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tv   Monday in Parliament  BBC News  July 11, 2017 2:30am-3:01am BST

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about his meeting with a russian lawyer during last year's election campaign. the president's son met the person who's believed to have links to the kremlin after being promised information about hillary clinton. celebrations continue in iraq after the defeat of so—called islamic state in the city of mosul. the iraqi prime minister, haideral—abadi, officially described it as a triumph over darkness, brutality and terrorism. but the head of us—led coalition forces warned that is has still not yet been completely defeated. a man who's confessed to being an ira bomb maker has told bbc news that he accepts "collective responsibility" for all of the group's actions in england. mick hayes says he was an "active volunteer" on the night in 1974 when 21 people were killed in the birmingham pub bombings. now on bbc news, monday in parliament. hello, and welcome to
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monday in parliament. the main news from westminster: after the 620 summit, the prime minister is confident about the uk's position in the world — but dismayed at america's position on climate change. i spoke personally to president trump to encourage them to rejoin the paris agreement and i continue to hope that is exactly what he will do. theresa may is reaching out to other parties on big policy issues — labour says her government has run out of steam. if the prime minister would like it i am very happy to furnish her with a copy of our election manifesto, or better still an early election so that the people of this country can decide. also on the programme: the falkland islander who travelled 8,000 miles to raise concerns about brexit. we may well lose the support of the rest of europe and may well see spain and possibly other members of europe giving greater support to argentina over its mistaken
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and a legal claim to the falkland islands. when the leaders of the 620 countries — the world's leading economies — descended on hamburg, in germany, last week — there was a lot to talk about. terrorism, internet security, international trade and climate change. these events are also interesting for what they reveal about the dynamics between the world's most powerful politicians and the countries they lead. when theresa may reported back to parliament she expressed confidence about the uk's place in the world, saying that it made "leading contributions" on many issues — such as terrorism. at this summit we set the agenda again calling on our 620 partners... hear, hear. calling on our 620 partners to squeeze the lifeblood out
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of terrorist networks by making the global financial system an entirely hostile environment for terrorists. and we secured agreement on all our proposals. she was upbeat about the uk's prospects after brexit. as we leave the european union we will negotiate a new comprehensive, bold and ambitious free trade agreement with the eu. yes. but we will also seize the exciting opportunities to strike deals with old friends and new partners. and at the summit i held a number of meetings with other world leaders all of whom made clear that there are strong desires to forge ambitious new bilateral trading relationships with the uk after brexit. this included america, japan, china and india. and this morning i welcomed australian prime minister turnbull to downing street where he also reiterated his desire for a bold new trading relationship. the us president donald trump has pulled the us out
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of the international paris agreement on climate change. at the end of the summit, 19 countries reaffirmed their commitment to the agreement. theresa may raised the issue with the president. i and my counterparts in the 620 are dismayed at america's withdrawal from this agreement. i spoke personally to president trump to encourage him to rejoin the paris agreement and i continue to hope that is exactly what he will do. theresa may is on a mission to reach out to opposition parties, saying she is amenable to ideas about the big issues of the day — brexit and social care. her appeal was dismissed by the labour leader, jeremy corbyn, who demanded a general election instead. this government is apparently now asking other parties for their policy ideas. if the prime minister would like it i am very happy to furnish her with a copy of our election manifesto. or better still an early election in order for the people of this country to decide. let's face it, the government has run out of steam, and at a pivotal moment in our country and the world amid uncertainty of brexit, conflict in the gulf states,
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nuclear sabre rattling over north korea, refugees continuing to flee war and destruction, ongoing pandemics, cross—border terrorism, poverty, inequality, and the impact of climate change, are the core global challenges of our time. just when we need strong 6overnment we have weakness from this 6overnment. this government is the architect of these failed austerity policies and now threatens to use brexit to turn britain into a low wage, deregulated, tax haven on the shores of europe. a narrow and hopeless version of the potential of this country which would only serve the few, one that would ruin industry, destroy innovation and ruin people's living standards. the snp leader said the uk was floundering around on the world stage, trying to make friends. a disastrous and unpredictable alliance formed with the american president on trade.
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6oodness knows what a trade deal with america right now would mean for public services, food quality or worker's rights. indeed talk about uk—us trade deal was dealt a blow by the prime minister's own justice secretary who just hours after the summit ended said it wouldn't be enough on its own. the prime minister must now come to her senses. a united kingdom outside the single market would be ruinous. 0ur eu friends and partners are moving on without us, just this year alone finalising trade deals with japan and canada while the uk readily turns in on itself. there are only two weeks to go before parliament breaks for the summer. it is one of the last chances mps will get to quiz the prime minister. several mps are concerned about the uk withdrawing
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from the european nuclear safety and research watchdog. the prime minister will no doubt be aware about the growing concern across the house about her proposal to withdraw the uk from the euratom treaty despite the concerns there are about the implications for the movement of scientists, nuclear materials and life—saving radiotherapy. can she explain to the house what the uk nuclear industry gains from such a policy? i am sure the right honourable gentleman will be aware, he is chairing the select committee, that membership of euratom is inextricably linked with membership of the european union. but what we are doing, as we signalled in the queen's speech, with reference to a future bill on this issue, is wanting to ensure that we can retain those relationships, that cooperation with euratom, which enables the exchange of scientists, the exchange of material. there are countries around the world that have that relationship with euratom which are not members of the european union, but we need to put that bill in place and i look forward to his support for the bill. donald trump came up a few times. whenjournalists have been murdered in putin's russia does
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the prime minister share my anger at the chilling sight of presidents trump and putin joking about the inconvenience of a free press? and will she commit to stressing the importance of the independence of the media to both leaders when she meets them next? about this new love fest with the benches opposite, given the record of the leader of the opposition on the counterterrorism and security act, does she possess a very long spoon? well, yes, i can say to my right honourable friend that i have in the past as home secretary welcomed the cooperation which i have had from the labour benches, not from the right honourable gentleman who is currently leader of the opposition, but from others on his benches, who have seen the need to ensure that agencies have appropriate powers to deal
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with the terrorist threat that we face. those calls for cooperation were also seized on by labour's shadow defence secretary. she wondered if defence ministers would agree to a pay rise for members of the armed forces. after losing her majority at the general election the prime minister has now signalled that she is prepared to work across the house with other parties in areas of agreement. in that spirit i would like to make a constructive offer. the government has just introduced an armed forces bill in the other place. if they agree to amend that bill to include a real terms pay rise for our armed forces personnel then they can count on labour support. will the government agree to work with us to give our armed forces the pay award they deserve?
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we all want to see our armed forces being properly remunerated for the service that they give us. but it is also incumbent on the honourable lady to make it very clear how any increase that she is favouring would be properly paid for. and that is something she hasn't done, her party hasn't done, and they certainly didn't do it the last election. the pay review system we have is beyond party politics. it's an independent pay review body that looks at comparability with the civilian sector, looks at the issue of retention and recruitment, and makes its recommendation. last year we accepted in full. thank you. 0n the contrary we had our manifesto fully funded and they know that. they know how to raise taxes if they need them. the fact of the matter is that the armed forces pay review body is severely constrained by the overall cap of i% on public sector pay the government has imposed. if the government will not legislate for a pay rise will the secretary of state at least allow the pay review body to carry out a review and report on what our armed forces should be receiving if the cap were not in place?
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0n the first point i am staggered to hear the honourable lady thinks that her manifesto was fully costed or indeed fully funded. there were billions and that manifesto that were due to be borrowed and paid for by future generations. so far as we have implemented the recommendation in full by the review body for this financial year, so far as next year is concerned evidence is ready being acquired by the pay review body and i will give my own evidence later in the year and we will see what recommendation they come up with. the defence secretary, sir michael fallon. you're watching monday in parliament with me, kristiina cooper. coming up: fears that brexit means piracy. there are voices that think that
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brexit means britain can hoist the jolly roger. to bucaneer its way around the world. the high court has ruled that uk arms sales to saudi arabia are lawful. the court rejected campaigners‘ claims that ministers were acting illegally by failing to suspend weapon sales to the kingdom, which is fighting a war in yemen. some of the evidence was heard in secret. when the international trade secretary came to the commons to brief mps on the ruling, he faced some hostile questioning. the government relied upon material which was brought forward only in closed hearing, evidence which was not able to be seen or heard by the campaign against the arms trade or their lawyers. as such, the court ruling that the government's decision
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was a rational one given the procedures and evidence it considered was based on secret evidence, which it was impossible to challenge. does the secretary of state accept that the courtjudgment makes specific reference to the substantial body of evidence presented in open session that in fact suggests a clear risk does exist that british arms might be used in violation of international humanitarian law, will he agree to make the evidence that was available only in closed session available to members of this house on privy council terms, or indeed, make it available to the intelligence and security select committee? i do take exception, mr speaker, with the final point that he made. because this idea that somehow, if we have closed sessions, that makes the judgment less valid, i simply don't accept. because i don't accept this idea that we cannot have closed sessions that protect our national security, for the personnel involved
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in our national security, sources need be protected. i will listen to the argument that he makes, but i simply cannot bring myself to accept it. medecins sans frontieres report today that yemenis are afraid to go and to stay in the cholera treatment centre in abs, 50 km from the front line, since it was bombed by saudi arabia last august, killing 19 people. this atrocity was declared an unintentional mistake, along with facilities in hayden, razeh and saada, among others, which were all hit by saudi bombs. how many hospitals, protected by international humanitarian law, will the secretary of state allow to be hit by saudi arabia before he stops selling them bombs? mr speaker, the honourable lady talks as though there is only one party in this particular dispute in that part of the world, and unfortunately, it is not. and as i say, we take the absolute, the clear risk criteria very, very seriously. but i'm afraid that making the sort of rather uninformed points that she does for propaganda purposes doesn't actually help the humanitarian situation. while the secretary of state and the government may have won
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this legal skirmish, they certainly haven't won the moral case. there are still many unanswered questions about the relationship here and the terrible situation that we see in yemen. the secretary of state said that on one hand, he was confident, but on the other hand, the courtjudgment makes it clear that he was anxious, and in fact, as he knows, he wrote to the foreign secretary saying, "i am concerned that the issue continues to be finely balanced. i ask that you commission a further detailed assessment and send me updated advice, and that you seek advice from senior 6overnment lawyers before making a recommendation." why was he anxious? it is myjob to be anxious about these things. it is myjob to give the nth degree of scrutiny, because lives are potentially being lost if we make the wrong judgments. and it is the judgment of myself, the foreign secretary and other senior ministers that gives us such anxiety. were we to be cavalier, the honourable gentleman would be absolutely right to command criticise us. when we take the nth degree of care about the judgments we make,
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as previous governments before have done, then he ought to be very grateful we are doing so in the country's interests. eight british 0verseas territories have sent representatives to give evidence to a lords committee investigating the long—term effects of brexit. roger edwards, a member of the legislative assembly of the falkland islands, told peers about the potential political impact. with the uk a full member of the european union and a signatory to the treaty of rome, all the rest of europe is obliged to recognise and accept that the uk 0ts are a part of the uk. once the uk is no longer a member state, nor a signatory to the treaty of rome, the same obligations do not apply and we may well lose the support of the rest of europe, and may well see spain and possibly other members of europe giving greater support to argentina over its mistaken and illegal claim to the falkland islands.
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there are concerns, too, in pitcairns — the uk's smallest overseas territory. we would, ideally, likely be in a position where we are no worse off than we would have been had we stayed in the eu. we have a very small trade in honey. we have one of the purest honeys in the world, europe is one of our biggest markets. and what will be the impact, it has to be tested each year for us to be on the eu list, will we be still be allowed to do that? it's not significant in terms of quantum, it's only 25,000 units a year, which is the maximum we can produce given the size of our island. but not being able to ship that to europe would certainly have significant consequences for our bee industry.
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the wider concern, he said, was that pitcairns would become isolated. now, mps are to hold an emergency debate on the infections of nhs patients by contaminated blood products in the 19705 and 1980s. the request for the debate was made by labour's diana johnson, who said the mayor of greater manchester, andy burnham, had used his final speech as an mp to present a dossier. in his valedictory speech to this house on the 25th of april 2017, the then right honourable member for leigh outlined a dossier of extremely serious allegations amounting to criminal conduct on the part of individuals involved in the contaminated blood scandal. he said that if the government did not commit to a public enquiry before the summer recess, he would refer this evidence to the police. the then parliamentary undersecretary of state for health asked him to submit his dossier of evidence to the health
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secretary, which he did. she assured the house that this would be given the highest priority. however, we have heard nothing since then. and we now have further unanswered questions which underline the need for an emergency debate. first of all, last week, the daily mail set out evidence that as early as 1980, officials knew that 50 people with haemophilia a year were being infected with hepatitis c. nothing was done about this for five years. secondly, as reported in the sunday times, on friday the 7th ofjuly, the westminster leaders of all six non—government parties in the house of commons, including the democratic unionist party, wrote a joint letter to the prime minister urging herto commit to a hillsborough style enquiry. and thirdly, yesterday, the right honourable andy burnham reaffirmed his commitment to refer cases of alleged criminality to the police and confirmed he has an appointment with the police on the 26th ofjuly. the speaker granted the debate — it will take place on thursday. the former head of m15 has described
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the scale of the terrorist threat as unprecedented. she told the lords that the threat has grown since the attacks on 7/7 in 2005. this year, on four dates over the course of three months, our country has been attacked by terrorists. westminster, manchester arena, london bridge and borough market, finsbury park. 36 dead and over 150 injured in these atrocious attacks. terrorists mean to sow fear and division, but ours is a community of many faiths and many nationalities, and all have come together in the face of these senseless acts. and if these attacks have shown us anything, it is that attack on one part of our community is an attack on us all. this government is committed to ensuring there is no safe space for terrorists to operate online. my right honourable friend
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the home secretary continues to lead efforts with technology companies to remove terrorist material. we continue to work closely with social media companies, to progress an industry led forum that will look to take a new, global approach to tackling terrorist use of the internet. lord harris was commissioned by london's mayor sadiq khan to look at how prepared london would be for a terrorist attack. his report was published last year. my lords, i remain disturbed that even now, not enough is being done to limit the availability of guns. we benefit from the fact that firearms are more difficult to acquire in this country than elsewhere in the world. however, there is almost a complacency about this, with an assumption that the sort of attacks that occurred in paris in 2015 would not happen to us. but london and other cities are by no means firearms free. during july and august in my review, the metropolitan police recorded 202 firearms discharges,
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compared to 800... compared to 87 in the same months of the previous year. i think the scale of the problem is genuinely unprecedented. i am not one to exaggerate. but when we are told that m15 has 500 active investigations involving 3000 subjects of interest and also has a vast pool of some 20,000 people who they can't focus on at the moment, about whom there have been concerns and who they would like to go back to look at if time and resources allow, this is pretty serious. one of the things which i guess pains us most about recent incidents is the way these terrorists are home—grown.
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and it gives me no pleasure to say, in the diocese where i serve, which covers five east london boroughs and the whole of the county of essex, in the work i do, visiting communities, often visiting young people, many young people do feel disenfranchised, overlooked, do not have the opportunities that we would wish them to have. lady lane—fox, a high profile internet pioneer, said those writing laws about the internet first needed to understand it. how will we ensure we make the right decisions if our parliamentarians do not have the experience from which to understand these issues? ifind it hard and i have devoted my life to the technology sector. i believe the gap between innovations driving the pace of change in citizens‘ lives and the ability of policymakers to keep up is one of the most pressing questions we face. lady lane—fox suggested parliamentary education programmes. she said understanding the issues around cyber—secuirty was vital. over a year ago, an anti—corruption summit was held in london. the government promised a strategy
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to tackle corruption by the end of december 2016. but along came brexit, and then the general election. a liberal democrat in the house of lords is worried that, in a brexit world, the issue has fallen down the agenda. there are voices around that suggest that brexit is an opportunity for britain to hoist thejolly roger and to book its way around the world with scant regard to things like bribery or money laundering. so isn't it time the government sent out a clear message that it's a beacon of integrity in these matters by bringing forward this strategy, by giving a vote of confidence in the serious fraud office, and by finding a new anti—corruption champion to succeed the one that has now departed the other place? thos are the challenges that would make us a beacon of integrity, rather than the other way.
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there are a number of questions. firstly, he is right, the deadline has been missed. we hope to publish the updated strategy by december last year. there was some turbulence in whitehall following the outcome of the referendum... laughter and then in march, when the ministerial group met to consider the draft strategy, there was further discontinuity with the general election. however, a near final draft of the document is being prepared and we hope to publish it shortly. 0n the anti—corruption champion, there have been a series eric pickles —— of these, there was hilary benn, jack straw, ken clarke, eric pickles was the last. but with the election, sir eric is no longer a member of parliament. we helped appoint a new champion discourse. 0n the point about the jolly roger, i prefer the unionjack. but he is right, this
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country has a reputation for integrity and fairness throughout the world. and that helped us win export orders are helps us win investment, in a recent analysis of integrity, the uk was ranked joint tenth out of 176 on the transparency international corruption perceptions index. he's quite right, we value our reputation and we are determined to maintain it and enhance after brexit. well, time for us to set sail. that's it for monday in parliament. alicia mccarthy will be here for the rest of the week. but from me, kristiina cooper, goodbye! hello. tuesday's forecast has some rain in it. we haven't been able to say that for some time. you may say that monday was wet in your neck of the woods, that came from showers and thunderstorms.
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if one of those caught you, you certainly knew about it. not a cold start to tuesday. from the word go, some bits and pieces across the heart of scotland, the north of england, through wales and the west midlands and into the southern counties of england. it isn't wet everywhere right from the word go. scattered showers across the far north of scotland, we mentioned rain north of the central belt. turning bright across a good part of northern ireland, southwestern scotland and far north of england. further south, the first signs of bits and pieces of rain coming through on the south—westerly breeze. further south again, some dry weather to be had across the midlands, east anglia and the south—east. already, back across the south—west, cloud filling in. some of the rain from the word go will be quite heavy across parts of pembrokeshire and the south—west of england. into the afternoon, still little islands of brightness and dry weather across the south.
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perhaps the driest found across northern ireland. in the middle of the afternoon, pembrokeshire, southern wales and widely into the south—west of england, some rain quite heavy. 20, 30, a0 millimetres building up. even so, still islands of brighter weather. where we have some brightness in the south—east, looking at 18, 19, 20 degrees. a bit cooler further north, acceptable for the time of year. 14-17. what have we for wimbledon? dry enough, probably, until the middle part of the afternoon. clouds thickening, the chance of a shower. as we get deeper into the day, rain and low pressure and the fronts migrating across east anglia and the south—east. still there on the first part of wednesday.
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as they pull away, high—pressure toppling in across the british isles. then settling down very nicely, a lot of fine and dry weather. a splendid day, temperatures mid—teens to 20 degrees. that is a sort of pattern we expect on wednesday and into the first part of thursday. notice we have a weather front beginning to push in from the atlantic. that brings the chance of some rain into western scotland and northern ireland. increasingly, as it topples across england and wales, a burst of showers. not much more behind. and following that, another spell of fairly quiet weather. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. i'm mike embley. our top stories: donald trump junior says he's willing to testify about his links with russia during the presidential election campaign. victory in mosul. iraq's prime minister claims the extremist group, the so—called islamic state, has been defeated in the city after a brutal fight. a man who's confessed to being an ira bomb maker tells the bbc he accepts "collective
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responsibility" for the group's actions in england. and from the old silk road to the new. a special report on the trillion dollar project linking china with europe.

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