but the new order omits iraq and removes an indefinite ban on syrian refugees. leaders from france's main centre right party have backed francois fillon as their candidate in next month's presidential election. he's been accused of misusing public funds — but his party colleagues have ‘unanimously‘ renewed their support for his candidature. welcome to monday in parliament. the menus from westminster. chinese government has claimed it will make the skyblue again. they wa nt to will make the skyblue again. they want to reduce their reliance on coal and invest billions in renewable energy. they want the encourage the use of green. time now for a look at today in parliament. welcome to monday in parliament.

the main news from westminster. fears over job losses after the sale of vauxhall to a french car manufacturer. our employment laws make it easier to sack workers in the uk compared to those who work in france and germany which puts them at an immediate disadvantage. advice for the culture secretary after she raises concerns about a takeover of sky by 21st fox. a successful company that should not be persecuted a successful company that should not be persecuted because the left doesn't like it. office dress codes for women such as high heels have objected and ridiculed. working in flat shoes does not make me reach for the smelling salts. i imagine clients will be spectacularly unbothered by the heel height of anyone in attendance.

the house of commons was today dominated by two begged business deals, the first the sale of vauxhall. general motors is selling its american arm for £1.9 billion. —— european arm. the buyer is a french firm, psa, which owns peugeot. they have promised to return vauxhall to profit but workers are concerned to secure theirjobs will be especially after leaving the european union. that the company will honour the agreement they have with the vauxhall workforce. that vauxhall pensions will be in at least as good a position as they are today. that the treatment of the uk division will be equal to those of other countries within the vauxhall group. that the identity of vauxhall will continue to be distinct and prominent. that the strategy of the new company

be one of the building on existing strengthss and not closures. —— strengths and committments. although i welcome the promise to one of existing contracts, i am deeply concerned about the 40,000 currently employed in luton and in the wider supply chain who will be worried about the future of theirjobs today. can be secretary of state confirm what assurances he has personally received of the future of vauxhall's plants and the wider uk workforce beyond existing contracts? can the minister confirm what support has been offered to psa following britain's exit from the european union? we welcome nissan's decision to stay in the uk as a result of assurances provided by this government, has psa been offered the same deal? if so, would not make sense for the government to set out its strategy for the sector as a whole than enlightening

businesses one crisis at a time. i am grateful for the questions. these have been worrying times for the workforce over the last two weeks and i think the statements made by both parties today have been welcomed, notjust by me but by the speed unions as being very much steps in the right direction. —— trade unions. it is very important that we should hold the company to account for this. in terms of the points mentioned, the company has said that it will honour the agreement they have with the company and with the unions. the extent to at least 2021. i have constituents who work in the ellesmere port plant who are reliant on the local supply chains, so this is causing huge worry in the area. what can he say to reassure my constituents about the future,

particularly given that our employment laws make it easier to sack workers in the uk compared to those who work in france and germany, which puts them at an immediate disadvantage? and what can he say to reassure them about the fact that we are leaving the european union and the single market and that again puts them potentially at a disadvantage in the competition that is to come. what i would say is first of all the reason that we have a successful record in this country is that our car plants and their workforces are highly efficient and we shouldn't forget that. i can't help feeling the minister being little complacent. much of the exporters left for europe. would it really makes sense for peugeot to continue left—hand drive production outside the eu? and not in poland or germany?

the minister doesn't seem to be answering the questions on brexit head—on. many of my constituents are worried about this. given the thousands of high skilled jobs in the future and the importance of the risk of them going and the importance to the region's economy, what is he going to do to ensure future eu market access for this and other very important industries? the head of psa said today that brexit offers some opportunities, but she can have my assurance that i will do everything within my power to make sure that the terms of trade that we have through negotiations are as advantageous as possible. after those exchanges on vauxhall, mps turned their attention to the attempt by 21st—century fox, owned by rupert murdoch, to take over the broadcaster sky. at the end of last year fox and sky announced they had reached a deal. rupert murdoch has agreed to pay nearly 12 billion to gain full ownership.

the culture secretary came to the commons to up date mps about hard position on the bed. —— on the bid. i can confirm formal notification for the proposed merger was lodged with the european commission on friday to march. —— march 3. i, on friday, wrote to the parties to inform them that i am minded to issue a european intervention notice on the basis that i believe there are public interest considerations, as set out in the enterprise act 2002, that may be relevant to this proposed merger that warrant further investigation. she said she was concerned about media plurality. my concern is the merger will bring under common or increased control a number of significant news sources and news corporation's newspapers. as a result i have told parties i am minded to ask for a report from off, the impact of the merger on media plurality before considering

the matter further. —— ofcom. she also said she had concerns about broadcasting standards. i am concerned about the number of breaches of broadcasting standards by 21st—century fox as well as the behaviour and corporate governance failures of news corporation in the past. in light of those matters i am minded to intervene on these grounds and to ask of com to investigate them further. robert murdoch attempted to take over sky five years ago but it was derailed by the outcry over phone hacking at one of his newspapers. the company names may have changed since the previous bed for sky was withdrawn in 2011 but we are still dealing with media plurality, misconduct and the murdochs. —— previous bid. the secretary of state has said that she is minded to intervene first on media plurality grounds. the bid would put an even greater amount of media power in the uk in the hands of the murdoch family. it makes the murdoch

empire even better. —— bigger. we might call at empire 2.0. the most troubling issues raised are not about the content of james murdoch's programming but about the content of his character. the secretary of state has rightly referred to feel years of corporate governance during the phone hacking scandal but it is not clear that these failings all strictly speaking under the heading broadcasting standards, even though they are central to whether this merger should be approved. —— failures of governance. the measure is likely to increase the influence of rupert murdoch and his family in the media in the uk, and fox already have a controlling interest in sky. news corporation runs newspapers throughout uk and radio stations. at a time when smaller titles are struggling with poor circulation numbers, and established newspapers are having to rethink their business models to survive, giving yet more power to the already dominant media

giant seems counterintuitive. what i want to ask is whether she will be certain not to involve herself in the socialist witchhunt against rupert murdoch and news corporation, fox news, which has done so much, both through newspapers publishing and through the launch of sky news, to increase plurality in the media in this country, a wonderfully successful company that should not be persecuted because the left doesn't like it. we already know that underjames and report murdoch's readership, —— rupert murdoch's leadership. ..the companies they controlled bride and bullied their way around british politics. they poison the well of british political engagement. they used anti—competitive practices at every possible turn to try to destroy competitors

and they made it impossible for media diversity to flourish in this country, so why on earth would anybody think they were fit and proper people to take over? they're only excuse, when they like their way through evidence in parliament, was that their company was far too big for them to possibly know what was going on in some outpost in the united kingdom? that doesn't suggest they would be any good at running this now. the honourable gentleman has been on the record on several occasions on his views on these matters and i am sure his points will be heard. last week, the house of lords voted for the eu citizens to be given a guaranteed right to stay in the uk. regardless of brexit negotiations, and on sunday, the commons committee on exiting the eu also declare the government should get people from other eu countries a legal like to remain. the government is resisting such a move but at question time some mps apply further pressure. ——a legal right. we can't even deport convicted criminals.

the reality is that even if we wanted to, which we don't, we are not going to deport a single eu national. it seems to me we might as well acknowledge this fact now while reserving the right, if in the extremely unlikely possibility of our eu partners reporting in the uk citizens, which they won't, we can change our minds, but let's at least reassure these people know. my honourable friend makes a very feared observation about the reality of the situation. i would however point out to him that as he seeks the assurance and the certainty that the eu citizens want, i see could also for the uk citizens in other parts of the european union, because it is a priority. the prime minister has said she will move onto that as soon as negotiations begin. the home secretary talks about reciprocal arrangements but when she gets round to reading

the report of the select committee, she will see that representatives of uk citizens living abroad, to a man and woman, gave evidence to the committee that they want the british government to give a unilateral guarantee to eu citizens living here because they think it will benefit them. will she listen to the voices of uk citizens abroad and get that unilateral guarantee? there are overi million living in the european union. they are not all represented by the groups who gave evidence at the brexit committee. i care about every one of those uk citizens and i repeat that i think it is incumbent upon this government to protect their possession as we protect eu citizens. you are watching monday in parliament. decisions are being made too quickly and money is being wasted. that was the consensus of witnesses to the work and pensions committee which is looking at how outsourced companies are assessing people for personal independence payment.

pip is a benefit paid to people with disabilities. it was prompted by government plans to restrict the eligibility criteria. currently the dwp are using policy. —— policy as law. their policies are continuously harming people and every time i approach the dwp in individual cases, our policy is this, i then take it to tribunal. the policies are absolutely blown out the window. until they start adhering to their own guidelines, and to the letter of the law, which each tribunal represents, to prevent miscarriages ofjustice, this is never going to be conducive. i don't think it is the worst part of the process but it is where it says, please provide contact details for your health care professionals, the impression is given to claimants that the dwp will contact those health care professionals and get

evidence, and in all the cases we have worked on we have never seen a case where the assessment provider has actually requested evidence from the health care professionals. the committee chair suggested there was an element of self selection going on. one thing when somebody comes to my surgery, nobody says actually this is working really well. it is not working well. it is impossible that the government does sometimes check up on those health professionals but they are not the people who come to us or to you. —— the department. because it went well in the proper decision was made. i can say i went for the very first time to a pip assessment last week and there was a combination of both mental and physical disabilities, it was somebody who was previously on disability living allowance. they thought they had it for life but unfortunately they were at two years too young for that, but i have to say that

the examination was really good. i went there thinking it was going to be absolutely appalling but i was surprised how they took two hours and there was also a physical examination, because one of the issues we have is that when we see the appeal papers comes through, there is a very detailed muscular skeletal report and it says this person can move their arms 50, 60 degrees or whatever, and people tell us there is no examination, it doesn't happen. we have challenged them about that, and atos have said that the best of the observation is that it is a casual observation, which is not an examination that can give you such specific results. we checked about it with the local surgeon and they said it would be impossible to actually get that level of detail unless it was a guided and instructed formal examination. we need a place in the system that requires the dwp to look at a decision. before, you would get appeal papers

which was the dwp looking at their decision. mandatory consideration gave us some hope that stage of the process would be given more time and attention, but on the ground that's not consistent. we don't see when it's successful, we see when it goes wrong, but i would say it goes wrong too often. we go to appeals regularly. what's really frustrating is that the dwp have the right to send a presenting officer. we never see them. there were announcements made in parliament and we saw somebody once — the next day. i honestly think that if the dwp observed the tribunals, and had to in some way justify their decisions, they would feed that back up the line and we may get better quality decisions. the government has called on employers to look at their dress codes to make sure they don't

discriminate against women. it follows a petition calling for a ban on firms making women wear high heels at work. 15,000 people signed the petition set up by nicola thorpe after she was sent home for refusing to wear high heels. mps heard similar stories from hundreds of women. we found attitudes that belonged more, i was going to say in the 1950s, but probably the 1850s might be more accurate, than in the 21st century. women, especially young women in vulnerable employment, were exploited at work. threatened with dismissal if they complained. they were forced to bear pain all day, or to wear clothing that was totally unsuitable for the tasks they were asked to perform, or to dress in a way that they felt sexualised their appearance and was demeaning. it was time for action.

we are calling on the government to start a campaign particularly targeted at areas where people are most vulnerable, like in hospitality, to inform both employees of their rights and employers of their obligations. i recognise that some women will choose to wear high heels of their own volition and i will not criticise them. we should be free to wear whatever we like. what i cannot tolerate is employers trying to force women into an ideal of what constitutes professionalism or power dressing by insisting that particular items such as cripplingly high heels must be worn. the sight of a woman in flat shoes does not usually send me reaching for the smelling salts. i imagine that clients coming to meetings will be spectacularly unbothered by the heel height of anyone in attendance and rather more focused on the business at hand. unless, of course, their meeting

is being held in the 19705. ahead of international women's day on wednesday, every member of this house should be doing their utmost to hear directly from women and understand what it is they experience. when we do hear from women, it's not enough just to recognise their experiences of sexism and... women have a choice on whether to wear high heels or not. i'm five foot ten so i've never needed a few extra inches. whether they wear high heels or not should be up to them, not to some outdated, dodgy 19705 workplace dictat. employers, she said, should review dress codes. the government utterly condemns such dress requirements where it is discriminatory. we support the existing legislation that affects men and women. it's clear that this legislation must be more widely understood and it should be better enforced.

a joint committee of mps and peers has questioned the home secretary about who is responsible for cyber security. members of the national security strategy committee said the lines of accountability were not clear. all ministries must be facing up to the threat from cyber, as we've seen in the examples in the baltics. the traffic lights went out first and so on. everyone must be affected. can you advise us which minister we ought to call to give evidence to this committee on the whole question of cyber security? at risk of volunteering myself for another session, i also have strong interest in cyber from a homeland security point of view, particularly through the national crime agency that does a lot of work on the dark web to track organised crime.

the answer is that it does have a lot of ministerial cover because it is an area that crosses over to so many different departments, as you rightly said, culture, media and sport through the digital agenda, the chancellor through the prosperity agenda, and the cabinet office, who are coordinating it. the chancellor does chair the subcommittee, but i think i would humbly suggest that depending on where your focus is going to be, because it covers so many different areas, defence, organised crime, sexual exploitation, digital element, i would focus on the different ministers' responsibilities and perhaps everybody could have the opportunity. i produced the first cyber strategy in 2008 and most people couldn't spell cyber. i had difficulty in getting some departments to accept there would even be a cyber strategy. when the cyber strategy came out,

i was made cyber security minister. i hear what you say about working out which area we are interested in, but bearing in mind the all—embracing nature of cyber now, it seems there should be a minister who sees their role as absolutely making sure this is co—ordinated across to parliament. it is a crowded place in terms of different ministerial responsibilities and it is a reasonable suggestion you're making. it's something that perhaps a number of us can reflect on. the implications of brexit on various aspects of life are being thoroughly aired, but here's one possible ramifications you probably hadn't thought of yet. will we need more allotments after brexit? the private landowners are often well placed to make land available for allotments. would he encourage defra to promote discussions between councillors and the nfu and other

representatives of landowners to see if they can promote such private provision? my noble friend makes an important point. having spoken with the national allotment society, they are discussing and bringing to fruition a plan with british telecom, making available a lot of land that has previously been disused telephone exchanges. 1,200 will be used for allotments. i take on board what the noble lord has said and echo it. 100 years ago last month, the germans declared unrestricted u—boat action on this nation and almost starved us to death and allotments became very important. whilst allotments are wonderful things, does the minister not feel that protecting our merchant fishing with enough warships might be more important? my lords, it's like a round of

mornington crescent. he always succeeds in bringing it in. i agree about the importance of allotments, not just for healthier lifestyles, but ensuring we have appropriate food supplies. once we've left the european union, we will probably have to grow a lot more of our own food. therefore we will need many, many more allotments, in which case we need to look at the law again. can he tell me whether the department for exiting the eu has this on its agenda? my lords, as i've indicated in relation to an earlier response to the noble lord, lord west, growing our own food is of importance anyway. i don't know if we are looking at this through the department of exiting the eu, but it is of extreme importance, as are all the other benefits from allotments and why they are so important.

more allotments, one of the more offbeat predictions about life after brexit. that's it from monday in parliament. keith macdougall will be here for the rest of the week. from me, christina cooper, goodbye. hello, good morning. the start of the week brought a mixture of sunshine and showers, but we were very close to some severe and potentially damaging weather. just across the way, in brittany, a gust approaching 120 mph. that area of low pressure brought us some rain in the south—west and the channel islands, and is running away across europe rapidly now, to bring more some snow to the alps, take some wetter weather across italy and to the adriatic, potentially bringing some damaging mistral winds to south—east france, and gusty winds into

sardinia and corsica. here at home, things are very much quiter. the winds quite light, actually, and a lot of the showers that we had earlier on are beginning to fade away. so we will see clearer skies developing, and it will be turning into quite a chilly night. ground frost, i think, in many places, and in the countryside there may be a pinch of air frost as well. so a chilly start to tuesday morning, but a dry and bright one for the most part. the showers along those north sea coasts tending to pull away. and instead we look to the west to see increasing amounts of cloud coming our way, and eventually some outbreaks of rain and drizzle, too. for most of the day, mainland scotland will be dry, but we will keep some showers going across the northern isles, towards lerwick, shetland in particular. and we will see the cloud increasing in scotland, ahead of this rain that arrives in northern ireland through the afternoon. it is mostly light and patchy. ahead of it, still dry across many central, northern and eastern parts of england. a decent enough day, the sunshine turning increasingly hazy as the cloud increases.

and we will see some patchy rain coming into wales and the south—west of england as well. no great amounts during daylight hours. through the evening, the rain turns a bit heavier, and briefly we could see a bit of snow in the scottish mountains. but the rain across northern parts of the country doesn't last too long. it is further south across england and wales where the rain grinds to a halt a bit overnight. that wil keep the temperatures up, leading to some misty weather and some hill fog. clearer skies to the north, and it will be turning a touch chilly. some stronger winds in the far north—west of scotland, perhaps, and a milder wind blowing across southern parts of england and wales, where we are more likely to keep some drizzly rain going through the day. a lot of cloud across much of wales, south midlands, southern england. so a bit of a damp and dreary sort of day, but decent temperatures. further north, though, it will be sunnier, and watch out for some heavy showers in the north—west later in the day in particular. that weather front does eventually take that rain and drizzle away from southernmost parts of england, and then it comes back in again from off the atlantic

towards the south—west of england, so here we will see some rain arriving on thursday. brighter day for many other areas. a little sunshine, a few blustery old showers across northern parts of scotland. decent temperatures, and staying mild and cloudy on friday. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: president trump signs a revised travel ban against six mainly muslim countries — his team says it will overcome any legal challenge. france's francois fillon finally gets the backing of his centre right party as their candidate in next month's presidential election — despite his troubled campaign. china targets traffic pollution as it promises to "make the skies blue again" — but is it losing the battle against the smog? and we meet thailand's luckiest turtle — called bank — who swallowed nearly a thousand coins and lived to tell the fishy tale.