chris heaton harris. and that's it from me a report into for another day, but dojoin me possible war crimes next time for a round up by australia's special forces in afghanistan of the westminster week. outlines dozens of unlawful killings. the australian military has but for now from me, isssued an apology and admits that discipline broke down amidst alicia mccarthy, goodbye. a "warrior culture". the inquiry investigated 57 incidents and heard from hundreds of witnesses. new data from pfizer and biontech says their coronavirus vaccine is 94% effective in the over—65s, and works well in people hello there. much colder today than it of all ethnicities. has been of late thanks to an arctic blast, but this the pharmaceutical firms want to get approval to use the jab as early arctic blast is going to be quite brief because milder air as mid—december. the us death—toll from covid—19 has passed 250,000. looms in the atlantic the are more than 11 million cases in the country. it comes as new york city says its temporarily closing public schools again and will arrive on friday from thursday for many areas. over fears of a second so today, cold. wave of the virus. it will be windy as well to start with, and we'll have a mixture of sunshine and showers. the pressure chart shows why it's windy — now on bbc news, northerly winds, lots

wednesday in parliament. of isobars across northern and eastern areas, hence the gales — but this ridge of high pressure will continue to nudge in through the course of the day, so the winds become lighter and will also kill off behind me there is that milder air with the frontal system that will start to make inroads on friday. and we'll have some showers hello and welcome to across england and wales, wednesday in parliament. these becoming confined coming up: boris johnson towards the south east. many places seeing a lot faces his weekly round of of sunshine into the afternoon. the cloud will start prime minister's questions to thicken up, though, from downing street across northern ireland ahead as he continues to self—isolate of this next frontal system. and rejects the suggestion a chilly day to come, there's not enough financial much colder than of late. help for other people forced temperatures are 4—10 degrees, to stay at home. but when you factor in the wind, certainly across northern and eastern areas, it's going to feel much colder than those values i do think it's a reasonable package from a mr speaker, suggest, perhaps even subzero across central and eastern i know it's tough for scotland. people to self—isolate. but the labour leader says people are having to live on £13 a day sick pay. if you can't afford to isolate there's little point to being tested or traced. now, as we head on into also on this program another tonight, it turns cold big defeat for the government across central and eastern in the lords over areas with a touch of frost. its controversial temperatures slowly recovering internal market bill. out west with the rain, and what might train travel but it stays quite chilly further east. look like after the pandemic? but that cold air gets pushed out of the way as we head i think we need to stop

thinking about commuting through friday, as the milder in the way that we use west to south—westerly winds to as some sort of torturous move in off the atlantic. so it's a chilly start experience would be think across northern and eastern about it as travelling to corroborate. but first: it was a pmqs with areas, dry, too, but the rain a difference with borisjohnson out west will slowly spill its way eastwards. taking part not in the commons could see some transient snow chamber but remotely over the scottish mountains from his flat as it moves its way eastwards. in downing street. behind it, it turns a little bit drier for northern ireland, for wales and the south west the prime minister used a video of england by the end to announce at the weekend that of the day. and here, at the end he'd been forced of the day, it'll be much milder — 12—13 degrees. to self isolate, still fairly chilly after being in across the east — 9—11 degrees. a meeting with an mp now, as we head on into who tested positive for coronavirus. borisjohnson has since tested the weekend, it stays pretty negative but is staying in his downing street flat u nsettled. low pressure to the north for another few days in line of the uk, higher pressure to the south. with covid rules. across the north, it's at prime minister's questions going to be windy with gales the labour leader, wished him on saturday across scotland well but questioned how easy it was for people to follow the self isolation rules. with some showers, but lighter the the prime minister is doing the right thing winds for england and wales, after their self isolating after being notified by track perhaps one or two showers and trace, but does he think on sunday. i think it's going to be mild would be able to do so if like so many other people for many of us on saturday. across the country all he had to rely on for the next 14 days was either statutory sick bay, which is £95 a week, that's £13 a day, or a one—off payment of £500 which

works out as £35 a day? it's good finally to hear something from the right honourable gentleman in praise of the nhs test and trace. i think the least one of his objectives, that would keep me from answering these questions in person. i believe the package that we have in place to protect people and support welcome to bbc news. people throughout this crisis i'm ben bland. has been outstanding our top stories: and exceptional. a report into possible war crimes by australia's special forces in afghanistan i do think it's outlines unlawful killings. a reasonable package. i'm glad that our prolonged the australian military side when he simply attacked isssues an apology the nhs test and tracy now and admits discipline seems to come around broke down. and supporting it. credible information regarding deeply disturbing allegations of unlawful the prime minister must understand is a huge gap killings by some. in the system. the race for a workable coronavirus vaccine moves a step closer — pfizer says its jab

is almost 95% effective. if you cannot afford to isolate there's little point officials in the us state to test and trace. of georgia say they'll complete when the prime minister their presidential vote recount will not pay people enough to isolate properly relived just a few hours from now. this week they can find £1 president trump still shows million of taxpayer money to pay a go—between to deliver no sign of conceding. lucrative contracts to the department of health. £21 million. i remind the prime minister that a few weeks ago he could not find that amount of money for free school meals for kids over half term. does the premise or think that £21 million to a middle man is an acceptable use to taxpayer money? mr speaker we were being urged this crisis began to remove the blockages in our procurement process in order to get ppe. there were not adequate supplies we shipped heaven and earth. 70% of ppe is now made in this country or capable of being made in the country is late 1% at the beginning of the pandemic.

last week the premise or could not explain how his government ended up paying £150 million on card tricks that did not deliver a single piece of usable ppe. this week is effectively defending the paying of £21 million on a contract with no oversight. this morning the independent national audit office concluded the government approach was, in theirwords, diminished public transparency. they reported that more than half of all contracts relating to the pandemic, mr speaker that's totalling £10.5 billion were handed out without competitive tender and that suppliers with political connections were ten times more likely to be awarded contracts. can the prime minister give a cast assurance that from on, from now on all government contracts will be subject to proper process with full transparency and accountability?

borisjohnson rejected that and attacked suggestions he said had been made by a labour shadow minister, rachel reeves. he talks about transparency and moving too fast to secure contracts, and he should cover the shutter counsellor wrote to the government attacking us for failing to approach various people including a football agent who was a fritos of light ventilators. and it clothing manufacture company make guns and whose current range includes 16th—century silk bonnets. at the time he bash the government for not moving fast enough and sexually absurd that he's not once again trying to support party political points —— patently absurd. keir starmer had begun the session by challenging

boris johnson over comments he's reported to have made to some of his own mps that scottish devolution had been "a disaster". the single biggest threat to the future of the united kingdom is the prime minister every time he opens his mouth almost. when the prime minister said he wanted to take back control nobody thought he met from the scottish people. at the prime minister's quote is very clear, he said devolution has been a disaster north of the border. this is not an isolated incident. whether it's the internal market bill, there with the prime minister sidelined the default parliaments over the coronavirus response, he to undermine the fabric of the united kingdom. what is unquestionably been a disaster is the way in which the scottish nationalist party have taken and used devolution as a means, not to improve the lives

of their constituents, not you address their health concerns or improve education, but constantly and i know this is the point of view that is shared by the honourable gentleman, but constantly to campaign for the break—up of our country. the snp's westminster leader took up the comments. it's an attack on devolution, not just a slip of the tongue but a slip of the tory mask. the chasm between westminster and the scottish people has never been bigger. the real disaster facing the people of scotland is another 20 years of westminster governance. isn't it clear than ever that the only way, the only way, mr speaker, that protects scotland interests become our parliament in our place in europe is for scotland to become an independent country. the way he talks about wanted to take scotland back into the european union to which i think seem to be what he was saying just now and what he should understand

the people of scotland should understand is that the massive surrender of power by the people of scotland street back to brussels just as this country, just as the people of scotland have taken it back again. borisjohnson. the government has been defeated in the house of lords over its controversial brexit legislation. peers voted to amend the internal market bill amid claims that it would allow westminster to impose standards on the rest of the uk and "shackle" governments in cardiff, edinburgh and belfast. the bill sets out to create a uk internal market after the end of the brexit transition period but a former supreme courtjudge suggested the government wanted to do that by imposition from westminster rather than by agreement. it's difficult to avoid the conclusion that this government regards devolution as an inconvenience which can simply be ignored. when it wants to. i regret that very much indeed. i'm a unionist i believe in the union and all that it stands for, and all the values

that i hope it will continue to give us in the future. but i'm afraid we see here an uncompromising, careless, and centralist style of government which divides our united kingdom into pieces at a time when harmony is most needed. it has no place in our democracy. labour backed lord hope's amendment. everybody accepts the need for as friction the straight as possible within the internal market of the uk. everybody equally respects the need for appropriate divergence. how are those two matters to be dealt with, the answer which everybody in this house agreed with and everybody in the comments agreed with him was the common frameworks process. a process he said had stood the test of time. several peers referred to the prime minister's reported comments about devolution being a disaster. my lords, the sad truth

of the devolution era my lords, the sad truth of the post—devolution era is they don'tjust have this mindset but excepted now has to work in partnership not as a dominating and patronizing big brother which always expects to get its own way it is that failure wasn't anything else which now stands to blow the united kingdom apart. the bill does not civilly maintain the status quo and eu membership, it chuckles the ability of the elected parliaments of scotland, wales and northern ireland to find their own solutions to the problems we face. it is not based on support for devolution but rather on resentment of the fact that devolved governments and legislators can innovate at speed and take their populations with them. a conservative former minister gave his own warning. my lords, i take no pleasure at all the possible break—up of white, to me, is the greatest country in the world. it is far from inevitable,

but the preservation of the union has to be worked out. of the union has to be worked at. it has to be worked at constantly. my lords, it's vital for the devolved ministrations in westminster to work together to which this amendment provides for. never more so vital that now. but the government's supporters said the amendment would undermine the bill. and we do need to reflect this bill is a uk government bill, it's all about the powers of the uk government. particularly in relation to the internal market. nevertheless recognising the uk government is responsible for external matters. another said it would create uncertainty. and uncertainty kills businesses. uncertainty might be resolved only by the courts, and that could take five, may be ten years to bring to conclusion.

in businesses cannot in general cope with time frames of that nature. and that is especially true in today's environment of lockdown harm to business. the lib dems said peers had a choice. actually centres around the words of mutual respect. because, my lords, the bit as it stands unamended is disrespectful. disrespectful to the devolved authorities indestructible to the process of devolution. ministers were unpersuaded. mother's day approach in the amendments goes against the very purpose of the bill which is of course to give businesses across the uk certainty of the conditions under which they must operate. the amendments would make the environment potentially unstable and create confusion for businesses. but when it came to the vote, the government was overwhelmingly defeated by 367 votes to 209. so, one of the big arguments from opponents of the internal

market bill is that it takes power away from the uk's devolved governments. at a session of the scottish affairs committee, the conservative leader of the scottish conservatives, challenged an snp cabinet minister over an analysis of the bill by a professor of politics who'd given evidence earlier. professor keating said earlier, and i wrote this down for this is not about westminster trying to grab powers back when i noted you nodding in agreement. can you confirm you are in agreement with what professor keating said there? i would say is not a coup but a power grab. i'm asking specific questions. i'm endeavoring to give a specific answer. i'm asking a question, if you can just listen do you agree with professor keating when he said this is not about westminster trying to grab powers back? what he indicated was this is not a crude power grab, i pay tribute to drafting the bill at the it's a very

subtle power grab. will all professor keating said this is not about westminster trying to grab powers back, that's verbatim, united, do you agree with that? i believe there is a very subtle power grab going on in a pay tribute to those that have been clever enough. a labour mp has accused the housing secretary, robertjenrick, of "gerrymandering" a scheme to provide funding to deprived towns in england. a multi billion pound fund to help struggling towns awarded £25 million to robertjenrick‘s constituency of newark. last week a report by the commons spending watchdog found that the process for selecting the recipient towns was "not impartial". ministers insist a rigorous and robust procedure was followed. after a grilling on monday, the housing secretary once again faced a barrage of criticism. serious concerns have been raised notjust on these benches, but by the national

audit office in the cross party public accounts committee. when we get told on the side that we are making this issue political of reminders and the benches of us that we are not the only ones who have questions this process. the reason why it's pretty political is because the government made it so in the first place by gerrymandering this fund. to follow the advice rest of it severance, are excellent civil service in the department, it's a pity they tried to cast aspersions over them. follow their advice by slashing the 40 most highly ranked towns and smaller cities that their methodology grew up. it's a surprise to me he is such great enthusiasm for algorithm —based policymaking, i think we learned of the last year a degree of judgement and qualitative analysis is useful. is that in addition to those 40 places we must also use ourjudgement to select other places to be included. why did the secretary of state of his own constituents i helped to secure a £25

million town steel which will make the town centre more attractive pace to spend time in despite claiming not to have been involved in a decision about your work on the andrew marr programme on the 11th of october 2020? it was the 16th with highly ranked towns in the east midlands to be a beneficiary of the fund. and we supported 19 places in the east midlands. and actually no reason why ministers should disadvantage their constituency. we are away both ministers and constituency mps, one of the great purchaser our system. those are not taken by the minister but in the usual way taken by a colleague. many on the conservative side lined up to offer support. i am disappointed to see an attempt to score political points over what is a fantastic policy that is hopefully bringing investment to places like wolverhampton stop i think it shows off our labour have fallen from their natural home that they are essentially condemning funding going to the most private

communities in our nation. it's absolutely astonishing to witness. but one labour mp wanted to know why the town of cheadle was awarded funding. was it their unemployment rate below the northwest average? was the deprivation ranking make it one of the northeast leased deprived areas? was there low shop vacancy rate ? was that the department ranking ring it 535th priority out of 500 41? or was it the ory majority ofjust 2366? is not a terribly good look to say that they don't want investment to go into cheadle. from this fund to being handed out to tory seats to the money being squandered on covid contracts commit to the ferry contract being awarded. it is a very murky picture. how to make its issuance have

any confidence at all that public money is well spent and cronyism, mates rates and political manoeuvring seem to be at the heart of so much government decision—making not to mention downright incompetence ? but i did not detect the question there other than the whole series of pointless innuendo. we are going to keep on focusing on the the public wanted to do which is despite all the challenges of covid, investing and leveling up in the communities that needed them most. and that's exactly what this fund does. you're watching wednesday in parliament with me, alicia mccarthy. the government's been warned that northern irish businesses are exasperated, frustrated and fearful as the end of the year approaches, and with it, the end of the brexit transition period. robin walker said ministers were continuing to work to implement what's known as the northern ireland protocol to minimise disruption to people's day—to—day lives and preserve the peace of the good friday agreement. under the protocol,

northern ireland will continue to enforce eu customs rules and product standards, making checks on goods travelling from northern ireland into the republic unnecessary. but some checks will be needed on certain goods entering northern ireland from great britain. labour pointed out there were only 43 days to go. it is hard for me to express the frustration, anxiety and fear that has been relayed to me and the minister by countless businesses and communities in northern ireland as the clock is ticked down. northern ireland needed every second of this transition year to get ready for the biggest changes to their trading relationship it has ever known, but vital time has been squandered. first denying any checks will take place at all, and then the extraordinary spectacle of the government threatening to tear up its own oven—ready deal and breach international treaties they had signed into law, an approach that the minister has confirmed it is sticking

to when the bill comes back from the other place. the result of this recklessness, this incompetence, is that thousands of businesses still do not know the bare basics of how they will trade with great britain injust six weeks‘ time. it is 43 days, minister, to the 31st of december and covid—hit businesses in northern ireland are exasperated, and i share that exasperation. every witness the select committee has heard from says they wish to obey the rules, whatever they are. when are they going to know definitively what they have to do and how they have to do it in order to keep themselves in business and on the right side of the law? i recognise, absolutely, the concern that businesses, which has been reflected to me and the secretary of state in our meetings, and their desire to have absolute certainty of it. as he will recognise, some of these things are still subject to ongoing negotiations with the eu. i would, of course, much rather, those that have already been resolved, as i know he would.

but what we want to ensure is that those things within our gift, we provide that certainty and the uk government is doing that when it comes to unfettered access. and those things that stand to be resolved, we continue to negotiate on good faith to resolve so we can put that information in front of businesses. but what we are doing already is progressively providing guidance where agreements have been reached, and we will continue to pursue that. will the minister assure us that he will bring forward those proposals and measures that are necessary to protect northern ireland's place in the internal market? and will he also recognise that there's cross party and cross community support for a period of time for implementation of these measures to allow our businesses, supermarkets and others to prepare properly? yes, with regards to our approach to the return of the uk internal market bill, the commons, and also with regards to of finance bill. whilst i don't have specific control of that, i'm happy to make those commitments to him and indeed, all the parties in northern ireland. it is absolutely crucial we resolve these issues and he set forward one of the most sensible ways of doing it. but the government was accused

of wanting theoretical power to lower standards on, for example, food and medicine. is the risk of such deep economic damage and political instability really a price worth paying just so this government can have a power that it can boast about but it claims it's not going to use? minister. i recognise that the honourable lady has strong views against our leaving the eu, she's been consistent in demonstrating those. what i think is essential that we do is deliver on a protocol which is there to protect circumstances of northern ireland, and that is absolutely what we will do. robin walker. now, as anyone who travels to work by train will know, once crowded commuter services now carry a fraction of their pre—pandemic passengers, so what happens if those passengers don't return? the commons transport committee questioned railway operators about their passenger numbers

and how the industry would have across industry, we're around about 28, 30% presently, eight and entering experience. i think people are going to be less tolerant of crowded services. we're going to be living like this for some time,

so do you have a vision of what an optimal service would be and how you can make that financially sustainable ? these are the discussions that we're having with government presently around what should be the future size and shape of the railway, and i'm sure my colleagues agree. we remain very confident about winning the majority of passengers back, and we've got to work hard to do that when covid circumstances allow. but we expect to be able to win back around about 75% on a like for like basis of passengerjournies. next to be questioned was the rail minister chris heaton harris. is the sustainable for the taxpayer or will rail services or costs have to be radically reduced if passengers do not return? passenger railways are only able to operate because the government believed it was beneficial for our nation and backed it with taxpayers' cash. the yet to be fully finalise figures, but the amount of money put in, £4.07 billion. so, the question is it sustainable, i'm not a fortune teller and who knows, maybe people returning.

but no one can be sure of this and this point in time, which is why we need to report to put the passenger first, and the railway will need to probably for the first time 00:26:09,318 --> 2147483051:49:49,374 in its history, fight for its 2147483051:49:49,374 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 passengers to come back.