Now on bbc news, wednesday in parliament. Hello there and welcome to wednesday in parliament. Coming up, the government sees off a cross party attempt to block a no deal brexit by taking control of pa rliaments timetable on the 25th june. The ayes to the right, 298. The noes to the left, 309. So the noes have it. The noes have it. As conservative leadership candidates continue to launch their campaigns, Opposition Mps reckon its no choice at all. The tory leadership race is a total horror show. And, a minister promises to investigate why some women say theyre turning to whats been dubbed survival sex to help pay the bills. I am hugely concerned to hear of individuals who feel they no choice but to turn to sex work in order to get by. But first the government has won a vote in the commons seeing off an attempt by Opposition Mps to seize control of Parliamentary Business onjune the 25th. They wanted to bag the day so that it could be used to foil future attempts to leave the eu without a deal. Well the debate came as more of the conservative leadership candidates officially launched their campaigns. Boris johnson and sajid javid were the latest to set out their stalls joining eight other conservative mps whove said they want the job. The first round of voting will be held on thursday. At Prime Ministers questions the snps leader brought up that contest and the opposition day vote that was due later that afternoon. The tory leadership race is a total horror show. The eu was clear, use the time wisely. And yet the tories are obsessing with themselves at the expense of people across these islands. Just when we thought that things cannot get any worse and they are lurching even further to the extremes. Mr speaker, the Prime Minister once described her party as the nasty party. But with candidates like the one announcing today, it is about to get a whole lot nastier. Does the Prime Minister agree that the fantasy fairy stories of the tory parties candidates are nothing more than an assault on our common sense and tonight, will she vote to stop any new deal madness . No deal madness . Can i say to the right honourable gentleman, first of all the motion that is on the table tonight is about whether or not the government should hand control of business and this house to the labour party and the Scottish National party. And that is something we will not do. Can i also say to the right honourable gentleman, he talks about the need to use this time wisely. He could have been using the time wisely had he voted for the deal we negotiated with the European Union and we would have left the European Union and would have been out with a orderly exit. Labour mps tackled theresa may about policies already set out by some of the leadership challengers. First a suggestion by dominic raab that he could prorogue or suspend parliament to enable a no deal brexit. In the event that a Prime Minister asks her majesty the queen to Prorogue Parliament against the expressed wishes of the majority of the house of commons, whose advice would be queen be obliged to follow . The advice of her Prime Minister or the express will of this house . Who knows . I will not stand at this despatch box and speak about the decisions her majesty the queen might make. What i would say is that we see a situation tonight, this afternoon in a motion, where the labour party and snp are trying to take control away from the government of this house. Governments are able to govern by having control of the business of this house and that is what everyone should recall. Another moved on to tax cuts promised by boris johnson. The Prime Minister has always said that she believes in fairness. So can i ask her would it be fair to have a taxation policy that massively benefits by introducing tax cuts for the top and richest 10 in our country, does she think that is fair . Can i say to the honourable gentlemen, what i think is fair is what this government is doing which is under this government we have seen the top 1 paying more in income tax than they ever did under a labour government. I checked her impressive career for 22 years from the date when i heard her maiden speech but can i say to her today, can i ask a question . Will she change her mind about cutting the money, with her integrity and her experience and indeed can i say her moral compass. This parliamentary democracy is an crisis. Why cant she stay here, even come on the back benches and get some of the people that will take over after a bit of the medicine they had given her . Well, can ijust say, the honourable gentleman refers to my staying here, i will indeed be staying in the chamber of the house of commons as i will continue as a member of parliament. But can i also say i am a woman of my word and i gave my word to my party as what i would do and i stand by that word. All that talk of mrs mays departure prompted a labour mp and frustrated train traveller to ask. In some respects mr speaker, it is sad to see the Prime Minister stepping down. But as she is going anyway, could she please take the secretary of state for transport with her . Mrs may accepted train performance in the north had been unacceptable and did deserve better, but she made no comments on Chris Graylings future. Well, then it was on to that attempt to allow mps to take control of pa rliaments timetable on june the 25th. Labour with the support of other opposition parties and some conservatives wanted to give mps rather than ministers control of the commons business. That would give them the opportunity to introduce legislation to prevent any future Prime Minister pursuing a no deal brexit without the support of parliament. It is a first unlimited step to ensure that parliament cannot be locked out of the Brexit Process over the coming weeks and months. Mr speaker, it paves the way for parliament to take further action including to prevent no deal, should the house consider that necessary. And crucially, it means that if the next Prime Minister, is foolish enough to try to pursue a new deal brexit without gaining the consent of this house, or to prorouge parliament in order to force through no deal, then parliament will have the means to prevent that. But some conservatives disagreed. When it is clear from every single Constitutional Authority that has ever been written, they operate on the basis of parliamentary government and not government by parliament. But there were many more mps who spoke up to back the move. One said the tory leadership contenders believed they could cast parliament aside. To ensure that they can have their no deal brexit when it is quite clear that this parliament will not allow a no deal brexit to pass and in those circumstances isnt it absolutely the responsible and right thing to do to get this parliament the chance to prevent shenanigans of that outragous kind . There is no such thing as a clean and simple no deal and there is such a thing as a managed no deal, so much as a fall from behind a building until you hit the ground. A conservative whod put his name forward for the leadership but has now withdrawn weighed in. It strikes me that there are two principles at stake today, one of them being the convention in this house for the government to be able to control the order paper and the other a constitutional principle as to whether the government can Prorogue Parliament in pursuit of its policy objectives, which all that means for the crown and the crown involvement in politics and i believe the latter of the two principles is a weightier one and the one we should be bearing in mind as we vote today. But the brexit secretary warned it set a precedent over who controlled business. One individual mp together with the speaker, two members of this house can override the government business that comes before this house. And that is the effect of this motion. It is putting in the hands ofjust two members of parliament that precedents on business comes before the house. There are ten leadership candidates, they have not been whittled down and yet this is an attempt to preserve by potentially one member to preserve a slotjust in case there is not an appetite or whoever may lead the conservative party. This is a premature business of the house. There is no need to secure the 25th ofjune when we have absolutely no idea who will be our next leader. The snp said prorogation would be an outrage. If the first act of a Prime Minister appointed an election that is less than one quarter of i of the population is allowed to take part is to abolish this parliament and only reinstated when it is too late for us to carry out the will of the people elected, everyone knows in this chamber it will be catestrophic. A labour mp reckoned he should have backed theresa mays deal to end uncertainty. Three times when the opportunity presented itself to me, i have not voted for a deal and the last time on the 29th of march i followed my party line although he did not want to support, i would not support the deal that was put in front of me. I made a mistake. On that day i shouldve voted for a deal and i will now vote for a deal if it is brought forward because it is inconceivable that we can continue with this line of debate where we seek to make the decisions we want to make and avoid making the decisions we have to make. We will no doubt debate many times in the future the consequences of no deal but the risks are becoming more and more apparent and i think we should be grateful to those who are anticipating those dangers and seeking to prevent us getting anywhere near them. If we get to a point where a Prime Minister is intent on doing this, the only way of stopping that Prime Minister will be to bring down that Prime Ministers government. And i simply have to say here and now, i will not hesitate to do that. If that is what is attempted. Even if it means it means resigning my whip and leaving the party, i will not allow this country to be taken out of the eu on a no deal brexit without the approval of this house and in my view going back to the country and asking them if that is what they want. But when it came to the vote mps backed the government and voted down the attempt to seize control of the parliamentary timetable. The ayes to the right, 298. The noes to the left, 309. And so a win for the government withJeremy Corbyn calling out from his seat that mps wouldnt be cheering in september youre watching wednesday in parliament with me, alicia mccarthy. Dont forget you can follow me on twitter bbc alicia. A minister has said he desperately wants to improve the experience of Vulnerable People using, or trying to access, universal credit. He was giving evidence to the work and Pensions Committee which is investigating claims that difficulties with the new benefit mean some people are turning to whats sometimes called survival sex. Three weeks ago, the Committee Heard evidence in private from women who said theyd used sex to help pay the bills. I want to reiterate to the committee how serious i take this issue. I am concerned to hear of individuals who feel they have no choice but to turn to sex work in order to get by. Only yesterday, the secretary of state and i met with a number of the stakeholders that the committee had also heard from, that provided you with evidence. I want to better understand what factors contribute to somebody being in that position and what my department can do to address this. He said there had been more money for universal credit and improvements to the system such as advance loans. And he addressed misunderstandings. Firstly, uc claims do not have to be made online. The people who are unable to access digital support can make a claim on the phone, in person at a job centre or through our relatively new partnership with citizens advice, and secondly, universal credit is available to those without Bank Accounts through the payment exception service. Does it mean that from the earlier part of your statement, that you have now in effect withdrawn the evidence you gave us on survival sex, which was pretty hard line . That there is not much connection at all . I thank you for raising that. Firstly, i think i want to apologise for that first letter i sent to you. Because i do not think it very well reflected my views on this issue. When it was first raised to me, i asked officials at the department what evidence do we have on this and what information do we hold. And the answer is very little. And as a result, we came back with a response that we do not know very much about this, and we dont have a very good understanding of it and i think that is what led to that response. I think what has changed is having invited me to the session and having listened to those very brave testimonies of the young women who have gone through the most horrific experiences and giving me a better understanding through their lived experiences. And i think what it showed me more than anything is that we need to better understand this area. A conservative pressed him over people who werent able to use the system online. How much can you scale up the provision where people who are genuinely. Someone with disabilities, supported by very elderly parents, when can we get to a place where they are not required to do anything online . Because thatjust isnt a tool available to them. Largely, we should be there because you are right. It is a digital by default system. It is an online system. But telephone is available, face to face is available, and home visits are also available in exceptional circumstances. But i am conscious there are vulnerable groups and others who do need a bit of raised handholding because the complex needs they have. I know there are some people who are having difficulty accessing the system, for all sorts of reasons, it is largely down to the complex needs. It is about ensuring that we put in the right levers in place, the right measures in place. Being poor is not a complex need. If people do not have one of these things that we all take for granted, people can log onto into theirjournals, see their cash in the bank, i dont mean to be rude, but that is not. Being poor is not a complex need. It means the system is not built for people like them. I do not consider that rude. I very much hope to have a constructive and robust relationship with the committee. I think we all want to get this right. If there are areas where we need to make changes and we have an evidential base on which to do so. Of course, i will look to do that. I will make that case to the secretary of state and if necessary, to the treasury for future Spending Review bids and i would like to think as part of Stakeholder Engagement in the work that the departments done with this committee over the past few weeks and months, you will have seen the fruit of some of that in terms of Spending Review bids and budget announcements and i very much hope there are more to come. Work and pensions minister, will quince. Greenhouse gas emissions in the uk are to be cut to almost zero by 2050, under the terms of a new government plan to tackle Climate Change. The plan, including legislating for the target, was presented to the commons by the business secretary, greg clark. There are many issues in this house on which we passionately disagree. But there are moments when we can act together, to take the long term decisions that will shape the future of the worlds that we leave to our children and our grandchildren. Just over a decade ago, i was the shadow secretary of state for energy and Climate Change when the honourable member for Doncaster North secured royal assent for the landmark 2008 Climate Change act. And i was proud on behalf of my party to speak in support of the first law of its kind in the world. Setting a legally binding target to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions by at least 80 by 2050, relative to 1990 levels. And today, i am proud to stand on this side of the house to propose an amendment to that same act, which will enable this parliament to make its own historic commitment to tackling Climate Change. But this mood of consensus did not stop criticism. Labour said achieving the new target would need huge investment. We will need coordinated planning in new laws and as with any emergency, we will need significant Government Intervention to solve it. I do not believe that is ideological, or even party political, it isjust common sense. And that is why it is right at the heart of the labour plan for ushering in a green industrial revolution. So i do welcome todays announcement but i ask the secretary of state, when are you going to start acting in accordance with it . In its advice, the Committee Said it very specifically that as well as setting the target itself, the government must put in place policies to meet the target. That means as they said, a 2030 cutoff date for new petrol and diesel vehicles, not 2040. A proper decarbonization plan for our 27 million homes which we dont have, and what i believe is now economically illiterate, a moratorium on offshore wind given that its our cheapest fuel available. So can the secretary of state assure us that henceforth, there will be leadership, notjust on targets, but also an action . Why not show the ambition to match the snp Scottish Government plan and rather than 2050 being the date for innate gas emissions, zero target, in scotland, and that is 2045, with Carbon Neutral by 2040 . So lets see if we can step up that ambition. This is actually the easy part. We have to carry our population with us. As we decarbonize our economy further, change the way we farm and travel and the way we move around. And be a beacon for other countries can do the same. I welcome this report but i will look at me a lot more if the government had followed all of the recommendation from the Committee Planning change, notjust the ones that dont cause ideological indigestion. Particular, the Committee Recommended that the Emission Reduction effort needs to be done here at home, and outsourced to poorer countries. Carbon offsetting basically slows decarbonization and deprives poorer countries of the low hanging fruit they need in order to meet their own reduction targets, so will he review the decision that rely on dodgy loopholes and make sure that the domestic actions are done here at home . I am grateful to the honourable lady for her welcome for the the commitment, but she knows that the Climate Change act includes the use of credits, that is part of the legislation that was passed. And the Climate Change committee have not recommended that we should repeal that part of the act. That is not their recommendation. Just that we should not aim to make use of them. We agree with their recommendation, we support it and we agree with the precisely, so we will not be making use of it. Greg clark. Now, back to Prime Ministers questions where the labour leader launched an attack on the governments industrial strategy. Over the course of his six questions Jeremy Corbyn claimed the government hadnt done enough to help the steel and Motor Industries and had failed on renewables. They promised a Northern Powerhouse they failed to deliver it and every northern newspaper is campaigning for this government to power up the north. Hear, hear they promised net zero by 2050 yet they failed on renewables and are missing. Order the right honourable gentleman will not be shouted down. It isnt happen. Going to happen. Dont waste your breath. It is not productive and terribly boring. Mr speaker, they promised net zero by 2050, yet they have failed on renewables and are missing their Climate Change targets. They promised an industrial strategy, output is falling, so which does the Prime Minister see as the biggest industrial failure of her government . The car industry, the steel industry, or the renewable industry . Which is it . Can ijust say to the gentleman, he can pose for his youtube clips as much as he likes, but lets actually look at what this government has delivered. We have delivered a Racial Disparity audit, the deals with the inappropriate inequality of public services, for people with different community. Record investment and transport and infrastructure in the north, a record employment rate, lowest unemployment for 45 years, wages growing faster than inflation, a record cash boost for the nhs, Better Mental Health support, more homes being built, stamp duty cut, Higher Standards in our schools, and leading the world on Climate Change theresa may. A new bill to allow extradition from hong kong to Mainland China has led to violent demonstrations. Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters, who blocked key roads around government buildings. The demonstrators are concerned the new laws could target political opponents of beijing and they fear alleged human rights abuses in chinas legal system. The issue was raised at Prime Ministers questions. Does the Prime Minister share the growing sense of alarm both in hong kong and internationally at the potentially destructive effects of its new extradition law on Civil Liberties in hong kong . And does the Prime Ministerfurther agree that we in the United Kingdom have a special obligation to hong kong and we should never be fearful of speaking up for freedom values on the island . It is vital those extradition arrangements are in aligned with the rights and freedoms that were set down in the sin british joint declaration. Sino british. In the house of lords, there was an update from the foreign office. The foreign secretary this morning publicly urged the Hong Kong Government to listen to the concerns of its people. And to pause and reflect on these controversial measures. The hong kong authorities should engage in meaningful dialogue and preserve hong kongs rights and freedoms. But that didnt reassure peers. As we meet, tear gas and plastic bullets are being fired indiscriminately with reports of injuries. In condemning this, will the noble baroness reflect within 2018, according to the wall street journal, the courts in a chinese province acquitted just 43 people while convicting 96,271, and recall how a hong kong bookseller imprisoned for eight months in china was told by the authorities if we say you have committed a crime, you have committed a crime . In my adult life, ive had the considerable privilege of living and working in hong kong. Would my noble friend reinforce what i hope i heard her say in the first answer she gave, that the 1997 joint declaration is being appallingly abused by this new proposed extradition law . Well at the risk of being unhelpful to my noble friend, what i did say was that we do not believe the proposals in themselves are a breach ofjoint declaration, but there has to be a concern about what could happen subsequently if there was an abuse of the provisions provided for in the proposed changes. Lady goldie. And thats it from me for now but do join me tomorrow on bbc two at 6am for another round up of the day at westminster. But for now from me, alicia mcarthy, goodbye. Hello. It has been a very wet week so far. Flooding has been a problem. This photo was taken by one of our weather watchers on wednesday. Grey skies there, and with more persistent rain in the forecast, several parts of the country, in fa ct, several parts of the country, in fact, we have flood warnings in force. This area in the south east of scotland, the met office have issued an amber alert here. There is likely to be travel disruption and flooding likely as well. On thursday it is going to be pretty relentless. Piling in from the north east, particularly over the high ground with up to 80 100 millimetres of rain falling here. Across the rest of the uk, lots of blue on the map, another soggy day. For the western side of scotland and for Northern Ireland it will be a bit dry with just the odd shower here. Some showers developing across some parts of england later in the day and temperatures only 11 16 degrees. So its going to feel pretty chilly, sort of a north easterly breeze blowing in the north and we could see further flooding problems. Moving through thursday evening and overnight into friday, the rain in the north does tend to ease a little bit so it will dry out compared to the heavy rain of thursday across south eastern part of scotland. We could see lying surface water across many parts of the uk. Further showers in southerly parts of england, wales two. The low pressure doesnt go anywhere in a hurry, on friday it is going to be easing away a little bit towards the north west. Fewer isobars on the map, not as breezy as the last couple of days. But friday is not going to be a dry one, still some heavy showers around parts of england and wales. Also showers rolling through scotland and Northern Ireland as well. Temperatures starting to rise a little bit on friday afternoon, 1319 little bit on friday afternoon, 13 19 during the day on right a bit early unsettled. As we look ahead into next week, still some showers in the north and the west, turning a bit drier towards the south east. Bye bye. Welcome to bbc news, my names mike embley. Our top stories this is the scene live in hong kong, where the authorities have announced the closure of some government offices for the rest of the week. Its quiet currently, after the storm of the past few days. There were violent clashes on wednesday against a controversial extradition law. 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