Hundreds of thousands of disabled pensioners will no longer have to go through unnecessary reassessments for disability benefits, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd announced yesterday. While charities welcomed the announcement, they argue that the measures just don’t go far enough. Continue reading No more Nasty Party? Amber Rudd softens approach to disabled pensioners
The UK Government has launched a new £1.6 bn Stronger Towns Fund. The fund, which was announced yesterday, will be targeted at places ‘that have not shared in the proceeds of growth in the same way as more prosperous parts of the country’. Opposition parties say the new fund amounts to little more than a ‘Brexit bung’. Continue reading Brexit bribe? £1.6 billion Stronger Towns Fund launched
Deidre Brock MP has given her support to a campaign to make sure animal protections are not watered down by Brexit. Continue reading Brock backs ‘Better Deal for Animals’ campaign
Possibility of No Deal Brexit recedes
In a statement to the House of Commons yesterday, Theresa May said:
With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to make a statement on the Government’s work to secure a Withdrawal Agreement that can command the support of this House.
A fortnight ago I committed to come back before the House today if the Government had not by now secured a majority for a Withdrawal Agreement and a Political Declaration.
In the two weeks since, my Rt Hon Friends the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, the Attorney General and I have been engaging in focused discussions with the EU to find a way forward that will work for both sides. We are making good progress in that work.
I had a constructive meeting with President Juncker in Brussels last week, to take stock of the work done by our respective teams.
We discussed the legal changes that are required to guarantee that the Northern Ireland backstop cannot endure indefinitely.
On the Political Declaration, we discussed what additions or changes can be made to increase confidence in the focus and ambition of both sides in delivering the future partnership we envisage as soon as possible – and the Secretary of State is following this up with Michel Barnier.
I also had a number of positive meetings at the EU-League of Arab States Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, including with President Donald Tusk.
I have now spoken to the leaders of every single EU member state to explain the UK’s position.
And the UK and EU teams are continuing their work and we agreed to review progress again in the coming days.
As part of these discussions, the UK and EU have agreed to consider a joint work stream to develop alternative arrangements to ensure the absence of a hard border in Northern Ireland.
This work will be done in parallel with the future relationship negotiations and is without prejudice to them.
Our aim is to ensure that, even if the full future relationship is not in place by the end of the implementation period, the backstop is not needed because we have a set of alternative arrangements ready to go.
I want to thank my Hon and Rt Hon friends for their contribution to this work and reaffirm that we are seized of the need to progress that work as quickly as possible.
President Juncker has already agreed that the EU will give priority to this work. And the Government expects that this will be an important strand of the next phase.
The Secretary of State for Exiting the EU will be having further discussions with Michel Barnier and we will announce details ahead of the Meaningful Vote.
We will also be setting up domestic structures to support this work, including ensuring we can take advice from external experts involved in customs processes around the world, from businesses who trade with the EU and beyond – and, of course, from colleagues across the House.
This will all be supported by civil service resource as well as funding for the Government to help develop, test and pilot proposals which can form part of these alternative arrangements.
Mr Speaker, I know what this House needs in order to support a Withdrawal Agreement. The EU knows what is needed. And I am working hard to deliver it.
As well as changes to the backstop, we are also working across a number of other areas to build support for the Withdrawal Agreement and to give the House confidence in the future relationship that the UK and EU will go on to negotiate.
This includes ensuring that leaving the EU will not lead to any lowering of standards in relation to workers’ rights, environmental protections or health and safety.
Not only would giving up control go against the spirit of the referendum result, it would also mean accepting new EU laws automatically, even if they were to reduce workers’ rights or change them in a way that was not right for us.
Instead, and in the interests of building support across the House, we are prepared to commit to giving Parliament a vote on whether it wishes to follow suit whenever the EU standards in areas such as workers’ rights and health and safety are judged to have been strengthened.
The Government will consult with businesses and trade Unions as it looks at new EU legislation and decides how the UK should respond.
We will legislate to give our commitments on both non-regression and future developments force in UK law.
And following further cross-party talks, we will shortly be bringing forward detailed proposals to ensure that as we leave the EU, we not only protect workers’ rights, but continue to enhance them.
Mr Speaker, as the government committed to the House last week, we are today publishing the paper assessing our readiness for No Deal.
I believe that if we have to, we will ultimately make a success of a No Deal.
But this paper provides an honest assessment of the very serious challenges it would bring in the short-term – and further reinforces why the best way for this House to honour the referendum result is to leave with a deal.
As I committed to the House, the Government will today table an amendable motion for debate tomorrow.
But I know Members across the House are genuinely worried that time is running out, that if the Government doesn’t come back with a further meaningful vote or it loses that vote, Parliament won’t have time to make its voice heard on the next steps. I know too that members across the House are deeply concerned by the effect of the current uncertainty on businesses.
So today I want to reassure the House by making three further commitments.
First, we will hold a second Meaningful Vote by Tuesday 12 March at the latest.
Second, if the Government has not won a Meaningful Vote by Tuesday 12 March then it will – in addition to its obligations to table a neutral, amendable motion under section 13 of the EU Withdrawal Act – table a motion to be voted on by Wednesday 13 March at the latest, asking this House if it supports leaving the EU without a Withdrawal Agreement and a framework for a future relationship on 29 March.
So the United Kingdom will only leave without a deal on 29 March if there is explicit consent in this House for that outcome.
Third, if the House, having rejected leaving with the deal negotiated with the EU, then rejects leaving on 29 March without a withdrawal agreement and future framework, the Government will, on 14 March, bring forward a motion on whether Parliament wants to seek a short limited extension to Article 50 – and if the House votes for an extension, seek to agree that extension approved by the House with the EU, and bring forward the necessary legislation to change the exit date commensurate with that extension.
These commitments all fit the timescale set out in the Private Members Bill in the name of the Rt Hon Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford.
They are commitments I am making as Prime Minister and I will stick by them, as I have previous commitments to make statements and table amendable motions by specific dates.
Let me be clear, I do not want to see Article 50 extended. Our absolute focus should be on working to get a deal and leaving on 29 March.
An extension beyond the end of June would mean the UK taking part in the European Parliament elections. What kind of message would that send to the more than 17 million people who voted to leave the EU nearly three years ago now? And the House should be clear that a short extension – not beyond the end of June – would almost certainly have to be a one-off. If we had not taken part in the European Parliament elections, it would be extremely difficult to extend again, so it would create a much sharper cliff edge in a few months’ time.
An extension cannot take no deal off the table. The only way to do that is to revoke Article 50, which I shall not do, or agree a deal.
Now, I have been clear throughout this process that my aim is to bring the country back together.
This House can only do that by implementing the decision of the British people.
The Government is determined to do so in a way that commands the support of this House.
But just as government requires the support of this House in delivering the vote of the British people, so the House should respect the proper functions of the Government.
Tying the Government’s hands by seeking to commandeer the order paper would have far-reaching implications for the way in which the United Kingdom is governed and the balance of powers and responsibilities in our democratic institutions.
And it would offer no solution to the challenge of finding a deal which this House can support.
Neither would seeking an extension to Article 50 now make getting a deal any easier.
Ultimately the choices we face would remain unchanged – leave with a deal, leave with no deal, or have no Brexit.
So when it comes to that motion tomorrow, the House needs to come together, as we did on 29 January, and send a clear message that there is a stable majority in favour of leaving the EU with a deal.
A number of Hon and Rt Hon Members have understandably raised the rights of EU citizens living in the UK.
As I set out last September, following the Salzburg Summit – even in the event of no deal, the rights of the three million EU citizens living in the UK will be protected.
That is our guarantee to them.
They are our friends, our neighbours, our colleagues. We want them to stay.
But a separate agreement for citizens’ rights is something the EU have been clear they do not have the legal authority for.
If it is not done in a Withdrawal Agreement, these issues become a matter member states unless the EU were to agree a new mandate to take this forward.
At the very start of this process the UK sought to separate out this issue, but that was something which the EU has been consistent on.
However, my Right Hon Friend the Foreign Secretary has written to all of his counterparts and we are holding further urgent discussions with member states to seek assurances on the rights of UK citizens.
I urge all EU countries to make this guarantee and end the uncertainty for these citizens.
I hope that the government’s efforts can give the House – and EU Citizens here in the UK – the reassurances they need and deserve.
Mr Speaker, for some Hon and Rt Hon Members, taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union is the culmination of a long and sincerely fought campaign.
For others, leaving the EU goes against much that they have stood for and fought for with equal sincerity for just as long.
But Parliament gave the choice to the people.
In doing so we told them we would honour their decision.
Mr Speaker, that remains the resolve of this side of the House.
This House voted to trigger Article 50, and this House has a responsibility to deliver on the result.
The very credibility of our democracy is at stake.
By leaving the EU with a deal, we can move our country forward.
Even with the uncertainty we face today, we have more people in work than ever before, wages growing at their fastest rate for a decade and debt falling as a share of the economy.
If we can leave with a deal, end the uncertainty and move on beyond Brexit, we can do so much more to deliver real economic progress to every part of country.
So I hope tomorrow this House can show that…
…with legally binding changes on the backstop…
…commitments to protect workers’ rights and the environment…
…an enhanced role for Parliament in the next phase of negotiations…
…and a determination to address the wider concerns of those who voted to leave…
…we will have a deal that this House can support.
And in doing so, that we send a clear message: That this House is resolved to honour the result of the referendum and leave the European Union with a deal.
And I commend this statement to the House.
While this statement helps to clarify the Government’s position there is still an awful lot of work to be done to secure a smooth exit, even with the possibility of an extended timetable.
Has the Prime Minister done enough to convince her Eurosceptic MPs?
And will the EU accept the UK plan? It only takes one country to scupper any new deal …
Deidre Brock MP co-sponsored a Bill coming before parliament today (Wednesday) calling for asylum seekers to be given the right to work. Continue reading Brock backs bill to let asylum seekers work
Dear Editor
The increasing number of statements made recently by Defence Minister Gavin Williamson (above) during tours both at home and abroad are extremely disturbing.
In one statement he calls for the establishment of more military bases around the world, in another he calls for increased support to back Ukranian forces in their dispute with Russia.
His latest statement – calling for an aircraft carrier to be sent to the Yellow Sea – shows, in my opinion, he is quite unsuited to be in any position of government.
A. Delahoy
Silverknowes Gardens
Scottish Government steps up ‘no deal’ preparations
Continue reading UK Government must immediately rule out ‘no deal’ Brexit, says Sturgeon
Deidre Brock MP welcomed the official launch of the 2019 Year of Indigenous Languages, which is taking place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris yesterday. Continue reading Deirdre Brock welcomes Year of Indigenous Languages
North and Leith MP Deirdre Brock has welcomed the Tory government’s sudden U-turn on imposing a £65 fee on EU citizens for settled status applications. Continue reading Brock welcomes U turn on Settled Status Scheme
Theresa May’s government survived a vote of confidence at Westminster last night, winning by just 19 votes 325 – 306.
In a Downing Street statement following the vote late last night, Prime Minister Theresa May said: “This evening the Government has won the confidence of Parliament.
“This now gives us all the opportunity to focus on finding a way forward on Brexit.
“I understand that to people getting on with their lives, away from Westminster, the events of the past 24 hours will have been unsettling.
“Overwhelmingly, the British people want us to get on with delivering Brexit, and also address the other important issues they care about.
“But the deal which I have worked to agree with the European Union was rejected by MPs, and by a large margin.
“I believe it is my duty to deliver on the British people’s instruction to leave the European Union. And I intend to do so.
“So now MPs have made clear what they don’t want, we must all work constructively together to set out what Parliament does want.
“That’s why I am inviting MPs from all parties to come together to find a way forward. One that both delivers on the referendum and can command the support of Parliament.
“This is now the time to put self-interest aside.
“I have just held constructive meetings with the leader of the Liberal Democrats, and the Westminster leaders of the SNP and Plaid Cymru.
“From tomorrow, meetings will be taking place between senior Government representatives, including myself, and groups of MPs who represent the widest possible range of views from across Parliament – including our confidence and supply partners the Democratic Unionist Party.
“It will not be an easy task, but MPs know they have a duty to act in the national interest, reach a consensus and get this done.
“In a historic vote in 2016 the country decided to leave the EU.
In 2017 80% of people voted for Parties that stood on manifestos promising to respect that result.
“Now, over two and a half years later, it’s time for us to come together, put the national interest first – and deliver on the referendum.”
Come together? That appears very unlikely – Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn says Labour will not talk to the Tories unless a No Deal Brexit is taken off the table.
Earlier, Mr Corbyn moved the motion of no confidence in the government. He said:
Mr Speaker, I move the motion that this House has no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government.
Last night the Government was defeated by 230 votes. The largest defeat in the history of our democracy. The first Government to be defeated by more than 200 votes.
Last week they lost a vote on the Finance Bill. That what’s called supply. Yesterday they lost a vote by biggest margin ever. That what’s regarded as confidence.
By any convention of this House, by any precedent the loss of confidence and supply should mean they do the right thing and resign.
Mr Speaker, the Prime Minister has consistently claimed that her deal, which has now been decisively rejected was good for Britain, workers, and businesses.
If she is so confident of that, if she genuinely believes it, she should have nothing to fear from going to the people and letting them decide.
In this week, in 1910, the British electorate went to the polls. They did so because Herbert Asquith’s Liberal government had been unable to get Lloyd George’s People’s Budget through the other place.
They were confident in their arguments and went to the people and were returned.
It is still how our democracy works. When we have a government that cannot govern, in the absence of a written constitution, it is these conventions that guide us.
If a government cannot get its legislation through Parliament, it must go to the country for a new mandate and that must apply when it is on the key issue of the day.
We know the Prime Minister is not against snap elections on principle because she herself went to the people in 2017, saying “Give me the mandate I need”.
She bypassed the Fixed Term Parliament Act, which was, as my Rt Hon Friend, the Shadow Foreign Secretary pointed out, designed to give some stability to the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government, to ensure that the Lib Dems couldn’t hold the Conservatives to ransom by constantly threatening to collapse the coalition. The Fixed Term Parliament Act was never intended to prop up a zombie government.
And there can be no doubt that this is a zombie government:
Defeated last night by the largest margin of any government ever.
In December it became the first government ever to be held in contempt by Parliament.
Last week it became the first government for more than 40 years to lose a vote on a Finance Bill.
And a shocking first for this government is forcing a heavily pregnant member of this House to delay a scheduled caesarean to come to vote and all because of their cynical breaking of the trusted pairing arrangements in this House which have endured for decades.
Nothing demonstrates the sheer incompetence of this government quite like the Brexit negotiations.
Yesterday’s historic and humiliating defeat was the result of two years of chaos and failure.
It is now clear this government is not capable of winning support for its core plan on the most vital issue facing this country.
The Prime Minister has lost control and the government has lost the ability to govern.
Within two years they have managed to turn a deal from what was supposed to be ”one of the easiest in human history” into a national embarrassment.
In that time we have seen the Prime Minister’s demands quickly turned into one humiliating climb-down after another.
Brexit ministers have come and gone but the shambles has remained unchanged, culminating in an agreement which was described by one former Cabinet minister as “the worst of all worlds”.
Let’s be clear, the deal the Prime Minister wanted this Parliament to support would have left the UK in a helpless position, facing a choice of either seeking and paying for an extended transition period or trapped in the backstop.
The Prime Minister may claim the backstop would never have come into force but who has confidence in this government’s ability to negotiate a future trade deal with the EU by December 2020 after the shambles we have all witnessed over the past two years?
This Frankenstein deal is now officially dead and the Prime Minister is trying to blame everybody else.
Mr Speaker let me be clear the blame for this mess lies firmly at the feet of the Prime Minister and her government, which time after time has made hollow demands and given false promises.
They say they want this Parliament to be sovereign yet whenever their plans have come up against scrutiny they have done all they can to obstruct and evade.
The Prime Minister’s original plan was to push through a deal without the appropriate approval of this Parliament only to be forced into holding a meaningful vote by the courts and by members of this House.
Mr Speaker, since losing its majority in the 2017 general election the Government has had numerous opportunities to engage with others and listen to their views, not just here in Westminster but across the country.
Yesterday’s decisive defeat is the result of the Prime Minister just not listening, ignoring businesses, trade unions and members of this House.
Instead she has wasted two years recklessly ploughing on with her doomed strategy.
And even at the last, when it was clear her botched and damaging deal could not remotely command support here or across the country, she decided to waste even more time by pulling the meaningful vote on the empty promise of obtaining legal assurances on the backstop.
Some on the government side have tried to portray the Prime Minister’s approach as stoical.
Mr Speaker, what we have seen over the past few months is not stoical. Instead we have witnessed is a Prime Minister acting in her narrow party interest, rather than the public interest.
Her party is fundamentally split on this issue, constraining the Prime Minister so much that she simply cannot command a majority in this House on the most important issue facing the country, without rupturing her party. And it is for this reason that this Government can no longer govern.
Yesterday the Prime Minister shook her head when I said that she had treated Brexit as a matter only for the Conservative Party. Yet within half an hour of the vote being announced the Hon member for Grantham & Stamford (Nick Boles) commented “She has conducted the argument as if this was a party political matter rather than a question of profound national importance”. I know many people across the country will be frustrated and deeply worried about the insecurity around Brexit but if this divided Government continues in office the uncertainty and risks can only grow.
And Mr Speaker it is not just over Brexit that the Government is failing dismally letting down the people of this country. There has been the Windrush scandal the shameful denial of rights the detention and even the deportation of our own citizens. The Government’s flagship welfare policy Universal Credit is causing real and worsening poverty. And just yesterday under the cover of the Brexit vote they sneaked out changes that will make some pensioner households thousands of pounds worse off.
Those changes build on the scourge of poverty-causing measures inflicted on people in this country: the bedroom tax, the two child limit and abominable rape clause, the outsourced and deeply flawed Work Capability Assessment, the punitive sanctions regime and the repugnant benefit freeze.
People across the country whether they voted Leave or Remain know that the system isn’t working for them.
Food bank use has increased almost exponentially and more people are sleeping on our streets the numbers have shamefully swelled every year. They used to be the party of home ownership now they’re the party of homelessness.
Care is being denied to our elderly with Age UK estimating at 1.2 million older people are not receiving the care they need. £7 billion has been cut from adult social care budgets since 2010.
Our NHS is in crisis, waiting time targets at A&E and for cancer patients have not been met since 2015. They have never been met under the government of this Prime Minister. The NHS has endured the longest funding squeeze in its history, leaving it short-staffed to the tune of 100,000 and NHS trusts and providers in over £1 billion deficit.
And the human consequences are clear. Life expectancy is now going backwards in the poorest parts of our country and stagnating overall. This is unprecedented. Another shameful first for this government.
Mr Speaker, I know some members of this House are sceptical and there are sceptical members of the public, but I truly believe that a general election would be the best outcome for this country. As the Prime Minister pointed out in her speech yesterday both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party stood on manifestos that accepted the result of the referendum. Surely any government would be strengthened in trying to renegotiate Brexit by being given a fresh mandate from the people for their chosen course?
I know many people at home will say we have had two general elections and a referendum in the last four years. For the people of Scotland it is two UK-wide elections, one Scottish Parliamentary election and two referendums in five years. So while Brenda from Bristol may gasp “not another one?” spare a thought for Bernie from Bute. But Mr Speaker the scale of the crisis means we need a government with a fresh mandate.
A general election can bring people together, focus on all the issues that unite us, the need to solve the crises in our NHS our children’s schools and the care of our elderly.
And we all have a responsibility to call out the abuse that has become too common whether that’s the abuse of members of this House going about their business or the racist abuse and attacks that too many of our constituents have faced since the toxic debate of the last referendum and this government’s hostile environment policies.
Many media pundits and members of this House say there is currently no majority in the House for a general election. This House will decide.
But Mr Speaker, it is clear there is no majority for the Government’s Brexit deal and there is no majority for No Deal.
Mr Speaker, I pay tribute to all members of this House who, like the Labour frontbench, are committed to both opposing the Prime Minister’s bad deal and ruling out the catastrophe of ‘No Deal’.
But I do believe that following the defeat of the Government’s plan, a General Election is the best outcome for the country, as the Labour Party Conference agreed last September.
A General Election would give new impetus to negotiations, a new Prime Minister with a new mandate, able not just to break the deadlock on Brexit but to bring fresh ideas to the many problems facing our constituents: low pay and insecure work, Universal Credit and rising poverty, the scandal of inadequate care for our elderly, the crisis of local councils, health services and schools starved of resources, the housing and homelessness crisis.
Mr Speaker, if the House backs this motion today then I welcome the wide-ranging debates we will have about the future of our country and the future of our relationship with the European Union.
As I said before, a Prime Minister confident of what she describes as “a good deal” and committed to tackling burning injustices should have nothing to fear from such an election.
But Mr Speaker, if the House does not back this motion today then it is incumbent on all of us to keep all options on the table that rule out a disastrous ‘No Deal’, and to offer a better solution than the Prime Minister’s deal which was so roundly defeated yesterday.
This Government cannot govern and cannot command the support of Parliament on the most important issue facing our country.
Every previous Prime Minister in this situation would have resigned and called an election and it is the duty of this House to lead where the Government has failed.
