>> now from london prime minister's question time. live from the british house of commons. every wednesday while parliament is in session, prime minister gordon brown takes questions from members of the house of commons. prior to question time, the house is wrapping up previous business. this is live coverage on c-span2. >> order. i was listening intently to the honorable gentleman but i was hoping that he would refer to fuel smuggling. and he didn't. >> a brief reply from the minister. >> mr. speaker, tempted as i often am by my honorable friend to respond to the question that he is ask him and actually there is a three-pointer and was one

made by my right honorable friend before. this is not a moment for party political advantage in this place. this is a moment for the parties of northern ireland without support to strive for and find the agreement that can pave the way for permanent peace in northern ireland. >> questions to the prime minister, mr. david? >> question number one, mr. speaker. >> mr. speaker, i'm sure that the whole house, the whole house will wish to join me in paying tribute to the service and sacrifice in afghanistan of lance corporal graham scholl and corporal lee o'reilly, both from third battalion, yorkshire regiment attached to first battalion, coast during guards. we think of the families and loved ones and we will never forget the sacrifice they have made at the service that they have given. mr. speaker, this morning i met with ministers and others in addition to my duties in this house. i should be in contact with the northern ireland parties later today.

>> i'd like to add my sympathy, condolences to the families of those servicemen who lost their lives in the service of our country. mr. speaker, all our constituents are rightly concerned about transparency, expenses and cleaning up politics. with that in mind, now that it's clear those a 50,000 pounds fund sold for the prime minister's use at his headquarters, will he explained why he did not declare this in the register? >> i know nothing about what he's talking about. >> jacqui smith. >> mr. speaker, across the country, police officers and a community partners are working amidst hard to tackle violent crime. what does my right honorable friend think they should turn to to monitor their success? to the party opposite who have been caught bantu rights issuing crime statistics or to the authoritative and independent

british crime survey that suggested that violent crime has fallen by 41 percent in the last 10 years? >> mr. speaker, i think we have a duty in the debate of law and order to give out all the facts are relevant to this. and to misrepresent the facts that come from the police and british crime survey is not allowed to have a fair debate in this country. mr. speaker, of the police have said that the use of the figure of 71 percent by the opposition is extremely misleading, and the bbc has said the story is of one of falling and in stable files. i think there is a duty on everyone's part to report the facts accurately. >> david cameron? >> thank you, mr. speaker. and i joined a prime minister in paying tribute to corporal lee o'reilly and lance corporal graham scholl who were killed in helmand on monday. they were both very brave man. everyone should be proud of

their service and we should all honor their memory. isn't it becoming clear from the chilcot inquiry that the government in general and the prime minister in particular made a series of bad decisions, that our armed forces were not equipped to properly when they were sent into harm's way? >> mr. speaker, i will welcome the opportunity to speak to the chilcot inquiry, but he must know that defense spending rose every year. and it was the fastest rising for 20 years at the iraq and afghanistan received 14 billion pounds from the contingency in reserve to enable the fighting there to take place. not only did we prepare the army and navy and air force is with proper funding, but we also funded every urgent operational requirement that was made. and i do not believe it is in the interest of this house to tell people that when funding was provided, that they were not properly equipped.

>> david cameron. >> what the prime minister has just said is completely at odds with what witness after witness has said to the chilcot inquiry. let's listen to what they said. the former defense secretary said we now have fewer helicopters because of his decisions he took as chancellor. the former chief of defense staff, general walker, said money was taken out of the helicopter budget. we've had soldier after soldier is complained about lack of body armor, vehicles and equipment. we now know the service chiefs threatened to resign en masse that is the time the prime minister admitted prime minister admitted to his mistakes that he made when he was chancellor? >> the first thing is they don't even know what the policy is for 2010. on anything. [laughter] >> the second thing, and the second thing, is i have always taken servicing the need to properly fund our defense forces. in the 2002 spending review, which is the subject of his discussion here, the defense settlement was the best for 20

years. the defense secretary of the time said it was an excellent settlement which allowed them to modernize the forces. in 2004, the defense management board made its own decision. let me just remind him, he stood on a platform at the last election to cut defense spending by 145 built-in. >> mr. david cameron. >> as ever, as ever, this prime minister is in complete denial of the facts. he says, he just said now he always took the vince circe. this is what another former chief of the defense staff, general said, this pressure was and i quote the most unsympathetic chancellor of as far as defense was concerned. that is what he said. and today, just today in front of the chilcot inquiry the former secretary of the minister of defense, kevin tebbit said this, he said while troops were in iraq and while that man was chancellor of, his budget, his budget was subject to arbitrary

cuts and a guillotine. he said and i quote, he was running a crisis budget rather than one with sufficient resources. is the evidence mounting that the prime minister ignore the welfare of our armed forces right up until the moment until it became politically convenient to do otherwise be? mr. speaker, i repeat, the conservative party went into the last election wanting to cut defense expenditure by 1.5 billion pounds. we continue to increase the defense budget every year. and we made every urgent operational requirement that was necessary for her majesty's forces in iraq and afghanistan. that is included 14 billion of extra expenditure from the reserve. expenditure on afghanistan was 600 million a few years ago. it will be 3.5-inch this year. and expenditure is rising this year as it is rising in the next financial year as well. he cannot portray a picture of defense cuts when defense

expenditure has been rising. the only government that cut defense expenditure recently was the last conservative government that cut it by nearly 30%. >> jamie reeves. order. board. i'm sure government backbenchers want to hear mr. jamie reid. >> mr. speaker, he will be aware he is the only -- what's her bikini give constituents, my constituents that we will meet the necessary changes to the planning system in order to enable them to invest in confidence and certainty. >> mr. speaker, i hope that there is all party support for the nuclear expenditure that is necessary to give a security in our part. it is eight minutes past 12 and i understand the conservative party policy is --

[laughter] >> is that nuclear power is a last resort. that is not the basis on which a plan for the future. you can change your policies every day. we will remain consistent in support for the energy needs of our country. >> mr. nick clegg. >> i'd like to add my own expressions of condolences to the family and friends of corporal neil riley and corporal lance shell, the third battalion. who tragically lost their lives serving so bravely in afghanistan this week. i just like to return to the issue of defense been. the government is about to make a statement on the future defense needs in this country. yet the prime minister has excluded the nuclear missile system from the strategic defense review. how can that review be taken seriously is the most expensive weapons system we have is to be excluded from its? >> mr. speaker, you can either

take an attitude to paris or not. we take a multilateralist attitude that we are prepared to work with other countries for nuclear disarmament. we do so on the basis of being prepared to discuss the future of part of multilateral talks were prepared to discuss and look at the scientific evidence for reduction in a number of submarines from four to three. the defense review paper will state all these things. but i hope you would agree with me, it was a very unsafe and insecure world where countries are requiring nuclear weapons, bridging. it would be better for us to be better of to reduce nuclear weapons around the world. >> mr. speaker, look what we've got. we've got troops in battle without proper in the. we have guillotined defense budget. guillotined defense budgets and the world that has changed at all recognition since the cold war. yet he and he want to spend billions of pounds of taxpayers money, replacing and renewing a nuclear missile system designed

to flatten moscow at the touch of a button. not how are we going to face the threat of this country faces if government thinking is so stuck in the past? >> i give him the credit of being consistent in his policies, something i can assays about the opposition. i do say to him, and this, i do say to him. it is important that we maintain the resources that we are spending in afghanistan. it is important we understand in our strategic defense review would are dealing with a problem of global terrorism that is quite different to what we've had to experience before. and i want to assure him that we will look carefully at all the juices of equipment for the future, like it is important to recognize that we want to be part of multilateral discussions for the future. and i would add in this house, it is not fair to our troops in afghanistan to give the impression that they're not properly equipped for the job that they're doing. we have spent on the reserve this year 3.5 billion pounds.

and it will be more next year. the average expenditure per member of our force is nearly half a million pounds to ensure that they are properly equipped. more helicopters have gone into afghanistan in the last few months. more vehicles are gone in in the last few months as well. special attention is being given to counterterrorism and dealing with the ied threat, and it is completely wrong to say that our troops are not properly equipped. we are proud of them. they are professional and are properly equipped for the job they are doing. >> before christmas this government confirmed in a pre-budget review of honey for front-line schools and police would be protected increase in the near term spirit we have not been given a similar pledge meanwhile, the schools are facing budget cuts. does this not show on the labor can be trusted to protect front-line services? >> mr. speaker, the scottish

administration has had a record increase in public expenditure as a result of the previous public expenditure review. it is sad that they have not made a priority of education for the young people of scotland. and they will pay a price at the ballot box for their failure to do so. i have to say that some of the cuts are the result of the wrong in this league decisions that they have made. >> david cameron. >> thank you, mr. speaker. 13 years into government, 90 days before a general election, can the prime minister tell us what first attracted him to changing the voting system? [laughter] >> mr. speaker, if nobody -- if nobody on the other side understands -- if nobody on the other stands, if nobody on the other side understands that the politics of the last year, that the politics of the last year has changed for ever, the way the public are going to do the

house of commons, and our parliamentary institutions, and that the status quo cannot last, it has got to be changed. mr. speaker, if the conservatives want to defend the principle in the house of lords, if they want to respond for more than 10 years, and if they want to reduce the people of referendum on the boat, then they're making a mistake about what the british people are thinking. my message today is to the british people, that we are prepared, we are prepared to change our constitution. and we are prepared to change for the better. we are for the alternative board. they are for they hereditary board. [shouting] >> it's back to the bunker time with that one. [shouting] >> i don't know whether people the secretary out of the chair before he typed that one, but it was rubbish. [laughter] >> he talked about the hereditary principle. there's only one leader in this

house who inherited his title. [shouting] >> what a lot of -- what a lot of rubbish. it's good to have a laugh. [laughter] >> what a lot of rubbish. the reason he is in favor of the alternative vote is it's election time. this is the man who docked the leadership election, who bought all the general election and now he's trying to fiddle with the electoral system. he must think the whole country is stupid. have another go. why are you doing it? [laughter] >> mr. speaker, this is a man who promised -- this as a man who promises at christmas of policy to show the substance of the conservative party if they were in government. we've had confusion over the married couples allowance. with that chaos over public spending. we have an exaggeration over crime. we've had the proceeding on the hereditary principle and now supporting it for the house of lords. this is a conservative party

that is incomplete model as no manifesto, they don't have the substance to be able to govern the country. they are in shambles. [shouting] >> why don't we go over some of the history of this, because of course the last liberal leader who got suckered into this was of course paddy and he wrote this in his diary. you've said time after time tony blair would say, yeah, i agreed, but i can't get it past gordon. [laughter] >> gordon goes on -- gordon was the primary bloke. doesn't mean cutting the size of the house of commons, cutting ministers they, complete transparency and expenses, but the one thing we should change is the ability in a general election in britain to get rid of it tired, incompetent and useless divided government.

>> mr. speaker, no change under the conservatives. no change at all. he is supporting the predator principle in the house of lords that he is supporting -- >> order. i apologize, mr. prime minister. we must have quite that i want to hear the answer. i hope you want to be the answer as well. prime minister. >> his is about no change that it is the politics of no change at all. he supports the originally principle in the house of lords again. he supports no reform of the house of lords for a decade. he supports no referendum to allow the electorate to have. this is a party that is no change at all. they are the same as they always were. we will vote for the alternative vote. they are still voting for the hereditary vote. >> mr. stewart bill. >> thank you, mr. speaker. building on the response of the prime minister to the parliamentary institution, is he aware that tomorrow's thomas

legg will public his full review about his allowances building on the creation of it so and the kelly recommendations, all of them the initiatives of the prime minister. and we put behind us this sad and sorry saw before expenses for mp's and rebuild his institution for the house of commons because my right honorable friend is absolutely right that we have to reform the system of expenses that we have to follow through with the kelly and now the kennedy reforms under its a. but i have to say to the south, we have to do more than that. if i have a message for the whole of the country, it is not enough simply to change the expensive system. we must change the way we govern ourselves in this house of commons and house of lords. and i come back to the essential questions pick if they are not prepared to face up to major change in the constitution, then the public will see that the conservative party has not changed one bit. >> mr. edward guarnieri. >> at what the prime minister

told us just a moment ago about defense spending is correct, why on earth did defense chiefs threatened to resign because of his proposal, defense cuts as a general walker told the chilcott this week? >> mr. speaker, i just had report to the house, that defense spending was rising every year during that period. it was rising in real terms, nobody has doubted that every aspect of iraq and afghanistan was funded. and i repeat, it was the conservative party that went to the last election wanting to cut defense expenditure. >> thank you, mr. speaker. members across the house will i am sure i applaud the care and support given by the legion to those who are serving in our armed forces and those who have served. we are asking members of parliament and those wishing to be elected to the sounds to do our bit and keep the faith of our brave heroes. and i asked the prime minister, to sign the pledge in support of

our armed forces family? >> i would be delighted to. the defense secretary already has done so, and i pay tribute to the outstanding work of the royal british legion and welcome the continued support to our armed forces and veterans that the government supports our service personnel and their families, and our services command paper was an attempt to show how we did so right across the services. and a green paper published today by the sector of state for defense reiterates our commitment to do this. >> mr. speaker, at the weekend national express group canceled without consultation causing major problems to people in birmingham. this is systematic of a national problem. when will the rest of the country he allowed to use the same system for bus management as exist in london? >> i'm sure -- i'm sure i should

call an emergency cabinet to look at the situation of the 41 bus that i shall look at what he said to me and i shall write him. [laughter] >> e. and davidson. >> were the prime minister agree that anyone who wishes to be taken seriously on defense has got to be prepared to unequivocally and without reservations commit? in what he agreed that there is a party difference here that the royal navy are safe with labor and sunk with the conservatives? >> well, there is no word stronger for the aircraft carriers. i would say to him that we are committed to the aircraft carriers. it is around aircraft carriers that the future of policy of the navy is being organized and i hope all parties will support the aircraft carriers. >> john hayes. thank you, mr. speaker. all governments make mistakes. all prime minister's have

regrets, which does the prime minister regret most of the class of learning of 1.4 million places, or the latest figures showing young people starting a petition, or to break up with when the number of university applications in places. the clarity of the house and the convenience of the prime minister, perhaps he could restrict his answer to a b. or c. >> mr. speaker, the thing i regret most is the support as we try to take this country through the session with more apprenticeships, with more people going to university, with more people going to college and every school guarantee the chance of a job or training, all these things were resisted by the party opposite. >> thank you, mr. speaker. will my right honorable friend agree with me that investing in apprenticeships is an important way of investing in recovery? and will be -- does he share my despair and the actions of tory

south council and abandoning their apprenticeship scheme and would urge them to reconsider that and show that the tories for ones are interested in young people and their futures? >> mr. speaker, is difficult to know what the tory policy is on anything at the moment. but certain for 20 and i could not guarantee that any apprenticeships that he wishes to support would be supported by the party opposite. such is the lack of clarity about what the policy is. there are 250,000 apprenticeships now. we want to give every young person a chance, if they have the qualifications to do so, to get an apprenticeship and throughout this recession we have pushed apprenticeships. there is only one party opposing the and opposing the expansion on vote education training and employment, and that is the conservative party. >> all those involved in the 1998 defense review know that his only interest was to get the 1 billion pounds cut from the conservative expenditure plans. which was only reduced to half a million a year by the

intervention of the chief of defense staff. why is it that all the distinguished service men and civil servants have given evidence to chilcott on the chaos surrounding the financing and provision of equipment in a run up to iraq, that he invites us to believe that they are all wrong and he is right? >> mr. speaker, the figures show that defense expenditure was rising every year. the figures also show that the rises were the biggest for 20 years. and the figures also showed that every single urgent operational requirement that was asked of us by the ministry of defense for iraq and afghanistan has been met. i'm afraid it's the opposition that are having difficulty with figures at the moment. >> my right on over and has come under severe attack for not cutting the deficit fast enough or hard enough. for those who made those calls in his house, seem to agree with him now because he think that's

what he meant by its a year for change on the airbrush conservative movement. [laughter] >> mr. speaker, it's a year for changing their mind every week about every single policy that they put forward. mr. speaker, two weeks ago the leader of the opposition said it would be moral heritage, not to tear up the budget for 2000. and then the shadow business secretary said there would be calamitous consequences if that were to happen. now we have the secretary boasting that he doesn't have a detailed plan. in other words, that people don't know where the conservative party stands but the conservative party don't even know where they stand. >> thanks to the assistance of finance wales, the staff of the secretary state for business innovation skills and rbs has secured 100 new jobs. these are more than outweighed by 180 redundancies in the call center. of the prime minister arrange a meeting with the relevant mister

on once they directed senior management tomorrow morning to disclose its closure which could cause localized recession? >> i understand the concern when any jobs are lost and that is a personal tragedy for those people. who have given their lives in many cases to one company that is unable to continue to employment. i will arrange for these meetings that he asked for to take place that i can assure him that every teenager who has been unemployed for six months will have a guarantee that they wouldn't work entering and the services are available that are unemployed are better than they've ever been and the result is 300,000 people are leaving the unemployment register every month and employment and unemployment -- i'm -- employment is at a higher level. >> and to build? >> even though the claimant count is a 40% down in my constituency, it is nevertheless a great disappointed to hear about what is going into ministration. will my right honorable friend do what he can to ensure that

the parent company's actions are investigated. they seem to be playing fast and loose with the british workforce. and secondly, at the workforce of the fact and the supply chain are giving every possible support? >> mr. speaker, i know the regional development agency stands ready to help his constituents and the company that is in difficulty. this is could a difficult time for the workforce. the ministers have said in this case they will continue to train the business while they explore all options which include looking for a buyer for the business. i can assure him that all agencies will be available to help those workers in his constituency who are affected. >> mr. speaker, i'm sure the prime minister is aware that a percentage terms, the population of the united kingdom and ireland are the biggest reservoir of the pre-owned courses fail an incurable human plague disease.

one of the transmissions as blood transfusion. in october last year, the government's scientific committee looking at is recommended to use of a photo for blood transfusion, for children initially. when is the government going to react on that recommendation? >> this is a very serious issue that he raises, and great detail. that recommendation is very important for the future of the blood transfusion service. i will look at it and get back to them shortly. >> can the prime minister confirm that in the cuts for the richest families can actually be adjourned until achieving spending of cool schools and hospitals around the nation. and if he rejects, if he rejects that policy, can he guarantee the be no bob rae on this i? >> mr. speaker, the one thing they have stopped through the month of model and division is their policy for an herz's past

that and like the policy for hereditary peers, that will give those people or the richest people in our society the greatest amount of additional wealth. mr. speaker, that could be at the expense of schools. you could be at the expense of the health service that it could also be at the expense of defense. and i think people should not that the conservatives parties first priority above all others is to reduce inheritance tax for those who are perfectly able to take care of themselves. we are for the many. they are for the few. [shouting] >> mr. graham stuart. >> thank you, mr. speaker. health on the is skewed to younger, urban labor voting areas, rather -- [shouting] >> rather than older, rather than older rural areas such as my constituency, which is why they receive more than 1800 pounds per head while the east riding receives just 1200. the prime minister knows it is age, nep