23/11/2016 Wednesday in Parliament

Hello and welcome to Wednesday In Parliament,

our look at the best of the day in the Commons and the Lords.

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, warns the British economy is set

to grow more slowly, while Government borrowing is rising

following Britain's decision to leave the European Union.

This Autumn Statement responds to the challenge of building on that

strength while also heeding the warnings in the OBR's figures

as we begin writing this new chapter in our country's history.

The Shadow Chancellor says it's an opportunity wasted.

Today's statement places on record the abject failure

This government's choice was to cut social care by ?4.6 billion

It was just minutes before the Chancellor, Phillip Hammond,

stood up to deliver his Autumn Statement

that news came through from the Old Bailey

that 53-year-old Thomas Mair had been found guilty

The Yorkshire Labour MP was shot and stabbed to death in a village

in her constituency of Batley and Spen on 16th June -

Thomas Mair had shouted "Britain First" in the attack.

But the Old Bailey judge said the true "patriot"

There was reaction to the guilty verdict in the Commons.

of a fierce advocate for social justice and a passionate campaigner.

Her killing was an attack on democracy itself.

Our thoughts are with her family this morning.

I hope that the whole life sentence for Jo's murderer at least gives

some comfort to her family at this incredibly difficult time,

and will also enable us to remember Jo for the way that she lived

rather than the way that she was murdered.

I associate myself with the remarks that she has just made

and I'm sure she's right, that the entirely sensible sentence

that has been handed down will be a source of some comfort

Well, half an hour before the Old Bailey

the Chancellor had departed from Number 11 Downing Street

and made the familiar, but short distance by shiny car

It was Philip Hammond's first Autumn Statement,

it turned out to be the last Commons occasion to be so-named.

After days of speculation, interest was considerable

in what the Chancellor might be about to deliver.

But before announcing any new measures, Mr Hammond started

by saying he was proud to be reporting on an economy

which the International Monetary Fund had predicted

would be the fastest growing in the world this year.

An economy which, through the hard work of the British people,

has bounced back from the depths of Labour's recession.

And an economy which has confounded commentators at home and abroad

with its strength and resilience since the British people decided

exactly five months ago today to leave the European Union and

Mr Speaker, that decision will change the course

It has thrown into sharp relief the fundamental strengths

of the British economy that will ensure our future success.

from the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Today's OBR forecast is for growth to be 2.1% in 2016,

In 2017, the OBR forecast growth to slow to 1.4%,

which they attribute to low investment and weak consumer demand,

given respectively by greater uncertainty and by high inflation,

resulting from sterling appreciation.

That is slower, of course, than we would wish.

Mr Speaker, it is customary in the run-up to the Autumn

Statement to hear representations from the Shadow Chancellor

of the day, usually for untenable levels of spending and borrowing.

We used to think on this side of the House that Ed Balls' demands

were an extreme example but I have to say the current Shadow Chancellor

has outperformed him in the fiscal incontinence

What we don't know, of course, is whether he can also dance.

Good. Good.

The Chancellor said UK productivity had to be improved.

I can announce that we are forming a new national productivity

investment fund of ?23 billion, to be spent on innovation

and infrastructure over the next five years.

So we will focus government infrastructure investment

With a new ?2.3 billion housing infrastructure fund to deliver

infrastructure for up to 100,000 new homes in areas of high demand.

And to provide affordable housing that supports a wide range of need,

we will invest a further ?1.4 billion to deliver 40,000

So today I can announce the national Living Wage

will increase from ?7.20 to ?7.50 in April next year.

That is a pay rise worth over ?500 a year

I can also confirm today that, having consulted further,

my right honourable friend the communities secretary will lower

the transitional relief cap from 45% next year to 43%,

That is complicated, but it is good news.

Mr Speaker, our future transport, business and lifestyle needs

will require world-class digital structure to underpin them.

It says here, because I wrote it here.

This is my first Autumn Statement as Chancellor.

After careful consideration and detailed discussion

with the Prime Minister, I have decided that it will also

Mr Speaker, I am abolishing the Autumn Statement.

No other major economy makes hundreds of tax changes twice

So the Spring Budget in a few months will be the final Spring Budget.

Starting in autumn 2017, Britain will have an Autumn Budget,

announcing tax changes well in advance of the

From 2018, there will be a Spring Statement, responding to...

We are a great nation, bold in our vision, confident

in our strengths and determined in our ambition to

build a country that works for everyone.

I commend this statement to the House.

Unlike the Budget, the Autumn Statement

is replied to not by the Oppositon Leader,

John McDonnell had caused some entertainment in the chamber

a year ago when he brought to the despatch box

a copy of Chairman Mao's "little red book"

Mr McDonnell said the time since Labour left power in 2010

Mr Speaker, today's statement places on record the abject failure

And offers no hope for the future.

The so-called long-term economic plan has failed.

And as the Treasury's own leaked paper revealed,

the Government knew it had failed before the referendum

The greatest economic challenge of a generation,

and we face it unprepared and ill-equipped.

Today, we have seen the very people the Prime Minister promised

The Chancellor has failed to break with the economic

The country remains unprepared and ill-equipped to meet

the challenges of Brexit and secure Britain's future as a

After all the sacrifices, after all the sacrifices people have

made over the last six years, I fear today's statement has laid

the foundations for more wasted years.

And then came the response from the SNP benches.

The Chancellor did give us plenty of information today,

but with no more than kind of a glib reference to being match

fit at the beginning and a bit of deflection,

very little actually on the elephant in the room, which is Brexit.

It is not as if the Treasury don't know what the consequences will be.

Their own assessment tells us that tax yield could be down 66 billion

a year after 15 years, GDP down perhaps 9.5%,

a figure confirmed by the LSE as a result of reduced trade,

That amounts to some ?6,500 per year per household.

And plenty of questions from backbench MPs

May I congratulate the Chancellor on reverting to the extremely

sensible practice of only having one Budget a year, which Gordon Brown

abandoned in order to try to buy votes twice a year

The OBR tells us on page 19, Mr Speaker, that ?58 billion

of the worsening in the public finances is due to

Isn't this a salutary warning to us about the decisions we take

Isn't it a very strong argument for us remaining as close

as possible to our largest trading area, the single market,

and inside, not outside the customs union?

The Chancellor's Autumn Statement suggests yet more public borrowing,

with total public debt due to increase to ?1.6 trillion

in the New Year and 1.9 trillion by 2020,

Rather than a reflection of Brexit, is the accumulation of these

unsustainable levels of public debt not due to the failures of his

predecessor to match his words with deeds and get a grip

Disappointingly, this Chancellor has joined his predecessor in failing

to mention the words "climate change" even just once

That is in the year that is the hottest on record,

set to be the hottest on record, and when part of the country

The elevation of the condition of working people has always been

a priority of the Conservative party and, in that vein, I particularly

welcome the fiscal changes in the Autumn Statement,

particularly fuel duty, tax allowances and the national

Living Wage, which I campaigned for for many years.

There is actually not one single mention in the 72 page

Autumn Statement document of the words NHS, social care,

The Chancellor cannot ignore the fact that our health and social

care services are in crisis, facing massive, massive deficits.

The North of England is crying out for a plan for investment

in rail, and people will be left asking today, where is it?

But it is also crying out for investment in social care

and, quite frankly, Mr Speaker, it is unbelievable

that the Chancellor could find no mention for it today.

An awful lot of R money, funding, is going to fund my constituency.

The scientific businesses I have in South Cambridgeshire have been

worried since Brexit, so thank you for that.

East/West rail links and road links will help us

But, overall, for the money in universal credit,

It's not everything we wanted, but I very much welcome the money

The last word in the Commons on the Autumn Statement.

You're watching our round-up of the day at Westminster.

The last word in the Commons on the Autumn Statement.

You're watching our round-up of the day at Westminster.

Could Sir Philip Green's yachts be sold to fill the black hole

Normally, the centre-stage act in Parliament on Wednesdays

This time, it had to take second billing.

So, before the Autumn Statement got underway, the Labour leader decided

to make social care for elderly and vulnerable people the key

Jeremy Corbyn accused Theresa May of failing to fund adequately both

the National Health Service and also social care budgets in England.

The Prime Minister told him that Labour government's had failed

to come up with a suitable plan to deal with the rapidly

expanding demands placed on care services.

Part of the reason for the strain on our National Health Service

is that more than 1 million people are not receiving

As a result of this, there's been an increase

in emergency admissions for older patients.

Margaret wrote to me this week, saying...

She described how her 89-year-old mother suffered two falls,

leading to a hospital admissions, due to the lack of nursing care.

What action will the Prime Minister take

to stop the neglect of older people, which ends up forcing them

when they should be cared for at home, or in a care home?

Well, we've introduced the Better Care Fund

Let's just look at what Labour did

They... They said they'd...

They said they deal with social care in the '97 manifesto.

Introduced a royal commission in 1999.

Said they'd sort it in the CSR of 2007.

Mr Speaker, as the Prime Minister well knows, health spending

trebled under the last Labour government.

And the levels of satisfaction with the National Health Service

This government's choice was to cut social care by ?4.6 billion

At the same time as they found the space,

shall we say, to cut billions in corporate taxation bills.

The whole house, I'm sure, would have been appalled

by the revelations in the BBC Panorama programme this week,

showing older people systematically mistreated.

The Care Quality Commission's assessment that care homes

run by the Morley Group require improvement.

And they have issued a warning notices.

The Commission goes on to say that the owner has allowed services

to deteriorate further and has, and I quote...

"Utterly neglected the duty of care to the residents of these homes".

What action is her government going to take to protect

What we do about it is ensure that we have the CQC,

which is able to step in, which takes action, which has powers

to make sure that nobody, nobody in the chain

of responsibility is immune from legal accountability.

But we know that there's more that can be done.

That's why the CQC is looking into ways in which it can

improve its processes, increase sufficiency.

The Scottish National Party focused on disability benefits.

It's widely trailed that the Prime Minister

will make changes impacting on benefit recipients in work.

Will the Prime Minister confirm that she has no intention

of helping people with disabilities and medical conditions?

Why should people who are unable to earn a living be punished

for their disability or illness by losing ?30 a week?

Does she have any intention of changing that?

The overall funding and spending on disability benefits will be

higher every year to 2020 than it was in 2010.

But it is also important to recognise that,

when we give support for people with disabilities,

it isn't simply about the benefits system and how much

For those workers who are able to get into work and on that part

of the ESA we provide packages which are outside of the benefits.

Because we recognise that people want the dignity

That's what we are helping people with disabilities,

Earlier this week, Boris Johnson was accused of being "provocative"

and "arrogant" after apparently telling politicians in Turkey

he supports their country's bid to join the EU.

The leading German Member of the European Parliament,

Manfred Weber, called the Foreign Secretary's comments

"unbelievable", given his warnings about Turkish migrants

during the referendum campaign in Britain.

The German MEP said, "I cannot respect him anymore".

on the words of the German politician.

The Brexit Secretary and the Foreign Secretary

are described by a senior German politician as...

"having no idea what Brexit really means".

The Times reports today that EU ambassadors think

the Foreign Secretary's more colourful outbursts

are damaging our relationship with member states.

When is the Prime Minister going to get a grip on her ministers?

And when she going to demonstrate the country,

that she has a coherent, workable plan for Brexit?

I've been very clear in this house on many occasions about the plan

Crucially, we will be leaving the European Union.

And we will be triggering Article 50 by the end of March next year.

And that's when the formal negotiations will start.

As millions of public sector workers face another year of suppressed pay,

after another week of shambolic Brexit negotiations,

and with a National Health Service facing the winter crisis,

and crying out for cash, does the Prime Minister worry

that her government is only just about managing?

What the Right Honourable gentleman wants to do is to stop us

from leaving the European Union by denying the people the decision

and the deliverability of the vote that they took rightly on 23rd June.

He wants to deny people what they want.

Earlier this year, the Lib Dem MP and former Minister Norman Lamb

put forward a proposal to ban the use

when dealing with incidents in mental health units.

On that occasion, the Commons voted down the proposal.

But there's been a long-standing campaign from human rights activists

sometimes called electro-shock weapons -

on patients in psychiatric hospitals.

When a Lib Dem peer raised the issue at Lords Question Time,

this was the reply of a Home Office Minister.

My Lords, there is ongoing work to ensure that any operational

police decisions on the use of force in a mental health setting

This includes development of a new protocol on police

attendance, national collection from 2017 to 2018

of police data on any force used.

And a request to local areas to scrutinise the use of any Taser

I thank the minister for that response.

But she will know that a recent Independent Police Complaints

Commission report has stated that people suffering from mental illness

are four times more likely to die after police use of force

Will the government look at the possibility that better

training for police officers in how to deal with people suffering

from mental health illness might alleviate the need for them

Because they might understand better how to deal with the situation?

It cannot be the position that the police officers

are called in to mental health units, actually into the units,

unless there has been a major failure of care

This is blaming the people who are clearing up the mess,

rather than dealing with the problem itself.

I think that we agree on one level, because if somebody has got a mental

health problem or is experiencing a mental health crisis, it is a health

issue. However, if somebody experiences of behaviour that is

both a danger to themselves or to others, including staff within these

mental health settings, then there may be no other option. These

situations are rare, but there may be no other option then for police

restraint to be used. Seven months ago came news that

British Home Stores had collapsed, with debts of more

than ?1.25 billion. In October, MPs took the

unusual step to vote for a removal of the knighthood

given to the shop's former owner, Since then, there's been

speculation that Sir Philip might have something else

taken away, namely his yachts. Sir Philip's been pictured more

than once apparently enjoying life on board in various

Mediterranean locations. But could the yachts be used

to fill the large deficit A question for the

Work and Pensions Committee. First of all, I would like to assure

that the NHS pension scheme members that we are pursuing the best

possible outcome that we can secure for them. -- BHS. On the 2nd of

November, we issued a warning notice, giving indication of our

intention to attempt to use our powers against various targets. The

committee will understand that I am reluctant to discuss the precise

terms of settlement offers and so on. What I can say is that typically

in these situations, it is not... If it was as simple as a check being

written, then we'd all be happy that that would be a good outcome if it

was a right to some. It could be though? Absolutely right. But if the

offer takes a more complex form in some way, then we have to not just

be satisfied that the monetary amounts are correct. But also to

ensure a good outcome for the members that there is not any

residual risk. My last question, partly because the public have been

lobbying me over it. This ostentatious display of his boats.

That might be for the courts to decide? That is correct.

And that's where we tie up our boat for now.

But do join me for our next daily round-up from Westminster.

Until then, from me, Keith Macdougall, goodbye.