you are up—to—date on the headlines. time now for wednesday in parliament. hello and welcome to wednesday in parliament. ministers unveil more help for people living in unsafe high rise flats. homeowners placed in difficult, sometimes impossible situations through no fault of their own. scotland's first minister is under pressure over her government's handling of allegations against her predecessor. so we have failed women, taxpayers money and a cover up at the heart of government, and this whole affair stinks to high heaven. and if it's wednesday in parliament, it must be prime minister's questions: i'm delighted that he's now supporting business - in his latest stunt - of bandwagoneering, not a policy for which he was - famous before, mr speaker. more from those two in a moment. but first, what the housing secretary calls the "largest ever government investment" in building safety. robertjenrick has announced an extra three and a half billion pounds to help pay for the removal of flammable cladding from high rise residential buildings residents in lower rise blocks will be offered loans. many thousands of flat owners have been left in unsafe, unsellable homes facing huge bills for fire safety improvements after the grenfell tower fire three and a half years ago. flames at the block in west london spread via combustible cladding, killing 72 people. robertjenrick described the plan he was announcing as an "unprecedented intervention". we have all been moved by the stories we have heard. and the people that we have met, homeowners, placed in difficult, sometimes impossible situations through no fault of their own. i appreciate the frustration, the worry and at times the despair that they feel. i share their anger at the errors, the omissions, the false promises and even the outright dishonesty that came before us. leaseholders in residential high rises 18 metres or above wouldn't pay for cladding remediation works but those in blocks between four and six storeys would be able to access loans. under a long—term low interest scheme, no leaseholder will ever pay more than £50 a month towards the removal of unsafe cladding, many far less. but he said taxpayers, many of whom could only dream of owning their own home, couldn't be expected to pay the whole bill. so there'd be a levy on developers seeking to build some high rise buildings and from next year a new tax on the property development sector. this will raise at least £2 billion over a decade to help pay for cladding remediation costs. the tax will ensure the largest property developers make a fair contribution to the remediation programme in relation to the money they make from residential property. reflecting the benefit that they will derive from restoring confidence to the uk housing market. labour said the announcement was too late for too many. government ministers have now promised 17 times that leaseholders will not bear the cost of fixing a problem they did not cause. many will be listening to the housing secretary's remarks today, and the government has betrayed their promise that leaseholders would not pay for the building safety crisis. as i said three and a half years on from grenfell, hundreds of thousands, can't sleep at night because their homes are unsafe. the government has chosen, today, to pile up financial misery on them. this is an injustice. but the plan got a warmer response from the mp whose constituency includes grenfell tower. i have been calling for a substantial and comprehensive package for— cladding remediation, so i warmly welcome this announcement. which, very importantly, allows funds to be deployed very quickly— and does not require task forces or legislation. - others warned the problems go beyond cladding. profitability should not come before safety. will my right honourable friend look into the issues that i hear about regularly, of new build properties not being built to high enough standards, leaving homeowners spending months chasing developers to come back and fix problems with their homes. in recent years, some of our developers and some of our most prominent ones too have built homes which are to a poor standard. they have admitted it in some cases. and we need to make sure that that is corrected, so that the quality of homes in this country is high and that members of the public can have confidence making that life—changing investment. my constituents won't be reassured by what they have heard. loans for leaseholders still aren't off the table, he has avoided talking about non—cladding costs, and there's still no guarantee that my constituents won't be left with large associative bills for problems they did not create, and a number of institutions are frankly profiteering from this crisis, including parts of the insurance industry and others. eye—watering premiums. my constituents are still- facing the cost of non—cladding fire safety problems and more. so when will the governmentl accept the basic principle that cladding victims should not. have to pay a penny to fix fire safety problems that. are not of their making? well, actually the government acted decisively in the immediate aftermath of grenfell tower. expert opinion has evolved over time. we've brought forward this very, very substantial intervention today, so we are working intensively and extensively to tackle the issue, and i hope today's intervention will be a permanent and lasting settlement. the prime minister has defended his new tougher border measures but warned that tightening them further could risk britain being cut off from the rest of the world. the new rules come into effect from monday and come with stiff penalties in england — up to ten years injail if you lie about your whereabouts. but at prime minister's questions, the labour leader pressed borisjohnson to go further on borders and to extend some covid relief measures for businesses. sir keir starmer said oxford university research suggested the uk lags behind others when it comes to securing borders. they say that there are at least 33 countries around the world which currently have tougher restrictions than the united kingdom. 33, prime minister, including canada, denmark, japan, israel — there are many others. in fact, they say we are not even in the top bracket of countries for border restrictions. 50 days after we first discovered the south african variant — 50 days. how does the prime minister explain that? mr speaker, there are some countries in europe - that do not even have a hotel quarantine scheme _ such as the one _ we are putting in on monday. we have amongst the toughest border regimes— anywhere in the world. but people should understand that on a normal day, - mr speaker, this time of year you can awed— about 250,000 people to be arriving - in this country. we've got it down to about 20,000, _ 5000 of whom are involved in bringing vital things - into this country suchl as medicines and food as we discussed last week. and he agreed that. that was a good idea, mr speaker. unless he actually wants to cut this country off _ from the rest of the world, which i think last week he said he did not want to do, - unless of course he changed his mind again, mr speaker, - i think that this policy is measured, - it is proportionate, it is getting - tougher from monday, i and i hope he supports it. mr speaker, the truth is this. the prime minister is feeling to give security to british businesses and he is failing to secure our borders. the prime minister often complains that we never put forward constructive proposals, so here's two for him. support businesses and protect jobs now by extending furlough, business rate relief, and vat cuts for hospitality, and second, secure our borders with a comprehensive hotel quarantine on arrival. no more delays — would he do it? mr speaker, we have just- announced the quarantine policy which, as i have said - to the house, is amongst the toughest in the world. and tougher than most otherl european countries, certainly. i am delighted that he is now supporting business - in his latest stunt. of bandwagoneering. not a policy for which i he was famous before, mr speaker. with the budget only three weeks away, keir starmer wasn't the only leader offering suggestions for the chancellor to adopt. the snp want the temporary £20 a week increase in universal credit made permanent to help tackle poverty. mr speaker, this morning a new report from citizen advice scotland warned that tory cuts could reduce the value of universal credit by as much as a quarter, just as people need this money the most. will the prime minister agree to meet with me and other opposition parties ahead of the budget for an urgent summit on tackling child poverty, or will he be yet another tory prime minister who leaves a generation of children languishing in poverty? mr speaker, i must say that i reject entirely what the right - honourable gentlemen hasjust said. because i do not believe that - any government could have done more to help the people of this country throughout this - pandemic, and we will continue to do so. - and yes, of course, we bitterly, we bitterly lament and reject the poverty - that some families - unquestionably suffer. and it is tragic that too many families have had a very, - very tough time - during this pandemic, but we will continue to support them. i as usual with the scottish national party, the prime minister tried to turn defence into attack. the scottish nationalist party is morphing evermore - into a left—wing party that believes... - that believes fundamentally that it is the duty— of the taxpayer to pay - for more, and more, and more. we want to get people intojobs, mr speaker, and it's on that, it's in that respect that - the scottish nationalist party is, i'm afraid, | failing their... prime minister, prime minister, we both know that you are only teasing him, and, and trying to wind up the leader of the snp. please, let's drop it. the speaker tiring of the prime minister's approach. borisjohnson was also challenged by the snp's sister party, plaid cymru, whose westminster leader said wales had been short changed over research and development. will he now commit to a fairer devolved r&d funding settlement, or is he contend for westminster�*s road map to be wales's road to nowhere? mr speaker, i'm afraid i think she's doing wales down. - and the people of wales down, and the ingenuity of wales down. l i think about the quarter| of the airline passengers in the world are born aloft on wings - made by the welsh aerospace sector, mr speaker. - the prime minister evoking memories of those golden days of air travel — remember them? you're watching wednesday in parliament with me, david cornock. in scotland, the row over what and when nicola sturgeon knew about allegations of sexual misconduct against her predecessor, alex salmond, dominated first minister's questions at holyrood. msps are holding an investigation into the scottish government's handling of the claims against alex salmond, who was cleared by a court of criminal charges. on tuesday, the committee heard from nicola sturgeon�*s husband, the snp chief executive, peter morrell, the first minister is due to appear next week. the acting tory leader focused on the women who'd complained about alex salmond's behaviour. these women were failed. they were failed by the system that was set up by her government. and while they were being failed, the first minister knew exactly what she was meeting alex salmond about, and she chose not to tell her officials in advance, and she chose not to keep a record. and she kept speaking to alex salmond all throughout this process, throughout this process that failed all of these women. and then she came into this chamber and she told parliament things that are utterly contradicted by her own evidence and testimony. so we have failed women, taxpayers money and a cover—up at the heart of government, and this whole affair stinks to high heaven. and someone should take responsibility for these failings. shouldn't it be you, first minister? first minister. in terms of the government and in terms of my role as first minister, the scrutiny is right and proper, and that is why i am freely subjecting myself to that scrutiny. that is right and proper — i've waited a long time to get the opportunity to do it next tuesday, and i now relish that opportunity. what i think is very clear, certainly been clear from ruth davidson and, may i say, it has been clear, i think, from some members of the committee, that actually, it doesn't matter to them what i say next tuesday. it doesn't matter what any of us say before the committee because they've prejudged the issues. they have decided in advance what the rights and wrongs of this are. the roots of this whole issue are in complaints that came forward, not about my behaviour. — but about somebody else's behaviour. and it was right that those were properly investigated. we know because this is why the judicial review action collapsed in the way it did, that the government made a mistake in applying the procedure, and i deeply regret that because i think that did let down women. but any process now that is indulging conspiracy theories without insisting that people come before the committee to substantiate those theories, in my view, also lets down the women. alex salmond has refused to appear before the committee after it refused to publish his submission to it. he's accused nicola sturgeon of misleading parliament and breaking the ministerial code — a line pursued by the acting labour leader. if the first minister is found to have breached the ministerial code, will she resign? the first minister. look, jackie bailey stands up here and says she's not prejudging the outcome of things in one breath, but in the next breath, she says, "we know things," before the committee has even heard a single word in session from me. so i thinkjackie bailey should really decide whether she's open—minded, objective and impartial on this or whether she has prejudged. i suspect that for jackie bailey and some of the conservatives, it doesn't matter what i say on tuesday, the press releases will already be written, just as i suspect they were before my husband appeared for the second time earlier this week. but on the ministerial code, i'm well aware of the terms of the ministerial code, probably more aware than jackie bailey is. i do not consider that i breached the ministerial code. i will make that case very, very robustly. nicola sturgeon. new post—brexit trading arrangements for northern ireland are to blame for a 12% fall in turnover at one of the main retail distributors across the irish sea. that's according to am nexday, which recruited more staff to cope with post—brexit checks and paperwork. a senior managerfrom the company told the northern ireland committee that since the beginning of the year, volumes of trade really had dropped. to compare january 2020 to 2021, our turnover is down maybe 12%. we've had a lot of issues with, we sent a lot of freight out, but we also need to get the same amount back in. so we're may be running trailers back to northern ireland empty, or leaving them in the uk in gb, and then we don't have the resources here. so that's how we've found, really, brexit from january. we've also had to employ new staff. there's been overtime for training, for customs, and it's just a whole new business to us, really. we've never had to deal with customs before. and, yeah, it's a new area for us. we're willing to grow and willing to expand, but there doesn't seem to be enough reward here for us, really. she told the committee chair that the coronavirus crisis had played its part but really, the northern ireland part of the brexit deal and the uk government were to blame. because any direction that was given to the gb businesses was quite late in the day as well, i think, for the parcels, that was new year's eve that they got information that, "yup, you can move away freely. we're going to give you an easement." and i think a lot of people just didn't think this was actually going to go through, that this was going to happen, in a way. he laughs yes, that... ..that pulled them back at the very last moment. they could be forgiven for that, couldn't they? yes. yeah, you know, there's been extension after extension, so, you know, that's what i think has happened. a dup mp summarised what clare hards and the other witnesses had said. so, we've heard that turnover is down, red tape is up, - there is huge distortion _ to the market, empty movements of vehicles back to - northern ireland from gb, sps issues, inadequate training, and this is - the grace period. you must be really looking forward to what's going. to happen from april- when the grace period's over. for me, mr paisley, it's about trying to get an extension on these grace periods as much as possible, because january has really set us back significantly. so the time that we would've liked to have prepared for this next period has delayed us. and certainly, we feel that we willjust approach another steep learning curve, particularly if we don't get the grace period, and particularly if the announcement of the grace period is left to the last minute. do you thinkjust kicking the can down the road . is the solution? for example, there's. going to be a meeting, i believe, tomorrow between mr gove and mr chesnokovl of the european union. if you had a chance i to be in that meeting, what would you ask them to do to fix this? - we certainly don't want to kick it down the road. january we've been firefighting, so any business or day—to—day working, when you are firefighting and trying to present the challenges day by day, you don't get to become strategic. so, you know, we don't want to kick it down the road, we want to work together. and if we do get an extension on the grace period, that will give us time to all sit down. we want to be positive, we want to be pragmatic and work together. you know, the layers of paperwork and what we need to do need to be simplified and refined so that everyone can use them. so from the start process of the customer wanting to import and the product landing on shelf or into our warehouses needs to be seamless and as short as possible. nick mccullough. peers have called for a boycott of next year's winter olympics in beijing orfor the games to be moved to another country in protest at china's human rights abuses. more than 180 human rights groups have called for the boycott. a foreign office minister said the participation of british athletes was a matter for the british olympic committee. with sanctions in response to even considering a boycott, and therefore, we can see how important the 2022 winter olympic games are to china's local reputation. will the government to be keeping any participation at these games under close review? in terms of the participation, that will be very much a question for the olympic committee itself, the national olympic committee. what i can allude to is, of course, there has been no decisions made about ministerial attendance. although, i would add with recent challenges we face, there's not many decisions which have been made about ministerial attendance in various parts of the world. but i hear what the noble lady says. anybody that doubts l the propaganda use to which the olympics can be used by an authoritarian regime - should visit the astonishing, - magnificent 1936 olympic stadium in berlin, - which is a monument, indeed, to national socialism. whereas the boycott of, the partial boycott, - of the moscow olympics in 1980 sent a strong signal. _ we have1 million uighurs incarcerated in xinjiang. doesn't this conjure up the spectre of munich? my lords, wouldn't the noble lord, the minister, agree that we should now be giving advice to senior diplomats and to members of the royalfamily as to whether or not they should be attending the beijing olympics, and if another country were to say that they were willing to host the olympics, how would her majesty's government respond to that? my lords, i can't answer the noble lord's final point, of course, that requires various decisions at different organisational level, not just for her majesty's government. so, what about the plight of the individual athlete? who may well be makingl a decision about their one chance to be at the absolute peak of their career, - something that they may have given their life to. _ and if anybody does decide not to go there or is told _ they shouldn't go there, - they should be given the chance to train sufficiently well - to stand a chance for the next time around or possibly- a career change, because that much we do owe them. does the government support incorporation of stronger human rights commitments in the olympic charter? and would it also supports strengthening human rights obligations in future host city contracts? hear, hear. again, in principle, i see no reason why we wouldn't as a government indeed, in my capacity as human rights minister, be supportive of both points that the noble lord makes. given the grave concerns about human rights abuses in china and its position as a source of much sporting equipment and specialist clothing, can the noble lord, the minister, tell me what support the government is giving to uk sporting bodies to avoid products linked to slave labour and abusive labour practices such as those widely reported in xinjiang? human rights matters, inappropriate activitiesj in our universities, - security threats and 5g, hong kong, and now possibly a boycott of the winter - olympics. sadly, our relations - with china are poor and likely to grow increasingly problematic. - yet, paradoxically, - the government websites are still encouraging british . businesses to invest in china, and we still, i believe, | indirectly, offerforeign aid to china. it all seems a little inconsistent. - so, will my noble friend accept that while we all hope - for an improvement in relations with china, it would be - sensible to remind ourselves that there are many other i exciting trading partners in the indo—pacific area, j many of whom are democracies, and that britain's asia policy - should increasingly no longer simply be a china policy. - lord dobbs. now, with schools shut to most pupils during the lockdown, many parents and other carers are responsible for the education and full—time care of their children. at equalities questions, opposition mps urged the government to look at the impact on women in particular. a recent survey found that 71% of mothers asking to be furloughed, as they could not juggle work with childcare, have been refused by their employers. what steps will the minister be taking to ensure there is affordable childcare available for all parents who need it to ensure they are not forced out of work by this pandemic? the minister. i thank the honourable lady for her question. the government has provided significant support for those people who have been furloughed, and also, there is a childcare provision within universal credit. we do recognise that parents all across the country are having difficulties during the pandemic, and we've put in several measures in place to ensure they have the support required. the pandemic has made flexible working a necessity for many women who have a disproportionate share of caring responsibilities. but under the flexible working regulations of 2014, an employer is only eligible to request flexible working arrangements after 26 consecutive weeks of work for their employer. so what consideration has the minister given to the recommendations of the new women and equalities committee report to removing this 26—week threshold? we have a manifesto commitment to further encourage flexible working, and we are going to be consulting on making it the default unless employers have good reasons not to. we do know that the women and equality select committee has released a report and we are carefully considering the reports and we will provide our conclusions in due course. kemi badenoch. that was wednesday in parliament. thank you for watching. i do hope you canjoin me at the same time tomorrow for the week in parliament with highlights from westminster and the uk's other parliaments. until then, from me, david cornock, bye for now. hello. it is bitterly cold out there at the moment, not only the coldest night of the winter so far but the coldest night in the uk in over a decade. these are typical temperatures on thursday morning, rural spots could be as cold as —20. the highlands in scotland, —12 and even parts of east anglia. a sharp frost, some icy stretches on thursday morning, about the day there will be more hard—working and from the south—west, some snow flurries as england and south wales as well, most other areas looking dry. one or two snow flurries across the north and fun of scotland. temperatures struggling a few degrees above freezing, lessen the way of windchill compared to recent days. heading to thursday night and on into friday, a few more snow flurries across the eastern part of scotland and we could see one or two snow showers pushing into the far south—west but most other places are cold and clear once again with temperatures struggling, a few degrees above freezing. bye—bye. a very warm welcome to bbc news. my name is mike embley. democrats present terrifying moments of the january 6 riot on capitol hill, through never—before—seen footage — as they make their case for impeaching former president donald trump. impeachment managers describe mr trump as the "inciter—in—chief" as they try to tie him directly to the siege. the insurrection is mob overwhelmed security and made it inside the halls of congress, because the truth is this attack never would have happened but for donald trump. freed after more than 1000 days behind bars — the activist who has been campaigning to improve rights for saudi women.