Now, its time for a look back at the week in parliament. Hello there and welcome to the week in parliament, our look back at the big events in westminster and beyond. Coming up in the next half hour, the government suffers two commons rebellions in a week one on trade and one on the planned end of an increased benefit payment. The question for us right now is whether the end of march this year, just ten weeks away, is the right moment to begin unwinding this support. As the uk records its highest daily coronavirus death toll, the labour leader challenges borisjohnson over the home secretarys claims that borders should have shut sooner. I was an advocate, says the home secretary, of closing them last march. I think it was last march that the right honourable gentleman, along with many others, was actually saying that we didnt need to close borders. And asjoe biden takes over as us president , theres a blunt message for his predecessor from scotlands first minister. Im sure many of us across the chamber and across scotland will be very happy to say cheerio | to donald trump today. I think dont haste ye back i might be the perfect rejoinder. But first, Boris Johnson won the 2019 election with what should be a comfortable 80 seat majority, but the week saw some of his backbenchers defying the government on two very different issues. The first Pressure Point came when labour led a debate calling on ministers to keep a £20 a week uplift in universal credit due to be stopped at the end of march. The increased payment, worth £1,000 a year, was introduced by the chancellor at the start of the pandemic as a temporary measure. 0pposition and some conservatives think it should stay for now at least. Reducing universal credit and working tax credit this april would be fundamentally the wrong decision. It would be a profound mistake forfamilies, for the economy, and for our ability to effectively tackle and recoverfrom the covid pandemic. All the evidence suggests that the restrictions which have been caused as a result of the measures taken to deal with covid have hit the poorest in society hardest. Poverty is up, and those people who most depend upon this kind of support are the ones who are most damaged at the moment. Does the opposition propose to| make this increase permanent . And, if so, how do they propose to pay for it . I grateful again for the intervention. So we believe this uplift should stay in place during the crisis and i dont think anyone believes the crisis will end in april. The chancellor has always been clear that this measure remains in place until the end of the financial year. Now, i hear the calls, mr deputy speaker, from the party opposite, and indeed from the honourable gentleman, for a decision now on whether universal credit and the uplift is continued post april. And i have sympathy with the argument that it would give claimants certainty. However, one of the evident features of a pandemic is uncertainty. If the honourable gentlemen opposite is certain about what the economic and social picture will look like in april, well, to be frank, he must have a crystal ball. If they go ahead with this cut, they will be responsible for cutting out of work support | to its lowest level since 1992, i and its lowest ever level lowest ever level relative to average earnings. And the concern wasntjust on the opposition side. But the question for us right now is whether the end of march this year, just ten weeks away, is the right moment to begin unwinding this support specifically to remove the extra support for universal credit claimants. And i dont believe it is the right moment. And opposition criticism came from all sides. For the government to cut this vital support that universal credit provides in order to save face would be morally reprehensible. The secretary of state should have the courage to say, the facts have changed, i have changed my mind. The Prime Minister stated lastl week that what we want to see is jobs and growth. We all do, mr speaker, but between covid and brexit, thats simply not a realistic solution at the present. Wanting a better economic. Climate is not going to meet the basic needs of those | on universal credit and it ignores the fact that 40 of. Claimants are already in work. And when it came to the vote, mps backed a motion to keep the uplift by 278 0. Recognising the degree of concern on its benches, the government had told its mps not to take part in the vote, but six conservative mps rebelled, supporting the call to continue the more generous payment. Well, the very next day, there was another more substantial tory rebellion, this time over trade policy and whether the uk should have free trade deals with countries that commit genocide. When the trade bill was going through the lords, a cross bench peer, lord alton, made a change so that if the High Court Ruled a country was committing genocide, trade agreements with that country would be revoked. When the bill returned to the commons, the trade minister wanted that amendment stripped out. What i am sure of is that the amendment that is before us today is not an appropriate amendment to put into this legislation, the amendment in the name of lord alton. And the appropriate of the high court in international treaties, particularly the right in the alton amendment for an automatic revocation of an international treaty. Rebel tories had put down their own amendment in effect, a watered down version of lord alton� s. Under their plan, if the uk High Court Ruled a country was committing genocide, mps and peers would then debate halting or stopping trade deals with that country. We have tabled an amendment, a compromise amendment, which takes into account all the concerns the government has presented on the lord altons amendment and makes it very clear the separations of powers and, fundamentally, parliament opines, ministers decides, so what is the ministers objection to the compromise amendment tabled by myself and my colleagues today . Well, madam deputy speaker, ill have to have a look at the amendment that shes tabled. My role here is to speak about the amendment that is in front of us, the amendment coming from the other place in the name of lord alton. So, these measures taken together. Of course, yeah. Im grateful for that. Actually, i gave that amendment to the foreign secretary and his team on wednesday last week. It is on the order paper today. With respect, its not a case of will have a look at it . I he must have a view about it, surely, because its there. Well, madam deputy speaker, i listen to what my right honourable friend says and i note what he says, and what i will say is that the government is open for further discussions. Mps are particularly concerned about any possible deal with china, given its treatment of uighur muslims being held in camps and forced into work. We have all read with horror the first hand accounts of torture and extrajudicial killings, mass incarceration in detention camps, forced sterilisation and abortions, servitude and slave labour. It shames the world that this is happening in our lifetime, it disgraces the government of china, and it is absolutely right that if a uk trade deal with beijing is proposed or agreed, that representatives of the Uighur Community should be able to seek a ruling from the high court that the crimes they are facing in china meet the criteria for a charge of genocide, in turn requiring the uk government to consider revoking that trade deal. There are some serious concerns about this amendment as it stands not least allowing the English High Court to determine what is and what is not genocide. But the principle of revoking a trade deal with a state committing such heinous crimes, i think, is beyond reproach. In the end, the rebel tory amendment wasnt selected to be voted on and mps rejected lord alton� s tougher amendment, calling for a ruling of genocide to mean trade deals were revoked, by just 11. But more than 30 conservatives rebelled. The bill now goes back to the house of lords. On wednesday, all eyes were on the united states, wherejoe biden took over from donald trump as us president. Donald trump left the white house by helicopter, flying to the Andrews Air Base in maryland for a final farewell ceremony vowing to be back in some form. A few hours later, his successor, joe biden, was sworn in as the 46th us president calling it a day of history and hope, renewal and resolve. There were congratulations from all sides in the house of commons at Prime Ministers questions, where the Snps Ian Blackford said millions around the world would breathe a massive sigh of relief. Turning the page on the dark chapter of trumps presidency isnt solely the responsibility of president joe biden. It is also the responsibility of those in the tory party, including the Prime Minister, who cosied up to donald trump and his callous worldview. Mr speaker, this morning, the former Prime Minister, the member for maidenhead, accused the current Prime Minister of abandoning moral responsibility on the world stage by slashing international aid. So he said if today was to be a new chapter. Will the Prime Minister begin by reversing his cruel policy of Cutting International Aid for the worlds poorest . Mr speaker, i think its very important that the Prime Minister of the uk has the best possible relationship with the president of the united states. Thats part of the job description, as i think all sensible members opposite would acknowledge. As to the uks place in the world. It was the uk, the first major country in the world to set a target of net zero Carbon Emissions by 2050. All other countries are following. We hope that President Biden willjoin us. Were working to promote global free trade. And, of course, mr speaker, well work with President Biden to secure the Transatlantic Alliance and nato, which, of course, the Scottish Nationalist Party would unbundle. The speaker stepped in to remind borisjohnson once again that the snps full title was the Scottish National party, and Ian Blackford having used up all his questions didnt get a chance to respond to that challenge from borisjohnson. The labour leader turned to the coronavirus pandemic and comments made in a video call obtained by the guido fawkes website, in which the home secretary told tory supporters she was an advocate of closing the uks borders ten months ago. Keir starmer quoted her words. 0n should we have closed our borders earlier . , the answer is, yes, i was an advocate, says the home secretary, of closing them last march. Why did the Prime Minister overrule the home secretary . Mr speaker, i think it was last march that the right honourable gentleman, along with many others, was actually saying that we didnt need to close borders. But as usual, captain hindsight has changed his tune to suit events. He then turned to the deletion of around 400,000 fingerprint, dna and arrest records from a police database. How many convicted criminals have had their records wrongly deleted . We dont know how many cases might be frustrated as a result of whats happened, but i can tell him that 213,000 offence records, 175,000 arrest records and 15,000 personal records are currently being investigated, because they are the subject of this problem. And borisjohnson insisted work was going on to restore the records that had been lost. Now, lets take a look at some other news in brief. Visiting flooded areas in greater manchester, borisjohnson urged people to follow the advice from the environment agency. People were evacuated from their homes amid widespread flooding across england and wales caused by storm christoph. Earlier, a former environment minister had told peers it was only by visiting flooded areas you could understand the full impact. Of the 11,500 homes flooded last winter, there is a few that are 100 yards from my home in ludlow, some still empty with no extra protection. Can i ask ministers to visit flooded areas, as the one thing they dont get from television and the media is the smell . And its that smell that would wake them up to do even more. Task force has warned that homelessness organisations are facing fear and fatigue. Lady casey said everything had got more challenging and relentless during the pandemic. Staff have been doing this now close on to 12 months, so i think there is, in the same way that we are hearing loud and clear and rightly so about fatigue within the National Health service, i think i would say there is a level of relentless, fear and fatigue in many of the homelessness organisations, many of whom are dealing with people who clearly have very significant drug, alcohol and Mental Health problems, who cant self isolate and so on and so forth. The governments faced calls to resolve problems around eu touring visas for musicians and crews. Since brexit, theyre no longer guaranteed visa free travel and may need extra work permits to play in certain european countries. A petition signed by more than 260,000 people has called for a free cultural work permit. Touring europe means everything to our artists and musicians the thrill of that first tour, crammed into the transit van with all your gear, a0 a room in a cheap hotel in paris, rotterdam or hamburg, using whats left of the fee for a post gig beer, the dream that when you come back, it will be in a lavish tour bus, staying in five star hotels. Gone. All gone. The eu said they were prepared to offer a 90 day deal. Why was that turned down . The eu did not offer a deal that would have worked for musicians. Its quite simple. The eu, in fact, made a very broad offer which would not have been compatible with the governments manifesto commitment to take back control of our borders. A new law to protect british troops from false allegations about their conduct in past conflicts faced strong criticism in the lords. The 0verseas 0perations bill introduces a presumption against prosecution five years after an incident, unless compelling evidence emerges. It calls into question britains proud commitment to the Geneva Convention and undermines our role at the united nations. It threatens our moral authority to require the conduct of other nations to meet the standards set by international conventions. Theres an anomaly. Sexual offenses are excluded from the presumption. So, if a soldier tortures, rapes and kills a civilian, theres a presumption against prosecuting him for the torture and the murder but not for the rape. Its well recorded that a virtual industry to pillory british soldiers was set up following the unpopular. Intervention against iraq in 2003. As the secretary of state of defence has said, for example, in 2004, phil shiner a lawyerl went fishing. He fished for stories, he fished for victims, he fished for terrorists. That conduct was completely unacceptable, and mr shinerj was quite properly struck off, but the damage to the reputation of the British Armed forces had been done. Now, the uk death toll from coronavirus reached another grim high in the week, with more than 1,800 deaths recorded on a single day. Answering an urgent question, the Health Secretary, whos self isolating, told mps another 65 Mass Vaccination Centres were opening, including one in a mosque in birmingham. Im glad to report to the house that we now have given over 5 million doses of vaccine across the uk to 4. 6 million people, making Good Progress towards our goal of offering everyone in priority groups one to four, the first dose by the 15th of february. This virus is a lethal threat to us all. And as we respond through this huge endeavor, lets all take comfort in the fact that we are getting 200 vaccinations every minute, but in the meantime, everyone, everyone must follow the rules to protect the nhs and save lives. The mp whod asked the question wanted supply smoothed out. I know that the government relies on the manufacturers for supplies, but can we try to give more forward looking supply levels to our county teams so they have indicative estimates and they can plan better on the ground . The challenge to supply potentially that we have a lumpy supply, they work incredibly hard to deliver the supply as fast as possible. But it is challenging and therefore, it isnt possible to give certainty as far out as many gps and those who are on the ground would like. Yesterdays death numbers were truly horrific. Vaccination has to go hand in hand with measures to suppress this virus. That means further containment measures, not everyone can work at home comfortably, can a urge him to fix sick pay give people proper Financial Support so they can isolate and drive infection rates down. The uk has acquired the rights to vaccinate more than the entire population multiple times over as of many other developed nations. L can the secretary of state tell. Us what steps the uk government is taking to make sure that those surplus vaccines will be given to less developed countries around the world and then encourage other countries to do likewise . | matt hancock said the uk had put more money into the International Effort to ensure everyone around the world was vaccinated than any other country. Earlier in the week, scotlands first minister, nicola sturgeon, announced that lockdown measures would be extended, with most schools and nurseries staying shut until the middle of next month. At her weekly question time next day, the conservatives asked about the speed of the vaccine roll out amid concerns that some gps hadnt received supplies of the jab. Ruth davidson accused the government of changing its target date for when all over 80s would receive theirfirst dose. The problem here is this insistence from the first minister that this is all on track, but Health Secretary gene freeman said on the 11th of january that all over 80s would have the vaccine by the end of this mon