Coming up in the next half hour Opposition Mps have another go coming up in the next half hour the brexit secretary says a vote in parliament on any brexit deal might come after the uk leaves the eu. Mps are confused. Can the Prime Minister explain how it is possible to have a meaningful vote on something that has already ta ken place . And the Prime Minister gives her reaction to the suspension of a labour mp. All of us in this house should have care and attention to the way which we refer to other people. But first, the brexit secretary, david davis, says a vote in parliament on any brexit deal might not come before the uk leaves the eu. He was appearing in front of a committee of mps where he predicted the talks could go right up to the wire. The uk is due to leave the eu in march 2019, but ministers hope that in the next few months theyll be able to secure a transitional arrangement that would apply temporarily after brexit. David davis said there were three reasons for wanting an implementation period. Number one, in order to give the uk government longer to put in place the changes it needs. We think we can put in place all the critical ones by march 2019 but it would give them longer and therefore make it more reliable. Secondly, critically, give European Countries time to put in place any structures they need, whether that is new customs arrangements, new data exchanges and, thirdly, the point chancellor is making, to give businesses time after the decision is made on what the final outcome will be, in order to make any subsequent changes to their own dispositions. A conservative brexiteer suggested that sorting out a transition sounded rather difficult. Why notjust extended now membership of the eu until march 2021 . We did have a referendum, you probably missed it. Another brexit supporting conservative, asked if the uk would have to pay a so called divorce bill for leaving the eu, if there were no deal. Is the Prime Ministers commitment to pay an unconditional one or is conditional on agreement . We have not got into the speculative outcomes of a no deal and let me say why it for a second. Much of the arguments about a deal or a no deal are phrased in polemical rather than. There is a no deal in which we go to wto or arrangements but have a bare bones deal on other elements such as aviation, data, nuclear, maybe. And then there is a complete failure to agree and hostile. Now, i think that is so incredible it is off the probability scale, but under those circumstances it is conceivable that there will be no deal of any sort. And if that is the case we pay nothing . You could imagine the country paying nothing. It is no secret the way the union makes its decisions tends to be at the 11th minute, the 59th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day, and that is what i would expect to happen. Labour mps asked when the Uk Parliament would get to vote on the deal. Could it be after march 2019 . It could be. It depends when it concludes. Sorry, the vote in our parliament could be after march 2019 . Yes. The labour mp who chairs the Committee Gave his summary. If i may say so you, have made two very significant observations, the first is your answer a moment ago when you said it is possible parliament might not vote on the deal until after the end of march 2019. That is correct. In the event we do not do a deal until then. And secondly, being absolutely clear, it is government policy, despite the recent uncertainty, that it wishes to pursue and sort out the nature of the implementation period as swiftly as possible, because i think that would provide reassurance to many people for whom the implementation period and transitional arrangement is very important. Hilary benn. Well, the main talking point following that Committee Session was david daviss remarks about whether the commons would get a vote on a brexit deal in time for it to make any difference. News of the comments soon reached the commons. In march 2017, the Prime Minister told the house that parliament would be given a meaningful vote on the terms of the withdrawal from the European Union article 50 bill. This morning, in the select committee on exiting the European Union, the secretary of state told us that that vote might not take place until march 2019. Will the Prime Minister please explain how it is possible to have a meaningful vote on something that has already ta ken place . As the honourable gentleman knows, we are in negotiations with the European Union. The timetable under the lisbon treaty allows the negotiations to take place until march 2019, but, because it is in the interests of both sides, and it is notjust this parliament that wants to have a vote on the deal. There will be ratification by other parliaments. I am confident that we will be able to achieve that agreement and that negotiation in time for parliament to have the vote to which we committed ourselves. And the matter didnt rest there. After pmqs a labour mp took it up with the speaker. It seems to me that this house, on behalf of the people we represent, cannot take back control unless we have that vote. Mr speaker, can you advise on what we, as a house of commons, can do about the, at best, contradiction or, at worst, false impression given to the house during the debate on 7th february . A conservative mp thought hed misunderstood david daviss intention. The question the secretary of state had was whether or not he thought there would be an agreement before midnight on 29th march 2019 and he indicated that he thought it might be reached a nanosecond before midnight on that day. He was then asked whether that meant this house would not be able to vote on such an agreement until after 29th march, and he said that obviously it will not be able to vote on an agreement until after 29th march if there has not been an agreement until 29th march. But another labour mp said that wasnt what hed said. As somebody who was also in attendance at the select Committee Meeting indeed, i was the person who asked the question of the secretary of state my understanding is that which has been reflected by my labour colleagues. If the government had changed their position on something of such constitutional significance, would it not be in order that that change should be brought before this house in a ministerial statement . In response the speaker said everyone would just have to read what it said in hansard, the official report of proceedings. Later the Brexit Department issued a clarification they expected and intended to give parliament a vote on the brexit deal before the uks departure. Youre watching wednesday in parliament with me, mandy baker. If you want to catch up with all the news from westminster on the go, dont forget our sister programme, today in parliament, is available as a download via the bbc radio 4 website. It was the issue of benefits that dominated the main exchanges at this weeks Prime Ministers questions. If you havent been following the long running saga of universal credit, allow me to explain. Last week the labour party initiated a debate on the issue, unhappy that claimants were having to wait up to six weeks to get their first payment. The conservatives abstained in the vote that followed a vote which was won by labour. Then with cries that the government was ignoring parliament ringing in his ears, the speaker granted an emergency debate which took place on tuesday. So the scene was set for pmqs. Will the Prime Minister respect the will of the house . As i have said before, we acknowledge the fact that there are concerns people have raised with universal credit and we have been listening and changes have been made. Perhaps i could update the house on where we are on the roll out of universal credit. Currently, of people claiming benefits, 8 are on universal credit and by next january that will rise to 10 . The roll out is being conducted in three phases and the intention is it will be completed by 2022. It is being done in a measured way and i am pleased to say four out of five people are satisfied or very satisfied with the service they are receiving. Universal. Universal credit helps people into the workplace and makes sure work pays and that is what the welfare system should do. I would have thought that if only 8 of the roll out has taken place, and 20 of the people in receipt of it are dissatisfied, that is a cause for thoughts, maybe a pause in the process. A conservative member of the welsh assembly, angela byrne, said, for the life of me i cannot understand why a six or four week gap is deemed acceptable. She called universal credit callous at best and downright cruel at worst, and concluded by saying she is ashamed of her government. Can the Prime Minister ease her colleagues shame by pausing and fixing universal credit . We introduced it as a more straightforward system that ensures work pays and helps people into the workplace. Under labour, lets look at what happened in the benefit system. Under labour the low paid paid tax and then had it paid back to them in benefits. Under labour people were trapped on a life of benefits for years. Under labour, the number of workless households doubled and labours benefit system cost households an extra £3000 a year. What the conservatives have done is given the low paid and given the workers a tax cut and ensure we have a benefit system that helps people into work. Mr speaker, under labour1 million children were lifted out of poverty. Under labour we introduced the principle of the National Minimum wage, opposed by all tories over there. This government does not know if it is coming or going. They say. Mr speaker, the conservative party and the government says they have full confidence in universal credit. But they will not vote for it. They say they will end the nhs pay cap but will not allocate any money to pay for it. The communities secretary backs £50 billion of borrowing on housing but the chancellor says it is not policy. The brexit secretary says they are planning for a no deal brexit and the chancellor says they are not. Isnt it the case, mr speaker, this government is weak, incompetent, divided and unable to take a decision . Of course we want to see people earning higher wages and we want to ensure we can invest in our Public Services but the way to have a higher standard of living and high wages and invest in Public Services and have a Better Future for people in this country is to build and continue to build a stronger economy, and you do not build a stronger economy by losing control of public finances. You do not build a stronger economy by uncontrolled borrowing and you dont build a stronger economy by hitting people with the highest taxes in our peacetime history. You dont build a stronger economy by voting against progress in our brexit negotiations. And you dont build a stronger economy by planning for capital flight and a run on the pound. That is what labour would do and we will never let it happen. Away from parliament, the labour party announced the suspension of one of its mps while it investigates misogynistic and homophobic comments hes alleged to have made. Jared 0mara beat the former liberal democrat leader nick clegg in the constituency of Sheffield Hallam. Hes apologised for remarks made online in 2002 and 2004, but he denies some more recent allegations. The situation was raised in the commons. Next year sees the centenary of the first woman member of parliament, would my right honourable friend stella is what leadership and encouragement to the women and girls of his constituency to take part in public life the member for Sheffield Hallam as shown in his remarks . I want to see young women and women actually able to see this house has a place they actively want to come to, that they want to contribute to their society, they want to respond to the needs of local constituents and make a real difference to peoples lives, that is what i am in it for and why i have encouraged women to come into this house and i am pleased to say we have more women on benches than ever before. And finally, all others all of ours in this house, all of us in this house should have due care and attention to the way in which we refer to other people and should sure women in public life the respect they deserve. At the general election, the conservatives proposed that people in england with assets of over £100,000 would have to pay for social care. They also said for people receiving care at home, the means test would for the first time include the value of their home. Critics called the measure a dementia tax. In a debate initiated by labour, ministers were urged to abandon the plan. After the battle of the demented taxpayer has been continuing concern that current and future issues over the funding of social care are not being addressed. He worry stirred up by the Party Opposite during the general election are not going to be resolved without a better idea about what the future now holds for social care. 0ne place where people were expecting to hear some discussion on this was the Party Conferences in september, but if we thought we would hear about this in the conference speeches of the secretaries of state responsible for social care we were sadly let down. She said 1. 2 Million People had an medicare needs and without extra money that figure would rise. And a lack of publicly funded care means that the task of meeting care needs. Heavily onto unpaid family carers, many carers have to give up work because of the demands of caring but a real impact on their finances and future career prospects. These debates are helpful for educating people about the difficult issues, the disappointing thing about the motion and i am happy to accept that we did not handle this issue well in the general election, but what we did not do, the mistake we made was not being clear about the Current System and that is why her referencing here to what we propose without setting at the Current System where people could potentially lose all but £20,000 of assets, is something that would help contribute to the public debate. Mr speaker we will come onto that but if the honourable member wants to get into the mess that his party made of this the truth is we legislated, we legislated a number of years ago to lift the asset for two 118,000, what his party did during the general election is dropped that to 100,000 from the 118,000 that it was at and in fact we learn that the weekend that there was an intention to make it only 50,000 so i think he should be clear and perhaps speak to his front bench colleagues, what were they trying to do . And since then we have heard that a deafening silence. She talks their talks about there being a squeeze on funding, on that basis would she agree that it would be right to ask those who have the means to contribute more towards their social care in the home . I dont agree with that and i think that is one of the reasons why his partys policy or the demented tax policy failed so badly, suddenly to bring hundreds of thousands of people into means testing using their homes was actually i can say to the honourable gentleman one of the biggest flaws in the policy that his party floated. The king s fund, the Health Foundation and Nuffield Trust that estimated a funding gap in the social Health Care Budget of £1. 9 billion this year, but the extra funding in the budget was only1 billion so we still have a funding gap of £900 million this year. This is why labour pledged an extra billion pounds for social care this year to start to deal with that funding crisis. I am grateful for the opportunity to answer this debate because i think it gives the government an opportunity to set out exactly where we are in this space and it is not as has been characterised by the honourable lady in heropening marks, she is as ever characteristically challenging and i hope to answer some of the issues she has raised today. We announced in the queens speech that we will work to address challenges of social care for our ageing population, and we will bring forth proposals for consultation to build way to put support for future provision. She said the government put an x 2 billion into social care. For the long term reform is required so we have a stable system for the future equipped to meet the challenges of the increasing number of people with care needs. To address these questions the government will work with partners including those who use services, those who work to provide care, and all other agencies to bring forward proposals for public consultation. The consultation will consult on a wide range of options. At the end of the debate, labour put the motion to mps. There were no shouts to oppose it from conservatives so the motion passed unopposed, without a vote. Labour criticised the conservatives for abstaining, saying they were picking and choosing which issues to vote on. Executives from one of the uks largest supermarket chicken suppliers have apologised after an investigation allegedly exposed food safety breaches. The hearing followed an investigation from the guardian and itv news in which an undercover reporter claimed to have witnessed workers changing the kill dates on chickens. For the company the two sisters from clip they rejected any suggestion that it operated below standards. Do you accept that these allegations are accurate and that they represent the practice that went on in your plant even though you say you werent aware of this situation . We are very disappointed and upset when we saw the footage for the first time, which was heard by the itn. The absolutely apologise for the doubt this has caused to our customers, consumers and our employers. We want to reassure you, we treat food safety at the highest of standards, we are continuously committed to improve food safety everyday. The signed up across the whole factory, do not pick a product up off the floor. There are 400 hygiene people in these factories that were orange overalls, theyre the only people who can take product of the forum still someone did it. Someone has made a mistake. We have to apologise for that and take responsible that if that. So what are we doing about it . That is more important. What were doing his the training that we do for hours, were not doing it any more. Were doing it our training. Every year. Why wear labels being changed . If it was not wrong, why did you sack the person that was doing it . It is essential that the meat reflects the label on the outside. What we found is that processes were not robust as they should be. We have now changed it, were not labelling trace any more, every tree has a plastic liner that is full that on top of one another in the liner now has a label across its when you open the tray you read the label and it is obvious, it is put in at the time, sealed at the time and ripped when open so we have strengthened our system and made it foolproof for except with the reasons youre seeing. We could not get the worker took an club to collaborate with investigation and it was not as good as it should have been a blt instead. Shouldnt your product be labelled . The episode as numbers on the pack you will be able to tell from. What will the customer thing . We have identification system. We do not have low standards. There is nothing to say we have low standards. I invite all of you to my factory, come announced or unannounced. We have people who work there, 850 people in question, and i cant accept that you say we have low standards because our factories dont have low standards. And finally, in the lords peer were once again considering a matter very dear to their hearts themselves. When a hereditary peer dies or retires an election is held for a replacement. A labour peer lord grocott bemoaned the lack of women and ethnic minority people who were eligible candidates. Can ijust ask him a very simple question, which if you could just give a yes to we could move onto next question. And it is this. Will the government do something which will hurt no one and cost nothing . And back my bill which would scrap this whole ludicrous system. In grateful to the noble lord for that. He beseeched the minister. Moving onto the next question would tell me at all because i have to answer that one. The minister agreed the system was difficult to defend. This opposite number had a cunning plan. Some of my best friends are bred at a cunning plan. Some of my best friends are credit to peers. This is not about the individuals, it is about the system. Many blackadder fans in your lordships house will remember a by election. As blackadder said it was half an acre of sodden marshland, the suffolk fence with an anti town hall and a population of three mangy cals, a dashing cold in the small hand in his 40s. Such bottom laws in real places had larger electorate and some of hereditary peers by elections. They were abolished in 1832. Lord young reminded her that his line manager at the deputy chief whip was also a predatory peer. And thats it, but dojoin me at the same time tomorrow for another round up of the day here at westminster. For now from me, mandy baker, goodbye. Hello there. Dull, damp, misty weather is spilling its way northwards into england and wales. Some fog around as well over the hills and especially in the south east. It may well brighten up slowly across southern parts of england and wales, turning quite mild once again but the sunny skies will be in scotland, away from the showers in the north. Writing up in northern ireland, perhaps the far north of ireland, but in between a slice of lower cloud, damp weather, temperatures lower than when they we re temperatures lower than when they were yesterday. Maybe some rain and drizzle across lincolnshire and east yorks. Close to that weather front, that gets pulled apart. Rain peters out, dry weather comes down from the north, bringing misty weather in the southern parts of england and wales, where we will see higher temperatures again on thursday night. To the north of that, with clearer skies, maybe a touch of frost on the grass and some early missed in fog patches, especially in northern ireland. 0nce missed in fog patches, especially in northern ireland. Once that cloud clears away from the south west, much brighter skies across the board. More sunshine on the way on friday. Light winds for many of us and temperatures where they should be the this time of year. For this time of year. Welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. My names duncan golestani. Our top stories farewell to the king. Ceremonies take place in bangkok as the funeral for thailands former monarch begins. This is the scene live in the capital as the events continue ahead of the planned royal cremation. In other news security is tight in kenya ahead of a re run of the countrys president ial election. Ifound my thrill. 0n blueberry hill. And a pioneer of rock and roll, fats domino, dies at the age of 89
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