05/07/2017 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 party leaders clash over public sector pay.

The Lope epidemic is a threat to our economic stability. It isn't fair to

bankrupt economy because it means for people losing their homes and

losing their jobs. Claims that some young people voted

twice in the General Election. This is straight out of the Donald

Trump file, because again they are trying to suppress voter

participation. to tears as he speaks

about the Grenfell The families I have met have been

through unimaginable pain. This is a tragedy that should never have

happened. With the current increasing focus

on whether the Government's cap on public sector pay should be

lifted, the issue was a near certainty to be raised at the weekly

round of Prime Minister's Questions. The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson

was said in recent days to have come round to the view that the 1

per cent pay cap could now be lifted The new Environment Secretary

Michael Gove also suggested While the Chancellor Philip Hammond

went public to defend the cap. In the Commons, the Labour leader

Jeremy Corbyn said the cap on public sector pay

was causing real hardship. I had a letter last week from a

teacher called David. It is all right, here's a teacher, all right?

And he said, and I quote, I have been teaching for ten years. I see

my workload increase, I have seen more people leave the profession

than start, and no form of pay increase in seven years. The only

thing holding the education system together is the dedication to

struggle on for the students and staff, and he said this dedication

is starting to run out, so what we are doing with this pick-up is we

are saying to the Prime Minister is recklessly exploiting the goodwill

of public servants like David. They need a pay rise. Let me remind the

right Honourable gentleman why it has been necessary to exercise

restraint. It is because we inherited the biggest deficit in

history. The Prime Minister phoned ?1 billion to keep her own job, why

can't she find the same amount of money to keep nurses and teachers in

their job who after all serve all of us? Contrary to all of what he said,

we have more nurses working in the NHS today compared to 2010. Let me

remind the right honourable gentleman of what happens when you

don't deal with the deficit. It's not a theoretical issue. Let's look

at those countries who failed to deal with it. In Greece, where they

haven't dealt with the deficit... What did we see with failure to deal

with the deficit? Spending on the health service cut by 36%. It

doesn't help nurses are patients. I hope the Prime Minister is proud of

her record of controlling public sector pay to the extent that

hard-working nurses have two axis that banks in order to survive. And

we frozen wages of teaching assistants, paramedics and council

workers, but it is not just in public sector but across the economy

wages are rising by 2.1% while inflation is nearly 3%. 6 million

workers already earn less than a living wage. What does the Prime

Minister think that tells us about seven years of a Conservative

government and what it has done to the living standards of those people

on whom we all relied to get our public services and health services

delivered to us? Let me just say what isn't free. It isn't fear to

refuse to take tough decisions and to load bets on our children and

grandchildren for the future. It isn't fair to bankrupt economy bit

cause that means for people losing their jobs and losing their homes.

Mr Speaker, let me spell it out, this is the only country in which

wages have not recovered since the global financial crash. More people

are using food banks. 4 million children living in poverty. Record

in work poverty, young people who see no prospect of owning the

long-haul, and 6 million earning less than a living wage. The Lope

academic is a threat to our economic stability. Can she take some tough

choices and instead of offering platitudes, offer some real help and

support for those in work, young people who deserve better and

deserve to be given more optimism rather than greater inequality. We

actually now see that the proportion of people in absolute poverty is at

a record low. I know the right honourable gentleman has taken to

calling himself a government in waiting. We all know what that

means. Waiting to put up taxes, waiting to destroy jobs, waiting to

bankrupt country. We will never let it happen. The UK Government has not

announced any measures to address rising inflation and slowing wage

growth which the IFS has described as dreadful. As workers face more

than a decade of lost wage growth and endure the worst period for paid

in 70 years, does the Prime Minister think she is looking out for the

just about managing? What is important is that we ensure we have

an economy which is increasing the number of jobs because the best

route out of poverty is for people to be in work. That is what we are

doing and we have seen nearly 3 million more jobs being created over

recent years and that is important for people. We also help people, for

example, by cutting taxes. That is what we have done for the low paid,

introducing the national living wage. That is giving people real

help. Theresa May. Straight after PMQs,

the Conservative Kenneth Clarke warned that any removal

of the public sector pay cap The former Chancellor said

Ministers had to maintain what he called their 'sensible

policy' of keeping His remarks followed the tabling

of an urgent question If she were to give way to this week

was by lobbying on this subject it would be a political disaster

because the government would be accused of Utah and surrender and

would set off a wave of pay claims across the entire public sector what

the opposition are obvious and looking forward to taking part in.

It would also possibly be an economic disaster and not in the

interests of the many people in the public and private sector having

economic difficulties in these times, and want to move forward to a

much more prosperous future as they get our economy back into health

again. In many services workers have received additional paid to the 1%

national increase. Teacher attacked another rich pay rise of 3.3% in

2015-16. More than half of nurses and other NHS staff had an average

increase of over 3% in 2016. Government pay policy is designed to

be fair to public sector workers who work so hard to deliver the strong

public services. The Shadow Chancellor talked about tensions

between ten and 11 Downing St. For the Prime Minister that must be

tough living next to a disruptive neighbour you can't stand, you try

to get rid of bad you can't get on with. We then receive in the press,

Mr Speaker, the wisdom of are tolerable member for Oxbridge who

according to spokesperson supports the idea public sector workers

getting a better pay deal. This was followed up by his campaign

manager,... His campaign manager turned political assassin, the new

Environment Secretary, who actually supports the putsch against the

Chancellor. It descends into farce when we have David Cameron earning

300,000 a speech telling us that those want more than 1% are selfish.

As the Shadow Chancellor knows well the former Prime Minister didn't say

it was selfish for dedicated public sector workers to ask for a pay

rise. He argued that is selfish and immoral for politicians to offer

benefits to the voters of today paid for by the borders of tomorrow, so

would my right honourable friend agree that for her children in mind

it is important to balance the treatment of the public sector with

handing money strong country not saddled by excess debt. In the

exceedingly fine city of Norwich we have three NHS trusts, two local

authorities, a teaching hospital, thousands of public sector workers

to contribute to our economy and who at present are struggling to make

ends meet. Surely this government must understand that austerity is

dying on its feet. Invest in these people and left the public sector

cake up and invest in the Norwich economy. We know that since 2010,

there have been 30,000 more nurses employed in the NHS but I am worried

that the party opposite's unfunded proposals can actually lead to a cut

in the number of nurses. A ?68 billion black hole in their

manifesto. Mr Speaker, right now 130 workers at the DUP office have been

told their place of work will be closed and jobs relocated up to an

hour's drive away. Haven't these public sector workers suffered

enough from the pay cap? The last thing they now need to be told as

you have to find more money to pay via travel to and from work. That is

a fundamental difference in the economic conditions when the 1% pay

cap was introduced, with the fear of large-scale unemployment and

inflation, from the present Dave when the chronic labour shortages

throughout the public sector and salaries have been eroded by rising

inflation. Will she not left the pay cap to reflect basic economic

reality? It is not fair to say it is solely the 1%. Public sector workers

are awarded on a number of ways. There've been claims that

when the nation went to the polls one month ago,

at the June 8th General Election, some young people may have

deliberately voted twice - both in the place where they're

a student and in their home town. The claims of double voting led

to some robust exchanges in the Commons on the extent

of electoral fraud in the UK. Is the Minister aware

that there is now clear evidence that many students boasted on social

media of voting twice - once at university, and once

by post at home? Surely this is straightforward

electoral fraud. Indeed, it is nothing less

than an abuse of our democracy. I am meeting Sir John Holmes,

the chair of the Electoral Commission, this afternoon,

and I intend to raise this Let all of us in this House be

clear: this is a crime. If anyone has any evidence

of people voting twice, they should report it to their local

returning officer and the police, Are we not supposed to have

policy driven by evidence, and is it not significant

that the Minister gave not one shred Quite frankly, in every election

there are one or two cases of people being convicted of fraud,

out of tens of millions of voters. This is straight out

of the Donald Trump disinformation playbook, because Ministers

are again trying to suppress The Minister cannot come up

with any evidence - if anyone has such evidence,

they should take it to the police - and he should

be ashamed of himself. The last Electoral Commission report

on the subject shows that 38% of people felt that electoral fraud

was an issue. Since 2010, 2,394 alleged cases

of electoral fraud have been reported to the Electoral

Commission. In Eddisbury there was clear

evidence of double registrations, Does the Minister agree

that we should have a central system that flags up people

who are double-registered, But surely the time

has come for automatic How can it possibly be fair that,

according to the Office for National Statistics,

in my inner-city Nottingham constituency, less than three

quarters of adults are on the electoral register,

but in the Minister s constituency, Is not the real electoral fraud

those policies that stand in the way of citizens

exercising their democratic rights? It has been highlighted that

all someone needs when they go In theory, someone could get

hold of a telephone directory and vote all day

in different polling stations. Does the Minister agree

that it is time to use photo identification to prevent

electoral fraud? People deserve to have confidence

in the security of our democratic Voter ID has been in place

in Northern Ireland for decades, and the use of photographic ID

was introduced in 2003 under The Electoral Commission has

consistently called for use of ID in polling stations to protect

the integrity of the polls. The Government will conduct voter ID

pilots in the local elections in May 2018 to enable us to learn

what works best, and to ensure that we develop a system

in which there is You're watching our round-up of the

day in the Commons and the Lords. Still to come: MPs declare

"something must be done" It's three weeks since

the Grenfell Tower fire - Theresa May promised that all those

who had lost their homes in the tragedy would be offered

temporary housing by this date. The Government has announced that

a taskforce will be sent in to take over parts of Kensington

and Chelsea Council. The Council has been

heavily criticised for its Updating MPs, the Housing Minister

said 158 families had been identified as needing temporary

housing - where, he said, they could live, rent-free,

while permanent accomodation I can confirm that every family

that is ready to talk to the housing team has been offered a temporary

home, and that 139 families have However, 19 families have not yet

been ready to engage in the process, Some are still in hospital

as a result of their injuries. In some cases, the people

on the ground offering those families support have made clear

that it would be inappropriate at this time to ask them to make

a decision about where They have been through

unimaginable trauma, and we need to go at the pace

at which they want to go. What matters above all else is

what the families individually want. As he came to the end

of his statement, the Minister My visits to the Westway,

hearing the harrowing accounts of survivors,

have been the most humbling The families I have met have been

through unimaginable pain. This is a tragedy that should

never have happened, and we are determined to do

all that we can to make sure something like this

never happens again. I welcome the Minister

to the Dispatch Box for his first oral statement in this job

and thank him for making a copy John Healey said it had

been a testing first few weeks for the Minister -

but he had to say that After the fire, the

Prime Minister said: "I have fixed a deadline of three

weeks for everybody affected to be The three weeks are up,

yet whole families, who have lost everything,

are still in hotels and hostels. We have learned today that three -

just three - of the 158 families from Grenfell Tower have moved

into a fresh home, and these are only temporary, which was not

what the Prime Minister first said. Is the Minister aware that,

despite the press narrative of survivors refusing ?1 million

luxury flats, some are being offered One man in particular,

whom I think the Minister has met, runs his own business and cares

for his elderly disabled mother. He was offered a home in a poorly

maintained, rat-infested estate What kind of peace and stability

could that traumatised family, who escaped with their lives

while rescuing their neighbours, possibly find in that

frankly shameful offer? I would really like to know

who considered that kind We do not want any family to be

placed in accommodation Lady to join me and the shadow

Minister - let us go and visit some of these properties and make sure

that she is happy with the quality I want to share the words

of my constituent, Jess. She says: "I am a firefighter

and went into Grenfell Tower, rescuing an unconscious girl

from the 12th floor. Myself and my fellow firefighters

will never forget the horrors of that night and the fact

we couldn t rescue everyone. But we are not to blame for these

deaths, the shocking and tragic fire I have never seen a building go up

in flames so quickly, it took minutes for the fire to hop

from floor to floor. This tragedy has shown that the laws

on fire safety in buildings say to my constituent,

and what support has been put In reply, Mr Sharma paid tribute

to the "incredible work" that the firefighters did, and do,

every day of the year. He said trauma

counselling was vital. He said a public inquiry had been

set up to get to the bottom There was discussion also

in the House of Lords on the Government's latest moves

in the aftermath In the Prime Minister s Statement

on 22 June, she first outlined that the accommodation will be

on the same terms as the original accommodation, and we have seen

a definition of that today. Unfortunately, I understood "same

terms" to be in the personal injury lawyer sense,

which is to put the person back into the position they would have

been in had none of this happened. People who have been placed

in accommodation with more bedrooms should be in the same position -

having the same money still in their pocket -

as if they were in the house This tragedy should

never have happened. Everything must be done to make sure

it never happens again, to do right by the victims

and their families, to treat them with care and respect,

and to give them the support they deserve and the

answers they need. There is a real risk that

something will happen - It is quite clear that

the organisation in London of individual boroughs is not

properly equipped to handle There is no wonder that

Manchester City Council did a better job than Kensington and Chelsea:

the resources available The Minister talked

about a task force. There needs to be a permanent

organisation so that if tragedy strikes in one of these ways,

it can go straight I very much hope that that will be

the outcome of this. What steps is the Minister taking

to ensure that there are no other local authorities that are equally

weak in disaster Although this was a terrible

tragedy, in terms of managing the disaster,

it was not particularly difficult. It was very concentrated

geographically. What would have happened

if a wide-bodied jet had landed My noble friend said that this

case was easy to handle It might have been geographically

concentrated, but the nature of this tragedy was such that it was,

and still is, very I have no particular knowledge

of detailed plans for the type of disaster he talked about,

but the suggestion by my noble friend Lord King

and the Prime Minister of some sort of civil action disaster task force

is an appropriate one to deal with such awful occasions,

which do happen over time - we can think of transport

disasters or Hillsborough. Such situations would be helped

by having an appropriate body with legacy ideas passed on from one

awful disaster to another. It is an idea that is worth pursuing

on a non-partisan basis. Councils in England are to be given

access to a multibillion-pound fund It could mean new by-passes

and relief roads for country towns Under the scheme, to be

implemented in 2020, road improvement projects will be

judged on how they contribute to creating a more

geographically balanced economy, It was originally thought the money,

held in the national roads, fund would be spent

on motorways and A-roads. MPs in Westminster Hall have been

staging a general debate on problems Can I perhaps be the first

honourable member in this house to make an oral application to

the Roads Minister for bypasses for Little Common off the A259

and Hurst Green off the A21. I'm sure I will not be

the last applicant today. I would like to talk about the A27

that runs through my constituency. It was envisaged as a

coastal highway, but anybody who has travelled

along the road will know it is

too often a If you ask many drivers and what

their priorities are, they will say it is fixing

damage local roads, not Potholes don't just

impair the quality of driving, extended journey times

and damage vehicles, they are a real safety risk for

drivers and cyclists. Everyone is a road user,

and tackling the poor condition of our roads should be

a national priority. the Russian published Rhoda

mentalist survey found almost one fifth of roads were improved

condition while local authorities said one in six roads crossing

England and Wales Mac are in such bad state they must be repaired

within the next five years. The bypass has been waiting for 20

or 30 years and we are progressing but this kind of fund is exactly

what we need to get it over the line. The other three decade Rd in

waiting is one that also affects the Tower Lane.

And that's the end of the road for me for this programme.

Do join me for our next daily round-up.

Until then, from me, Keith Macdougall, goodbye.