commons by a former Cabinet Minister. | :15:37. | :15:39. | |
In the latest debate on social mobility, John Redwood told | :15:40. | :15:41. | |
the House it was perfectly normal for talented musicians | :15:42. | :15:44. | |
or footballers to be selected, so why couldn't the principle be | :15:45. | :15:47. | |
If a young person from a poor background becomes a top footballer, | :15:48. | :15:56. | |
that is a transformational event in their lives | :15:57. | :15:58. | |
And why do they not understand that exactly the same arguments apply | :15:59. | :16:04. | |
We take the children at quite a young age that we think | :16:05. | :16:09. | |
are going to be the most talented musicians and we give them elite | :16:10. | :16:13. | |
special training, so that they can play to the highest | :16:14. | :16:15. | |
standards in the world. I'll give way. | :16:16. | :16:18. | |
Thank you for giving way, I am glad he mentioned football, | :16:19. | :16:22. | |
because, actually, 13% of our national football team | :16:23. | :16:24. | |
went to private schools, which is double the number | :16:25. | :16:26. | |
of people who go to private schools nationally. | :16:27. | :16:29. | |
Does he think that might account for the performance | :16:30. | :16:32. | |
If we're missing out on the talent that exists | :16:33. | :16:36. | |
And would he recognise that that is precisely the problem | :16:37. | :16:42. | |
We're missing out on talent as a result of too narrow a focus. | :16:43. | :16:46. | |
I don't think we're going to get a better team by training them less, | :16:47. | :16:49. | |
and no longer giving them any kind of elite education. | :16:50. | :16:52. | |
I really think they're being obtuse on the benches opposite. | :16:53. | :16:54. | |
By the time they would take the 11-plus, children | :16:55. | :16:56. | |
from the most disadvantaged backgrounds are already, | :16:57. | :16:58. | |
The evidence shows that investment in early years is the best way | :16:59. | :17:07. | |
to close the attainment gap between the most disadvantaged | :17:08. | :17:09. | |
Does the Honourable Lady agree with David Cameron, who said, | :17:10. | :17:19. | |
"There's a kind of hopelessness about the demand to bring back | :17:20. | :17:23. | |
grammars, an assumption that this country will only ever be able | :17:24. | :17:26. | |
to offer decent education to a select few"? | :17:27. | :17:28. | |
I thank the Honourable Member for her contribution, | :17:29. | :17:34. | |
and I find myself agreeing with the former Prime Minister, | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
who was elected to make those contributions within this debate. | :17:39. | :17:43. | |
That was the platform and the manifesto that | :17:44. | :17:45. | |
the Conservative Government stood on, that they're | :17:46. | :17:47. | |
I was setting out why this Government believes that driving | :17:48. | :17:51. | |
But I also wanted to set out that, in reality, as challenging | :17:52. | :17:58. | |
as it is for our country, no country in the world has | :17:59. | :18:01. | |
managed to crack the issue of social mobility yet. | :18:02. | :18:05. | |
That is because it's highly complex, many factors feed into it | :18:06. | :18:09. | |
and because improving social mobility is, as the Social | :18:10. | :18:13. | |
Mobility Commission says, a long-term issue which needs | :18:14. | :18:16. | |
a long-term approach, and not to be simply treated | :18:17. | :18:21. | |
like a political football for short-term political gain. | :18:22. | :18:26. | |
If we are serious, and if the government | :18:27. | :18:29. | |
is serious in believing, that more selective schools raises | :18:30. | :18:32. | |
standards across the board, then they would have proposed only | :18:33. | :18:39. | |
introducing those schools in pilot areas and those areas | :18:40. | :18:41. | |
But the Green Paper talks about local demand being a driver | :18:42. | :18:51. | |
and my question to the ministers is what if those areas most in need | :18:52. | :18:54. | |
of standards being raised opt out of having new schools? | :18:55. | :18:58. | |
The real problem with selective education is not that you end up | :18:59. | :19:01. | |
with good schools and poorer schools, it's not that one | :19:02. | :19:03. | |
set of teachers works harder than another. | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
It's that whole swathes of our young people will be labelled - | :19:09. | :19:11. | |
wrongly, of course - as having failed. | :19:12. | :19:13. | |
And with that, social mobility falls. | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
Let's open up opportunities to people, regardless | :19:18. | :19:21. | |
of their ability to pay, and that's exactly what we do | :19:22. | :19:23. | |
in those areas that offer selection in the state sector. | :19:24. | :19:28. | |
But Trafford is outstanding, Mr Speaker, not just because | :19:29. | :19:30. | |
It's also the outstanding quality of the high schools. | :19:31. | :19:39. | |
And this persistent myth from the 1950s and '60s that, | :19:40. | :19:43. | |
if you have grammar schools, you have sink schools is an utter | :19:44. | :19:46. | |
In selective areas, and the concern is that nonselective schools do | :19:47. | :19:53. | |
worse, because the selective schools have in some sense | :19:54. | :19:55. | |
And there is not clear evidence for that. | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
There are reports on both sides, giving both points of view. | :20:01. | :20:04. | |
The Sutton Trust, in 2008, found no such effect. | :20:05. | :20:08. | |
I could take members of this House to the grammar schools in Sutton, | :20:09. | :20:12. | |
next to my constituency, and I will show you classes | :20:13. | :20:14. | |
of young Tamil kids, first and second generation, | :20:15. | :20:20. | |
on free school meals, there because their parents | :20:21. | :20:23. | |
understand the importance of education and they live | :20:24. | :20:27. | |
the immigrant's dreams, which many members in this House | :20:28. | :20:30. | |
have shared and benefited from, but it's our own white working class | :20:31. | :20:36. | |
kids who are not getting the benefit of that, and the issue, | :20:37. | :20:39. | |
I would suggest, is so much bigger than the type of school. | :20:40. | :20:46. | |
There's been a significant misinformation put out there | :20:47. | :20:48. | |
about the achievement in the education system in Kent. | :20:49. | :20:50. | |
Children in Kent achieve above national average | :20:51. | :20:52. | |
The system does well and we know that, particularly within that | :20:53. | :20:56. | |
system, children on low incomes, children with free school meals, | :20:57. | :20:59. | |
or in receipt of pupil premium, are doing especially well | :21:00. | :21:02. | |
in our grammar schools that enables those children to make up the gap | :21:03. | :21:05. | |
between themselves and other children with greater advantages. | :21:06. | :21:13. | |
The ongoing debate on social mobility. | :21:14. | :21:15. | |
The main focus of attention at Westminster this week | :21:16. | :21:18. | |
is the Autumn Statement , which will be delivered | :21:19. | :21:20. | |
for the first time by the Chancellor Philip Hammond. | :21:21. | :21:22. | |
More often than not in Budget speeches and Autumn Statements, | :21:23. | :21:24. | |
there are announcements concerning additional money | :21:25. | :21:26. | |
So, by way of a pre-cursor to the Autumn Statement, | :21:27. | :21:30. | |
MPs been arguing over the state of the NHS finances | :21:31. | :21:33. | |
Public health budgets, which fund projects to tackle | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
teenage pregnancy, anti-smoking interventions, alcohol consumption, | :21:40. | :21:44. | |
sexually transmitted disease infections, this public health | :21:45. | :21:47. | |
budget has been cut by 9.7% by the end of this Parliament - | :21:48. | :21:52. | |
a completely false economy, leading to greater demands | :21:53. | :21:56. | |
on the acute sector and, of course, we all know - | :21:57. | :21:58. | |
as My Right Honourable Friend, the member for Worsley, | :21:59. | :22:00. | |
so brilliantly outlined last week - the adult social care | :22:01. | :22:03. | |
budget has been slashed and is on the brink. | :22:04. | :22:05. | |
I'll give way. I'm extremely grateful. | :22:06. | :22:10. | |
I think the House will take him somewhat more seriously if he did | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
point out that, by 2019-20, the real terms increase in spending | :22:16. | :22:21. | |
on the health service will be ?10 billion and, during the last | :22:22. | :22:26. | |
election, his party only promised to increase spending | :22:27. | :22:33. | |
in this Parliament by a quarter of that - ?2.5 billion! | :22:34. | :22:40. | |
The Right Honourable Gentleman was the Minister who took | :22:41. | :22:43. | |
the Health and Social Act through this Parliament, | :22:44. | :22:45. | |
which wasted ?3 billion on an unnecessary top-down reorganisation. | :22:46. | :22:48. | |
He should be apologising to the House, | :22:49. | :22:51. | |
Now, I want to make a little bit of progress. | :22:52. | :22:57. | |
We are seeing unprecedented cuts to social care, | :22:58. | :23:02. | |
that has meant the numbers of people aged over 65 accessing | :23:03. | :23:04. | |
publicly-funded social care will fall by 26%. | :23:05. | :23:07. | |
Does he agree with me that, when funding is cut, | :23:08. | :23:10. | |
then our hospitals seek to raise cash in other ways? | :23:11. | :23:13. | |
Like the unacceptable level of car parking charges in our hospitals. | :23:14. | :23:19. | |
Charges which the government promised, before | :23:20. | :23:21. | |
As we have the Leader of the Opposition here, he said, | :23:22. | :23:25. | |
the King's Fund said, "Claims of mass privatisation | :23:26. | :23:27. | |
were and are exaggerated," so let's not go chasing down rabbit holes. | :23:28. | :23:30. | |
But the result of this government's, then to be images is that real | :23:31. | :23:38. | |
terms spending per head has gone up by 4.6%. | :23:39. | :23:40. | |
That is double the rate of Scotland, three times the rate of Wales. | :23:41. | :23:46. | |
And he also mentioned the National Audit Office. | :23:47. | :23:52. | |
What he didn't mention about the numbers quoted in the | :23:53. | :23:54. | |
NAO report was they are last year's figures and what he chose not | :23:55. | :23:57. | |
to mention was this year's numbers, published last week, | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
which showed 40 fewer trusts in deficit. | :24:02. | :24:03. | |
Yes, a year ago, half of trusts were missing their financial plans, | :24:04. | :24:06. | |
but now, 86% of trusts are hitting their financial plans. | :24:07. | :24:12. | |
A Labour MP says organ donors should be guaranteed | :24:13. | :24:14. | |
the right to paid leave, so they can recover from operations | :24:15. | :24:17. | |
Louise Haigh introduced a Bill under the ten minute rule. | :24:18. | :24:23. | |
It would bring in statutory leave for donors. | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
She said the lack of any legislation was holding back potential donors. | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
For young people in particular, who have the highest likelihood | :24:32. | :24:35. | |
of donating high-quality bone marrow, that time out | :24:36. | :24:39. | |
of the workplace may completely deter you. | :24:40. | :24:43. | |
So that's why my Bill will guarantee living organ donors the right | :24:44. | :24:46. | |
to paid time off to allow them to recover safe in the knowledge | :24:47. | :24:49. | |
that they will not be financially penalised and that their job will be | :24:50. | :24:52. | |
These guarantees will not only bring peace of mind, | :24:53. | :24:56. | |
but will help increase the number of living donors | :24:57. | :24:59. | |
from 1000 and bridge the gap between availability and need. | :25:00. | :25:02. | |
But crucially, it will send a clear signal from government | :25:03. | :25:05. | |
and from this House that, if you are prepared to give | :25:06. | :25:12. | |
an organ to save a life, the law will back | :25:13. | :25:15. | |
you every step of the way. Hear, hear! | :25:16. | :25:17. | |
but is unlikely to become law in its present form. | :25:18. | :25:23. | |
Do join me for our next daily round up. | :25:24. | :25:27. | |
Until then, from me Keith Macdougall, goodbye. | :25:28. | :25:33. |