Hello, and welcome to tuesday in parliament. Parliament gets back to work after the christmas break amid a crisis in the middle east. The defence secretary calls on iran to show restraint after one of its senior commanders was killed by the us. Her majestys government urges iran to return to the normal behaviour of the country it aspires to be and resist the urge to retaliate. The labour leader says Boris Johnson is too scared to stand up to President Trump. At this highly dangerous moment, we find the government giving cover and even expressing sympathy for what is widely regarded as an illegal act. Also on the programme a message of solidarity to the australian people as they face ravaging bushfires. The magnitude of the disaster unfolding in australia should shock us all, with human and animal lives and precious species of fauna being destroyed. This is a wake up call for the world. The festivities are over. The new year began for mps returning to westminster with a serious crisis in the middle east. Last friday, the iranian general Qasem Soleimani was killed in a drone strike ordered by the us president donald trump. General soleimani was tasked with promoting iranian interests abroad and was considered to be a hero in iran. But to the us, he was a terrorist whod orchestrated attacks on us interests. President trump said he was acting on an imminent threat when he ordered the strike. Iran has threatened a crushing revenge on the us, raising fears of a conflict between the two countries. The defence secretary ben wallace said he had a deep regard for the nation of iran. He visited iran alongside the labour Leaderjeremy Corbyn in 2014. It is a wonderful place with a very dynamic population and the world owes a great deal to its culture and its history. But in recent times, iran has felt its intentions are best served through the nefarious use of proxies and the use of subversion as a Foreign Policy tool. It has provided practical military support to the murderous assad regime in syria, stoked conflict in yemen, armed military groups in iraq and has repeatedly harassed international shipping, including uk shipping in the strait of hormuz. According to the us, he said, general soleimani organised a strike against a Us Military Base in iraq in december and was coordinating further attacks. The main focus of the uk government is to de escalate this issue. None of us wants conflict. None of us wants our citizens, our friends and our allies to be put at risk. In the coming days, we will be doing all we can to encourage iran to take a different path. No one should be under any illusion that long before the death of general soleimani, iran has stepped up its destabilising activities in the region. Whether it was targeting dissidents in europe or hijacking civilian ships, this aggressive behaviour was never going to go unchallenged. Her majestys government urges iran to return to the normal behaviour of the country it aspires to be and resist the urge to retaliate. Jeremy corbyn accused borisjohnson of hiding behind his defence secretary. Could you tell us where the Prime Minister is and what is he doing that is so much more important than addressing parliament on the assassination of iranian general soleimani . An extremely dangerous and aggressive act that risks starting yet another deadly war in the middle east. Is the truth not that he is scared to stand up to President Trump because he has hitched his wagon to the prospect of a toxic trump deal . Instead, at this highly dangerous moment, we find the government giving cover and even expressing sympathy for what is widely regarded as an illegal act because they are so determined to keep in with President Trump. This assassination puts british troops and civilians as well as the people of the region in danger. We have had the usual tripe about this is about trump, this is about america and all the anti american and anti imperialistic guff that we have had from it. The leader of the opposition asked where the Prime Minister is. Well, funnily enough, the Prime Minister is running the country, something the leader of the opposition will fail to ever do as a result of the election. These benches of course hold no candle for the general or indeed the actions of the iranian government, but i would simply say to the secretary that it is not anti american to question and press the government on what it is doing in relation to its closest ally. The secretary says the us is confident that the general had coordinated the 27th of december attacks and was planning further attacks, but i ask him how confident is he that that is correct, because there is certainly no consensus on capitol hill amongst congressional leaders that that is the case. A former foreign secretary offered an explanation for the failure of the us to inform the uk. It is disappoiting we were not informed about this attack in advance, but does the secretary agreed that may be partly because his administration does have a habit of doing a lot of things unilaterally, it is also because of growing skepticism in washington about european commitment to Global Security because of the vast disparity in defence spending between European Countries and the United States . Tulip siddiq raised the case of her constituent, whos been imprisoned in iran for nearly four years. When i met the former foreign secretary and now Prime Minister, he told me and my constituent Richard Ratcliffe that he would leave no stone unturned to ensure the release of my constituent Nazanin Zaghari ratcliffe. So i was alarmed to hear the present foreign secretary over the weekend when he seemed to agree with him that there was nothing the government can do to ensure the release of Nazanin Zaghari ratcliffe. So i ask which is it . Is our government going to leave no stone unturned to ensure that she comes home . Or are british prisoners going to be left to rot injail in iran while the situation between the us and iran escalates more and more . This government will do everything it can to get released from iranian prisons, notjust her constituent but the very many dual nationals currently languishing in those jails. And as she will know, this has been a long term Foreign Policy tool of the iranian government, to incarcerate people it does not like or to intimidate nations. Hostagetaking which takes some extent some prisoners are certainly, is a tool in the iranian handbook for many decades. The defence secretary ben wallace. On tuesday morning, it was announced that the budget will take place on the 11th of march. The chancellor of the exchequer, sajid javid, told the bbc that there would be an infrastructure revolution and billions of pounds would be invested across the country. Coincidentally, mrjavid was also up before mps answering questions. Labour focused on productivity and reports over the christmas break that borisjohnsons controversial aide, dominic cummings, had called for a different sort of person to apply forjobs in whitehall. The Prime Ministers special adviser now wants a Civil Service perhaps modelled on the cabinet, comprised of weirdos and misfits with odd skills. So as a member. As a member of that cabinet, what weird explanation does the chancellor have as to why according to the office of national statistics, productivity is following at its fastest annual pace for five years . We have just had an unprecedented decade of growth. It is the first decade of uninterrupted growth. Only the third time since 1700 that we have had an uninterrupted decade of growth thanks to the work of this government. And when it comes to weirdos and misfits, i know there are many on that side of the house, but they need not apply. That speaks volumes. The worst recovery since the industrial revolution. Is that what this government can be proud of . It is pathetic, absolutely pathetic. More blustar, more blustar from the chancellor but the facts are absolutely clear. Most people are worse off under tory economic mismanagement. Working longer hours on flatlining real pay. So what targets has the chancellor set for improved productivity and will he make way for another weirdo or misfit when inevitably they are not met . We should never forget that the last Labour Government gave us the deepest recession in almost. The deepest recession in almost 100 years and the british people were clever enough to not allow them to do it again. And now they turn around and they throw stones at the firefighters who put out the fire that they set in our economy. That is what they do. We will not take any lessons from the party opposite. The snp was cross about the date of the budget. He may not be aware, but the 11th of march is the day by which councils in scotland legally have to set local tax rates. The delay has been described as worrying and because the spokesperson of the conservative counsellor has said this will cynically impede local authorities and disadvantage scotlands communities. Can he tell me whether he thinks it is fair to scottish local government must set its budgets one fall without any notion of what their programme will be and is not the truth the chancellor has given no thought to scotland at all . In the election we just had, we talked and time and time again about the need to unleash the potential of the entire United Kingdom. Of course, that includes all of scotland. Where scotland has been let down time and time again is by the snp government, which has given scottish people the highest taxes in the United Kingdom and the worst set of public services. Another talking point over the christmas recess has been the balance of spending between london and the north of england. I think it is good theres consensus across the house of a need to invest particularly in transport in the north. I noted on the 27th of december the chancellor agreed with those comments in the story that was published in the times. I just wonder whether this house or my constituents would really have to wait until the middle or beginning of march in order to get the actual detail of what this will mean and is it not right that this house hears first rather than the newspapers . I think the honourable lady is referring to the governments plans to review all of our frameworks, processes and mechanisms to allocate investment spending. That work is of course under way and has more details emerge, the chancellor of the members will update the house as required. And there was a question about the troubled highspeed rail link hs2. Now that lord buckley has laid bare the overspend and lack of return on investment of h52, will the chancellor now pull the plug on this White Elephant project and ensure the money is spent on Infrastructure Projects across the north to benefit the regional economy, starting with Northern Powerhouse rail with a station stop in bradford and the much needed and long awaited bypass . I thank my honourable friend for the robust yorkshire question. As a fellow northern mp, i am obviously very keen to get cracking with higher transport Infrastructure Investment in the north, something this government is committed to do. On hsz, as he knows, the government has commissioned a review to evaluate this scheme and will report in due course and will lay those findings before the comments. The speaker sir Lindsay Hoyle has called the bush fires ravaging parts of australia a wake up call for the world. At least 25 people and millions of animals have died in the fires, which have been exacerbated by high temperatures and severe drought. Almost 2,000 houses have been destroyed. The speaker told mps that hed reached out to the australian parliament. On behalf of the whole house, i wish to express deepest sympathies with the people of australia as they continue to experience the horrific wildfires which are laying waste to so much and to send a message of solidarity to our commonwealth colleagues in the australian parliament. We pay tribute to the firefighters and all those who are putting their lives at risk. The magnitude of the disaster unfolding in australia should shock us all, with human and animal life and precious species of fauna being destroyed. This is a wake up call for the world. All australians are in our thoughts and prayers. I just want to inform the house i did ring the speaker of australia five days ago to express oui worries and concerns. Therell be a government statement on the fires in australia on thursday. Youre watching tuesday in parliament with me, kristiina cooper. Now, its time to catch up with brexit matters. So, where were we . Last december, the Prime Minister, armed with a majority of 80 mp5, easily secured commons approval for his eu Withdrawal Agreement bill. This puts into law the terms on which the uk will leave the eu. But many arrangements for british people after brexit, on travelling and working in europe for example, havent been settled yet. In the lords, peers wanted to know how the government intended to protect Job Opportunities in the eu for its citizens. Is the minister aware of the recent survey indicating that thousands of uk jobs in the seasonal Tourism Sector have disappeared in the last year alone . Much of our trade with europe and services, including it and the creative industries, will not be viable unless the disadvantages of leaving the Single Market loss of Free Movement, uncertainties of the a1 certificate, the cost of moving equipment such as Musical Instruments are fully addressed. Is the government working on a solution . Blue cards are not it. For the many british workers now on contract who are now deeply worried. My lords, let me assure the noble lord that of course we are working in a very pragmatic fashion with our eu partners. The political declaration, as i have already said, includes a commitment to conclude ambitious arrangements for services and investment that go beyond wto commitments, build on recent eu free trade agreements and provide new arrangements on key services, including financial services. The noble earl will also be pleased to know that we have agreed that we will negotiate for free travel for short term visits and the temporary entry and stay of citizens for business purposes in key areas. This will also allow businesses to move their employees and to provide them services, and we are also considering conditions for entry and stay for purposes including research, study, training and youth exchanges. But i wonder if the minister can tell us whether government is addressing the issue of british residents who reside in one eu country, but have been working across several countries, across borders and of course Free Movement rights give them that flexibility. One thinks of translators, interpreters and musicians that the noble earl mentioned, and many other professions. Is the government addressing their challenge to continue to practise their profession without having to try and get work permits in every country in which they might be called upon to work at short notice . My lords, as the noble lady will know, we have agreed to protect the rights of eu citizens in the uk and also we are working with our eu partners to assure uk nationals rights in the eu under the Withdrawal Agreement. The issues and the detail along the lines of what the noble lady has suggested of course are very much in the mix in the discussions we are having with the european union. Issues of residence, rights of workers, issues she raised in the musical industry, often people are self employed, those are also very much in the discussions we will continue to have, and these will be part of the details that will emerge from the political declaration which has already been stated. These are people who have spent many years working in the eu, in eu countries. 750,000 of our citizens are doing that. How confident is the noble lord, the minister, that we will be able to conclude arrangements covering all these complex issues by december of this year . My lords, there were many who doubted that the Withdrawal Agreement could not have been reopened. It was and a new deal was presented, and that is making its passage through both houses of parliament, and we hope to agree the first stage of the Withdrawal Agreement by the end of this month. Yes, we are confident that we have the resources in place and people in place and we will continue to work across government, including consulting with key sectors to ensure the arrangements that need to be in place by the end of the year are in place. Youll remember that this time last year, the government was frantically trying and failing to scrape together enough backing for the eu Withdrawal Agreement bill. But although thats a distant memory for this conservative administration, it still has to secure parliamentary approval for the legislation. Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay opened the first of three days of detailed scrutiny. The Committee Stage debate with a focus on the implementation of the bill. This bill implements the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated by the Prime Minister. It fulfils the will of the british people and will set the stage for our Bright Future outside of the european union. It lets us take back control of our laws, our money, our borders and our trade policy. This bill delivers on the overwhelming mandate given to us by the british people to get brexit done by the end of january. But while the numbers on the labour benches may have dwindled, they still had an argument to make. The party has put down an amendment seeking an extension to the transition period if a trade deal isnt reached by the end of 2020. We are not seeking to delay brexit. The uk will have left the eu in three weeks time. Nor, and i say to the honourable member who made the point earlier, nor do we want to stay in the transition period any longer than is necessary. But the flexibility that were proposing provides the certainty that business needs. Theres no point in replacing the previous cliff edge, over which the honourable member expressed real concern, with a new cliff edge if the flexibility that we are suggesting is not there. Im grateful to him for giving way, but i still dont think hes making a clear enough case about why he would wish to basically tie the hands of the government in such an unnecessary way and risk both the disaster of no deal, but also justify that there could be perfectly constructive negotiations that are going to happen which wed be prepared to throw away if they cannot fit into the arbitrarily short time of 11 months. So, can he say again what he thinks it is worth running that risk, because it is a risk, a big risk for a businesses and for our economy . I know we have got two days of committee, but it is a very odd intervention from someone who wants us to remain as a member of the european union, to complain that we have an implementation period in order that we dont have two sets of changes facing the Business Community and we give that confidence to businesses for the rest of this year. Essentially, this will be the first trade deal in history where the aim is to put up barriers rather than remove them, so rather than being an easy process, does the minister expect them to be convoluted and difficult . There were plenty of cheerleaders on the government benches backing the Prime Ministers insistence there would be no flexibility on the deadline, such as newly elected gary sambrook. Absolutely astounding that so many members on the opposition benches did not listen to the call from the people in the general election recently that they are fed up of continuous delays and extensions and that the message they gave us on the doorstep was to get brexit done so we could all move on and so we can Start Talking about other things like our nhs, schools and our policing. When both parties who are in negotiation are willing to take forward the negotiation in good spirit, all things are possible. Indeed, in a briefing to eu politicians in november of last year, Michel Barnier himself said that that the timescale would normmally be far too short, but that brussels would strive to have a deal in place by the end of 2020. It is clearly possible to do this deal from the end of 2020. The debate on the legislation will continue for the rest of the week. But moving away from brexit on to health matters, according to recent figures, the number of hospital admissions in england for eating disorders has risen by more than a third over the last two years. In the lords, ministers were urged to increase funding for treatment. Nhs figures show that 19,000 people required hospitalisation for eating disorders in england last year. That figure is more than double what it was a decade ago. With only 649 inpatient beds in the nhs in england to treat people with eating disorders, does the minister agree that the resources to tackle this worrying Mental Health crisis are too scarce . I know the noble baroness has personal expertise in this area. I thank her for her for her question. As she knows, we have taken seriously trying to expand and improve eating Disorder Services in this country. We did invest the extra 30 million in community care. We have also introduced a new waiting time standard which we are on target to meet. But she is right that we need to improve inpatient care as well and we are working hard to deliver on that. A former Health Secretary offered his insight into treatment for eating disorders. Sometimes for young people with severe eating disorders, the point atf which people they are able to meet the criteria for admission to an inpatient bed is so severe that actually it loses some of the benefits from an earlier potential admission. So, can i ask my noble friend to return to the question of how many inpatient beds . We have a deficiency. What is the governments estimate of the extent of that deficiency and what steps are being taken to Commission Additional inpatient beds . We are increasing the number of inpatient commission beds up and down the country. But we are doing that in a way which recognises the fact that it is better to have earlier diagnosis, prevention of the need to admit, and to ensure that we do not wait until the patients are at the stage where they do need admission, which is the primary aim. The exchanges were briefly overshadowed by a burst of chatter from a mobile phone. What pressure can the government bring to bear to improve training for the deadliest. Case in point, i think if we do. Im getting some help from the other side. The noble baroness is quite right on this matter that it is vital all the professionals are trained to look out for potential signs because obviously with such a deadly mental illness. Not sure whether to stop or carry on. And that prompted the lords speaker, lord fowler, to issue a start of term reminder about switching mobile phones off. Well, thats it from tuesday in parliament. David cornock will be here for the rest of the week. But from me, kristiina cooper, goodbye well, the winds have been a real feature of the weather across northern parts of the uk, particularly scotland. Still pretty blustery out there but not as windy as it has been. How about wednesday for most of us . Well, there is both sunshine and rain in the forecast. So here is the big picture across our neck of the woods. There is a big storm just south of iceland, pushing still some clouds in our direction, and it looks as though its going to be pretty cloudy across southern parts of the uk during the course of wednesday, but this is also where we have the milder air, so two areas of weather, really, across the uk on wednesday. The milder, cloudier weather in the south, and the more brisk weather with that fresher atlantic air across northern parts of the uk. And this is what it looks like through the early hours of the morning even some snow showers there, across the hills of scotland, giving a little covering here and there. Clearer spells across this central swathe of the uk, and then to the south we have got the cloudier, milder weather. You can see 12 degrees that is the starting temperature in london early on wednesday. And wednesdays forecast itself, so kind of three areas of weather. So weve got the cloudy and eventually wet weather reaching south western parts of the uk. The bit in the middle here, in fact, from belfast, say, to liverpool, to around about yorkshire, some sunshine. And then weve got the stronger winds, some blustery showers there around western and North Western scotland, and that is how pretty much things continue as we go through the course of wednesday evening, but the rain in the south turns heavier, and it looks as though it will be raining all the way towards east anglia. Now, thursday is giving us a bit of a headache in terms of what the weather is going to bring. It certainly looks like there will be some rain around. A real mix of weather. You can see that wet weather earlier in the morning, even some snow falling across the pennines and southern scotland. There could be some strong winds around as well but, at this stage, it looks as though probably the wintriest of the weather will be out in the channel and, actually, some of us may end up having some sunshine around on thursday. Still mild in that southern south eastern part of the country, 13, maybe 1a, but a lot colder there in scotland, only three, five degrees. We are fairly confident that friday is going to bring some sunshine. It should be for most of us a good end of the week, in terms of the weather. A lot of sunshine around, especially around england, but later on friday it does look as though it will start to turn wet and windy again across western scotland and northern ireland. Thats a hint of things to come as we head into the weekend. If we look at the weather maps through the weekend, again, another big low pressure there, close to iceland, sending weather fronts in our direction so it does look as though, through the weekend into next week, it is going to be very changeable. Bye bye. Welcome to bbc news, im mike embley. Our top stories iran launches a Ballistic Missile attack on a us air base in iraq. The pentagon says the missiles were launched from iran itself hitting targets inside iraq. Welcome to bbc news, im mike embley. Iranian tv says it was in revenge for the american killing of general soleimani in a drone attack last week. His funeral has been taking place in his home city. As the human toll rises in australias bushfires, venezuelas leader has been sworn in as leader of the National Assembly amid chaotic scenes. Facebook announces a ban on deepfake videos, but the policy stops short of prohibiting all doctored videos