24/01/2018 Wednesday in Parliament

Hello and welcome to the programme.

Coming up: Jeremy Corbyn

and Theresa May go into battle over

funding for England's NHS.

The labour government would not

underfund the NHS, it would not

privatise the NHS, they would

underfund and social care.

This is a

government that recognises the party

of its people, parties to an sure

the NHS remains a world-class health

care system indeed, the best health

care system in the world.

There's fury over reports

of hostesses being groped

and harassed at an all male

charity fund raiser.

Organisers chose to make this a men

only event and chose to treat the

hostess like this, and to parade

them around and wear skimpy outfits

and specify the colour of their

underwear.

And MPs wonder how conditions

at Liverpool jail, reported

the worst in England,

got so bad.

But first: Ahead of a Cabinet

meeting on Tuesday, it was widely

reported that the Foreign Secretary,

Boris Johnson would pitch

for a £100 million a week 'Brexit

dividend' for England's NHS.

Although in the end it's thought

he didn't mention a 'specific

figure' he was apparently backed

by some colleagues and the principle

that the NHS would get some

of the money which will become

available after the UK leaves

in March 2019 was agreed.

So, it was perhaps no surprise that

that, along with broader concerns

about how the NHS is coping

this winter, was the focus

of the Labour leader's attack

at Prime Minister's Questions.

Does the Prime Minister agree with

the Foreign Secretary that the

national health service needs an

extra £5 billion?

Well I think the

right honourable gentleman as I

recall, was here in the chamber for

the autumn budget that was given by

my right honourable friend, the

Chancellor of... Were then also put

more into that help fund.

The only

problem with that Mr Speaker, is

that it was to .8 million spread

like Bennett gruel over two years.

Two weeks ago, the premise of told

the House, and I quote it is indeed

the case that the NHS was a better

prepared this winter than ever

before. 68 senior and E doctors have

written to the Prime Minister about

what they described as very serious

concerns we have for the safety of

our patients. They say, patients

being treated in corridors are dying

prematurely. Who should the public

believe? The Prime Minister or the

doctors?

It is right that the NHS

was prepared than it ever has

before, overall, we have seen to .8

million more people last year

visiting accident and emergency ban

in 2010. Our NHS is indeed,

providing for patients. We were

prepared for the winter, and we will

in sure as we have done every year,

under this conservative government

that the NHS receives more funding.

The Government would not underfund

it, the labour government would not

privatise the NHS, the labour

government would underfund social

care, a labour government would be

committed to an NHS free for use as

a human right.

Our support for the

NHS is about providing it with the

finding that doctors and nurses and

treatments and capabilities that it

needs in order to be able to deliver

for patients. And it is why we are

ensuring that we are reducing the

waste in the NHS of the taxpayer

money is spent effectively and on

patient care.

It has been reported

that a man froze to death waiting 16

hours for an fabulous, last week a

young gentleman wrote to me saying

that my friend's 90 pre-op father

waited for hours for an ambulance

after a fault. These are not

isolated cases. These are common all

over the country. It needs money, it

needs the support, and it needs it

now. The Prime Minister is in denial

of the State of the NHS, even the

app support secretary recognises

that, but the Prime Minister is not

listening. People are using the NHS

can see from their own experience,

it has been starved of resources.

People are dying unnecessarily, in

the back of ambulances and in

hospital corridors. GB numbers are

down, nurses are leaving, the NHS is

in crisis, Mr Speaker Tory MPs might

not like it, by asked the question

to the Prime Minister, when is she

going to face up to the reality and

take action to save the NHS from

debt by a thousand cuts?

There is

only one part of the NHS that has

been cut in the finding, it is the

NHS in Wales under labour

government. This is a government

that is backing the NHS plan but is

putting more money into the NHS is

recruiting more doctors and nurses

and see new treatments to come on

board which is where people are

getting the best treatment that they

need. Because this is a government

that recognises the priorities of

the British people. Parties to

ensure that the NHS remains a

world-class help care system indeed,

the best health care system in the

world. Parties to build homes that

people need to make sure that our

kids are in good schools, this is a

government that is building a

country for everyone. Any country in

which... A country in which people

can look to the future with optimism

and hope. Theresa May.

A businessman who helped to organise

a fund-raising dinner,

where hostesses were allegedly

sexually-harassed, has quit

the Department for Education board.

The Education Minister Anne Milton

announced that David Meller will no

longer serve as a non executive

member following allegations made

about the President's Club gala.

There are allegations of

inappropriate behaviour, it is quite

extraordinary to me Mr Speaker that

in the 21st century, allegations of

this kind are still emerging. Women

have the right to feel safe where

ever they work and allegations of

this type of behaviour, are

completely unacceptable.

Turning to David Meller board

members were expected to adhere

to a code of conduct.

David Mellor is stepping down as

nonexecutive member for the

Department for Education and the

apprenticeship delivery board and I

know that my right honourable

friend, it's absolutely clear that

this is the right thing to do.

The Mp who asked the urgent question

welcomed Mr Mellers resignation.

What happened was women were bought

as bait for men who are rich men not

a mile from where we stand as if

that is an acceptable behaviour, it

is totally unacceptable.

As a mother

of three young women the same age as

the hostess, I can only describe my

initial response is being emotional

and equipment to a line as who would

immediately want to put myself in

the position of it it it was one of

my daughters, one of the prizes on

that brochure was a plastic surgery

to spice up your wife. It is

appalling that that continuous and I

support the Minister in her response

and we all have our duty to do to

make sure that those dinners do not

happen again.

We have to be clear

that we send out a message that this

is unacceptable. People need to know

where the line is, because there is

a line, and it is about changing

attitudes.

One of the comments made

was they do not know where the light

should be, but this event was billed

as the most un-politically event NPC

abend of the year, so clearly they

do know where the line is. They

decided to cross it. And when we

have reports of toilets are being

monitored and women lingering too

long, being called out and lead back

to the ballroom, this is not sexism.

This is slavery. Organisers --

organisers chose to make this a men

only event and chose to create --

make the hostess paraded front of

meant and where skimpy outfits and

specify the colour of their

underwear, they chose to ask them to

drink before the event, does she

agree that all the organisers

including the president club and all

the private companies involved in

organising this should be

investigated for breach of the law

and breach of the charity rules.

My

right honourable lady, it's

obviously very angry about this, and

her report... Mr Speaker, do I look

like somebody who is not angry?

Several MPs asked about

the attendance at the event

of the Children's Minister,

Nadhim Zahawi.

Why she has been very loyal in the

two hurt Minister called a? Who did

not stay reportedly for any long

period of time, it is also reported

that the same gentleman attended the

President's club on a previous

occasion. I have no idea if that is

true or not but that is what is

reported. If that is the case,

should not that report -- Minister

consider his position?

I have no

idea whether he attended before, but

I do know that senior people on the

benches have attended and I know

that senior politicians from around

the House have attended this event.

That has hope, that this hope that

this debate today draws a line in

the sand and demonstrates...

Demonstrates to honourable members

to think twice about attending any

event like this ever again.

Well number ten said that

Nadhim Zahawi had 'attended briefly

and felt uncomfortable' and left.

The MP himself later

tweeted: 'I do unequivocally

condemn this behaviour.

I will never attend a men

only function ever'.

Later the Presidents Club

said it was to close.

You're watching Wednesday

in Parliament, with me,

Alicia McCarthy.

The Brexit Secretary, David Davis,

has made his first Commons Committee

appearance of the year,

coming before the MPs who are trying

to keep tabs on the progress

of the UK's negotiations

to leave the EU.

There was much discussion

of the proposed transition phase

the period immediately

following the withdrawal

date of March next year.

A Labour Committee member asked

Mr Davis what would actually

happen during that period.

This the first time it has been

done, I do not really care what the

outcome is as long as one, it does

not require us to meet some of the

other duties. We are happy to accept

the ECJ for that period, there will

be questions about what happens

about subsequent laws. So it's got

to be bespoke. One of the things I

said earlier was that these

guidelines are negotiating

guidelines they're just that, not

the and and we are taking a

different stance.

Just in case...

What I don't want the country to be

sucked into something that is not an

implication period that an

extension. That is the point.

The Conservative eurosceptic,

Jacob Rees-Mogg, followed up

on the issue of the ECJ,

the European Court of Justice.

On March 2019, the UK is subject to

the European Court of Justice, and

takes new rules relating to the

single market and is paying into the

European budget, are we not?

Know we

are not, nice day today, you might

think...

We ever representative on

the Court of Justice and

representations in Parliament.

If

that were the case, my proper my

answer probably yes, but the answer

for a short time is no.

Is in this

very serious that the line is hard

to think that any president in the

world, when independent nation has

taken the judgement of a foreign

court as it superior and immediate

law without having a judge on that?

Bear in mind, we are talking about

something which we are negotiating

so we had not decided quite how we

will manage those, in court or the

agencies. But,

in earlier entries

that we would accept it. What you

mean by

I don't.

We are

transitioning from one state to

another. And you can call it what

you like.

At one point, David Davis was in

full flow when he was interrupted.

David Davis perhaps off

to get a new phone.

The other element where I guess I

will be an issue although we've made

it clear, we will require this,

excuse me. Will require EU members

coming to the UK to register

European Union citizenship. And the,

that is not what we have normally

done. David Davis perhaps off to get

a new mobile phone.

Last week the prisons watchdog

condemned the 'squalid'

state of Liverpool jail,

describing conditions as the worst

inspectors could remember.

The Justice committee

is following up on the report

and took evidence from the head

of the Prisons Service

and the Justice Minister.

MPs wanted to know how things had

been allowed to get so bad that

Livepool had been dubbed England's

worst jail, with rats,

cockroaches and blocked toilets

a frequent feature especially

as there had been repeated

warnings about conditions.

We had a run of significant

difficulties. We had a number of

disturbances leading up to Christmas

2016, 20 17. We had issues that I

believe through 2017 were going to

get better. Than the population

increased and put more pressure on

establishments. The impact of

psychoactive substances is a big

issue and Liverpool. Was actually a

challenge for a lot of prisons. A

lot of prisons were operating

without the staffing opinion.

You're

making if I may say so, you're

making the same reheated excuses.

The fact is in Liverpool or 549 the

staff against a benchmark of 460.

The report makes crystal clear bras

unusually, this is not issue of

staffing. An issue of leadership and

the question is is adjust the

governor or his adieu, or who is

adjust the governor or his adieu, or

who was responsible? I think there

is a responsibility at an

organisational level.

I need to just

check those figures. I just need to

check those things. There's no

question, I'm not suggesting. Yeah,

I read it.

I'm sorry you challenge

the figures in the report?

I'm not

charging the figures, I'm saying,

the point of a benchmark figures and

where they are is that I am not

saying that Liverpool was short of

officers. I actually had said

earlier that one of the things we

had said earlier was putting

additional officers into Liverpool.

The difference of having staff above

your benchmark is because we are

recruiting staff to deliver the

offender -- management model whip

which were not yet trained but were

on the books. And I made the point

more generally about staffing. And I

except, and I have excepted again,

that yes we should have failings of

Liverpool and dealt with them

earlier, and yes there were

responsibility for the local level.

And responsibility at the

organisation, including a mile. And

I'm simply putting the context of

play. And what about the issues of

rats and caucuses -- cockroaches in

the report? I don't think that we

are tackling a robustly. It's a very

visible difference in the level of

cleanliness in the jail. But we are

at a very early part of the journey

and I think the thing is that we

need to keep added. At it with

focus.

Just on that point if I may,

you've see this issue, it seems from

what you are saying that you are

grabbing it. Is actually any good

excuse for not having been gripped

by the previous government? I have

been hearing about the greatest

government, is a good man, nothing

wrong with him is moved into a new

role, is actually any good reason

why he could not quit this is Mac is

a difficult question for me to

answer, but I think loneliness is

definitely within our gift.

I think

there is no excuse for an unclean

jail. I think those are issues that

we have to tackle and we cannot make

excuses.

So what is the Justice Minister two

weeks in to his new role

going to do about Liverpool

and several other struggling

prisons in England?

I needed this job, and I'm aware

that making grand statements about

the prison service is quite

difficult when I'm two weeks in. --

I'm new to this job. But I am on a

back to basics campaign. So if I

achieve nothing else in this job, if

we did have these places clean and

decent. So had a proper broken

window policy. We could reduce the

flow of drugs into these places. If

you have a house for someone to go

to would relieve the present, and a

decent set of education provisions,

I think that's good start. A good

reason to be proud of this job.

And the subject of failing prisons

was one of the issues raised

at questions time in the Lords.

A former Chief Inspector of Prisons

now an independent or crossbench

peer, said it was very disturbing

that ten jails were

in special measures.

The dropping of the prisons part of

the prisons and courts dealt, and

the recent appointment of the fourth

Justice Secretary and third prison

Minister since 2015 election, how

high does prison reform feature in

the Prime Minister's list of

priorities.

Our prisons remained a

priority for this government. There

have been challenging issues. And we

need to address them. And we will

address them. As regards them matter

of special measures where prisons go

to special measures, they are

provided with central supports.

Potentially it can cover a number of

areas, it can cover expert advice,

they can cover the provision in some

instance as capital, it can provide

direction to the governor and staff

of the individual prisoner.

A Labour peer said 7000 prison

officer posts had been

abolished during the time

of the coalition government.

The Government is revealed that the

cost of rights since, due no doubt

to inadequate staffing, runs to

9,000,360 3000, 900 £64. The

contract was with beryllium.

Wouldn't have been better to have

kept those prison staff on?

My

lords, we are halfway to the target

of recruiting to a half thousand

extra prison officers. Of course,

reference is made to the past, we as

a government learn from the past. We

plan for the future.

Now back to Prime Minister's

Questions where the SNP's

Westminster leader returned

to a campaign he's been pursuing

doggedly in recent weeks,

the proposal by the Royal Bank

of Scotland to close 22

of its branches, which he says

will mean 13 towns will be left

without a bank branch at all.

By closing Visa branches and

replacing some with mobile banking

which do not provide the disability

access, the Royal Bank of Scotland

appears to be in breach of the

United Kingdom equality act.

Wheelchair users have described

experience of banking outside as

degrading. But the Prime Minister

agree that RBS have a legal

responsibility to offer a quality of

service to disabled customers, and

will she hold RBS to account on this

issue?

To the right honourable

gentleman come oh of course we all

want to be able to see you all

customers are able to access the

services that they need. That is

both customers who are disabled, and

customers who live in remote areas.

As I've said to him this is a

commercial decision that has been

taken by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

It is not, banks are closing

branches, other breaks -- other bags

at closing branches. It is actually

less use being made of those

branches.

Now to the collapse

of construction firm Carillion.

Labour had put down a debate

on the firm and the sustainability

of outsourcing and asking

that the Government release any risk

assessments relating to Carillion

to the Public Accounts committee.

The ordinary man or woman industry

can only draw one conclusion, which

is that this been a complete racket.

The company calls a clear and

present risks to the taxpayer. And

as we've seen the Government failed

to act. But worse they had a close

relationship with many of the key

decision-makers, some of whom were

active Tory supporters.

Now normally if there's a vote

on an opposition day motion

the result isn't binding

on the Government, but Labour has

found a way of wording these kind

of motions so that Ministers do

have to act.

So, when he got up to speak

the Cabinet office Minister made it

clear he would release the papers

Labour was asking for to the Public

I want to make it clear that if the

motion passes that the Government

will of course... The committee does

already possess powers to require

the Government to supply it with

papers. And whether or not this

motion passes this evening, it is my

intention to share with the

committee of Public accounts as I

reasonably can. That will help them

with their inquiries. And he

defended the use of outsourcing. He

resorted to ideology instead of

looking at the people of -- our

constituents actually use the

services. And who benefit from the

better value for money, the

innovative quality, that

private-sector contractors are able

to bring and have brought

successfully to that work.

Well when it came to the end

of the debate the motion did pass,

and afterwards Mps wanted to know

what would happen now.

I just wanted to confirm that the

motion that we've just had a has

actually been passed unanimously.

But if this is the case have you

received any indication from the

Government as to when the Public

Accounts Committee will be provided

with the relevant report? Thank you.

Once again it is now the record at

aggregate limit at that point of the

stage.

And that's it from me for now,

but do join me on BBC Parliament

on Thursday night at 11 for a full

round up of the day at Westminster

when among other things we'll be

hearing from Lady Jowell's debate

in the House of Lords

on cancer treatments.

But for now from me, goodbye.