Now its time for a look back at the day in parliament. Hello and welcome to wednesday in parliament, as labour turns up the heat over lobbying. Sleaze, sleaze, sleaze. And its all on his watch. But borisjohnson defends his offer to fix Tax Rules to help a businessman make ventilators for the nhs. I make absolutely no apology at all, mr speaker, for shifting Heaven And Earth and doing everything i possibly could. I think any Prime Minister would in those circumstances. Also in this programme, a former Punk Star calls for leadership to clean up our rivers. Its time for everybody to put on their Big Boy pants and start taking this seriously. I and with the queen no longer wearing realfur, is it time to scrap the bearskin . If she decided to stop purchasing new fur 18 months ago, it is high time for her guards to do the same and transition to synthetic alternatives. But first, labour has stepped up its attack on the government over lobbying after the bbc revealed a series of Text Messages between the Prime Minister and the businessman Sirjames Dyson sent during the height of the pandemic. In them, borisjohnson offers to fix Tax Rules in response to concern that dyson workers returning to the uk to help would have been penalised. Labour staged a stunt outside Downing Street to suggest this development was part of a pattern with one rule for those who have Ministers Phone numbers and another for everyone else. SirJames Dyson has said the urgent correspondence related only to compliance with rules and that his company didnt benefit from the project which had cost it 20 Million pounds. But at Prime Ministers questions, the Labour Leader, sir keir starmer, focused his attack on this latest twist. What does the prime Minister Think is the right thing to do if he receives a Text Message from a Billionaire Conservative supporter asking him to fix Tax Rules . If hes referring to the request from James Dyson, i make absolutely no apology at all, mr speaker, for shifting Heaven And Earth and doing everything i possibly could. I think any Prime Minister would in those circumstances to secure ventilators for the people of this country and to save lives and to roll a Ventilator Procurement which the labour controlled public accounts themselves was a benchmark for procurement. Mr speaker, lets be clear what these texts show. The Prime Minister was lobbied by a wealthy businessman and a close friend for a change in the Tax Rules. Tax rules. The Prime Minister responded, ill fix it. Who everybody seems to be lobbying these days, the Prime Minister texted his friend to say, its fixed. Personal number has he given preferential treatment to . Prime minister. Mr speaker, i recallthe right honourable gentleman at the time saying that we should do everything that we could to get more ventilators, and indeed, he congratulated the roll out. He said, well done to everybody involved in the ventilator challenge. And ijust remind the house what we were facing in march last year, mr speaker, which was when we had a new virus which was capable of killing people in ways that we didnt understand. The only way to help them was to incubate them and put them on ventilation. We had 9,000 ventilators in this country, mr speaker, ventilator challenge. I think it was entirely the right thing to do to work with all potential, all potential makers of ventilators at that time, mr speaker. Keir starmer wondered whether a text from Someone Self employed or a nurse to the prime Ministers Phone would have the same impact. Borisjohnson defended his governments support for both the Self Employed and nurses, but the Labour Leader pursued his point. Mr speaker, theres a pattern to this government. The Prime Minister is fixing Tax Breaks for his friends. The chancellor is pushing the treasury to help lex greensill. The Health Secretary is meeting greensill for drinks. And david Camerons Texting Anybody thatll reply. Every day, every day, there are new allegations about this conservative government dodgy ppe deals, Tax Breaks for their mates. The Health Secretary owns shares in a company delivering nhs services. Sleaze, sleaze, sleaze. And its all on his watch. With this scandal now firmly centred on him, how on earth does he expect people to believe that he is the person to clean this mess up . Ill tell you why, ill tell you why this government is doing the right thing at the right time, because the difference between us and the Labour Party is, im afraid, staringly obvious. And we get on with taking the tough decisions to protect the people of this country and to take our country forward, uniting and levelling up. We take the tough decisions to procure thousands, tens of thousands of ventilators in record time, which apparently he now opposes. The snp also challenged the Prime Minister over lobbying. Last march, the Prime Minister and the chancellor had all the time in the world i to fix contracts for friends and tory donors, but didnt have any time to support. The millions of Self Employed. Plus 3 million people didnt have a David Cameron or a James Dyson to text the Prime Minister for them. They were on their own. And they were left behind by this Prime Minister. Dog barks this tory Textforcontract Scandal is growing more and more. Serious with every revelation. The Prime Minister was eager to initiate an inquiry into his previous assessor David Cameron, but he was quick to commit to a public inquiry into himself. And his own government. Well, mr speaker, he says we had all the time in the world. In fact, as the house will recall, at The End of march last year, the pandemic was taking off very fast and we had to act very fast, as i think people up and down the country understand. And i thought that his dog just made a more sensible contributionjust now than he did. Laughter. Borisjohnson, and in case you were wondering, ian blackfords dog, a collie, is called maisie. Now, the government has bowed to demands for changes to be made to the overseas 0perations Bill which is designed to restrict prosecutions of servicemen and women whove served overseas. The concessions were introduced by the new Armed Forces minister, leo docherty. He replaced johnny mercer, who was sacked on tuesday. Hed been unhappy that the legislation excludes personnel who served in Northern Ireland. I would, before moving on to the main meat of my speech, to formally put on record my thanks to the honourable member for plymouth in his fantastic work on issues for many years and his work in getting this bill to this point today. And i know, madam deputy speaker, he will share my satisfaction that it will make further progress today. Importantly, madam deputy speaker, i would also like to confirm to the house, although not in the scope of the discussions today, that a bill will soon come forward from the Northern Ireland office. It will protect our northern Ireland Veterans of Operation Banner and address the legacy of the troubles. That is very good news indeed. I look forward to it because right now, or if that does not happen, we have second Class Veteran soldiers because those who have serve abroad are first class in the way this is treated, and those of us that served many times and Northern Ireland would be second class. Theres been widespread criticism of the overseas 0perations Bill, which introduces a presumption against prosecution for incidents more than five years ago. Last week, peers introduced amendments to exclude genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes and torture from the five year limit. The governments backed down and agreed to those exclusions except War Crimes. Although we can be absolutely reassured that our Armed Forces would never resort to acts of genocide or Crimes Against Humanity and that it would be extremely unlikely for individual members of the services to be charged with such offences, not explicitly excluding these offences from the bill is clearly our mission and must be rectified. And im happy, therefore, to propose that now. Many of us who are emotionally very supportive of this bill, and indeed, its successor with respect for Northern Ireland, do not want to see under any circumstances british soldiers brought before the international criminal court. That would be a shame on them and our country, and the international criminal courts Chief Prosecutor has made it plain that in the event we hinder and this would be a hindrance we hinder the prosecution of War Crimes, they would see it as appropriate for themselves to bring the prosecution. That seems to me and much of this is a fantastic improvement but that seems to me a fairly sizeable hole in the improvement. I take the honourable gentlemans point, but i think the point to bear in mind is that nothing in this bill will hinder the prosecution of that sort. What we must bear in mind is the prosecutor retains the absolute discretion to prosecute if there is a serious allegation, and the prosecutor will take into account the severity of the crime. But removing any more categories from the bill would unnecessarily weaken the reassurance to Service Personnel and veterans. Labour welcomed the concessions but thought the bill was still flawed. This bill does not yet do. What it says on the table. We were told this bill would i bring an end to Armed Forces personnel harassment, i but because this bill only deals with prosecutions and not investigations, | it will not do that. Its late, but its still not too late for ministers to think again about the best way both to protect Service Personnel. From Vexatious Litigationi and to ensure that those who commit serious crime on operations abroad are properly prosecuted and punished. 0ne Mp was relieved to see a new minister in place. Frustration for those of us who were involved in earlier readings and the Bill Committee was the refusal of the Foreign Minister to consider even the most reasonable and uncontroversial of amendments, and that has meant that the bill that was sent to the lords was fundamentally flawed. And what we have back is a slight improvement on a flawed bill rather than what we are looking for, which was a competent piece of legislation. Carol monaghan. Youre watching wednesday in parliament with me, david cornock. Water companies discharged raw sewage into rivers in england more than 400,000 times in 2020, according to figures published recently by the Environment Agency. Untreated effluent, including human waste, wet wipes and condoms, were released into waterways for more than Three Million hours last year. The commons environmental Audit Committee heard from someone who confronted the officials after noticing Sewage Building Up in the local river. There was a narrative, and the narrative was that the public knows we do this, it is just common and we cannot afford to do anything about it, so what is the problem . You dont want to pay any more money. And that was this underlying culture, and we said the public does not know about this and would be absolutely horrified. So the first thing was to try and understand what was really happening and what the Environment Agency was telling us at the time was the Water Quality is good, the sewage is not spilling very much, and i think the language is very interesting here, which is the language is used to tone down the problem. A spill is what you do with a cup of tea. It is not when you discharge four days, volumes and volumes of raw sewage into the river. Another witness was Feargal Sharkey. Yes, that Feargal Sharkey who once belonged to the punk band, the undertones. He told the committtee how hed started campaigning for cleaner rivers. Simply approaching the Environment Agency and asking what i thought was a very innocent and very straightforward question. That was some five years ago and im still here working on the answer. What was the question . Where has our water gone, and what little water we have, why does it smell on occasion . As somebody who also spends a lot of time fishing, whether you can give an overview to the panel on the health of the rivers of the uk, and evidence you have seen of the impact of this pollution. The top Line Figure as we all now know is according to the last set of data released by the Environment Agency. There is not a single river in england in good overall environmental health. Not one. And that is normally measured using two criteria, the ecological condition of the rivers as we know, 86 of rivers do not meet good ecological condition and every single river fails the chemical test. Every single river is polluted. With the pandemic forcing indoor Swimming Pools to close, theres been a a dramatic rise in wild swimming. We know swimming itself makes you happier, from research we have done. It makes you 4. 3 happier but swimming outdoors actually makes you 8. 9 happier. So out in the open air, out in the freshness and nature, it wouldnt make you that happy if you knew what you were swimming again. It really wouldnt. People dont know. That is what worries me. We know that it causes mild and serious illnesses, difficult to prove, you go swimming, you get a funny tummy, is that because you want swimming or is this something you ate from the chinese the night before . Canoeing has also surged in popularity and its also suffering from sewage. We would never in A Million years accept this on our Football Pitches or Cricket Pitches or our tennis courts. But we seem to be able to accept the places where millions of people play, you know, it is ok to tip raw sewage into it. And i find that personally quite frustrating especially as it has an impact on were i go with my children paddling. Fergal sharkey said there had been a vacuum in political leadership. The Secretary Of State can do with nothing more with the stroke of a pen that he now demands that the Water Industry and the regulators deliver a plan that is fully cost and deliverable, timetabled, scheduled and delivered with a sense of Urgency And Ambition to it. That in itself again would be a massive political and significant and positive step forward. It is time for everybody to put on their Big Boy pants and start taking this seriously. Feargal sharkey. Mps have approved a ban on a white Supremacist Group to stop it operating in the uk. Thejustice minister Chris Philp said 76 international Terrorist Organisations were currently proscribed. The group we now propose to add to the list of Terrorist Organisations, admending schedule two of the Terrorism Act 2000, is the atomwaffen division, orawd, and its alias, the national socialist order or nso. Awd is a predominately us based white Supremacist Group that was active under that guise between 2015 and 2020. Nso is the alias of awd, which has claimed itself to be awd� s Successor Group and it remains active to this day. It is a criminal offence for a person to belong to, support or arrange a meeting in support of a prescribed organisation. It is a criminal offence to wear clothing or carry articles in public which arouse reasonable suspicion that an individual is a member of the organisation. The penalties for Proscription Offences can be up to ten years in prison or unlimited fines. Labour backed the move. Disturbingly, the awd believes in ideology that has come to be known as accelerationism, and the groups follows a collection of writings that advocates violence to bring about a white ethnostate by instigating the collapse of society through a race war. It is reported that awds techniques include harassment or public figures, such as politicians, journalists, and others and organising terror plots. The snp also supported the ban but it wanted the government to look again at home the Proscription Orders were scrutinised. These are significant powers. And while this is a Clear Cut case, others wont be so Clear Cut. So how can we strengthen the Scrutiny Process . Is it possible for the Intelligence And Security committee in scrutinising these decisions . And what more can we do to improve oversight . Stewart mcdonald. The northern Ireland Secretary has described an attempted Fireball Attack on a Police Officer as cowardly. The new ira have been blamed for planting a bomb at the part time female officers home in county londonderry. I am sure the whole house will join me in offering my support to the psni officer who was subject to a Cowardly Attackjust earlier this week. Those who attack our public servants and Emergency Services and personnel have nothing to offer the communities they claim to represent. I am sure the whole Community Willjoin Everybody across the house in support for that officer and their way forward and we will come forward hopefully with any information they may have to help bring those responsible to justice. Ijoin with the Secretary Of State and condemning unreservedly the attack on the female Police Officer and our support is fully with her and her colleagues at this time. The Secretary Of State will be aware of the difficulties the northern Ireland Protocol continues to cause for both consumers and businesses here. What steps are the government going to take to replace this protocol with arrangements that fully restore northern Irelands Place within the uk Internal Market . The northern Ireland Protocol is part of the Brexit Deal agreed between the uk and the eu. The protocol is about safeguarding northern Irelands Place in the uks Internal Market. As we outlined in the uk internal Market Act 2020 as well, legislating for their very fact. I have been very clear that there are outstanding issues of the protocol. Some of them are difficult issues. Theres needs to be resolved, both in the point of the consumers and businesses and in order to restore confidence across all communities of Northern Ireland. We are determined to do that and i think we have shown with the actions we have taken that we want to do that in a pragmatic and flexible way that works with people of Northern Ireland and we also want to working through the force is going to do that and in partnership with our colleagues and friends in the eu. Labour said the Attempted Murder of the Police Officer was despicable. Mr speaker, as recently as monday when wider process over the northern Ireland Protocol resumed, anonymous Social Media accounts were still being used to exploit the Situation And Lure young people to the interface in belfast with provocative messages, inflaming an already tense situation. Will the Secretary Of State, working with the police, make clear and the shortest possible terms that Social Media giants such as facebook have a responsibility to act to prevent their platform from being exploited to inflame tensions in these communities . Yes. I welcome her comments. I think actually, just, and excuse the colloquial language, it Beggars Belief that anybody can think a cowardly act to put a Police Officer at risk and a young child as a way to further their cause and i warmly welcome the condemnation all around for that cowardly action and the honourable lady is absolutely right. It is important that we are very alert to the risk of Social Media and people look at Social Media, who may or may not be behind in encouraging people to do things and theyre usually appropriate and the way that can ruin their lives and the lives of others. Dissident republicans tried to murder a Police Officer. And her young child this week in county londonderry. Can i take the opportunity as an irish nationalist to send those dissident republicans a very clear message . Your quarrel is not with the police. I it is not with the british state. It is with the people of ireland and that is a battle you will never ever win. Given the Prime Ministers very speedy response to an issue i about football, as important as that is, compared to his response in the quickest of his responses to the violence on the streets i of Northern Ireland for almost ten day, does the Secretary Of State agree with me that we need in active and engaged and interested Prime Minister in terms of dealing with our Peace Process . Yes, absolutely. Im very proud of the fact that we do. We have a Prime Minister that has been very much engaged. I would just say to the honourable gentleman he should look at the Prime Ministers comments. He was talking to the taioiseach in the early stages and i agree with his opening remarks about dissident republicans. The Prime Minister has been actively involved and been in full communication all the way through the process and in terms of looking at how people deal with this, i would just say that all members of this house including some of his own Party Need to think very carefully when tweeting things that actually can be seen as eccentric to make sure we all take the right tone to make sure that we return calm to the people as possible. A Labour Mp has called for britain to become the first country in the world to ban the importation and sale of fur. Taiwo 0watemi said the uks exit from the eu presented the opportunity to eliminate the Double Standard of permitting imports while prohibiting fur farming. A pattern, fur taken from Farm Animals gassed or electrocuted after spending their short lives in cramped cages can be imported to the uk from countries all around the world. In addition, fur taken from wild animals after their slow, agonising deaths captured in local traps and other inhumane devices can be imported from both the eu and a select group of other countries. Last year, the value of those imports was £29 million. The majority of that imported fur is turned into clothes and hats and accessories by the Fashion Industry here in britain. And able to be sold in our shops or exported overseas, with an Export Trade worth £20 Million last year. Under my proposed bill, everything ive just mentioned will be banned in the uk, the import and exports of Fur And Fur products and the sale of new Fur Products in our shop. Her Bill Wouldnt outlaw the sale of second hand fur clothing, but it could have an impact elsewhere. Some critics will say that the Queens Guard must be allowed to continue wearing their skin hats as part of the ceremonial dress. And as we wish her majesty a happy birthday in this very sad week, my own view is if she decided to stop purchasing new fur some 18 months ago, it is high time for her guards to do the same and transition to synthetic alternatives. Taiwo 0watemi. Whose bill stands little chance of becoming Law Due to lack of parliamentary time. Election news now, from the House Of Lords not a phrase you hear every day. I can now announce the results of the election for the office of Lord Speaker. The successful candidate was Lord Mcfall. Lord mcfall, who was once a Labour Mp, will take over from the retiring lord fowler, who offered this welcome. I first met Lord Mcfall in the House Of Commons when he came up to congratulate me on a political book i had written. I of course immediately recognised him as a man of Sound Judgment and discernment. Laughter. But over the last almost five years, i have recognised him as a Man Of Action who brings forward his plans to completion and to success. No Lord Speaker could have had a better or more loyal deputy. And no Lord Speaker has ever had such a better preparation for the woolsack as Lord Mcfall. And Lord Mcfall will begin his new job on may the first. Thats it for wednesday in parliament. Thank you for watching. I do hope you canjoin me at the same time tomorrow for the week in parliament. Until then, from me, david cornock, bye for now. Hello. After slightly cloudy conditions across england and wales on wednesday, the clear Blue Skies and strong sunshine experienced in scotland, Northern Ireland, akin to what we can see here from one of our weather watchers during the day, well, they will become a bit more abundant. But those Clear Skies by day also mean colder nights are back, and a widespread frosty start to the day, temperatures as low as 5 6 through some parts of eastern Scotland And Northeast england, very few immune to a frost. And thats because weve got High Pressure in charge. Its keeping those skies clear. High pressure generally means dry weather as well, stops the Rain Clouds from going up. And around the centre of it, which is right over us, there will be light winds. A little bit more breeze, most notable across the far south of england. And while most will see sunshine from dawn to dusk, they will be a bit more clout in Northern Scotland through thursday compared with wednesday, and the sunshine in central parts of scotland that little bit hazier. But with much more sunshine around on thursday, Pollen Levels are back up again high in most parts, limited a little bit around this Southeast Corner and through the English Channel because weve got more of a breeze here. That breeze, coming in from an east or northeasterly direction, will also limit the rise in temperatures here to between 10 13 celsius. But with lighter winds further north and west, because the ground is so dry at the moment, it means the air above it warms quite quickly and thats why we could get to around 16 17 celsius in some western areas through the afternoon. But what will follow, again, will be there skies for most away from Northern Scotland into thursday night, so another frost is likely. Notice how that area of High Pressure has barely changed. The lines on the chart, the isobars, where we see the windy conditions will be out to the south and the west, so more of a breeze potentially for Northern Ireland, but still that breeze blowing through the English Channel and through southern parts of wales. The cloud in the far northeast of Scotland Mayjust produce the odd isolated shower, but for most, again, its another day of sunshine from dawn to dusk. And with each day being sunny, the ground warms up a bit more. Temperatures could reach 19 20 celsius, particularly across parts of north wales, northwest England And Southwest scotland. Still cooler with that onshore breeze, though, to East Anglia and the southeast. Now, if youre expecting any change into this weekend, theyll only be subtle ones. Dry, sunny sums it up for most, the nights still chilly with a risk of a frost. There will be a bit more cloud developing through saturday and sunday, and by sunday, temperatures dropping just a little bit. Bye for now. America reflects on the trial of Derek Chauvin and an investigation is launched into the Minneapolis Police force. Thousands of supporters of russias jailed opposition leader, alexei navalny, take to the streets hundreds are arrested. Vladimir putin always says that everything is ok, every single word he says is a lie and i am not ok with that. That is why i am here