A senior Communist Party official has been sacked in the Chinese province at the center of the corona virus outbreak where a sharp rise in deaths from the disease has been reported who Baze Health Commission said 242 people had died in a single day more than double the previous highest daily total It also reported nearly $15000.00 extra cases of infection after including those diagnosed using a new clinical method yesterday the World Health Organization said there were signs the outbreak was stabilizing in China but officials there have been accused of underreporting cases our correspondent Nick Baek reports from Hong Kong Chinese state media said the party chief Zeon Childline was being replaced by a senior official from Shanghai who's close to President Xi Jinping his deputy was also relieved of his duties there was no explanation for the moves for the past week officials have reported a consistent fall in the number of new cases of Corona virus but these latest figures from who by showed that many more people of caught the virus than previously announced and that many more a dying of it Chinese state television said the doubling overnight in the number of daily deaths could be explained for the 1st time patients who hadn't officially tested positive were part of the tally this means your thought he's a now including the diagnoses of doctors who suspect the virus is present China has been accused of suppressing the full extent of the outbreak in the past these latest figures will raise fresh questions about the true mortality rate of this virus more than 40 new cases of Corona virus have been detected on board a cruise ship docked in Japan the Diamond Princess has been in quarantine since last week Japanese officials plan to start moving some elderly passengers off the ship as our Tokyo correspondent recruit Winfield Hayes reports. The Japanese government appears to be partially backing down in the face of growing criticism for its decision to quarantine thousands of passengers on board. Giant cruise ship tied up on the dock side here and your camera starting later today some passengers will be allowed off but only if they are over 80 years old and have underlying health conditions or are staying in a cabin with no outside windows how many will be taken off the ship and where they will be moved to is not yet clear 218 passengers and crew have now been diagnosed with the new coded 900 virus 44 new cases today alone the Japanese government says it will increase the number of people being tested for the virus each day but it has rejected the advice of public health experts who say Japan should have moved to screen all 3700 passengers and crew as soon as the ship docked here last week the organizers of the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens tournament changed for early April say they will make an announcement later today local media expect the contest to be postponed until October here officials are trying to trace everyone who might have come into contact with the latest patient diagnosed with Corona virus the 9th confirmed case in Britain the woman who's being treated in hospital caught the infection in China before taking a flight to Heathrow in the past few days. The prime minister is embarking on his 1st major government reshuffle since the general election some women ministers are thought to be among those facing the sack but number 10 said the prime minister would promote a new generation of female M.P.'s The most important Cabinet jobs Chancellor foreign secretary and home secretary are unlikely to change as our Political Correspondent Chris Mason reports from Downing Street a parade of power patronage and personalities in the coming hours this reshuffle will shape the look the feel the sound of Boris Johnson's now majority government talk bordering on hype within Westminster anyway has been swirling about the shake up ever since election results day but the indications are it will be much less dramatic than some of the early could dictions the international development secretary Alex Sharma is likely to be promoted as is all of a doubt and he could replace lady Morgan as culture secretary Dunning she say they'll still be as many women in the cabinet as there are now and they'll be a drive to promote a generation of female talent at all levels of government and Marie Trevelyan's who Ella brother moaned and Gillian pleaded have in line for promotion labor is calling on the prime minister to clarify who paid for his holiday on the Caribbean island of mystique over the new year according to the register of M.P.'s interest the cost of the accommodation valued at $15000.00 pounds was covered by the businessman and Conservative Party donor and David Ross but a spokesman for Mr Ross has told the Daily Mail that he didn't pay for the stay although he had helped to arrange it Downing Street said all transparency requirements had been followed. It's emerged that the city watchdog is investigating the chief executive of Barclays Jess Daly and his links with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein Mr Staley had previously told the bank's board he had business connections with that Steen who was convicted of sex offenses and died in prison in New York last summer more details from our business correspondent Dominic O'Connell It's hardly surprising that Joe's they really had business links to Jeffrey Epstein Mr Staley ran the private wealth division of j.p. Morgan one of America's biggest banks for several years he looked after the private investment of wealthy Americans exactly the kind of business in which Mr Epstein was a big player this morning Barclay said in an announcement to the stock exchange the Misses daily had volunteered information about their relationship to the Barclays board but that the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority the 2 largest financial watchdogs were now looking at exactly what he said the banks of the investigation was into Mr Staley's characterize ation of his relationship with Mr Epstein and the subsequent description of that relationship to the Financial Conduct Authority Mrs Daly has been in hot water with regulators before over his pursuit of a whistleblower at the bank Barclays said he retained the full support of the board the owner of British Gas center care says the introduction of an energy bill price cap had a significant impact on its operating profits last year they fell by 30 percent to $901000000.00 pounds compared with almost 1400000000 the year before the company says it was also hit by lower natural gas prices. The government is to remove public funding for more than $5000.00 vocational qualifications because it says they are of low value the move is part of an attempt to simplify the options open to 16 to 19 year olds in England before the introduction of new t. Level or technical based qualifications next autumn has an education editor Bronwyn Jeffries this will reduce by half the number of qualifications on offer for 16 tonight. It's some courses due to lose their funding have fallen out of use others attract small numbers they include some b. Tax City and Guilds and the queues and diplomas ministers want to shift gradually to 3 main options for 16 year olds to choose from apprenticeships a levels and the new t. Levels each t. Level will be equivalent to 3 a levels and will include work based learning the 1st students will enroll on 3 new t. Levels this autumn with fewer than 2000 places available Tom Buick from the Federation of awarding bodies said care needed to be taken with pruning away qualifications before the new system is fully established a man is due to appear before magistrates in London Derry later this morning charged with the murder of Aaron McKie the 29 year old journalist was shot dead by the dissident Republican group the new Ira while observing rioting in the Creggan area of Derry last year. Parliament your thirties have been told that an extra $18600000.00 pounds is needed to repair the Elizabeth Tower which houses Big Ben it's not the 1st time the estimated cost of refurbishing the famous Westminster landmark has risen significantly as James Kelly reports Commons officials say the full extent of the wear and tear to the Elizabeth Tower has only become clear since scaffolding went up around the neo gothic structure in 2017 when the renovation team carried out the 1st ever intrusive surveys on the home of Big Ben they found us best OS in the belfry broken glass in the clock dials the extensive use of toxic lead paint and defects in previous work they also discovered bomb damage dating back to the blitz is now believed the revamp will cost nearly 80000000 pounds that's up from the 61000000 pound estimate calculated shortly after the work began the original projections suggested the project would cost between $29.45 pounds the commission responsible for maintaining the Palace of Westminster said the request for yet more funding was extremely disappointing. New study suggests that common estimates for global food waste are too low researches in the Netherlands say every person in the world is wasting on average about $500.00 calories of food a day more than twice the level previously thought scientists are calling for behavioral changes such as encouraging shoppers to switch from hoarding to buying just enough. Thank you the time is 10 past 8 the sales to be little doubt that cases of the coronavirus coated 19 in Britain are going to increase in the coming days and weeks a woman in London is now a confirmed case the 1st in the capital she had recently flown in from China on the program yesterday we heard a range of views from scientists about what's might need to happen now and what our best hope might be to limit the spread Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London told us this time yesterday that we were in the early stages of a global pandemic he thought as many as 60 percent of people in the u.k. Could become infected most of them suffering only mild symptoms though if the death rate is one percent then that plainly is a terrible toll in a moment after the interview since the coronavirus emerged with the chief medical officer for England but 1st I'd been speaking to Professor John Ashton who's a former president of the faculty of Public Health and the Northwest Regional Director of Public Health care in the SARS outbreak about how the u.k. Has handled cope with 19 so far I've no reason at all to believe that was not be doing the right things technically this country's got some of the best viral exists you know people clinicians it's a referral but a concern all along here has been about communications and it's good that you're now going to be putting up the Chief Medical Officer hopefully regularly the people leave to have a trusted regular recognised face for this particularly if it goes beyond the phase of being contained as it is at the low level and becomes much more widespread should the government be more involved as the prime minister be getting ready. Briefing's we don't know whether he is or not but I mean should all that be happening behind the scenes the prime minister should be convening regular Cobra meetings and working very closely with the chief medical officer to reassure the public but also to make sure that they're on top of this you have to anticipate day to day what's happening next and there's no sense of that at the moment although I suspect it will be going on behind the scenes and it the problem is it gives the impression that we're being treated in a paternalistic way not dissimilar to what's been going on in China the risk there is that you create panic and undue concern by seeming to be rushing around when actually the wisest scientific course is to wait and see what happens. It is why I used to wait and see what happens but you have to plan for the thinkable to make sure that it doesn't because if this broadens out because quite a general infection the public critical in the management of it the public have to be included as full partners you cannot keep the public in the dark because you cannot hospitalized yourself out of this it really spreads the public are going to be central to any response so if you keep it in the dark ruler will thrive and he called you sure. It was Professor John Ashton and Professor Chris witty is the chief medical officer for England it is here in the studio morning to good morning tell us about what you're doing so I think the key thing is to understand that this depends on what happens in China broadly this goes one of 2 ways the 1st way is that China gets on top of the epidemic and I know the numbers moved today but we come back to that and that there is spill all the spillover cases around the world but those are contained and we'll have more cases as you rightly say in the u.k. That's highly likely when they even get a little bit of onward transmission in the u.k. And then we'll be able to pick up with those and then the epidemic goes away that is possible and the 2 things that may do that are the extraordinary efforts of the Chinese government and possibly a change in the seasons are those I think are worth thinking about the alternative is this is not possible to contain in China and this tends to then starts to spread probably initially quite slowly around the world and at that point in less the seasons come to our rescue then it is going to come to a situation where we have it in Europe and in the u.k. Indie horse and the possibility of the season's coming to our rescue I think we shouldn't rely on that in any way and for that reason what we've got is a basic got for at this point in time and I agree with many of the points has just been made we've basically got a strategy that depends on 4 tactical aims the 1st one is to contain go through each of these is the. The 2nd of these is to delay the 3rd of these is to do the son's in the research and the 4th is to mitigate so that we can actually breach the n.s.a. One containment we've got this case in London someone who had been in China for instance are we are you in touch with everyone who was on the plane that that person came back from China on his is not what's happening so what what happens with any case and this this is this will be no different and I'm of you know going to individual knows but in general is you take a detailed history and story from the people and you work backwards through everybody they might come in contact with Sometimes that involves things like looking at planes if that's relevant also who they've met So little know him on a plane which we assume they did then everyone on the plane will be contacted not necessarily so that one of the things about the corona virus we know from other other coronaviruses is the amount of spread around a person is relatively limited in a geographical sense so you wouldn't necessarily have to do that as you say it's just we're just we would be the seats in the person perhaps the males and that sort of thing it wouldn't necessarily be everyone on the plane yes it will depend entirely on what the particular situation is but what you're trying to do is make sure the people who actually have a significant risk of getting infected do have the are isolated early and contact an isolated early usually by self isolation and that other people in a sense or not know do not have their life interfered with completely irrationally because they are not a risk yes and then going on to the other thing that Professor Ashton was talking about is the sort of visibility of you and of the government being involved and concerned and he was particularly brought up the question of whether your briefing the prime minister what can you tell us about how involved the government is talking to bars Johnson every day what's going on behind the scenes so I have I have briefed the prime minister as have other people and there have been Cobra meetings as person who was saying. Most of them official level because it's. Well but we're the stuff we have to do at this stage and I think to go back to my 4 points about containment which we're doing the moment and delay delay is the next stage of what we need to do and that we need to a lot of planning for that because if we can put if we are going to get an outbreak here in the u.k. And this is an if not a when but if we do pushing it back in time into the summer period away from the winter pressures on the n.h.s. Give bias a bit more time to understand the virus better possibly having some seasonal advantage is a big advantage so contained then delay this clearly a lot of research we're having to do at the moment people talk about vaccines it'll be a long while in my before we have a vaccine that is ready actually to deploy but we need to get on with that antivirals antivirals what we're going to be able to do on those is look at existing drugs for example existing HIV drugs and the Chinese are already starting to do this and test where they are existing drugs work against this virus Some may some may not that's just been a big w.h.o. Meeting yesterday and the day before the went through those and they will be having a plan to test those in the u.s. Is up potentially a stronger lead than the vaccine which as you say is going to be some way off well at this stage in time the biggest thing we have to do is around the isolation and delay and trying to work out the patterns of that value but certainly trying to find drugs that will of help the most affected people I think one thing that has come across clearly and I think is worth reiterating is that a large proportion probably the great majority of people having relatively mild disease so drugs a likely only to be useful for a minority who have more severe disease even if we find them should we be changing our behavior at this stage as a nation and this goes back I suppose to poor us rations point about you briefing the prime minister and the prime minister being involved and much more in terms of local government warnings or should we just be carrying on our business well I think all the things that are going to make it more difficult to transmit this virus are good sensible things to do for transmitting every other virus remember in the u.k. You. Roughly $8000.00 people a year on an average year die of flu the things that stop flu also stop this virus the there is no current circulation of this for hours in the u.k. As far as we can tell there is clearly so circulation of flu so people should be covering their eyes when they sneeze disposing of her. But you're saying they should be doing those things and there's no change of behavior not that your yes when one of my one of my colleagues came on your program yesterday and suggested that people start kissing I thought in the week or Valentine's Day rather brave statement those sorts of things I think you know what we should be doing is taking sensible precautions we normally take particularly in the winter season right what about Professor Ferguson who came on the program also yesterday and said in his view when is mathematically model day where in the early stages of a global pandemic and if he is right then he thought 60 percent of the u.k. Could become affected now as you say most of the great majority of them 99 percent of them suffering only mild symptoms and recovering but one percent of them not are you ready for that so this is where the 4th strand of what we're doing which is the mitigation comes in because the thing with this this epidemic were to happen is we obviously don't know how big the peak would be and absolutely critically we don't know what proportion of people have this disease or that symptoms we don't yet have a test to tell how many people are infected and just have nothing at all and until we do that we really are only have a best estimate our best estimate of the top end of the range for the number of people dying is around 2 percent in my view it could be a bit could considerably less than that but we should plan for the worst now what he correctly professor is correctly doing and he's one of the several mathematical models we're working with is say well what's the reason the worst case and how is it going to distribute over time and then we have to go away and work out how the n.h.s. Is best configured to cope with all the various scenarios that come out potentially involving hundreds of thousands of people who die. Well I think it's I think it's a mistake to put numbers in which are entirely speculative Basically I'm but they will be like people do when they listen to Professor Ferguson and they look at and he says 60 percent and then he says one percent seem to be dying and they they they put it together are you saying wrong so what we will do is as the numbers because at the moment the actual numbers we're seeing out of China as a variable that is really difficult to put a fix or could be the one percent or could even be a lot less than that so what I think once you know once we get to the point the other series fix it it looks as if there is a. An epidemic rolling our way which is possible I would be delighted to come back to this program and talk through a real numbers rather than a new sense entirely understood a final point about China you said you want to get back to and this is important because the been various changes in the figures coming out of China I mean this was the broad question is the extent to which you think what we hear from China is now believable I think that it is very clear that the Chinese health service has found it really quite difficult to deal with this upswing of this infection and I think a lot of what we're seeing is not people deliberately misleading but simply that the reality is taking a long time to catch up with the facts and the 2 coming together so I mean I think it's not so much we disbelieve it but I think we have to have huge confidence vote of uncertainty around the numbers we're seeing not because we think that people are misleading us deliberately but they don't I think have the correct figures at this point in time Professor Chris witty chief medical officer for England thank you very much for coming in today right thank you for inviting me 20 minutes past 8 over the next 24 hours the prime minister will be giving some ministers the knowledge and others the elbow as he does his 1st major cabinet reshuffle since the election so will it be tweaks or a complete overhaul and what will we learn from the process Laura can spokes our political editor and is outside Downing Street I've been keeping an eye on the front door. Or haven't really seen any people coming out with smiles bounding out smiles or slinking out with. Grimaces but this stops now does it. It's starting very soon and following a pattern of a certain kind of Westminster diplomacy ministers I understand we fired in the privacy of the Prime Minister's wood paneled glory of offices in the heart of Commons those who are likely to go the current business secretary under lead some the Northern Ireland secretary Julian Smith is also in the firing line the housing minister estimate they is also expected to be on the way out now I stress none of this is confirmed until it actually happens because reshuffles very very often don't turn out quite as Downing Street expects the whole thing is like a pack of dominoes but there's expected to be on their way up through a bit later on will be trotting grinning up Downing Street and Mary Trevellyan who's been a defense minister who's on her way up to the cabinet we expect Alex Sharma the Secretary of State for International Development has also been at it for a promotion I stress though this is a bit like Grand National Day you know the Westminster village is like the crowded Aintree full of bets and gossip and expectation and often what seems to be even the most solid tips to end up going a ride but this one more broadly the anything like the total clear out when Boris Johnson arrived in number 10 you know they started with an empty white board then as I understand it and filled it with the team that they wanted to build only after they finalize that they realised that actually that meant more than 15 ministers were losing their jobs what can we learn from the direction of travel what you know work what signals will it give us. Well the makeup of the cabinet really matters especially when you have a prime minister with an enormous majority because the number 10 machine has been sort of pulling in power and the cabinet is only is one of the only possible breaks on the prime minister now to be able to focus today on how many women end up at the top table because some of them are expected to be out there time want to stress the promotion of women at the lower levels of government in the hope of a better gender specific top table next time around but it will look very carefully at the makeup of the whole team when it's all done who are the ministers who might be strong enough to stand up to Boris Johnson who are those who are individual imaginative thinkers or who are just going to be there is sort of loyal ballast for the prime minister but Boris Johnson has so far given the impression at least he wants Secretary of States to be able to just get on with their jobs and not be a micromanager So these are positions of real influence and Rio imports but it's also really interesting to note the Government has backed away from this being a huge dramatic reset and a huge rewiring of the machinery of government which suggests you know a lot of the appetite for reform that was Johnson seemed to show at the beginning of his time in office may quite not be as for a shift as he'd thought you talk about the candidates who would be able to stand up to the sort of independent thinking one of those Michael Gove fits that description is quite a lot of interest and where he ends up this being talked about running the climate summit later this year running it just to taking the lead in Briggs negotiations where do you see him ending up. Well I see him as being an absolutely vital part of this government team there's no question that he's an extremely influential member of the government and you're right he is someone who every time any job or new role or extra responsibility is mentioned in Westminster people sort of whisper Well of course that will end up with Gove he sort of sucking in everything potentially even the constitutional review his name has been mentioned in connection with that I'm not sure however today foresee any form or adaptation of his role of course he's sort of well he's in a great position at the moment anyway is the sort of pulling the strings These are the chief executive with Boris is the Boris Johnson as the chairman Lord people put it that work for some people would make that characterization certainly and there's no question you know tucked away in the Cabinet Office seems like this quite obscure but no doubt that is an extremely important position in the government it is likely that he may be doing the parliamentary end of the BRICs that trade negotiations although David Frost the prime minister's top e.u. Official will be doing the actual haggling across the table with Michel Barnier Ok but it will be interesting even though we don't expect big bang changes to Whitehall really there may well be some rather interesting tweaks under the surface that do make a difference in terms of direction of travel Ok we'll watch this space Laura thanks very much indeed 26 minutes past 8 it is a month since lot of hootin announced that he wanted to rewrite the Russian constitution and later today is going to be inviting senior politicians and public figures to his country's state to move the process forward critics of the Russian president claim that the constitution reform had only one aim ready to allow Mr Putin to remain in power in some shape or form after 2024 when his presidential term ends so how would Russians feel about how Moscow correspondent Steve Rosenberg has been travelling to Russia's industrial heartland to find out. A 1000 miles from Moscow. To him for the. The come with me into the world of a brush and pensioner on his there was a cow sort of that is raising 4 of her grandchildren by herself in her tiny flat. Just. To stay fit and positive every day funny dances to pop music on her mobile phone she shows me. The body is twisting and turning to the beat on t.v. She tells me she likes Sudoku watching boxing on t.v. And sometimes she says she goes out to give lectures. What about when I ask 6 sex well was she replies. I'm lost for words but the news ya never read and there is one thing she loves talking about more than anything else. President Clinton the outs of the law all of the why you don't want hear he's my favorite subject that I'm a Putin is she beams he can sing do politics every think he's boosted our country and he wears a lovely shirts I want him to be president forever but he could kill as well as think that the will really get and funny she should say that the a. Serious issue he is adamant Hooten is trying to rewrite the constitution to make Russia stronger he says but his critics claim it so that he can rule forever if not as president than in some other role. In funny as hometown Magnitogorsk in rustbelt Russia there's a mixed response to the idea of Putin forever. cursed 2 still at a tram stop Nicholai tells me let Putin stay on Stalin rules as he wanted but Luke Miller disagrees with those who bought her the wages of falling health care is getting worse she says and Putin's The problem he's got to go but if he doesn't want to there's nothing we can do about it. Here at the local Ice Hockey Stadium the crowd is excited about the game. But not about what's happening to the Constitution to be undermined by anything. A steelworker cool picture tells me people's priority is to feed their families to survive they don't have time to think about politics. Was. But some Russians do need the media yes they don't think yeah yeah let's leave out in another part of the us you Catarina book protesters are accusing their president of a constitutional cuckoo and you know but they never get me in the tally it tells me that the authorities are using the Constitution like toilet paper bag label my year to wipe their bottoms which have got stuck to the throne 2. There are the only $200.00 protesters here activist Tatiana is philosophical. I'd like my protest to count she says. The Today programme continues on f.m. But here on Radio 4 longwave on digital radio and on b.b.c. Sounds it's time for yesterday in Parliament with me Sean Curran Good morning from Westminster coming up between now and 9 up close and personal Jeremy Corbyn brings up the Prime Minister's past as he criticizes the deportation of foreign offenders plans for a new law to stop the automatic release of terrorist offenders a rush through the Commons and Boris Johnson is accused of ignoring the plight of the Syrian people Downing Street has spent the last few days brushing aside criticism of the decision to deport convicted offenders to Jamaica in the face of legal challenges and opposition anger the Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn return to the issue yesterday does the prime minister think that someone who came to this country at the age of 5 and was in and was the victim of county lines grooming and compelled to carry drugs released 5 years ago and never really offended deserves to be 45 minister this is because I think the whole country I would agree that while I cannot comment on individual cases it is entirely right that foreign national offenders should be deported from this country to enter in accordance with the law Mr Corbyn said ministers had learnt nothing from the wind rush scandal and accuse the government of misleading people into thinking that only people convicted of murder rape and other very serious offenses were being deported and then the Labor leader launched a rare personal attack on the prime minister if there was a case of a young boy white boy. With a blonde who later dabbled in class a drugs and conspired with a friend to beat up a journalist what he did pull out that. Boy or is it all Mr Speaker is it one rule for young black boys from the Caribbean and another for white boys from the United States Boris Johnson muttered something as Jeremy Corbyn asked his question when he got to his feet the prime minister hit back at the Labor leader I think quite frankly that the right honorable Gentleman demeaned himself and by the way as you noted were the same the trees the reputation the smirch is the reputation of the wind rush generation who came to this country to work in our public services to teach our children in this country to make life better for the people of this country he has no right to conflate them with those already. Given the angry nature of those exchanges it was something of a surprise when a few minutes later Boris Johnson said he agreed with Jeremy Corbin after the Labor leader criticised the U.K.'s extradition arrangements with the United States Mr Corbyn had raised the u.s. Government's refusal to extradite the woman charged with causing the death of 19 year old Harry done by dangerous driving in North Hampton China last August this is only the latest case of our country's one sided extradition treaty with the USA This is not sided treaty means the us can request extradition in circumstances that Britain cannot while the us continues to deny justice to Harry done will the prime minister commit to day to seek an equal and balanced extradition relationship with the United States Prime Minister Mr Speaker I to be frank I think the honorable gentleman has a point in his characterization of our exclusion arrangements with United States and I do think that there is a there are elements of that relationship that are unbalanced I search and bags I certainly think that it is worth looking at but here it is. Totally different from the case of Harry down and and sick of that and we continue to seek the extradition of answer could ask to face justice in this country but the prime minister obviously find it easier to agree with some opponents than others later in the exchanges the s. And P's Kirsten Oswald asked about changes to the tax free allowance claimed by members of the Lords which would use a come into effect in April the new dealy elements for the anaemic to an unaccountable piers being stuffed into the House of Lords by the prime minister is set to rise to $323.00 players the monthly allowance for a single person over 25 on Universal Credit is $317.00 poesy the $24.00 of us is that the levelling up the prime minister keeps talking about. A wide stream of I don't he agree with these people actually I thought I do but I do if I do if I do find I do find that it is it is all but those militant chosen to do that but it is a decision for their s.n.p. M.P.'s weren't happy at that reference to these people one of the parties M.P.'s Richard Thompson was quick to challenge Boris Johnson over nother issue and 2018 lib often you can the wife of like to be a pittance a former deputy finance minister paid $20000.00 pounds for lunch with a very conservative leader riff Davidson who we believe should be a normal kid the prime minister remind the host once more why his government is yet to publish the Intelligence and Security Committee ship or intelligence Russian interference in your case politics. As as I think as I think he knows very well the report will be published as soon as the intelligence theory committee is reconvened and I think as I told the House several times before those of a conspiratorial cast of mind will be disappointed by its findings the prime. Minister emergency legislation designed to end the release of people convicted of terrorism offenses halfway through their sentence has been backed by M.P.'s the measures which will apply in England Scotland and Wales were 5 strikes through the Commons as Mandy Baker reports the bill was join up after Sudesh a man stabbed 2 people on a street in Stratham in south London earlier this month he'd been freed from prison 10 days before under the automatic early release scheme having served half his sentence for terror offenses the legislation is being passed in a rush because on February the 28th another convicted terrorist is due to be released after serving half his sentence for encouraging terrorism the justice secretary Robert Buckland began by explaining the reasons for the new arrangements to standardize the earliest point at which they may be considered for release at 2 thirds of the sentence imposed and secondly to require that the parole board assess whether they're safe to release between that moment and the end of their sentence this will apply to all terrorist and terrorist related offenses where the maximum penalty is above 2 years including those offenses for which suggestion was sentenced M.P.'s from all sides indorse the measures but that didn't mean they didn't have questions the former prime minister to resign made was one of the 1st to her feet she was concerned about rehabilitation does marginal friend agree that actually we will never deal with this issue of terrorism until we deal with the ideology that drives it and we really reassure me that the government is made taking extra efforts to find new paths to ensure that we can turn people away from the extremism and the terrorism that takes other people's lives and yeah Robert Buckland did try to reassure her there is a constant if you like a self questioning amongst those responsible for these particular programs to make sure that they are properly calibrated that they understand the. Killer drivers that mean that people are compelled to commit these acts the conservative Tobias Elwood who's chair of the Defense Committee echoed that point we have to ask ourselves why these people are indoctrinated in the 1st place where he agree with me that we need to do more to remove that harmful online content which is you so much to attract people to the stop place they go to the justice secretary said the threat was continually evolving this government will be as fleet of foot as possible in responding to those changes and he'll be glad to note that when it comes to online content we are working at pace in order to remove inappropriate and hateful content a conservative former attorney general Jeremy Wright pay tribute to the work of prison in Mom's Can you reassure us that given the extra time in custody that many of these prisoners will now see these sorts of effective and in many cases very brave interventions by prison the moms will be given the extra time available to take further effect the justice secretary said it was precisely that type of specialist intervention that the government would be encouraging but labor same amount wanted how this was going to be paid for the resources available to police and probation is also a critical part of this change legislation won't be enough is he also committed to making sure that the resources required through the justice system will be in place to make any change effective on the court Robert Buckland said whatever resources were needed would be provided Labor supported the bill but the shadow security minister Nick Thomas Simmons felt the government should have seen this problem coming I do think the House today is entitle to ask the question as to why we have ended up requiring this law to be made by remote and see legislation automatically release is hardly new it's been part of our system for many years and could have already been dealt with by. Government The took a more strategic approach his fellow Labor m.p. Effect Cooper who chairs the Home Affairs Committee said the warnings were there she quoted what Neil pursue the u.k. Head of counterterrorism had told her committee in October 28th the points that some of that radicalizes are getting short sentences coming out and being able to continue is a problem as not having sufficient resources in place to use desisted or disengagement programs for the s.n.p. Kenny MacAskill said his party understood the urgency and wouldn't oppose the bill but he said there were risks Ben always conscious of the analogy of was in the jar if you shake them all about and then you let them out then you're going to get stung but the chair of the Justice Committee the conservative support Neil didn't think ministers would get stung the very real reality of blood being shed on the streets of this culture in itself it seems to me is a compelling reason and the fact that people have been releasing them very so swiftly and very frequently seized articles and news into catastrophic effect it seems to me to make this legislation both necessary and in the proportion that as well the bill passed all its stages in the Commons now it will go to the Lords for the approval of Pearce Mandy Baker You're listening to yesterday in Parliament on b.b.c. Radio 4 long grave with me shorn Karen now more than 600000 people of thought to have fled their homes in northern Syria since December the un says it's the biggest displacement of people since the Syrian crisis began 9 years ago the leader of the s.n.p. At Westminster in Blackford accuse the British government of washing its hands of the Syrian people and northern city of displaced women and their children are literally freezing to death. There are reports of babies dying due to the. Extreme conditions and 45000 people remain stranded with nowhere to go but the speaker of the city and war is considered to have caused the biggest weave of displacement since the 2nd World War. Can the prime minister tell the hosts what responsibility his government has taken for this humanitarian crisis in the. World Mr Speaker I think that the whole house will know what what I think I've said several times in this house that the u.k. Leads the world in supporting the crisis and supporting the humanitarian relief efforts in Syria 3200000000 pounds this country has committed to that calls in Blackford complained that Boris Johnson hadn't answered his question he said when Mr Johnson was Foreign Secretary in 2017 he enacted a policy of accepting President Assad's rule over the country a man who has gassed his own civilians the humanitarian situation has reached crisis point and there are no concerns of war is the message the prime minister wants to send out from this house the day that this u.k. Government is washing its hands of the Syrian people I'm not here scared Ted but Assad's regime to continue and that taking these atrocities Boris Johnson defended the government's record I really think that the right honorable gentleman need to consult his memory better because he will find that this country and this government has persistently called for the end of the Asaad regime and indeed has has led the world has led the world in denouncing the cruelty of the Ass Out regime towards towards his own people that has been continuously the policy of the British government the prime minister the incoming governor of the Bank of England says the u.k. And the e.u. Must find a way to settle disagreements over the workings of the finance industry without descending into what he called a metaphorical punch up and drew Bailey was talking to a lot committee Alysia McCarthy reports it's estimated that financial services contributed 132000000000 pounds to the u.k. Economy in 2000. 18 with more than a 1000000 jobs in the sector leaving the e.u. Means a change to how those businesses can operate until Breck's it they were able to work freely across the European Union but now that depend on a system known as equivalents allowing access in certain areas if laws and supervisory frameworks are deemed equivalent to be use at the moment the rules are the same but a conservative lady Kuti wondered where do you envisage the relationship it between the u.k. Financial services at ending up and perhaps more importantly where would you like it to be answering lady cuties question was Andrew Bailey currently head of the Financial Conduct of 30 and soon to take over from Mark Carney as governor of the Bank of England regulator Corp placed you know that the referendum has reminder strongly deliberately on both sides going out we have very strong relations with our council count us and we've been very few things Marshall those are not eroded Secondly I think you have to have mechanisms to say Ok the answer day we each take our decision but the process by which we reach the you know the assessment is not going to be done you know on on on a separate planet that would need to be coordination and an understanding of what the other was doing and that was important because they've been mix ups in the past you would want to have a mechanism to say Ok let's sit down and talk about what we're doing it because we don't think we're doing that we think we're doing sensible things you know if that ended up in a sort of you know a much more compunction about rates on a fret to a drawer equivalence I mean that process just would not work properly. But Lady cutie wondered what would happen if the u.k. Wanted to make changes to its financial services are you confident that if we do diverging areas say like building societies which are pretty you need a or annuity pensions or there's various areas where there would be very good reasons for us to have domestic Dyke divergence and we may on some things which actually cross over in a sort of international types of areas of business for for good sound reasons are you saying that you think the mechanisms of that then to have that dialogue so that we don't lose the equivalence Andrew Bailey said Piers needed to look at the circumstances where the u.k. And the e.u. Might want to move apart clearly both of us are going to have to review our rulebooks we do because the woman is wrong and also you know let's be honest about London rethink perfectly 1st time in a very bizarre world with and Andrew Bailey said there were some e.u. Rules such as those relating to pension annuities that didn't work well for the u.k. And some financial businesses such as building societies that didn't do international trade and labor payload decide looked at the future relationship the other way around what are the risks of really very close alignment this time Sam Woods from the Bank of England we don't think that we can have confidence about our mandate of meant any financial stability if we have no say of the rules given the size of the financial sector we haven't given the fact that it's very different from what there is in most of the rest of the Andrew Bailey said the rule book that existed today had been developed with a lot of input from the u.k. And that had been pretty successful over the years now of course we're going to move into a world where that's not going to be the case so it can to factually what the what the future will look like in the absence of the others is obviously hard judge but it's clearly a risk if we were to be locked in to question that it's likely a conservative and former Treasury minutes that lady Neville Rolf wondered if the u.k. Could take a different rate. Where the opportunity to communicate a diversion from future erode the Bank of England Sam Woods had an example we are very keen on the idea of a simpler model we could have a simpler regime for small firms absurdly small bags. I believe Michael is we've that would be a good thing both from a safety and soundness and from competition and from a competitiveness perspective we'd like to work such thing up it's very difficult to get such thing agreed in the e.u. $2813.00 because one person's big is of course the small and things of that kind but he thought it could be done by the u.k. And wouldn't be affected by the equivalence rules that he added wryly whether that proved to be true or not remains to be seen Alysia McAfee there's been renewed pressure on the government to do more to help leasehold flat out who's who's buildings have Grenfell style clattering freeholders are supposed to replace the cladding but very little of the work has been done in the meantime according to the labor m.p. Hilary Benn the nice man and expense for the leaseholders continues just imagine for a moment you've saved up all your money your bought your 1st flat it's the home of your dreams you move in the future beckons and then one day a letter drops on the map and it's from your managing agent and it tells you your home is actually in a building that's now been judged a fires because of unsafe cladding and that as a lease shop you must immediately that they start paying for waking watch otherwise or all of you are going to have to move out of your homes in one case in lead currently that waking what is costing each flat over $670.00 pounds a month plus the 80. On top of their mortgage and their service the housing minister estimates vary congratulated Hilary Benn and other M.P.'s for raising their constituents issues cases concerns and dire lemmas we all know that this is causing much stress anguish to residents and how do we support everybody in that but I think people can also appreciate that issue was evolving as as time goes on and and we also understand it is of no fault to the person who is a lease holder who bought their home and now things have happened and I think we all understand that really anybody could be one of those lease holders and it is happening to so many Hilary Benn is looking to the budget next month when he hopes the government will announce what it's going to do to make sure lease holders don't have to pay now Piers have criticised the processes behind the bricks and other referendums the calls for changes to be made ahead of any Auburn national polls Rachel Byrne reports it's not yet a month since the u.k. Left the European Union and the impact of the e.u. Referendum is still felt keenly by the Labor peer Lord Soli not least with discussion of another Scottish independence referendum on the possibility of an on and vote the horrors of the way of politics and economics with divided in the country or gripped it is bad precisely because it was a narrow division and it would be even worse if the same happen did Scotland or particularly in Northern Ireland Nord slowly has said in the past that referendums are a bad idea at the best of times and that referendums on complex issues are an even worse idea he said there should at least be a requirement on minimum voter turnout and a higher level of approval in order to make major change the e.u. Ref. Brenda resulted in a 52 to 48 percent vote in favor of leaving the e.u. For the government Lord Howe explained why he didn't believe the Lord so these suggestions would work this country has no history of applying thresholds to the making of laws for example or the electing of our representatives and both of those things require a simple majority to start applying special thresholds peripheral thems would I think require a special justification and a clear justification Labour's Lord Grey court reflected on the last 3 u.k. Referendums on the voting system Scottish independence and Bracks it one of the bizarre characteristics is that within before the ink was dry on the results of those referenda. The losers were campaigning for a 2nd referendum to reverse the 1st one therefore shouldn't one characteristic of a referendum to diffuse should be that there should be a minimum interval between the same question being asked in order to Tyler a liberal Democrat was concerned about the funding of the referendum I know it's just the government except that the worst failures with the 2016 referendum actually were concerned with transparency and funding we still do not know who paid for how much and for what and whether some significant sums were illegally foreign sources and with that he moved on to a report into alleged Russian interference in u.k. Democracy from Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee the long awaited i s c report on Russian inference may be very relevant here when when the prime minister authorize its publication. The White House said the government had no evidence to show that there was any successful interference in the 26000 referendum However we take any allegations of interference in our processes the democratic process is extremely serious. My understanding is that the report that the noble Lord refers to has been released by the prime minister Lady O'Neill an independent or crossbench peer said there was limited evidence of foreign influence over the e.u. Referendum or on President Trump selection but today there is much more evidence about this information campaigning and many reports including by the Oxford Internet Institute which I believe give us great cause for worry about the future of democracy note a new be another liberal Democrats noted that the minister had set the I ask the Russia report had been released by Boris Johnson when would it be published a lot of the call from this house was for the prime minister to release the report cleared a report for publication it is not the function of the government to publish it is the function of the Intelligence and Security Committee the Intelligence and Security Committee is get to reconvene following the general election Rachel Byrne Well the big day has finally arrived soon we'll know who's up who's down who's in who's out who's been shaken all about its parts Johnson's 1st big cabinet reshuffle ministers have known it was coming since the election and there's been some not so subtle lobbying by members of the government who've read speculation that they're heading for the exit and that means the small accession of questions to the attorney general will be even more interesting than usual will Geoffrey Cox still be in his post in half an hour here to help us think about today's events is Daniel Cramer from the B.B.C.'s political research unit so Donald is laid to speculation Geoffrey Cox was basically saying yesterday he will be a really good idea if there are some lawyers in the government who he could be talking about we do not know what we think is going to happen over the course of today well there are a few mixed messages from what he was saying yesterday to the Institute for government he kind of suggested he'd love to keep the job he said. If he was given the opportunity to continue he would quite embrace it eagerly but also respect to the Prime Minister's decision if he did and there's also talk of him moving to a different role so if he was sacked it wouldn't really necessarily been seen as a sacking because there's a potential commission that the government wants to start into how to reform the judiciary but it will be interesting to see how many M.P.'s will probe him on whether he still expects to be in the job and what do we think might happen today I mean there's a lot of speculation that a lot of women ministers could be leaving and that could change the makeup of the cabinet so the government's been on this is that there's been talk that the proportion of women in Kapanen might decrease but that could be offset some say that isn't being offset by an increase in the number of women in senior ministerial roles there may be an increase in the level of minister of state which is the one below cabinet minister but it is already quite low in the cabinet so out of the 31 politicians who attend cabinet only 8 of them are women so if we go down it won't seem great in terms of proportion that could mean even more men sitting around the Cabinet table give us an idea about their profile their background people who are sitting there now so in terms of educational background that often been criticism that sitting around the Cabinet table have been lots of Oxbridge private school and independent white men there is interesting at the moment in Boris Johnson's current cabinet 61 percent of the 31 who attend cabinet went to private school but only 42 percent of them went to Oxbridge and currently there are 6 members of the Cabinet who are b. And b. So I'm sure the numbers will go up and down journalists such as may well go through all the numbers and try and pick. News lines from it now all of this is going to distract those of us who are going to be watching what's going on in the Houses of Parliament it's the last day before parliament takes a half term break often quite a quiet day in the chamber possibly while the prime minister is deciding to do is reshuffle Len But is there anything we should be looking out for today so there will be attorney general questions and they'll also be that the part of a Digital Culture Media and Sport before that so that's the final departmental questions the Lords have much more on their plate today and they could be around until the evening lots of different things but includes a debate from the crossbench Lord Hope who's leading a debate on the threats posed by pets and diseases to native trees in the u.k. And then another one on safety of smart motorways So it's a lot of things to wrap up before have to actually thank you very much Daniel lots for us to look forward to you've been listening to yesterday in Parliament with me Sean Carroll the editor was Rachel Byrne It doesn't matter who's in or out we'll still be here same time same place tomorrow until then from us good morning. News at 9 o'clock Turner has sex 2 of the most senior Communist Party officials in who they province amid accusations that the extent of the coronavirus epidemic has been suppressed the pair were fired after the authorities revealed a big increase in the scale of the outbreak partly caused by the use of a broader definition to diagnose cases England's chief medical.