:00:21. > :00:29.Hello and welcome to choose day in Parliament. The main news in
:00:30. > :00:33.Westminster, the judges have spoken. It's up to Parliament to make a
:00:34. > :00:36.decision on triggering Brexit. I can announce today that we will shortly
:00:37. > :00:40.introduce legislation allowing the Government to move ahead with
:00:41. > :00:44.invoking Article 50, which starts the formal process of withdrawing
:00:45. > :00:49.from the European Union. Some MPs want to be clear about what they are
:00:50. > :00:53.voting for. I would like a white Paper which we can debate. It will
:00:54. > :00:56.bring us together, I would say to my right honourable friend. What does
:00:57. > :01:01.my right honourable friend have to lose with a debate on it? Also on
:01:02. > :01:04.the programme, the Government is refusing to talk about a failed
:01:05. > :01:10.Trident missile test, but there are other sources. I could phone up Mr
:01:11. > :01:15.Putin can I did a favour for him once rescuing his submariners when
:01:16. > :01:22.they were drowning and I'm sure he would tell me. I surely would know
:01:23. > :01:27.the date... But first, the Supreme Court has ruled that Parliament
:01:28. > :01:32.would need formal approval before leaving the European Union.
:01:33. > :01:36.Explaining the decision of a 96 page judgment, the president of the
:01:37. > :01:40.Supreme Court said withdrawal from the EU would effect a fundamental
:01:41. > :01:44.change and altar legal rights. He said that such changes to the UK's
:01:45. > :01:48.constitutional arrangements should be clearly authorised by Parliament.
:01:49. > :01:54.Having lost the court case, the Government was quick off the mark
:01:55. > :01:58.with its next move. Brexit secretary David Davis said a bill would be
:01:59. > :02:01.introduced within days. This Government is determined to deliver
:02:02. > :02:06.on a decision taken by the people of the United Kingdom in the referendum
:02:07. > :02:09.granted by this house to leave the European Union. So we will move
:02:10. > :02:12.swiftly to do just that. I can announce today that we will
:02:13. > :02:16.introduce legislation allowing the Government to move ahead with
:02:17. > :02:20.invoking Article 50, which starts the formal process of withdrawing
:02:21. > :02:24.from the European Union. He said the bill would be straightforward. It's
:02:25. > :02:28.not about whether or not the UK should leave the European Union,
:02:29. > :02:33.that decision has already been made by the people of the United Kingdom.
:02:34. > :02:37.We will work with colleagues in both houses to ensure this bill is passed
:02:38. > :02:42.in good time for us to invoke Article 50 by the end of March this
:02:43. > :02:44.year. This is a good day for Parliamentary sovereignty. The
:02:45. > :02:48.Supreme Court has ruled that we shall have a say in this house on
:02:49. > :02:53.the Article 50 issue. Given the issues involved, that is quite right
:02:54. > :02:56.and the Prime Minister was wrong to have attempted to sideline
:02:57. > :02:59.Parliament in this process. This bill is only to be introduced
:03:00. > :03:04.because the Prime Minister has been ordered to do so. He said it was a
:03:05. > :03:08.question of substance, not process. Last week the Prime Minister
:03:09. > :03:13.committed herself to swapping the known benefits of single market
:03:14. > :03:19.membership of the customs union for the hoped-for benefits of a
:03:20. > :03:24.agreement. With a fallback position of breaking our economic model. --
:03:25. > :03:28.of the free trade agreement. That is high risk. There are big gaps in
:03:29. > :03:33.consistency is an unanswered questions in the Prime Minister's
:03:34. > :03:37.approach. Mr Speaker, if the Prime Minister fails in her endeavour, the
:03:38. > :03:41.cost will be borne by families, working people and communities
:03:42. > :03:45.throughout the UK. The stakes are high and the role of this house in
:03:46. > :03:49.holding the Prime Minister and the Government to account throughout the
:03:50. > :03:52.process is crucial. The Supreme Court ruled that the administrations
:03:53. > :03:57.in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales do not need to be consulted
:03:58. > :04:01.before Brexit is triggered, but the SNP is still welcomed the main
:04:02. > :04:03.judgments. There was a time when the Secretary of State himself was a
:04:04. > :04:09.great champion of parliamentary sovereignty, in the distant past...
:04:10. > :04:14.I'm sure that deep down inside he will be welcoming this judgment as
:04:15. > :04:21.well. And I'm wondering why they fear parliamentary scrutiny? Is it
:04:22. > :04:26.because they will be found out? Is it because we will find out the
:04:27. > :04:30.emperor has no clothes? Because we talk of democracy but let me remind
:04:31. > :04:34.the Secretary of State of this. When it comes to Scotland, the
:04:35. > :04:43.Conservatives got their worst ever result at the general election since
:04:44. > :04:46.1865. You have one MP! Will the Secretary of State now agreed to
:04:47. > :04:52.accept the unanimous recommendation of the Brexit Select Committee and
:04:53. > :04:59.in the process, agree with himself before he got this job? And now
:05:00. > :05:03.publish a White Paper on the Government's objectives, so that
:05:04. > :05:07.these can be considered alongside the legislation that he has just
:05:08. > :05:13.announced. Because if the Government does not do so, then I have to say
:05:14. > :05:18.to him it will be showing a lack of respect for this House of Commons. I
:05:19. > :05:20.don't often disagree with myself but let me say this to the honourable
:05:21. > :05:29., The Right Honourable gentleman. The speech given last week by the
:05:30. > :05:34.Prime Minister was the clearest exposition of a negotiating strategy
:05:35. > :05:38.I have seen in modern times. It laid out very clearly what we judge the
:05:39. > :05:42.national interest to be, how we intend to protect it, what we want
:05:43. > :05:49.to do, what we hope does not happen, how we're going to go about avoiding
:05:50. > :05:52.that too. So I don't see that this Government has avoided answering any
:05:53. > :05:57.question, either from his committee or indeed the front bench. Does the
:05:58. > :06:01.Minister accept it my view that the public want us to get on with this
:06:02. > :06:06.and actually carry out what they voted for? Does he also accept too
:06:07. > :06:12.that the public will not look kindly on amendments brought in by parties
:06:13. > :06:15.who want another referendum to delay unnecessarily, but do want perhaps a
:06:16. > :06:19.member and is that clarify and make us all more aware of the
:06:20. > :06:26.Government's intentions? If someone votes against sending the Article 50
:06:27. > :06:31.ladder, aren't they voting against restoring the very parliamentary --
:06:32. > :06:39.Parliamentary sovereignty that they called in aid? Doesn't the British
:06:40. > :06:42.public want the pattern and answering to Brussels? I would like
:06:43. > :06:47.a White Paper which we can debate. It will bring us together, I say to
:06:48. > :06:51.my right honourable friend, what does my right honourable friend have
:06:52. > :06:54.to lose with a debate? Let me say this, do the honourable lady. She
:06:55. > :06:59.holds passionately a very well formed a view on the matter, that
:07:00. > :07:06.firstly in terms of bringing people together, a large part of the Prime
:07:07. > :07:10.Minister's speech was aimed at creating the sense of this country
:07:11. > :07:13.which everybody can get behind. David Davis. And later in the
:07:14. > :07:18.programme, we will hear what the House of Lords had to say about the
:07:19. > :07:22.Brexit judgment. Now, MPs have been told that the Government's refusal
:07:23. > :07:27.to confirm reports of a failed Trident missile test may be due to
:07:28. > :07:34.pressure by the United States. Defence Secretary sur Michael Fallon
:07:35. > :07:37.refuses to discuss any details of a test reportedly carried out in June.
:07:38. > :07:41.He told MPs that the Government had absolute confidence in the UK's
:07:42. > :07:45.nuclear weapons system. Appearing before the defence committee, an
:07:46. > :07:50.expert suggested there had been a problem with the missile's guidance
:07:51. > :07:54.system. American sources only now reporting in the American press on
:07:55. > :07:58.CNN that the missile, quote "Had to be diverted into the ocean to
:07:59. > :08:03.self-destruct", which suggests that it may have been heading for land if
:08:04. > :08:06.it had to be diverted into the ocean, if that statement is
:08:07. > :08:11.technically correct. So it does suggest, if that is true, that there
:08:12. > :08:16.was a fairly major telemetry failure that the missile may have not just
:08:17. > :08:19.been uncertain in its flight but may have genuinely been going on the
:08:20. > :08:26.wrong track. Professor Clarke said the missiles were made by the US
:08:27. > :08:30.firm Lockheed Martin. There have been 161 successful tests since
:08:31. > :08:36.1989. There were five failures before 1989, when the missile was in
:08:37. > :08:41.a bigger testing phase. So in total, there have been six failed tests,
:08:42. > :08:49.five of them before 1989 and one of them since then, which is the 162nd
:08:50. > :08:53.test failure. Lockheed Martin are certainly, I think, embarrassed
:08:54. > :08:57.about this. There has been a certain amount of journalistically reported
:08:58. > :09:00.pressure from the United States on the UK Government not to say too
:09:01. > :09:06.much about this because clearly it must worry the Americans as well.
:09:07. > :09:10.One failure out of 162 is very small but the fact that it has never
:09:11. > :09:15.failed before may raise questions about the adequacy of the checking
:09:16. > :09:19.of the manufacturer. Also appearing before the committee was a former
:09:20. > :09:23.head of the Royal Navy, who has also been a security minister. He said
:09:24. > :09:30.missile tests were not carried out in secret. First of all we have to
:09:31. > :09:34.inform all of the aviators, civil airline people. Also we have an
:09:35. > :09:39.agreement when we do these firings, that we warn Russia so that we don't
:09:40. > :09:43.-- they don't think we're starting world War three. They are very aware
:09:44. > :09:47.this is what is to happen. We don't even know what date the tests took
:09:48. > :09:52.place on but I have heard a suggestion that it was on the 20th
:09:53. > :09:57.of June. Are you in a position to know... I absolutely don't know. But
:09:58. > :10:04.I see no reason, I personally can see no reason whatsoever... I could
:10:05. > :10:08.probably phone up Mr Putin, I did a favour for him once rescuing his sub
:10:09. > :10:12.Mariners when they were drowning and ask him what it is about sure he
:10:13. > :10:16.would tell me. He certainly would be able to know the date. Would you
:10:17. > :10:23.have thought it at all likely that if a missile firing had gone wrong,
:10:24. > :10:28.as this one apparently did, that such a matter could be kept secret,
:10:29. > :10:31.given number of observers who would have seen what happened? I think
:10:32. > :10:37.anyone who thought that could be done was being very stupid and
:10:38. > :10:40.foolhardy. It's all very well being upfront and transparent about these
:10:41. > :10:46.things but we have agreed that there is a sort of relative scale of
:10:47. > :10:51.transparency, certain things that you cannot be transparent about...
:10:52. > :10:56.Absolutely. All the trials we did with the type 45s, you don't tell
:10:57. > :11:00.anyone about that, of course you don't. But this is quite a comedian
:11:01. > :11:05.no, this is a big bonanza occasion, we do this once every four years, it
:11:06. > :11:09.was inevitably going to come out. If anyone thought it wasn't going to
:11:10. > :11:14.come out, they were in cloud cuckoo land. And back to Professor Clarke.
:11:15. > :11:22.Do you think that anything we have discussed in our two sessions today
:11:23. > :11:26.has in any way undermined the secrecy or security Britain's
:11:27. > :11:33.nuclear deterrent? Can you think of any good reason why a similar
:11:34. > :11:37.discussion couldn't have been held before yesterday? Absolutely not,
:11:38. > :11:40.chairman. There is an old rule in politics that it is not the failure
:11:41. > :11:44.that does the damage, it is the cover-up or the perception of a
:11:45. > :11:48.cover-up. In this case I agree with Admiral West, this whole issue is
:11:49. > :11:52.not in anyway undermining the deterrent. It may be doing damage to
:11:53. > :11:56.the Government because it has not been handled particularly well. Now,
:11:57. > :12:02.violence in prisons is an old problem but it has escalated in
:12:03. > :12:05.recent months. The prison service is on a major recruitment drive,
:12:06. > :12:10.including a new graduate scheme. Some jails are experimenting with
:12:11. > :12:17.novel ways to tackle the violence, such as paying some inmates to
:12:18. > :12:23.monitor the behaviour of others. Violence in prisons has been a
:12:24. > :12:29.problem for decades. Was it really wise to cut the number of prison
:12:30. > :12:33.officers by a quarter in the last six years, given these problems? I
:12:34. > :12:36.would be delighted to have a conversation with my honourable
:12:37. > :12:40.friend about his experience looking at these issues, because he is aptly
:12:41. > :12:44.be right. They have been a problem for a number of years and it will
:12:45. > :12:50.take time to build up the front line and recruit those 2500 additional
:12:51. > :12:57.officers. But we have faced recently is new challenges, with psychoactive
:12:58. > :13:01.substances, with drones, with mobile phones. We are taking action to deal
:13:02. > :13:02.with those but it is vitally important we have staff on the front
:13:03. > :13:11.who can rear -- reform offenders and also keep
:13:12. > :13:15.our prisons save. The level is unprecedented in the years I've been
:13:16. > :13:17.in this house. Following on from the honourable gentleman from
:13:18. > :13:22.Gainsborough, would she confirmed that the figures to September meant
:13:23. > :13:29.a loss of 417 prison officers, and when she says she has to recruit
:13:30. > :13:35.2500, does she not mean that in the next 12 months she has to recruit
:13:36. > :13:38.4000 to make those 2510 she do that? The honourable gentleman is
:13:39. > :13:44.absolutely right, we do need to recruit 4000 officers over the next
:13:45. > :13:47.year. I announced initially that we were recruiting officers for ten of
:13:48. > :13:52.the most challenging prisons and we have already made job offers to
:13:53. > :13:58.almost all of those 400, so we are making good progress. We've recently
:13:59. > :14:02.launched a graduate scheme, Unlock. Within 24 hours of announcing that
:14:03. > :14:07.scheme, we had expressions of interest from over 1000 candidates.
:14:08. > :14:09.It is challenging to recruit those numbers of officers but we are
:14:10. > :14:13.absolutely determined to do it because it is what we need to do, to
:14:14. > :14:18.be able to determine -- turn our prisons round and make them places
:14:19. > :14:26.of safety and reform. Some prisons including Her Majesty 's prison in
:14:27. > :14:29.Birmingham, they are using prisoners who are paid to monitor other
:14:30. > :14:36.inmates. The stakeholders we have spoken to suggest that somewhere in
:14:37. > :14:39.care and compliance, themselves meeting out violence and troublesome
:14:40. > :14:45.inmates, what assessment has she made of their use?
:14:46. > :14:50.The honourable lady refers to those violence reduction programmes and I
:14:51. > :14:56.have seen them in place in a number of prisons where they can be very
:14:57. > :15:01.effective. Because, often it is peer to peer support that can help turn
:15:02. > :15:05.prisoners around. However, they need to be carefully managed and
:15:06. > :15:09.monitored and my expectation is that that is the role of the prison
:15:10. > :15:16.governor to make sure those systems are in place. You are watching
:15:17. > :15:21.Tuesday in Parliament. Coming up, what may happen if Parliament blocks
:15:22. > :15:26.Brexit. They'll be no option for those of us who voted to Leave other
:15:27. > :15:34.than to take to the streets probably breaking things. The home affairs
:15:35. > :15:38.committee is continuing its investigation into one of the big
:15:39. > :15:42.factors in the Brexit vote, migration. One Labour committee
:15:43. > :15:49.member said there was no point in setting net migration targets which
:15:50. > :15:53.could not be met. Take -- I think there is broad consensus, however
:15:54. > :15:57.you voted last year, that there is a desire in all parts of the UK for
:15:58. > :16:04.more control over immigration system. But does not to undermine
:16:05. > :16:14.the sense of control to persist with a target you continually fail to
:16:15. > :16:18.meet? Lord Greene, you are asked about that in the past tense. You
:16:19. > :16:24.supported it when it was introduced. How can you carry on supporting a
:16:25. > :16:29.target, which, even if you take EU citizens out of the equation, the
:16:30. > :16:35.Government is not going to meet? Has not met. Yes, we certainly have
:16:36. > :16:41.supported it and we continue to for these reasons. One is that it is a
:16:42. > :16:48.very effective means of focusing public opinion on an issue we think
:16:49. > :16:53.needs attention. Secondly, it introduces an element, if you like,
:16:54. > :16:59.of democratic accountability. This is now firmly in the public mind.
:17:00. > :17:04.I'm not sure it can be helpful for a Government to abandon it. With the
:17:05. > :17:08.greatest respect, Lord Greene, what it is is an effective means of
:17:09. > :17:15.undermining the confidence of people in the system. It is ludicrous to
:17:16. > :17:22.suggest that somehow it has helped achieve the targets, because the
:17:23. > :17:28.target has never been met thus far. Well, it it certainly underline the
:17:29. > :17:34.failure to reach the target, that is clear. What organisation sets itself
:17:35. > :17:42.up to fail year after year, surely that is stupid? Yes, if that's was
:17:43. > :17:48.the case, which I'm not sure it is. So they haven't failed? I'm saying
:17:49. > :17:54.in the future that may not be the case, for a number of reasons. One
:17:55. > :17:59.is the proposal we make to reduce net migration by 100,000 a year for
:18:00. > :18:07.a start. Please explain why the Government maintains this ludicrous
:18:08. > :18:11.target. I'm not the position to do that, because we've criticised the
:18:12. > :18:21.target ever since was introduced. We acknowledge the fact that, you know,
:18:22. > :18:28.it helps public accountability and the Government understand the
:18:29. > :18:33.objective. However, it's created a whole set of quite perverse
:18:34. > :18:37.incentives. A Conservative said Poland had one of the best education
:18:38. > :18:43.systems in the EU and received EU funds. We have the observed
:18:44. > :18:47.situation in which we are paying money to the Polish people to
:18:48. > :18:53.educate to a high level their students in order for a lot of them,
:18:54. > :18:57.the high skilled ones, to then leave Poland in a brain drain and come to
:18:58. > :19:03.the UK, where, by and large, they are employed below their skill
:19:04. > :19:06.level. That may be good for us, although having somebody picking
:19:07. > :19:13.turnips in Norfolk with a Ph.D. Is a huge waste of human skills, but it
:19:14. > :19:24.is a net detriment, surely, to Poland? So free movements from
:19:25. > :19:29.Labour -- of labour from Poland, surely this is completely
:19:30. > :19:38.unsustainable for that country? I think what you've described is
:19:39. > :19:42.pretty accurate. It was entirely this European fixation with free
:19:43. > :19:47.movement of goods, capital and labour that they were not prepared
:19:48. > :19:49.to shift. I'm particularly not prepared to shift they were certain
:19:50. > :19:55.the British were going to stay anywhere. They were wrong. The child
:19:56. > :20:00.poverty unit was set up some 20 years ago by the previous Labour
:20:01. > :20:03.Government. It was run across three Government departments, work and
:20:04. > :20:06.pensions, education and the Treasury. Now it is part of the
:20:07. > :20:10.Department for Work and Pensions, prompting claims the political focus
:20:11. > :20:15.on reducing child poverty has diminished. The abolition of the
:20:16. > :20:20.cross departmentally unit is widely seen as downgrading and weakening.
:20:21. > :20:26.The Government machinery dedicated to the eradication of child poverty.
:20:27. > :20:30.The Minister explain how the abolition of a cross departmentally
:20:31. > :20:33.unit, co-sponsored by the Department for Education is consistent with the
:20:34. > :20:39.Government's own analysis of the root causes of poverty as parlour
:20:40. > :20:45.lying in children's education and achievement? Surely it is -- a's own
:20:46. > :20:48.approach to reject what it calls a narrow, income -based approach
:20:49. > :20:55.strengthens rather than weakens a case for a cross departmental unit.
:20:56. > :20:58.The purpose of the child poverty unit was to measure those income
:20:59. > :21:01.related target set up by the previous Government. Those targets
:21:02. > :21:07.are a waste of time and we got rid of them. We have now set up
:21:08. > :21:10.something better, and that is the social mobility commission, based on
:21:11. > :21:13.the Department for Education and as I said in my original and so, the
:21:14. > :21:21.appropriate measure for these things should be parental responsibility
:21:22. > :21:25.and children's educational attainment and those of the two we
:21:26. > :21:28.will look out. The last Labour Government lift the 1 million
:21:29. > :21:32.children out of poverty and that record is unarguable. The resolution
:21:33. > :21:39.foundation has estimated that in 2060 alone, 1 million children extra
:21:40. > :21:44.will be forced into poverty, mostly from working households. How on
:21:45. > :21:47.earth can any Government be proud of such a record? Particularly one that
:21:48. > :21:53.says it is in favour of those who were just about managing? On the
:21:54. > :21:57.measures the previous Labour Government sets forth, we found that
:21:58. > :22:01.in a recession, the number of children in poverty went down and
:22:02. > :22:06.when incomes are rising, it went up. It wasn't measuring the correct
:22:07. > :22:09.thing. We end where we started, with the Supreme Court's ruling that
:22:10. > :22:12.Parliament must give formal approval before the UK Government can start
:22:13. > :22:18.the Brexit process. The Government will soon be producing a Bill which
:22:19. > :22:23.must be approved by the Commons on the laws. This was a completely
:22:24. > :22:25.unnecessary legal procedure. If the Government are brought forward a
:22:26. > :22:31.bill which the court has forced upon them shortly after the referendum,
:22:32. > :22:37.it would now be safely enacted, and much time and effort and cost would
:22:38. > :22:40.have been saved. It is of course a sign of the robustness of our
:22:41. > :22:45.constitutional arrangement, that a private citizen can require the
:22:46. > :22:50.Government against its will to play by the rules. But it's greatly to
:22:51. > :22:55.the Government's discredit that this was ever necessary. He explains what
:22:56. > :23:00.action the Lib Dems would be taking. We will therefore be seeking to
:23:01. > :23:04.amend the bill to provide for a referendum to be held and we know
:23:05. > :23:08.the terms which the Government has been able to negotiate. The
:23:09. > :23:12.Government may have a mandate to stop Brexit negotiations, it
:23:13. > :23:18.certainly does not have a mandate to impose harsh Brexit terms on the
:23:19. > :23:22.country. In referring to the Government's commitment to work with
:23:23. > :23:25.the devolved administrations, there's an opportunity arising from
:23:26. > :23:31.the white paper published here in London yesterday morning by the
:23:32. > :23:36.Welsh First Minister, with support from Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems,
:23:37. > :23:40.based on the possibility of a single market. This may well be the
:23:41. > :23:44.difficulties being faced in both Scotland and Northern Ireland and
:23:45. > :23:51.will he give a firm assurance that the details of these proposals will
:23:52. > :23:56.be carefully considered. It gives me an opportunity to say yes, if he
:23:57. > :24:01.would like to meet, he can, I can also take this opportunity to say
:24:02. > :24:06.the proposals issued by the Scottish Government also been giving careful
:24:07. > :24:12.consideration and we will continue to cooperate and consult with those
:24:13. > :24:14.representatives of the Northern Irish Assembly and devolved
:24:15. > :24:20.administrations in Scotland and Wales. Does my noble friend except
:24:21. > :24:23.that if the Parliament accepted the advice of the labour Lord, Lord
:24:24. > :24:24.Harris and trees of the referendum as adviser and decided this country
:24:25. > :25:35.should not leave the EU, And that advice from the Archbishop
:25:36. > :25:43.of Canterbury on how to achieve a peaceful Brexit brings us to the end
:25:44. > :25:48.of Tuesday in Parliament. Join us again for another round-up of the
:25:49. > :25:50.news in Westminster. Until then, from me, Christina Cooper, goodbye.