:00:15. > :00:24.Welcome to the bank. The menus from Westminster, the Labour leader calls
:00:25. > :00:27.on the pro Minister to spell out his plans for changes to tax credits.
:00:28. > :00:32.People are very worried about what is going to happen to them next
:00:33. > :00:40.April. And the Lords asked questions about the government review into the
:00:41. > :00:44.Lords. This is a gross overreaction. At PMQs, Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly
:00:45. > :00:48.asked David Cameron whether anyone would be worse off next April
:00:49. > :00:51.because of cuts to tax credits. The Labour leader used all of his six
:00:52. > :00:55.questions at the weekly contest to ask about the row over the reform
:00:56. > :01:00.which was stalled this week by the House of Lords. Following the events
:01:01. > :01:05.in the other place on Monday evening and the belated acceptance from the
:01:06. > :01:09.Prime Minister of the result there, can we guarantee to the wider
:01:10. > :01:12.country and the House that nobody will be worse off next year as a
:01:13. > :01:19.result of cuts to working tax credits? What I can guarantee is
:01:20. > :01:25.that we will remain committed to the vision of a high pay, low tax, low
:01:26. > :01:30.welfare economy. It sets the pattern for the rest of the leaders
:01:31. > :01:39.exchanges. Will he confirm that tax credit cuts will not make anyone
:01:40. > :01:44.worse off in April next year. What we want is for people to be better
:01:45. > :01:47.off because we are cutting their taxes and increasing their pay. But
:01:48. > :01:53.he is going to have to be patient because although these changes
:01:54. > :01:57.passed the House of Commons five times, with ever enlarging
:01:58. > :02:02.majorities, we will set out our new proposals in the Autumn Statement
:02:03. > :02:05.and he will be able to study them. This is the time when we ask
:02:06. > :02:27.questions of the Prime Minister on the half of the people of this
:02:28. > :02:35.country. Thank you. Mr Speaker, if I may continue... People are very
:02:36. > :02:40.worried about what is going to happen to them next April. So what
:02:41. > :02:45.exactly does the Prime Minister mean? He is considering it, there is
:02:46. > :02:50.an Autumn Statement coming up, but we thought he was committed to not
:02:51. > :02:54.cutting tax credits. In our election manifesto, we set out that we were
:02:55. > :02:59.going to find ?12 billion of in welfare. We are talking about tax
:03:00. > :03:02.credits for people in work. The Prime Minister knows that. He
:03:03. > :03:06.understands that. He has lost the support of many people in this
:03:07. > :03:11.country that are actually quite sympathetic to his political
:03:12. > :03:16.project. Some of the newspapers that support come out against him. He did
:03:17. > :03:19.commit to ?12 billion of cuts but repeatedly refuses to say whether
:03:20. > :03:23.tax credits will be part of this. He said that they were not. Can he give
:03:24. > :03:30.us the answer we are trying to get today? And so the question! The
:03:31. > :03:33.answer will be set out in the Autumn Statement when we set out our
:03:34. > :03:39.proposals but I have to say to him, it has come to quite a strange set
:03:40. > :03:46.of events when you have the House of Commons voting for something five
:03:47. > :03:47.times, when there is absolutely no rebellion among conservative members
:03:48. > :03:54.of Parliament or indeed among Conservative peers and the Labour
:03:55. > :03:59.Party is left defending and depending on unelected peers in the
:04:00. > :04:03.House of Lords. In British politics, we have a new alliance, the
:04:04. > :04:07.unelected and the unelectable. Once the Labour leader had asked his six
:04:08. > :04:11.questions, the session moved onto other subjects. Last week, I asked
:04:12. > :04:14.the Prime Minister about the tragic circumstances of Michael
:04:15. > :04:18.Sutherland, a disabled man who took us on life after an assessment by
:04:19. > :04:24.the Department of Work and Pensions. We know that 60 investigations have
:04:25. > :04:28.taken place into suicides following the cancellation of benefits but the
:04:29. > :04:32.findings have not been published. The Prime Minister said to me last
:04:33. > :04:35.week that he would look very carefully at the specific question
:04:36. > :04:40.about the publication. We'll be Prime Minister confirm when those
:04:41. > :04:43.findings will be published? -- will the Prime Minister confirmed. There
:04:44. > :04:47.are good reasons why we cannot publish the specific report because
:04:48. > :04:52.it has personal and medical data in it which would not be appropriate
:04:53. > :04:56.for publication. If I have got that wrong, I will write that to him but
:04:57. > :05:01.I have a clear memory of looking into it and that being the case. We
:05:02. > :05:09.know that the Prime Minister's broken promises over tax credits but
:05:10. > :05:22.will the final nail in the coffin of compassionate conservatism be cast,
:05:23. > :05:28.if he takes food out of the mouths of poor children at school. Will he
:05:29. > :05:33.agree to not do this, so that he does not go down in history as a
:05:34. > :05:37.dinner snatcher. It was a government I lead that introduced this policy.
:05:38. > :05:44.13 years of a Labour government and did they ever do that? Did you
:05:45. > :05:50.remember the infant free school meals bill from the Labour Party? I
:05:51. > :05:53.am proud of what we have done and we will be keeping it. Yesterday I
:05:54. > :05:58.visited the refugee camps in Lesbos and I met families that were
:05:59. > :06:02.inspirational and desperate. Alongside British charity workers, I
:06:03. > :06:06.am frankly ashamed that we will not offer a home to a single one of
:06:07. > :06:13.those refugee families. Can I ask the Prime Minister, will he agree
:06:14. > :06:17.with Save the Children's plea that we should take 3000 vulnerable,
:06:18. > :06:24.unaccompanied children in Europe, some as young as six. David Cameron
:06:25. > :06:29.told MPs that the UK was taking 20,000 refugees from the Middle
:06:30. > :06:33.East. Specifically on this question, I have looked at it carefully and
:06:34. > :06:38.there are other NGOs and experts who points to the very real danger of
:06:39. > :06:43.separating children from the rather families and that is white, to date,
:06:44. > :06:48.we have not taken that decision. It has been revealed that job advisers
:06:49. > :06:53.are, for the first time, to be posted at food banks. The banks
:06:54. > :06:57.provide free food to people in need who are given vouchers by Jobcentre
:06:58. > :07:01.staff. Social workers or doctors. The use of the banks has risen
:07:02. > :07:07.sharply in recent years. The trust all trust, a main provider of food
:07:08. > :07:12.banks said that the number using the banks last year was over 1 million.
:07:13. > :07:15.The subject was raised at a committee session for the Work and
:07:16. > :07:19.Pensions Secretary. The trust all trust says that the number of people
:07:20. > :07:28.using Scottish food banks has increased by 398%. Do you think
:07:29. > :07:32.there is any correlation between the reforms that have been implemented?
:07:33. > :07:36.I am unhappy to answer this right now because there are points I want
:07:37. > :07:42.to make. Is the chairman OK with that? All right. We have always
:07:43. > :07:47.taken the view that, and I support the banks and what they do, I think
:07:48. > :07:51.it is excellent, but what we have always said is that wherever there
:07:52. > :07:54.are cases, they are notified as issues where people might perceive a
:07:55. > :08:00.problem in the parliament, and we problem in the parliament, and we
:08:01. > :08:05.will pick those up. At the moment, something the committee will not be
:08:06. > :08:09.aware of but which I am trialling, I was visited by a particular food
:08:10. > :08:15.bank before the summer break to talk about some of the issues about
:08:16. > :08:18.delivering food and some of the problems with individuals that turn
:08:19. > :08:27.up and say they are having a problem with payments. I am trying at the
:08:28. > :08:30.moment a job adviser situating themselves in the food bank during
:08:31. > :08:34.the time that it is open and we are getting strong feedback about that,
:08:35. > :08:40.where they will be able to check if someone is coming in and need the
:08:41. > :08:44.payment, they can immediately check. And if this works and other food
:08:45. > :08:52.banks are able to encompass this, we would like to roll out across the
:08:53. > :08:56.UK. The banking question is the welcome Centre in Manchester, and
:08:57. > :09:02.they are basically the too surprised -- provide support to people who
:09:03. > :09:05.come in. What is happening now is that people are not coming in with
:09:06. > :09:10.questions about benefits, but they are coming in and being interested
:09:11. > :09:15.in where they could find work, where there are vacancies. So we have
:09:16. > :09:18.teamed up with various clubs and they are spending more time pointing
:09:19. > :09:24.people to vacancies than they are fixing them with some food. We are
:09:25. > :09:27.publishing results later but no-one is yet aware of it. When you roll
:09:28. > :09:34.this out, you might find are differences. Yes. Either way, I hope
:09:35. > :09:41.if it works, then we will certainly want to roll it out to all the food
:09:42. > :09:48.banks. Onto the work capability assessments or WCA which are some
:09:49. > :09:51.benefits claimants face. There was criticism of the work capability
:09:52. > :09:56.process in the report of the death of Michael Sullivan. That was not an
:09:57. > :10:01.isolated case. It was 2300 people who have died, having been found fit
:10:02. > :10:07.for work after an assessment. Does that tell you that we need to be
:10:08. > :10:12.looking again at the accuracy of the work capability assessments? By and
:10:13. > :10:17.large, we see that those people in a similar condition but not involved
:10:18. > :10:21.with WCA, the mortality rates are very similar to those who go through
:10:22. > :10:27.WCA. The point I'm making is that this is not an easy area and it will
:10:28. > :10:33.never be. Are we able to get a sense of those figures and how they might
:10:34. > :10:38.differ compared to tests in previous years? In what sense? In terms of
:10:39. > :10:42.the understanding of the number of people dying after having been found
:10:43. > :10:47.fit for work. We have never collated the figures specifically. It is
:10:48. > :10:52.always impossible to do that because we would have to make all sorts of
:10:53. > :10:56.judgments. We have introduced a series of changes that improve our
:10:57. > :10:59.ability to assess the mental capacity and incapacity early on and
:11:00. > :11:05.that is currently under review so that was not originally there. So
:11:06. > :11:07.that will go no further? It will. This is a constant process of
:11:08. > :11:09.reappraisal. You're watching Wednesday
:11:10. > :11:10.in Parliament with me, Now, the reverberations
:11:11. > :11:16.of the government defeat in the Lord's on Monday over plans to
:11:17. > :11:20.cut tax credits are still echoing. Labour used an urgent question to
:11:21. > :11:25.find out more about the proposed review of the House
:11:26. > :11:28.of Lords, which will be headed by The relationship between the Commons
:11:29. > :11:34.and the Lords is extremely important and when conventions that govern
:11:35. > :11:39.that relationship are put in doubt, it is right that we review that.
:11:40. > :11:42.It's clear that the government intends to give the House of Lords
:11:43. > :11:45.a kicking but it should remember, I think, as it fashions this pretend
:11:46. > :11:49.constitutional crisis, that the vast majority of people in this country
:11:50. > :11:53.applauded the Lords on Monday because this was not in the
:11:54. > :12:01.government's manifesto. Does the leaders see no irony
:12:02. > :12:04.at all in getting a member of the House of Lords to review
:12:05. > :12:07.the financial privilege of the House of Commons and, for that matter,
:12:08. > :12:10.a hereditary peer at that? And is this
:12:11. > :12:12.the right person to be doing it? After all, in 1999,
:12:13. > :12:15.Lord Strathclyde himself said of the convention that the Lords did not
:12:16. > :12:19.strike down statutory instruments. That same day, he and the Lords
:12:20. > :12:24.voted down two Labour government So now, he thinks it's
:12:25. > :12:29.an utter disgrace to do so. Is there one rule for Tory
:12:30. > :12:34.regulations and another one Is he now a convert or, frankly,
:12:35. > :12:38.just a hypocrite? The Shadow Leader should
:12:39. > :12:45.withdraw that term. I withdraw that term unreservedly,
:12:46. > :12:47.Mr Speaker. I'm sure the British public are just
:12:48. > :12:52.amazed and bewildered at this handbags at dawn spat between
:12:53. > :13:11.the Tories and the unelected Lords in this great battle of the nobles.
:13:12. > :13:17.Is the case that the weight but UK is if you don't like what one part
:13:18. > :13:23.of the legislative dance, you just simply emasculate it? Is this the
:13:24. > :13:32.democracy we are looking at? The emergence of the donors is a
:13:33. > :13:37.ridiculous idea. Time really has come for proper reform of the House
:13:38. > :13:44.of Lords. When we talk about proper reform, that means the reformed
:13:45. > :13:49.chamber that is fully elected. Talking to colleagues around this
:13:50. > :13:53.building, the issue of the House of Lords reform has returned to centre
:13:54. > :13:57.stage. But we have faced big challenges in this country. We have
:13:58. > :14:01.really important legislation to get through and I want to deal first
:14:02. > :14:07.with challenges and health, education, the economy and the
:14:08. > :14:08.environment. But these issues will be discussed more widely in this
:14:09. > :14:09.House. And so, down the corridor to
:14:10. > :14:24.the House of Lords, where peers had Less than six months into a new
:14:25. > :14:30.Parliament, the government is trying to change the rules to ensure it
:14:31. > :14:34.won't lose a vote again. Some in government have very short memories.
:14:35. > :14:40.But if you look back at the number and content of the defeats, it's
:14:41. > :14:51.clear how very little justification there is for this move. This is a
:14:52. > :14:55.gross overreaction. The events of Monday are what justifies the
:14:56. > :15:02.review. It is a prevalent view and is about how elected governments can
:15:03. > :15:07.secure their business when an established convention has been put
:15:08. > :15:11.in doubt. During the five years of the Cameron premiership, there have
:15:12. > :15:21.been 20 government defeats on average per year. In the five years
:15:22. > :15:26.from 2002 until 2007, onto the Blair-Brown governments, there were
:15:27. > :15:31.an average of 59 defeats a year. The prime ministers of the time did not
:15:32. > :15:36.work themselves up into a lather about government defeats. So if the
:15:37. > :15:40.Prime Minister is anxious to find evidence of government being
:15:41. > :15:41.defeated on a regular basis, I am at the end of the phone to give him
:15:42. > :15:43.that information. Lady Stowell said the government was
:15:44. > :15:46.not talking about defeats in general Now, the chairman of the
:15:47. > :15:50.Football Association has said he isn't surprised by comments from
:15:51. > :15:52.the suspended head of football's world governing body, Fifa,
:15:53. > :15:55.that a deal was made in advance to Sepp Blatter, who is under
:15:56. > :16:01.investigation for a payment he made to the Uefa President,
:16:02. > :16:04.Michel Platini, told the Russian news agency that Fifa's executive
:16:05. > :16:10.made the decision in 2010. Greg Dyke told the culture committee
:16:11. > :16:36.the claim would be looked into. I would like to read again. But it
:16:37. > :16:39.did look like it was all fixed anyway.
:16:40. > :16:42.Greg Dyke told the MPs that Fifa had been a corrupted organisation
:16:43. > :16:45.for 40 years and he said the FA had now suspended its backing for
:16:46. > :16:48.the Uefa President as its candidate to be the next head of Fifa.
:16:49. > :16:51.We have been impressed by Michel Platini in his time
:16:52. > :16:55.We were of the view that he had done a good job.
:16:56. > :16:57.We also have a good working relationship with Uefa
:16:58. > :17:01.and we thought supporting the Uefa candidate would lead to a better
:17:02. > :17:07.We have said, on many occasions, that the reform
:17:08. > :17:11.of Fifa is more important to us than who is the new President.
:17:12. > :17:13.You will be supporting the reform candidate,
:17:14. > :17:20.Well, the board of the FA will discuss who we should support.
:17:21. > :17:24.We don't have to make a decision at this stage.
:17:25. > :17:27.We didn't nominate anybody and we will make a decision closer
:17:28. > :17:41.to the vote when, in some ways, we see who is left standing, really.
:17:42. > :17:45.To ask them for your money back would be unreasonable.
:17:46. > :17:49.I mean, my view of Fifa is it's a corrupted organisation and has
:17:50. > :17:54.Therefore, not a lot of it surprises us, I don't think.
:17:55. > :17:57.It's been suggested that the FA maybe start
:17:58. > :18:01.a new process informing a new governing body, whether it's for the
:18:02. > :18:07.Can you just clarify, for this committee, what discussions
:18:08. > :18:12.have you had, maybe in private or public, about setting up the new
:18:13. > :18:20.We haven't had any discussions, to my knowledge.
:18:21. > :18:23.We obviously have chatted to one or two people.
:18:24. > :18:36.It's like an everyday story of football folk.
:18:37. > :18:40.Every week, something new comes out that you've never heard
:18:41. > :18:44.I mean, who would have thought that the Germans would suddenly
:18:45. > :18:47.find themselves in the problem that they found themselves in?
:18:48. > :18:50.So these conversations, have you had conversations with
:18:51. > :18:58.Well, I think you've had chats without saying,
:18:59. > :19:04.And if you wanted my honest opinion, my honest opinion will be yeah,
:19:05. > :19:08.if you could form something totally new and start again,
:19:09. > :19:13.that would be a good idea, but that's not where we are.
:19:14. > :19:15.Now, do we still need bobbies on the beat?
:19:16. > :19:18.Labour's Leader in the Lords, Lady Smith, asked the government whether
:19:19. > :19:21.cuts to police numbers would have an impact on national security.
:19:22. > :19:23.It comes after warnings from police chiefs that forces might
:19:24. > :19:37.Crime today is very different to crime 40 or 50 years ago.
:19:38. > :19:40.We have serious threats from terrorism and also, as we have
:19:41. > :19:44.Now, I am sure he appreciates that security in counterterrorism is
:19:45. > :19:56.I think the noble lady is right when she talks about crime changing.
:19:57. > :20:00.Crime is changing therefore policing must change in response to it.
:20:01. > :20:03.I rise more in sadness than in anger.
:20:04. > :20:06.I have asked the noble lord, the Minister, on a number
:20:07. > :20:11.of occasions in this House, what is the national strategy for policing?
:20:12. > :20:13.And the Minister, courteous as he is, has always
:20:14. > :20:21.Unfortunately, this week, we now know that crime,
:20:22. > :20:24.as we all suspected, has not reduced, it's just moved.
:20:25. > :20:30.So what is now the strategy for policing?
:20:31. > :20:32.What is now the strategy for the policing that supports
:20:33. > :20:37.If you are faced with a 40% cut but you've still got
:20:38. > :20:41.the same amount of crime to deal with, what is the strategy?
:20:42. > :20:44.In terms of what we believe, we share the view of Her Majesty's
:20:45. > :20:46.Inspectorate of Constabulary who actually found that there were
:20:47. > :20:51.significant further savings still to be made through reorganising the way
:20:52. > :20:53.in which services are actually delivered
:20:54. > :20:56.by getting more cooperation between the blue line services
:20:57. > :21:00.There are ways of actually protecting the front
:21:01. > :21:05.line whilst making significant savings in the administration.
:21:06. > :21:07.My Lords, last night on BBC Newsnight, the
:21:08. > :21:12.head of the National Police Chiefs Council predicted that, because
:21:13. > :21:16.of the cuts that the government were about to make, it would be
:21:17. > :21:22.The Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said that
:21:23. > :21:24.he was anticipating losing 8000 police officer posts in London,
:21:25. > :21:29.Can the Minister please explain, how can the police maintain
:21:30. > :21:30.relationships with communities from whom counterintelligence comes
:21:31. > :21:35.It seems to me that what Sarah Thornton was saying was that
:21:36. > :21:38.the nature of policing is changing and that you could no longer
:21:39. > :21:41.perhaps guarantee in the same way as in the past the level
:21:42. > :21:46.I do think that there is a big philosophical question facing
:21:47. > :21:52.It is the question of, do you want to be able to see, in low-crime
:21:53. > :21:55.areas, the ability to see a police officer walking down the end
:21:56. > :21:59.of the street and to be able to get that comfort, or do you want to see
:22:00. > :22:06.8%, year on year, and 30%, down to its lowest level since 1981.
:22:07. > :22:09.We believe that the target of policing is to cut crime
:22:10. > :22:14.Steelworkers have been lobbying MPs following the announcement
:22:15. > :22:19.of thousands of job cuts in recent weeks by Tata Steel and SSI.
:22:20. > :22:23.Meanwhile, the Business Secretary has been lobbying EU officials
:22:24. > :22:30.for Europe-wide action to tackle the crisis in the steel industry.
:22:31. > :22:32.At PMQs, David Cameron said that steel and
:22:33. > :22:34.other energy-intensive industries would get refunds for energy policy
:22:35. > :22:40.costs once the European Union had made a decision on state aid.
:22:41. > :22:42.Alongside the tragedy of each individual job loss
:22:43. > :22:46.and the ramifications for the supply chains and the local economies,
:22:47. > :22:50.there is now a real worry that UK steel-making capacity is being
:22:51. > :22:54.sacrificed on the altar of laissez faire economics
:22:55. > :22:57.by a government which simply will not act to preserve
:22:58. > :23:03.We cannot influence the price of steel, we cannot fix foreign
:23:04. > :23:12.The rules governing state aid to the steel sector are very strict
:23:13. > :23:15.and the UK steel industry signed up to those rules, those state aid
:23:16. > :23:19.That is, the rules help secure a level playing field
:23:20. > :23:21.Within these strictures, Madam Deputy Speaker,
:23:22. > :23:25.we have done and we are doing all we can to help the steel industry
:23:26. > :23:29.The government believes it can introduce compensation.
:23:30. > :23:32.The Prime Minister said that at the dispatch box today.
:23:33. > :23:36.If we believe it's within state rules, let's just get on and do it,
:23:37. > :23:41.We will worry about that consequence afterwards.
:23:42. > :23:46.Stephen Crabb replied that ministers were pushing for a quick decision.
:23:47. > :23:49.And finally, Labour MPs have called for a statue
:23:50. > :23:53.of the former party leader and Prime Minister Harold Wilson to be erected
:23:54. > :23:59.Next year marks the centenary of his birth.
:24:00. > :24:02.In a short debate, MPs said too often, his many achievements had
:24:03. > :24:07.Building new towns like Milton Keynes, building more housing
:24:08. > :24:11.than I think anyone has ever built in this country before.
:24:12. > :24:14.That's something that I think we should remember Harold for but if
:24:15. > :24:19.you want to actually look at some of the other things he did that people
:24:20. > :24:23.should remember - the transformation of the way this culture of this
:24:24. > :24:28.country changed in terms of our attitude to homosexuality and
:24:29. > :24:31.changing the laws on homosexuality, changing our attitude to divorce
:24:32. > :24:38.and the rights of women in property out of respect for Mary, his widow.
:24:39. > :24:45.He called for a proper monument in Parliament.
:24:46. > :24:48.I think it's quite wrong that in the members' lobby,
:24:49. > :24:50.there is just a small head and shoulders of Harold Wilson.
:24:51. > :24:53.It is about time we honoured him with a full statue.
:24:54. > :24:56.His government has brought in great social changes, of course,
:24:57. > :24:58.The Open University truly changed society.
:24:59. > :25:01.So shouldn't Harold Wilson be a figure that we really do honour
:25:02. > :25:03.and also, perhaps, his renegotiating approach to the
:25:04. > :25:06.European Union might be familiar to a modern-day Prime Minister, too?
:25:07. > :25:09.Now is the time for major revaluation of not so much Harold's
:25:10. > :25:13.reputation, his own personal achievements are fairly well known,
:25:14. > :25:18.It really was a very fine administration and I think that what
:25:19. > :25:21.my honourable friend is leading up to is the need for a revaluation,
:25:22. > :25:29.The Minister could not promise a statue that paid tribute to
:25:30. > :25:36.Harold Wilson as Labour leader won four of the five general
:25:37. > :25:39.All current parliamentarians will appreciate what a genuine,
:25:40. > :25:41.truly magnificent achievement that was for any party leader.
:25:42. > :25:44.He was a social reformer, which has already been referred to,
:25:45. > :25:49.And he think we will largely be remembered for abolishing capital
:25:50. > :25:53.That's it from Wednesday in Parliament.
:25:54. > :25:57.I'll be here tomorrow so, until then, from me,