Transcripts For BBCNEWS The Week In Parliament 20170116

The week in parliament. Coming up on this programme. As winter tightens its grip, theres a row in the commons about the health of the nhs. Our nhs, mr speaker, is in crisis. But the Prime Minister is in denial. The only way we can ensure weve got funding for the National Health service is a strong economy. With the Stormont Assembly in crisis, we find out whats gone wrong in Northern Irelands power sharing agreement. Also on this programme. A damning indictment of the uks approach to defence. We are short sighted, penny pinching, naively optimistic. We are complacent and we are ostrich like to the way in which the world has become interconnected. And, how can we get more women into parliament, a senior mp thinks its time for action. In our Committee Sessions, we heard very warm words from all of the party chair and leaders. We didnt really hear very much detail. But, first, it was a parliamentary week dominated by the stresses and strains facing englands nhs. Mps returned To Westminster after the christmas break to news that the National Health service had been at full stretch over the holidays. The Health Secretaryjeremy hunt told the commons that it had been a tough christmas and that, with cold weather on the way, the Winter Pressures were likely to continue. The tuesday after christmas was the busiest day in the history of the nhs. And some hospitals are reporting that A E Attendances are up to 30 higher compared to last year. And he looked to the future. It is clear we need to have an honest discussion with the public about the purpose of a e departments. There is nowhere outside the uk that commits to all patients that we will sort out any health needs within four hours. Since it was announced in 2000, there are nearly nine million more visits to our a es, up to 30 of whom are nhs england estimates do not need to be there. And the tide is continuing to rise. So, if we are to protect our four hour standard, we need to be clear it is a promise to sort out all Urgent Health problems within four hours, but not all health problems, however minor. Labour said the nhs was in a worse state than the Health Secretary had suggested. So it was no surprise when the labour raised the nhs at Prime Ministers questions a couple of days later. 15 hospitals run out of beds in one day in december. Several hospitals have warned they cant offer comprehensive care. Elderly patients have been left languishing on Hospital Trolleys in corridors, sometimes for over 2a hours. And he says care is only falling over in a couple of places. I know la la land did well at the Golden Globes last night. I didnt realise the Secretary Of State was living there. Perhaps thats where hes been all weekend. He seems to be blaming the public for overwhelming a e departments when he well knows the reason The Public Go To A E is because they cant get to see their gp, and social care is in crisis. Earlier this week, the Prime Minister said she wanted to create a shared society. Well, weve certainly got that. More people sharing Hospital Corridors on trolleys. More people sharing Waiting Areas in a e departments. More people sharing in anxiety created by this government. 0ur nhs, mrspeaker, is in crisis but the Prime Minister is in denial. Can i suggest to her on the economic question, cancel the Corporate Tax cuts spend the money where its needed, on people in desperate need in social care or in our hospitals. He talks to me about corporation tax, and restoring the cuts in corporation tax. The labour party has already spent that money eight times. The last thing the nhs needs is a cheque from labour that bounces. The only way we can make sure weve got funding for the National Health service is a strong economy. Yesterday, the honourable gentleman proved that hes not only incompetent but that he would destroy our economy, and that would devastate our National Health service. Does the nhs have the money it needs . The head of the nhs said that spending in real terms would decrease. I think it would be stretching it to say the nhs has got more than it has asked for. 0k. Would you agree theres not enough money, that there is a clear gap . There are clearly very substantial pressures, and i dont think it helps anybody to try and pretend that there arent. But thats not a new phenomenon, to some extent. Its a phenomenon that is intensifying. I think this debate, 2020 this, 2020 that kind of misses the point, actually, which is that in the here and now there are very real pressures. Over the next three years, funding is going to be highly constrained. And in 2018 19, as ive previously said in october, Real Terms Nhs spending per person in england is going to go down, ten years after Lehman Brothers and austerity began. We all understand why that is, but lets not pretend thats not placing huge pressure on the service. Sir simon stevens. A political crisis is threatening the future of the Power Sharing Arrangements in Northern Ireland. On monday night sinn feins Martin Mcguinness resigned as Deputy First Minister and in effect brought down the devolved administration at stormont. But whats going on and how did we get here . Chris page explains. This has ostensibly been triggered because of the financial mismanagement of a green energy scheme. The incentive was set up in 2012 and overseen by dup ministers. It was supposed to encourage businesses to switch to environmentally friendly fuels. There was no upper limit on payments so the scheme ran over budget. The overspend is expected to run to almost half a billion pounds. The Deputy First Minister, Martin Mcguinness, asked Arlene Foster to stand aside as First Minister for an investigation but she refused to do so, so mr mcguinness has now resigned himself. That puts mrs foster out of a job because under the Power Sharing System the first and Deputy First Ministers cannot work in isolation. There are very many other disagreements on issues like brexit, Same Sex Marriage and budgets. It has never been an easy relationship. Under the stormont rules, if the posts arent filled within seven days, the Northern Ireland secretary must, by law, call the new election to the Stormont Assembly. Its only been eight months since the last one. The crisis was raised at Prime Ministers questions by the snps westminster leader, who thought the breakdown could have wide reaching implications. The Prime Minister has indicated that she wants to take the views of the elected representatives and the devolved institutions on brexit seriously. So it stands to reason then that if there is no Northern Irish assembly and no Northern Irish executive for much of the time before the march timetable that she has set before invoking article 50, she will be unable to consult properly, to discuss fully and to find agreement on the complex issues during this period. In these circumstances, will the Prime Minister postpone invoking article 50. Or will she just plough on regardless . I am clear that, first of all, we want to try to ensure that, within this period of seven days, we can find a resolution to the political situation in Northern Ireland, so that we can to see the Assembly Government continuing. But i am also clear that, in the discussions that we have, it will be possible, it is still the case that ministers are in place and that, obviously, there are executives in place, that we are still able to take the views of the Northern Ireland people. Now lets take a step back in time. Do you remember this . When tony blair swept to power in 1997 there was much fanfare about the number of women whod become mps. Nicknamed the blair babes, they represented a big jump in the numbers, in large part due to labours policy of all women shortlists. In total 101 labour women were elected in 1997, doubling the overall total of female mps, from 60 to 120. Spin forward twenty years and there are now 195 women mps, but thats still only 30 the women and Equalities Committee has been looking at how to boost those numbers. Its suggested that in future Political Parties should be fined if they dont ensure at least 45 of General Election candidates are female. I asked the committee chair, maria miller, if a system of fines wouldnt have a disproportionate impact on smaller parties. Well, clearly, youd have to look at how smaller parties were dealt with but the lions share of mps are from the main parties, who contest all of the westminster seats, and we feel very strongly, if youre going to put measures like a 45 vote on candidates in place, there needs to be teeth there to make that really have an effect. In the end, doesnt this all come down to the local associations that you can say to the parties, this is what we want. But if you have local associations which have slightly older members, slightly Old Fashioned views, they might just still cling onto this idea that they prefer to have a man doing thejob, and thats what youve got to overcome. At the 2015 General Election, only one in four candidates was female. So were not really giving people the chance to be able to choose women locally. Local associations may not be given enough choice from female candidates in the first place. So i think weve really got to look back at the root cause of this, which is getting more women to consider putting themselves forward to become a member of parliament. A lot of that is about outreach by parliament to get people to consider that, but also by the parties as well. What is it that puts women off putting themselves forward . I think we have in the past focused a great deal on things like child care and Family Friendly working, and the work that Sarah Charles has done is important in that area. But i think its more than that, thats really emerging now. And i think the dissuading effect of online abuse, sexual harassment, but also the Murder Ofjo Cox Last year, i think really shows those intimidatory aspects also need to be dealt with. And parliament is dealing with that at the moment. But, surely, those would be things that would put off men as well as women. But i think all of the research would suggest that women are disproportionately affected by, particularly, online abuse. And i applaud the work the police are doing on securing convictions there, but it is an element that i think some women are finding off putting. We need to tackle that. But we also need to have more effective outreach to get more women to consider how important it would be to be able to represent the community but also improve the community in which they live. Now, you said its not you. Its not for your committee to tell parties exactly how to go about this. Isnt the long and short of it that all women short lists have worked and that the labour party has increased more dramatically and more quickly its number of women mps . Just in the same way as having a female Prime Minister isnt the panacea for all evils, neither is all women shortlists. I think different Political Parties have done Different Things in the past. I think parties need to have a plan. And they need to have a plan which is effective. And, whilst in our Committee Sessions we heard very warm words from all of the party chair and leaders, we didnt really hear very much detail. So i think the most important thing is those parties have a clear plan and a real will to make this change. How confident are you that things will be different this time around, that going into the next election, there will be more female candidates in winnable seats . I think that will only happen if the parties now take a hard look at the processes theyre following and make sure theyve got clear plans in place to put women in those winnable seats. At the moment, were not seeing those plans come through. And if we dont have plans in place, there will no change in the status quo. Its highly likely at the next election, with the reduction of the number of constituencies, there will be fewer opportunities for women to come through or for new members of parliament to come through. So, those parties need to have a clear plan and, at the moment, thats not there. So, it doesnt sound to me like youre terribly optimistic. Only if we see, i think, a Radical Change in notjust the warm words were hearing from parties but actually the practical measures that are put in place, the funding they are putting in place will we see that change. Perhaps theres too many other things to think about at the moment. Weve got a little bit of time before the next election, i hope. A little bit of time for real action. All right, we will get you back to see how its going. Maria miller, thank you very much indeed for coming in to the programme. Maria miller. Now lets take a look at some news from Around Westminster in brief. Theres was a big surprise in westminster on friday morning with the announcement that the labour mp Tristram Hunt is to stand down to become the director of the victoria and albert museum. His decision will trigger a by election in the stoke on Trent Central constituency. In a letter to local party members, the former education spokesman, who resigned from the Shadow Cabinet Whenjeremy Corbyn was elected party leader, said serving in parliament had been both deeply rewarding and intensely frustrating. Financialjobs in london are bound to be affected by brexit, but a lack of knowledge about the governments plans will make the situation worse. That was the message to the Commons Treasury Committee from leading financiers including the head of the london stock exchange. They called for the city to have its own transitional arrangements, known as grandfathering, meaning new rules wouldnt apply for around five years. Part of the uncertainty and the planning, if you like, is how much would you have to move. Clearly, you would need to move the front part of the business, the Relationship Managers that talk to customers. But the question would be whether the negotiation would allow the middle and back office, the settlement, the risk management, the accounting and so on, to be done outside of eu 27 or whether eu 27 as part of the negotiations say, no, if were going to give you a license, we want everything in our country. That is a political negotiation, as much as a technical negotiation. Immigrants have to make more effort to fit in, thats according to the author of last months casey review on integration. Dame louise casey told mps that britain needed to be less shy about telling immigrants what was expected from them. She was asked how she defined integration. I think thats a soundbite people like to say which is integration is a two way street. I would say that if we stick with the road analogy that integration is more like, you have got a bloody big motorway and you have slip road of people coming in from the outside and what you need to do is people in the middle in the motorway need to accommodate and be gentle and kind to people coming in from the outside lane but were in the same direction and were all heading the same direction. It gets to this place where we have this idea that its a two way street. To some degree it is, but to some degree it is not, there is more give on one side and more take on the other and thats where we have successively made a mistake which is weve not been honest about that. The government was defeated in the lords on monday over plans to change the way englands universities are run. The legislation is designed to make it easierfor new colleges to award degrees. Peers voted in favour of an opposition amendment to the Higher Education bill to define the powers and aims of universities. This is the first major bill on Higher Education for a generation. Its going to have far reaching consequences. One of the aims is to extend the University Title considerably. Its a matter of great concern to me that this piece of legislation has so far made no attempt to define what a university is or its role in society more widely and particularly what we expect these new universities to do. The government spokesman said there were dangers in setting out a definition of a university that could be challenged in the courts. Universities have never been defined in legislation before and we are not aware of this in itself that has led to particular problems in the system. Labour says plans to close dozens of local tax offices should be immediately scrapped after a Spending Watchdog found costs have spiralled. The National Audit office revealed hmrc has had to rethink the proposals after underestimating the expense and scale of disruption involved. The nao reports confirmed ourfears. First of all, it calls the original Office Closure plan unrealistic, the estimates of the cost of the move increased by 22 , £600 million extra, forecasts of over 5,000 job losses, it finds the cost of redundancy and travel have tripled to 5a million and it says hmrc cannot demonstrate how its services cannot be improved and it hasnt even introduced a Business Plan for the planned closures. As we predicted, this is an emerging disaster. Given how clear and stark the warnings actually are, would it not simply make more sense to pause this, rip it up, and start again . For the public, this really means a better, more modern service, run by fewer staff, costing £80 million a year less by the time that changes take effect. Its a plan to say goodbye to the days of manual processing of tasks that can be done more easily with todays technology. The uks Green Investment bank could be killed off if the government goes ahead with plans to sell it, according to one mp. The Bank Supports offshore wind farms and other green projects. The government has announced plans to pa rt privatise it, with Australian Bank macquarie thought to be the preferred bidder. Founded in 2012, the gib has been widely recognised as a true success story, kickstarting truly innovative, low Carbon Projects across the uk. And yet, this preferred bidder, macquarie, not only has a dismal and terrible environmental record, it also has an appalling track record of asset stripping. The minister said he couldnt comment on the process, potential bidders or media speculation. It is precisely because we want the Green Investment bank to do more unfettered from the constraints of the state that we are seeking to put it into the private sector. The objectives we have set out in the sale could not have been clearer. We have also been very clear that the reason we want to move into the private sector is to enable the business to grow and continue as an institution supporting investment in the green economy. A former nato Secretary General has warned against further defence cuts, saying the uk is sleepwalking into potential calamity. Opening a debate on the uks Armed Forces Capability the labour former Defence Secretary, lord robertson, also questioned us President Elect Donald Trumps attitude to nato. He moved onto the election of donald trump as us president. I considered some of the immediate and looming threats and challenges. Some of them are pretty formidable. Migration flows which have suddenly ended up on our shores. The spread of religious extremism and jihadi violence plumbing new depths of savagery. A resurgent russia. A rising china. And the disruption of north korea. But my answer to the question of what is the greatest threat, it is ourselves, we are oui own worst enemies. We are short sighted, penny pinching, naively optimistic, were complacent, and we are ostrich like to the way in which the world has become interconnected, more fragile, and more unpredictable. He moved onto the election of donald trump as us president. The donald, with his mexican wall, with new protectionism and isolationism, with his serious questioning of nato solidarity, with a belief in torture and with Lieutenant General Michael Flynn as his chief security advisors, perhaps we dont need more enemies in the world today. A former conservative Defence Secretary was one of many to raise fears about russia. I hope sincerely, President Putin and his colleagues realise how easily that mobilisations and provocations, that accidents can happen, and how easy conflict can start. And we dont have to have the memories of the First World War and of the Second World War where wars started by accident involving the wrong people, the wrong time, they werent meant to happen. And ijust do take that factor very seriously. In the face of russian ambition, my lords, europeans can no longer get their defence on the cheap. It is an interesting reflection that whereas the word burden sharing used to be used when one went to washington, now the assessment of europes contribution is, shall we say, expressed in more trenchant and perhaps less suitable terms for a debate of this kind. We lack strength in numbers. We are not well placed to deal with the inevitable unseen, least of all against a capable foe. The more independently minded we become, the more capability we need in a dangerous world. Surely, the two must go together. Defence spending is going up. When Defence Spending will increase by £5 billion over when Defence Spending will increase by £5 billion over this parliament, its nonsense for anyone to suggest there is no new funding. I hope it is clear that the government fully recognises the breadth and severity of threats that face our country today. We know that in this era of uncertainty, we can take nothing for granted. The approach we have taken in the sts is the right one for strengthening our defence and our security and it is the one to which this government is fully committed. Lord howe. Now for something very different, its time to take a look at some of the other political stories making the news this week. With our countdown, heres alex partridge. New Minister Lord 0shaughnessy hasnt exactly made a splash with tory peers. That might be why one was caught asking who he was while he made his dispatch box debut. We are used to political u turns but Health Secretaryjeremy hunt ended up doing a real life u turn while looking for his car. Tuesdays Foreign Office questions clocked in at more than 70 minutes but it wasnt nearly enough for foreign secretary borisjohnson. For two hours, the Minister Chunters from a sedentary position. I certainly wouldnt object to that. Jeremy corbyns relaunch also involves chatting football on twitter. He offered to talk some sense into itvs piers morgan on the subject of embattled arsenal boss arsene wenger. And on thursday, labours chris bryant took an opportunity to send his best wishes to the speaker on a very special day. Sorry, mr speaker. May i first of all wish you a happy kiss a ginger day. Kiss a ginger day activity is probably perfectly lawful but ive got no plans to partake of it myself. Alex partridge, bringing us to the end of this weeks programme, but Dojoinjoanna Shinn on monday night at 11pm for another round up of the best of the day here at westminster. But for now, from me, goodbye. Hello there, good morning. Weve got a Weather Front draped across the United Kingdom to start the day today. From the north east of Scotland All The Way down to the south west of england. Either side of that weve got largely dry conditions and quite a range in those temperatures. Main band of Rain Across The Uk in the morning. A few bright stalls on either side but there will be wet Weather Creeping into the mid North West Of Scotland after a range of sandwiches to start the day there will be a range of temperatures in the afternoon. By the six degrees across east anglia and relatively chilly but further west, double figures with a mild day. There is a range of temperatures again on tuesday with five or six degrees in the south eastern corner, ninth and 10th and north west. Welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in North America and around the globe. My name is ben bland. Our top stories fairer trade deals to address a widening trade deficit. Donald trump outlines his Foreign Policy priorities. The outgoing director of the cia warns the President Elect, dont underestimate russia. Horrific details have emerged of the violence in brazils alcacuz prison. 26 prisoners were killed by fellow inmates. Many had been decapitated. He wants you to say, good job, son. Thats all. And viola davis has won a golden globe for her performance in fences. Can she add an oscar . We have a special interview