Transcripts For BBCNEWS Tuesday In Parliament 20240714

Now on bbc news tuesday in parliament. Hello, and welcome to tuesday in parliament. Coming up the foreign secretary says hes in constant touch with the americans to try to reduce tensions between the us and iran. I cant envisage any situation where they request, or we agree, to any moves to go to war. After the death of a reality tv guest, mps put thejeremy kyle show producers in the spotlight. A form of trash television, predatory programming brought in from the us. The people involved in making it should be ashamed of themselves, actually. And an end to the divorce blame game. This is a bill for anyone who agrees that the end of a relationship should be a time of reflection, and not manufactured conflict. But first, irans president has responded with defiance to the latest sanctions imposed by the us, saying they show washington is lying about wanting to talk. Donald trump unveiled the measures on monday. Hassan rouhani said they would be useless and denounced us plans to target his foreign minister. He said the white house was mentally retarded. The rise in tension began when donald trump abandoned a landmark nuclear deal in may last year. The hostility has continued with the us accusing tehran of being behind attacks on six oil tankers in the region. Then last week, an american drone was shot down by iran. In the commons, the snp got straight to the nub of the issue. Can he confirm that the uk will not be dragged blindly into war with the us unless there were sanctions from the International Community . Well, the us is our closest ally. We talkto them the whole time. We consider any request that they say carefully, but i cant envisage any situation where they request, or we agree, to any moves to go to war. In his conversations with his us counterparts about iran, would he remind them of david petraeuss key questions tell me how this ends . And while its very clear that iran has to take actions to assuage regional tensions, does he agree with me that the United States needs to move cautiously and listen to wise voices like those like dr anwar gargash, who urges Political Solutions to long standing and complex regional problems . Well, no one speaks more wisely on the middle east than my right honourable friend, after his very long and distinguished time in the Foreign Office with responsibility for that brief. And he is, of course, right. Neither side wants war in this situation, but its very important that there are ladders for people to climb down so that discussions and negotiations can take place. Time and time again, iran demonstrates to the International Community that it has no intention of being a serious and responsible member of the International Community through its human rights abuses, its Ballistic Missile tests, and through its export of terror and violence throughout the region. So arent we naive in thinking thatjust with a bit more love and carrot, iran will change its ways . Well, my right honourable friend speaks very wisely on this. And the truth is the only real solution to this problem is for iran to stop its destabilising activities in yemen, which is seeing missiles being fired into airports in saudi arabia, lebanon, which is seeing terrorist activity and attacks happening on israel, in iraq and in syria. That is the long term solution. Thank you, mr speaker. Mr speaker, us President Donald Trump said this weekend that all the current tension with iran could disappear if only tehran agreed to co operate on ending its nuclear programme. Has the government tried to explain to the president that if he wants to achieve that outcome, all it takes is for all sides to honour the terms of the Iran Nuclear Deal the joint comprehensive plan of action . Can ijust gently say to him that the cause of the problems is that destabilising activity by iran has continued even after the jcpoa. It has had success in restraining Irans Nuclear ambitions, and thats why we continue to support him. But we are not going to get proper peace in the middle east unless we end those thoroughly destabilising activities. Talking of that destabilising activity, as the foreign secretary put it, a number of mps wanted to raise the issue of the war in yemen and arms sales to saudi arabia. Last week, the court of appeal ordered the government to review the way it grants export licences to the kingdom weapons which have been used in yemen. The court ruled that the current procedures were unlawful. Ministers are legally obliged to assess allegations of serious Human Rights Violations before letting sales go ahead. In the case of saudi arabias war in yemen, the judges said the government had made no attempt to do so. Labour went on the attack. There are men in this chamber and beyond, ministers who ignored the evidence of risk to innocent civilians, guilty men, ministers who signed off the export of arms and which have now been found to be unlawful. And two of the men responsible for those decisions are the candidates to be our next prime minister. Im afraid the right honourable lady will appear not to have read the Court Judgement where the 20 june court acknowledged rigorous, her very word, robust, and multilayered processes carried out by numerous expert government and military personnel upon which the secretary of state could rely. The other big Foreign Affairs issue at the moment is the situation in hong kong. The territory has seen violent clashes amid protests against a controversial extradition bill, which would see suspects being sent to Mainland China for trial. The law has been suspended but not scrapped completely. There were heartfelt pleas from several labour mps. Will he give the message from the chinese government, none of their nonsense we know whos behind this, we know that they want to crush democracy in china, and if it comes to it, we could have a system of embargoes on their goods coming to this country and to europe . Though the chief executive may not directly take her orders from beijing, she does often look over her shoulder to find out what the communist party of china is saying. Isnt the fundamental truth that in the end, you can repress human freedom for a while, but you cannot finally quash it . Well, i think he puts it beautifully. Hes absolutely right, but i would say this that whatever the. Laughter. Whatever the pressure that may or may not be exerted on the chief executive of hong kong, what works in hong kong at the moment is the judiciary is independent, and that must not change. The foreign secretary. Thejeremy kyle show has been criticised by mps for putting guests through lie detector tests without knowing how accurate those tests were. The chair of the Culture Committee said the producers lack of expert knowledge was astonishing. The committee launched an inquiry after the show was cancelled in may, following the death of a participant. Steve dymond died several days after reportedly failing a lie detector test. Jeremy kyle himself refused to appear before the committee, but the mps were shown a clip from a programme where a lie detector was used. How accurate do you think the polygraph test is . So we weve always made it very, very clear to the viewers and to the participants of the show that the lie detector is not 100 accurate. We always felt that thats incredibly important. Tom mclennan said he was not a lie detector expert. You are responsible for this programme. You are the person whos responsible for this programme. This is a key feature in this programme. And i think if youre using that and youre being responsible, you would know the answer to that question. Like i said, im not a lie detector expert, so we would hire in an expert also they would do the tests, they would come up with the results, and the results would be given to the producers, which were then given to jeremy. We would get involved with the actual lie detector tests. Well, you commissioned this. And i think if you dont know the answer that question, then you cant say what the range is of the accuracy of those tests. I think that is irresponsible. We explain it differently. But we would say is that prior to the show, some people will fail this test, yet they will be telling the truth. So we explained differently that we dont use percentages we just make it very, very clear that some people will fail that test, yet theyll be telling the truth. So i think thats a fairer way to describe it. I dont think its very fair, because i dont think people are being given the full picture of what these tests are and how inaccurate they could be. Theyre not being told that information. But the question i asked you was about after the show, do you actually think the polygraph test is a contributing factor to people that suffer with concerns and depression after theyve been on the show . I think, yes. Yes, it is. They do become distressed because they disagree with the result. And therefore thats why we have a guest Welfare Service after the show. I was quite shocked by the clip that we saw, which was, despite the unreliable nature of lie detector tests which is widely acknowledged the presenter, in peoples faces, was saying, this test says youre a liar. They take that as a liar, and yet you, rather like a salesman of a dodgy product, are pointing to the small print along the screen not available to the contestant or guest to justify that behaviour. How would you view that comparison . Well, i completely disagree. I think the as i said earlier, its about informed consent for me. And we could not have been more clear with the guests that applied to come onto the show. Not only had they been viewers of the show, so they absolutely knew the content, but we would make it very clear to them about the accuracy of the lie detector before they travelled to manchester where we film, before they took the lie detector or appeared on the show. Do you have any plans whatsoever to bring this show back in any format with mr kyle as presenter . No. Just being very direct with you, there are absolutely no plans. We will not be bringing back a show that looks or feels like the jeremy kyle show. Julian bellamy, the managing director of itv studios. Youre watching tuesday in parliament with me, mandy baker. Thejustice secretary david gauke has promised that new divorce legislation for england and wales will end the blame game. At the moment, couples wishing to divorce have to live apart for two years or to trigger Divorce Proceedings immediately a spouse has to claim that his or her partner has behaved unreasonably. Under the new system, couples will only have to state that the marriage has broken down irretrievably. But some mps were worried that it could make getting a divorce too easy. This is a bill that responds constructively to the keenly felt experience of the real lives that people live. This is a bill for anyone who agrees that the end of a relationship should be a time of reflection, and not manufactured conflict. Can i warmly congratulate the government on bringing forward this bill and the secretary of state himself personally . Ithink i have married more people than anybody else in this house, the transitive use of the word, and i was always painfully aware that when two people come together, it may well be that in the end, they do need to part, but the idea that they would have to prove in court all sorts of reasons behind why the marriage had fallen apart, relying on common law understanding of adultery for instance was nonsense and added to that sense of pain that there could already be within a family. The requirements of the divorce process at present can often give rise to a confrontational position, even if the decision to divorce is mutual. The incentive to make allegations at the outset to avoid otherwise waiting for two year separation becomes ingrained. Divorce is traumatic and children are inevitably be affected when their parents separate. That goes without saying. I agree that marriage has long proved its worth for bringing up children but the reality is that not all marriages last. The law should deal with that reality sensibly as it can. When a marriage has failed, we have to take a serious look at how to reduce conflict for everyone involved, not least for the children. When i got married as a catholic, i didnt think the option of divorce was open to us. I genuinely thought under all circumstances, our marriage would be forever. My wife decided otherwise, that was a very emotional time. Ijust wonder, does my honourable friend expect that some people will find it easier to divorce and therefore there will be a spike, an increase in divorce figures when this comes in . I think a period of reflection gives some people sometimes the opportunity to save their marriage and that opportunity might be missed. I agree with him about a period of reflection, in fact, one of the things that this bill does is ensure that there is a longer minimum period of reflection for a marriage, for people to consider whether reconciliation is the right course. Labour supports the changes. For a child of a divorcing couple, the divorce can be one of the most difficult times in their lives. As the secretary of state has indicated, the introduction of a no fault procedure should mean that the whole process can be quicker and less stressful for them. At an emotionally traumatic time, such as divorce and separation, parents want and need support in order to put the best interests of their children first. But one conservative said it was going to get easier to end a marriage. Simply because it will allow one party to walk away from the most important commitment they are likely to have made in their lifetime, without giving any reason at all. And without there spouse being able to meaningfully object to their decision to do so, the removal of fault sends out a signal, and im concerned about the signals being sent out by this bill to young people today, sent out a signal that marriage can be unilaterally exited unnoticed by one party with little, if any, available recourse for the party that has been left. Does the honourable lady agree that the ethic of marriage being put forward in this bill today is one that prioritises individual freedom and liberty, rather than encouraging, as it should, self giving, sacrifice and commitment . There is something to be gained from the giving and the receiving within a marriage. Fiona bruce. Now, scientists at the university of oxford have estimated the outbreak of ash dieback disease will cost the economy in the region of 15 billion pounds. The disease was first reported in the uk in a nursery in 2012. It was recorded in the wider environment for the first time a year later. Since then, it has spread to most parts of the uk. Neither the government or the country as a whole has woken up to the scale of the disaster, which is already falling upon us. Some of us who were around in the 1950s will remember the wonderful english elm. Ten million elms died of dutch elm disease, there are only a hundred left. And it was only 2012 ash dieback disease was identified in east anglia, after the import of a few saplings. So i would like to ask the minister is he able to say a little bit more about what success there has been in developing strains of ash which are actually immune to the disease . It would be helpful if he could say a little bit more about that, and if and when such a strain is discovered, will the government already make plans for a massive replanting across the uk . My lords, the ash is a very important tree in our ecosystem and that is why we are investing in trying to find through science the best and most tolerant trees, that is why i refer to the most tolerant that we are planting 3000, which is out of hundreds of thousands of saplings, precisely because we recognise that work must be done. Many research faculties are engaged in this and i think the encouraging part of this is that we are learning much more about the wide genome of the ash, much wider than the elm, but the noble and right reverend lord is absolutely right, we do take this seriously and we must take it seriously because our ecosystem is in peril if we do not deal with these diseases. The environment minister, lord gardiner. A labour mp has defended parents whove been protesting outside a birmingham primary school. Roger godsiff said they hadnt been consulted over teaching about lg bt relationships. The row was sparked by storybooks featuring different families. It led to protests outside Anderton Park Primary School in his constituency. The parents argue that pupils are too young to learn about lg bt relationships, which they also say contradict islam. There was no consultation with the parents and the head teacher made it plain that no consultation was going to take place. And no collective meetings with parents were held. The head teacher said that she, or her deputy, would meet individual parents on a one to one basis to listen to their concerns. But when such meetings took place, the same answer was always given. Namely, that the school was only carrying out the equality act. We know that the motivation of some of those involved in this are reactionary and to return us to an era where lgbt people should get back in the closet and hide and be ashamed of the way they are. We are not going to get back in the closet, or hide or be ashamed of the way we are. And nor are we going to allow a generation of pupils that are now in school to go through what the pupils in the 80s had to go through because this chamber let them down. Growing up in the west of scotland in a catholic struck presbyterian growing up in the west of scotland in a catholic stroke presbyterian Irish Catholic household, like many other members who had similar backgrounds, attending a state denominational school, both in primary and secondary level, i went to a school in which being heterosexual was the only way you were allowed to be. Any other opportunity was not permitted. So the very idea that there is any question that people will be forced to be gay does not reflect on the reality of those who lived in that situation where we were told we could be nothing but straight. Consultation does not mean abandoning teaching about respect for difference. I dont believe this is what parents would want and it is not what schools should feel they must do. Consultation certainly does not mean schools should be on the receiving end of intimidating behaviour, protest, or bullying. The department has been very clear that protest outside primary schools are unacceptable and should stop. The education minister. Mps have called for more action to help People Living with dementia. Ministers were told there was still a stigma surrounding the condition and that more money was needed for research. Several mps had personal experience of relatives living with dementia. My mum was diagnosed with alzheimers disease at 64 and i was one of her principal carers. So having had that caring experience in seeing some of these issues, i wanted to raise awareness about dementia and the many different brain diseases that cause it. As many of you will know, dementia is now the leading cause of death in the uk, overtaking Heart Disease and cancer. It is estimated that over 850,000 people in the uk have dementia, which alzheimers disease is the most common. By 2050, this is expected to increase to two million. Globally, there will be 152 million People Living with dementia by 2050, a 204 increase. If you do not know somebody now with dementia, you soon will. Another labour mp said it was clear there was a crisis in social care. Back in march 2017, the government said it would publish a green paper which was going to ensure the system will be sustainable in the long term. But we are two years on, and after many delays, ministers have still not given a date for when this will be published. I understand there are now 4000 fewer older people receiving publicly funded care than there were in 2010. With local Authority Budgets being cut by 49. 1 since 2010, £7 billion being lost in Adult Social Care, a further {1. 3 billion cut in 2019 20, its hard not to conclude the situation for many of those living with dementia and their families living with them has been much, much harsher and much more difficult. An snp mp highlighted the vulnerability of people with dementia. Individuals are seen as rich picking for those who are keen to separate them from their savings. As a society, we need to put structures in place to protect them in every way. Some Financial Institutions have put measures in place to protect older people, or vulnerable people, such as monitoring their Bank Accounts to having a few days buffering, the removal of unusual larger transactions from the account to help to safeguard them against fraud. However, what we really need, and we have discussed it in this chamber before, what we really need is a legal duty of care to older people, especially those with dementia. We know that careful reforms are required to ensure the social care system is prepared for the challenges of an ageing society, including those with dementia and many members have mentioned Adult Social Care funding, including the member for cambridge. What shows the scale of this problem is the fact we have many members talking about cuts to local authorities but actually over the last year, we have given Councils Access to an additional £10 billion, that is an 8 real term increase, but the fact that we are still talking about the social care system being on the point of crisis or Tipping Point shows the scale of the problem. Finally, a conservative told the story of her grandmother, who had dementia. Ill never forget visiting my nan, joan roberts, after she moved out of her Council House into a local care home. I had just finished my first Election Campaign contesting st helens south in 2015 as a conservative and i wanted to show her my election leaflets. At the time, my nan was in the advanced stage of dementia. She looked at the photos, admired my different outfits i was wearing, and all of a sudden, her face went as black as thunder when she realised i was standing as a conservative. Laughter. That is not my party, she exclaimed. Isaid, goodness, nan, you cannot remember what you had for breakfast, but you still remember that you are labour. Gillian keegan and her nan. Finally, although parliaments been getting on with its business, theres always an elephant in the chamber the conservative leadership contest. The day was punctuated by sly references to the battle between the final two contenders. After the revelations at the weekend of a domestic argument at the home of borisjohnson, labours shadow foreign secretary, emily thornberry, took her chance to muscle in during questions to her opposite number, jeremy hunt. It gives me an opportunity to congratulate the foreign secretary directly. Notjust for being in the final two, getting into the final two, but also being the only candidate who has the Police Outside his home for the right reasons. Laughter. Cani. And thats it for now, but ill be back at the same time tomorrow with another round up of the day here at westminster, including the highlights from the wednesday regular, prime ministers questions. How can you miss that . But for now from me, mandy baker, goodbye. Hello, thats the Stormy Weather over with for now. And for the rest of the week it is turning warmer and sunnier for many though the flow of air around this area of High Pressure coming in towards north sea coastal counties will keep it relatively cool here compared with elsewhere. Rather misty and murky at times. Some cloud around to start wednesday across much of england and parts of wales, muggy in the southern areas, single figures for some in scotland. And for wednesday its scotland and Northern Ireland that will see the lions share of the sunshine. North west england, southern england brightening up, the odd shower in the far south west. The midlands and east wales rather cloudy, misty, a bit drizzly in some spots. This flow of air from the north is turning things fresher. Quite windy through the English Channel coast and the flow is coming into the north sea coast, thats why temperatures here are towards their midteens in some spots. But from western scotland, Northern Ireland and west wales, southern england, the warm spots here will be into the low 20s. And becoming warmer and sunnier to come as we go through the rest of the week. Overnight into thursday, some cloud dipping into england and wales, rather misty and rather drizzly in some spots. Warm and muggy it is going to be fresher as it is going to thursday morning. Overnight and into thursday areas of low cloud, parts of england and wales having drizzle in some spots, it will be a colder night across southern parts and it will feel pressure out and about on thursday morning. The low cloud should disappear for most of us. Elsewhere you can see abundant sunshine, rather cloudy in the north of scotland. Getting warmer in the west on thursday, there will be some spots creeping into the upper 20s, High Pressure moving out towards the north sea on friday so we will tap into some even warmer air across western parts of the uk in particular. A lot of sunshine around, here is going to be a little warmer on friday. It is going to be the warmest day in the west where some here in north west scotland, for example, could be near 30 degrees celsius. Now Western Areas will turn cooler over the weekend. The weekend starts with something hotter to the east and particularly in south east england with temperatures peaking into the low 30s on saturday, but if you dont like the sound of that, thank goodness youre not elsewhere in europe with these temperatures on the cards this week as the european heatwave hits hard. Welcome to bbc news. Im duncan golestani. Our top stories the top us border official quits amid an outcry over americas treatment of migrant children, separated from their parents and held in squalid conditions. Jeremy hunt, the man battling borisjohnson to become uk prime minister, says he believes he can bring back a brexit deal from brussels. Iran will get obliterated the white house is insane the us and iran strike a war of words on twitter. Europe swelters in a heatwave, with temperature records set to be broken, and warnings for the vulnerable