next month will leave due to come in next month will leave the 11 million families worse off. and as always, the harshest cuts fall on the disabled people. the gap in productivity between in this country and the rest of the g7 is almost the widest for a generation. uk industry is 20 to 30% less productive than other major economies, and higher? in part, the reason is that investment by this government is now the £18 billion below its 2010 level. and this is a government that cut research and development funding by £1 billion in real terms. business invested stagnated in the last quarter of 2017 and the government fails to address regional imbalances in investment. london will receive a five times more transport investment than yorkshire and humberside and the north. this

is the government on climate change, how dare they speak, this is a government that single—handedly destroyed the solar industry. 12,000 jobs lost as a result of subsidy cuts. the chancellor talks about the fourth industrial revolution but britain has the lowest... the chancellor talks... the chancellor talks about the fourth industrial revolution but britain has the lowest rate of industrial robot used in the 0ecd. the government has put 75 million into its artificial intelligence programme, that is less than one tenth of what the us is spending. the chancellor has weighed —— made great play this week... the tory bully boys can shout all they want.

heckling. there will be a full opportunity for people to contribute by the right honourable gentleman must be heard. john mcdonnell. honourable gentleman must be heard. john mcdonnell. they can shout all they want, they can make their snide remarks. people out there know the crisis in our communities. the chancellor has made great play this week of reaching her turning point in reducing the deficit and debt. it isa in reducing the deficit and debt. it is a bit rich coming from a party that has put 700 billion on the national debt over the last eight yea rs. national debt over the last eight years. it is worth remembering, it is worth remembering, this is a party that promises that they devastate would be eliminated com pletely devastate would be eliminated completely by 2015. bizarrely, his predecessor, 110w

completely by 2015. bizarrely, his predecessor, now is to constantly evening standard, or is it black rock or the washington speakers bureau whatever number of jobs rock or the washington speakers bureau whatever number ofjobs he 110w bureau whatever number ofjobs he now has, his predecessor has been tweeting about achieving three years later deficit target that he actually abandoned himself. the reality is that the chancellor and his predecessor have not tackle the deficit. what they have done is they have shifted onto the public services his colleagues are responsible for. he shifted onto the secretary of state for health and the shoulders of nhs managers and doctors and nurses throughout the country. nhs trusts will end this financial year £1 billion in deficit. doctors and nurses are struggling, being asked to do more and more while there is 100,000 nhs posts going unfilled. does the chancellor really believe the nhs can wait another eight months for the life—saving funds it needs? how

many people have to die waiting in an ambulance before he acts? he has mentioned the pay offer to the nhs staff that we are expecting shortly. it was forced upon him by the labour party and trade unionist campaign against the pay cut. let me say this to him, taking away a day's holiday from those dedicated staff is mean—spirited. i ask him now, from those dedicated staff is mean—spirited. iask him now, will he dropped this miserly acts? the chancellor has also shifted the deficit on to the secretary of state for education and headteachers with the first per capita cut in schools funding since the 1990s, and today the government is even trying to deprive1 million the government is even trying to deprive 1 million children of a decent education. heckling i am asking...

iam asking... heckling i am asking... i am asking... i am asking the chancellor and i am asking every conservative mp... order! the house must calm down. there were plenty of opportunity for questioning for members in all parts of the house. the right honourable gentleman must be heard. john mcdonnelle the right honourable gentleman must be heard. john mcdonnell i am asking, iam be heard. john mcdonnell i am asking, i am appealing to tory mps today, if they are serious about ending austerity, to vote for us this afternoon to give those children the free school milk they are entitled to. the chancellor has shifted the deficit onto the home secretary and the justice secretary. crime is rising yet he has cut the number of police officers by 21 point 5000. the number of firefighters by eight point 5000 and

oui’ firefighters by eight point 5000 and our prisons and probation service are in dangerous crisis. in shifting the deficit onto the shoulders of the deficit onto the shoulders of the secretary of state for communities and local government in reality shifted the burden onto local councillors. yes, labour, lib dem and conservative councillors alight. i raise again at the stark reality of what this means for the most vulnerable children in our society. there has been a 40% cut in early intervention to support families and the result is the highest number of children taken into ca re highest number of children taken into care since the 1980s. children's charities, not us, children's charities are saying this. this crisis could turn into a catastrophe without further funding. last year 400 women seeking refuge we re last year 400 women seeking refuge were turned away because there were no places available for the main refuges. there are now nearly 5000 of our fellow citizens sleeping

rough on our streets, more than double that there was in 2010. tragically, tragically, one of our homeless citizens died only feet away from the entrance to parliament. he has mentioned additional housing funding in london but that is not a new announcement, it is money already announced. any new funding is welcome but it is simply not enough and it represents a cut in london's budgets compared with the money that labour are allocating in 2010. there are 1 million vulnerable older people with no a ccess million vulnerable older people with no access to the social care they need. conservative councils are going bust. many will be forced to hike up council tax. councils are running out of reserves as the national audit office explained to us. national audit office explained to us. i ask the conservative chancellor, will he listen to

conservative council leaders, like his own in surrey, who said, and i quote, we are facing the most difficult financial crisis in our history. the government cannot stand idly by while rome burns. i ask him, how many more children have to go into care? how many more councils have to go bust? how many have to run have to go bust? how many have to ru n after have to go bust? how many have to run after reserves before he wakes up to this crisis and acts? this statement could have been a genuine turning point today but it is depressingly another missed opportunity. people know now that austerity was a political choice, not an economic necessity. heckling. the conservatives chose to cut taxes for the super—rich into operation with the bankers and it was paid for by the rest of us in society. they even cut the levy on bankers in last

month's finance act. we were never all of this together, as they claimed, never. they cut investment at the very time when we should have been developing the skills and infrastructure needed to raise productivity and grasp the technical logical revolution with both hands. when they had a responsibility to meet the challenge of brexit, we have a chancellor who has admitted he has not even modelled the governmental options. today we have the indefensible spectacle of a chancellor congratulating himself on marginally improved economic forecasts while he refuses to lift a finger as councils go bust, the nhs and social care was in crisis and school budgets are cut and homelessness has doubled and wages are falling. this is not a government preparing our country for the future, it is a government setting us up to fail. chancellor of

the exchequer! 12, mr speaker, the right honourable gentleman supported the switch to a single physical event are now he is complaining i haven't delivered a mini budget today. i am complaining i haven't delivered a mini budget today. iam not surprised he cannot quite understand anybody passing up the opportunity to introduce a new taxes, because thatis to introduce a new taxes, because that is what a labour government would be doing, not once a year, not twice a year, but every other week. he talks about tory bullyboys. i heard him referring to some of my honourable friends as tory bullyboys. can i remind the house, this is the man who still refuses to apologise... still refuses to my right honourable friend the work and pensions secretary so i do not want to hear

anything about bullying from the benches opposite. the public can draw its own conclusions. he knows he wants to win power so we have these smooth and reassuring me on of these smooth and reassuring me on of the bank manager but every now and again the mask slips and we get a glimpse of the sinister ideology that lies beneath. an ideology that would wreck our economy if he ever gets anywhere near the controls, threatening confiscation, dismissing property rights, undermining the cornerstones of our economy and the basis of our freedom and prosperity. he talks about political choices. let me tell him the political choices we have made. we have close the tax gap to one of the lowest in the tax gap to one of the lowest in the developed world. we have raised £175 billion by 100 measures against tax evasion and avoidance and we are

collecting 28% of all income tax from the richest 1% in our country. a higher percentage than in any year under labour. he says real wages are falling, i have good news for him. the obr falling, i have good news for him. the 0br expect real wages to rise from quarter one in 2018, which in case he hasn't worked it out starts in two weeks' time. he talks about spending on the disabled, where i have good news again, spending on the disabled will be higher in every year of this parliament. he talks about research and development to support our economy and research and development spending is at record highs. he reels out the same old bogus statistics on regional distribution. i think he has the briefing from russia today! let me tell him this. the infrastructure authority has published figures that clearly show that the highest per

capita spending on transport infrastructure investment is in the north—west region, not the last time i checked, one of the southern regions. all regions have benefited from the boom in employment. all regions will end this parliament with low unemployment and higher employment. he talks about £700 billion of increased national debt. yes, we have had to deal with the legacy of labour‘s meltdown in 2009, because it didn't fix the roof while the sun was shining. 0ur historic function is to clean up the labour mess, and my report today shows that we are doing it once again. he talks about funding for the nhs and i have put £9 billion into the nhs since the autumn statement 2016. he talks about school budgets. school budgets are increasing per capita and

per—pupil terms in real terms. on children's services, he must know that the department for education research shows that the spending on the most vulnerable children has increased by around £0.5 billion in real terms since 2010. we have committed £1 billion to tackle rough sleeping and homelessness and made a ma nifesto sleeping and homelessness and made a manifesto pledge to eliminating rough sleeping by 2027 and halve it by 2022. mr speaker, no one watching our exchanges today can be in any doubt that britain faces a choice. we have a plan to get our economy growing. the shadow chancellor says it doesn't matter whether gdp grows or not. we have a plan to get people on the housing ladder while the shadow chancellor does not want to get bogged down in property rights. we have a plan to deal with our debts. the shadow chancellor wants to send debt soaring because he

fantasises that he can borrow for free. the choice is clear, our vision of a dynamic, modern economy, or the party opposite's vision of an inward looking, narrow—minded country. we have to win this parliament, —— argument, mr speaker, because if we don't it will be ordinary people, not the rich, but ordinary people, not the rich, but ordinary people, not the rich, but ordinary people who will pay the price as they always do for the labourfailures. price as they always do for the labour failures. mr kenneth clarke. mr speaker, i congratulate my right honourable friend on his very forceful statement based on competent government and grown—up politics, which are worlds that the shadow chancellor will never enter. when he comes to prepare his budget for november, i am sure he will be looking for any new source of taxation which may be needed to put

even more money than he already has into the nhs and social care, which are facing vast increases in demand. cani are facing vast increases in demand. can i suggest that he looks at some of the extraordinary tax anomalies that he has interpreted in the tax treatment of older and prosperous people in full—time work in this country. it cannot be right... shouting. i cannot be accused of personal bias! it is absurd that older employees actually pay less tax than their younger colleagues on their income because they do not pay national insurance. it cannot be right that people in large houses, enjoying capital gains from the

housing market have those disregarded for means test purposes if they ever need certain types of social care so as the early budgets in parliament at the time put up in difficult decisions, will my right honourable friend let me know that he will be looking at those much overdue anomalies that need to be addressed, somejustice between the generations i think is being demanded by our constituents. we will pull away from that spring statement. philip hammond is still on his feet and there is continued coverage on bbc parliament if you wa nt to coverage on bbc parliament if you want to watch it there. we can discuss what we have been watching. 0ur assistant political editor norman smith is at westminster. he is in the lobby. that phrase that philip, and —— hammond said about being tiggerish is not something you would normally associate with him.

he pointed to a revised growth in jobs that is continued —— expected to continue and inflation has returned to target levels and crucially debt and deficit are in a much better place. it struck me that while he fairly successfully lowered expectations of any big announcements today, he has fuelled expectations for some big giveaways in the budget, in part because of that very tiggerish and the glowing assessment of the economy which will inevitably fuel demands from mps for more money to be made available for the health service and everything in the health service and everything in the local budget. he pretty much seemed to give a nod and a wink to the fact that he was on the market to splash the cash in the autumn, by saying he would set out a new path for public spending in the autumn and if the economy was still performing as it is now then there would be more money for investment in public spending. he has managed

to lower expectations today, but it seems to me that he has significantly raise them for what he is going to have to say in the autumn budget. in doing that, there are the battle lines for the next election. i think added to that is an awareness that the conservatives cannot simply go into the next election saying more austerity, because that message is now becoming a very tired message after eight yea rs of a very tired message after eight years of austerity and there is a question mark about whether people are now beginning to really suffer from austerity fatigue and there is a question about whether you can squeeze public services any further and above all there is the issue of thejeremy and above all there is the issue of the jeremy corbyn and above all there is the issue of thejeremy corbyn narrative, namely that austerity is a political choice and it is time to end austerity. you sense that the conservatives are now having to look at reframing their economic narrative away from simply

saying more austerity. that is what mr hammond was pointing to when he talked about setting out a new path for public spending in the autumn. the narrative for labour, john mcdonnell summed it up, he said the tories are setting up the country to fail. complacency was the core charge at a time when, as we know, there have been warnings from local authorities, conservative local authorities, conservative local authorities, about the pressure they are facing, in particular in relation to social care and, as we know, the ongoing squeeze on the nhs with the head of the nhs already having warned last year that he thought the nhs was going to need an extra 20 to £30 billion if it was to match european health services and then there is the fresh pressure coming on for more money for defence, given the latest stand—off with russia. tory mps are now talking about possibly having to increase defence spending by maybe 2.5% or 3%. the pressure on mr

hammond to exceed two significant amount of extra spending are now huge. thank you very much. philip hammond is still taking questions in the house of commons following the spring statement but we will have plenty more from westminster later on. we will be coming from hero 2pm but now it is back to the studio. thank you. more later. we now want to bring you up to speed on the breaking news that you will have seen scrolling across your screen in the last 15 or 20 minutes. it is news out of washington. president trump has announced via twitter, it seems, that rex tillerson, secretary of state, has been relieved of his duties and as president trump's twitter feed said mike duties and as president trump's twitterfeed said mike pompeo, the president of the usa will become the new secretary of state. he thanks rex tillerson for his service. consequently as a result of the

reshuffling we have seen there will bea reshuffling we have seen there will be a new director of the cia that will be the first woman so chosen so congratulations to all, says president trump. she is currently deputy director of the cia. so, something of a reshuffle at the department of state there as rex tillerson is relieved of his duties. this is something that had essentially been on the cards for some time. you can see mike pompeo there and he will take over. this has been mooted for some time, even backin has been mooted for some time, even back in november. various us papers have suggested that mike pompeo was lined up to replace rex tillerson who has various spats and areas of disagreement with the president. a suggestion from white house internal sources was that president trump wa nted sources was that president trump wanted a new team ahead of his planned talks with north korea and various trade negotiations that were

coming. the suggestion is that mike pompeo is more hardline and hawkish and not quite the same approach as rex tillerson, who it is believed trump thought was a little bit too establishment. you can see him there. yet spoken out against president trump on various areas of policy and consequently the feeling was that at the state department officials there had become increasingly sidelined and rex tillerson was not always being called on by the president as much as he could be and therefore the whole department had perhaps been overlooked somewhat. movement there at the state department. rex tillerson is out and mike pompeo within. we will have walked from the correspondent in washington shortly. the foreign secretary, borisjohnson, has said he's encouraged by the strength

of support from britain's allies following the poisoning of a former spy in salisbury last week. theresa may has said it's highly likely that russia was behind the attack on sergei skripal and his daughter, and has given the kremlin until midnight to explain its role. moscow has denied any involvement and has summoned the british ambassador. russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov dismissed as rubbish claims that his country was behind the poisoning. our first report this lunchtime is by richard galpin. the historic city of salisbury, population around 50,000. the location of the first chemical weapons attack in this country. not a standard nerve agent was used, but one called novichok, which is exceptionally potent and persistent. this is the most deadly chemical agent we have ever come across, that has the potential to kill many millions of people. it is a new chemical weapon, very sophisticated and very toxic and very persistent.

it was developed here in russia. this is believed to be one of the laboratories in moscow where scientists started working in the 19705 scientists started working in the 1970s and 1980s to produce different forms of the nerve agent, which are particularly difficult to detect. that is why back in salisbury the decontamination process has spread farand decontamination process has spread far and wide. all locations and vehicles which may have come into contact with novichok are needing to be thoroughly cleaned. nine days after the attack on the russian double agent sergei skripol and his daughter yulia, still nothing has been formally announced about how and where and exactly when they ingested the nerve agent. there are plenty of theories, including that it may have been in this car which belongs to mr skripol and had been in the city centre. it is amongst the many vehicles to have been taken away for examination and

decontamination. for the people of salisbury it is an extraordinary and very worrying time. hundreds belatedly have been told to wash their clothes because they had been in some of the contaminated areas. now they, like the rest of the family —— country, wait to see what the government will do after it was announced that it was highly likely that russia was behind the attack. if they can spot which one it was or what ever spy it was all whoever did it then you have to take russia to task. i would like to see what is now going to happen and what theresa may will go one and do really. now going to happen and what theresa may will go one and do reallylj now going to happen and what theresa may will go one and do really. i do not think that any particular aspect of our interest would be served by picking a fight. if there is no response from russia in the coming hours about what happened in this city, then the government has promised to announce tomorrow what action it will take. we are going to

bring you more on that is just a moment because it is worth pointing out that we are expecting any moment to hear from out that we are expecting any moment to hearfrom a press out that we are expecting any moment to hear from a press conference at new scotland yard. you can see the microphone setup there. a senior national coordinator was due to update waiting media there on the incident in salisbury so we will be back there injust incident in salisbury so we will be back there in just a moment. incident in salisbury so we will be back there injust a moment. first we can return to the breaking news this afternoon out of the united states, the news that the secretary of state, rex tillerson, has been sacked. 0ur correspondent is in washington life rest now. barbara, talk us through how this has all unfolded. well, quite a surprise to wake up to. the first news we had was a leak from the washington post and shortly after that president trump tweeted that he was out and he thanked rex tillerson for his service and he said the cia director mike pompeo was in and then the white house sent out a formal statement announcing exactly what happened and much of it was about

mike pompeo himself but there was a short line the bottom of it tanking again rex tillerson for his service. as to when the secretary of state, the former secretary of state, found out about it, there are conflicting reports. according to the washington post he was told on friday. he was ona trip post he was told on friday. he was on a trip to africa and he did come down on saturday with an illness, according to his team, and he cut short his trip and came home early, one day early, just arriving last night and white house officials are saying that this decision was taken because they want to clear the decks and put together a new team for the talks with north korea. 0ther reports say that rex tillerson only found out about it this morning along with the rest of us. i have to say, when he was speaking on the plane yesterday coming home he didn't sound like somebody who was about to leave. he was talking about the north korea negotiations... sorry, i am going to cut you off because we are now hearing from president trump live.

here is an outstanding person who i have got to know very well so i have got to know a lot of people very well over the last year and i am really at a point where we are getting very close to having the cabinet and other things that i want but i think mike pompeo will be a truly great secretary of state. i have total confidence in him and as far as rex tillerson is concerned, i very much appreciate his commitment and his service and i wish him well he isa and his service and i wish him well he is a good man. what did you say to rex tillerson present wrecks and i have been talking about this for a long time. we got along actually quite well but we disagreed on things, when you look at the iran deal i think it is terrible and i guess he felt it was ok. i wanted to either break it or do something and he felt a little bit differently so we we re he felt a little bit differently so we were not really thinking the same. with mike pompeo we have a

very similar thought process and i think it will go very well. rex is a very good man and i like him a lot. i really appreciate his commitment and his service and i will be speaking to him over a long period of time. i really didn't discuss it very much with him, honestly. i made that decision by myself. rex wasn't in this country, as you know. i made the north korea decision was consultation from many people, but i made at by myself. i actually got along well with rex, but really it was a different mindset, a different thinking. say it