in addition to that, i want to make certain that we have taken all all appropriate disciplinary action here. >> with respect to the most recent accusation i have never acted inappropriately with anyone period. >> with hundreds of hours of new public affairs programming available each week, the c-span video library is the online resource to find what you what when you want, index, searchable, shareable. it's washington your way. >> british prime minister david cameron takes questions from members on youth employment, the euro zone crisis and border security. opposition leader ed miliband accused of prime minister and home secretary of implementing a relaxed border security policy this summer and suggested millions of european passengers could have entered the country

illegally. prime minister cameron defended his border security policy saying that it led to the seizure of firearms and forged documents. he conceded the u.k. border agency acted without ministerial approval in certain actions and the head of its border force, brody clark, had to be suspended. this is 32 minutes. >> questions to the prime minister. dr. julian help burn -- hepburn, number one, please, sir. >> thank you, plr. i'm sure the whole house would wish to join me paying tribute to private matthew hazeldon. despite only being in the army a short time, he proved himself to be a dedicated soldier. he made the ultimate sacrifice to the safety of the british people and we should send our deepest condolences to his family and friends. this week we will pause, of course, for all of those who lost their lives in defense of

their country so we enjoy peace and freedom and we are humbled by the sacrifice they made. this morning i had meetings with the minister and colleagues and others and in addition to the house, i will have further such meetings today. >> may i add my tribute to the prime ministers about the sad death from the private from the second battalion, especially with remembrance sunday so near? the prime minister is rightly concerned about jobs and growth. crucial to that is consumer confidence. does he think telling 25 million workers they have no job security and can be fired at will tomorrow will boost or reduce consumer confidence? >> clearly what we have to do is make it easier for firms to hire people. that's -- that's why we have strapped labor's jobs back, that's why we have taken a million of the lowest people paid out of tax, that's why we established new rules so you can only go to a tribunal after working somewhere two years and that's why we introduced fees for claims in employment tribunals to stop those claims.

and we are investing in a work program, apprenticeship, all in a way to help get young people jobs. end miliband. >> speaker, can i join the prime minister in paying tribute to private matthew hasledon. he showed immense courage trying to protect local people and i thought with his family and friends and with troops serving in conflict overseas, it is even more important that we honor this weekend in remembrance sunday all of those who are served our country now and are indeed serving our country today. mr. speaker, can the prime minister tell us how many people entered the u.k. under the hom secretary's relaxed border controls? >> the figures for the period between august 2010 and august 2011 for the number of people who entered the country are published in the normal way and figures i do have is that the number of people arrested was

actually up by 10% and number of drug seizures was markedly up and number of firearm seizures was up by 100%. fwut i think we should be clear about what did and what did not happen here. first, the home secretary did agree a pilot for a more targeted approach to border control. this is for people within the european economic area. it allowed better targeting of high-risk people and less for others, notably children. this did not compromise security. this was an operational decision but one i fully back and think that she was right to take. the second, and this was important, mr. speaker, decisions were taken to extend this beyond the european economic area of nationals. this was not authorized by the home secretary. indeed when specific permission was asked for, it was not granted. let me just say, this did not mean our borders were left undefended. passports continue to be

checked. as this was unauthorized action, as it was contrary to what the home secretary agreed, it was right the head of the border force was suspended and i back that action completely. >> mr. speaker, it's just not good enough. sir, the prime minister -- the prime minister -- the prime minister can't tell us -- the prime minister can't tell us how many people -- how many millions of people were let in under the relaxed border patrol agreed by the home secretary. mr. speaker, isn't it totally unacceptable that the home secretary chose to relax border controls in july and even yesterday she could not tell us which airports and port applied to, how many took it up and for how long? >> she provided those figures and figures for the number of arrests are as follows -- firearms 100% increase in seizures. illegal immigrants, 10% increase

in arrests. forged documents, 48% increase. but the simple fact -- the simple fact that the gentleman has to accept, and everyone has to accept is this, the head of the u.k. border agency rob whiteman, who also didn't know this unauthorized action was taking place, he said this -- i think it's very important for the house to understand that the head of the border agency said this -- brody clark admitted to me on the second of november that on a number of occasions this year he authorized his staff to go further than ministerial action. i therefore suspended him from his duties, in my opinion it was right for officials to have recommended the pilot so we focused attention on high risk to our border but it was unacceptable one of my senior officials went further than was approved. that is why he was suspended. that is why the home secretary backed that decision.

but it's an important issue to understand that brody clark was suspended ahead of the u.k. border agency. it was a decision quite rightly taken by him, backed by the home secretary, backed by me. >> isn't it utterly typical, mr. speaker, when things go wrong, it's nothing to do with them. >> order, order, just before the gentleman continues, let me just emphasize, there were members on both sides of the house shouting their heads off, members of the youth parliament last friday who spoke -- order, order! who spoke brilliantly and passionately disagreed with each other but they didn't shout at each other. mr. ed miliband. >> mr. speaker, mr. speaker, what did the home secretary say in the pub when she was in opposition when things went wrong on immigration? she said this, i'm sick and tired of government ministers

who simply blame other people when things go wrong. now -- now, the prime minister said yesterday in his evidence to the liaison committee about the relaxation of border patrols in the last few months, and i quote, clearly not acceptable and is not acceptable it went on for so long. mr. speaker, why did the home secretary allow that to happen? >> you can't on the one hand blame me for not taking responsibility and then quote very clearly my words taking responsibility and saying what isn't acceptable! i have to say, having a lecture from an administration that let 2.2 million people in our country, that allowed everyone from eastern europe to come here with no transitional control, that built up a back log of half a million asylum claims and made

no apology about it, and even today when the leader of the opposition is asked whether too many people were let into our country, his answer was very simple -- no. >> ed miliband! >> mr. speaker, he's been the prime minister for 18 months. he can't keep saying it's nothing to do with him. his his -- it's his responsibility. a month ago, mr. speaker, the prime minister gave a speech on border patrol called reclaiming our borders. mr. speaker, while he was boasting of reclaiming our borders, his home secretary was busy relaxing our borders. doesn't the prime minister thing he should have at least known? >> the pilot that the home secretary introduced meant more arrests, more firearms seen, more forged documents found. that is the truth of it. the fact is officials went further than home office ministered authorized. that is what is wrong and that is why someone had to be

suspended and that was the right decision. he asked what we have done. let me tell him what we have done. we are completing e-borders so every flight will be checked outside the e.u. by next april. creating the national crime agency with the dedicated border police. we have the first six months of this year, we seized more drugs than in the whole of last year. last year we rejected 400,000 applications for visas. we turned away 68,000 people without the correct documents. i am determined we have tough border controls. finally, we have a home office and immigration minister that actually want to cut immigration. >> mr. speaker, anyone listening to the prime minister would think his policy has been a great success. it's a fiasco! it's a complete fiasco! the one thing he can't claim to know anything about is cuts to the u.k. border force. can he now confirm how many u.k. border staff are going to be cut under his government?

>> by the end of this parliament, there will be 18,000 people working for the border agency, which is the same number that were working for the border agency in 2006 when he was sitting in the treasury, affirming the budget. but he asks -- he asked about -- he asked about what we had done for 18 months in office on administration. let me tell him, the first-ever limit on work visas from outside the european union. we stopped more than 470 colleges from being in bogus foreign students. we have cut student visas by 70,000. anyone who comes here to get married has to speak english. we're ending automatic settlement rights and stopping nonsense of people ms. using the human rights act. in 18 months we have done more to control immigration than he did in 13 years. >> ed miliband. >> mr. speaker, the truth is it's a fiasco and he knows it. that is a reality.

and -- and mr. speaker, it's a pattern with this government, broken promises, gross incompetence, blame everybody else. he's an out-of-touch prime minister leading a shall bollic government. >> as ever, he just completely lost his way. i think he should spend -- i think he should spend a little more time listening to the author of blue labor. lord glassman because he said this very clear, labor lied about the extent of immigration. where is the apology? >> thank you, mr. speaker. on friday, three commando brigade will be marching through the streets of plymouth on their homecoming parade after a successful but costly tour of duty in afghanistan. i know the prime minister will be with us in spirit but will he today like to send a message of

support to these brave and very professional royal marines of whom we're all so very proud? >> i will certainly join my honorable friend in doing that. i know the heart of the southwest and the whole country is incredibly proud of the marines. and we are proud of three commando brigade who will be marching through plymouth. i send my very best wishes for the homecoming parade and we should put on record what we achieved in the task force, carried out 37,000 patrols, found over 400 i.e.d.'s, trained over 4,100 afghanistan patrolman and made a real difference of the safety and security of that country and the safety of our country too. >> thank you, mr. speaker. does the prime minister think that the great and proper and in any way defensible, the royal bank of scotland, which received massive bailout during the crisis should now be paying out 500 million pounds in bonuses this year? >> no, i don't think it's

acceptable but it hasn't yet said its figures for bonus payments. the british government is a seriously large shareholder in r.b.s. and will be making all of this known. >> edward lee. >> join me in giving condolences to the relatives of the red arrow pilot killed yesterday. will the prime minister acknowledge the overriding need for safety, and that our campaign to save r.e.f. camp for closure is not just based on sentiment from the historic home but overriding need for kind of safe, uncluttered skies above north ligishire? >> i am sure our heartes go out to the pilot's family in this accident. this has obviously been a very tragic time for something the whole country reveres and love. and i know it's important.

we must get to the bottom of what happened and i totally understand why he wants to stand up for the air base in his constituency. >> thank you, mr. speaker. the unions yesterday published data showing the management in my constituency has shown the largest groiment in employment numbers. given we cannot question the numbers next week, can you tell me why you're letting people down in my constituency? >> obviously we face a difficult situation with unemployment, including amongst young people right across the country and we need to do everything we can to help people back into work. that's while there's record investment going into apprenticeships, record investment going into the work program but the real need is grow the private sector because it is a time, frankly, whoever was in government would be having to remake reductions in the public sector. he makes his head, but any government, look across europe at the reductions having to be paid. we need to get the private sector growing and that is what this government is focusing on.

>> mr. speaker, given the considerable jobs in the energy sector, my sweptsy providing local people the skills to take on these jobs, will the prime minister ensure the government does all it can to fund the completion of the newly opened hedgefield high school which will play such an important role in skilling young people in these areas? >> might i make an important point in this local skills and skill it's will bring, this year suffolk has an extra 30 million pounds in capital funds. it's up to the local authority to decide how to fund this money. but i will make the point the school capital available throughout this parliament amounts to 59.9 million bounds. so money is there for important school projects. >> gregory campbell. >> mr. speaker, this weekend the nation will pause to remember paying tribute to our war dead.

across the nation we will pay homage to these man and women who made supreme sacrifice through conflicts throughout the years. will the prime minister agree whether it's in shops, schools, churches or on football tops, where there's a desire to display this tribute and an entirely known partisan way, it should not just be allowed but positively promote them? >> i completely agree with the honorable gentlemen and sense the entire house does too. i think it's a remarkable achievement of the royal region and country as a whole that we have reintroduced the sense of the silence taking place at the 11th hour of the 11th day and i think it's absolutely right. particularly porn in northern ireland where so many people have served so bravely in our armed forces and 0 indeed both sides of the border. every time i see the royal irish regimen, im0 i'm always struck by how bravely you serve in the armed forces.

>> lest family breakdown would load the cost on our economy, so will the prime minister encourage health authorities across the whole country to take part and care for the families and gather together pilots where health visitors and volunteer parents offer relationship support to new parents in the early years of their family light, which is when half of all breakups occur? >> my honorable friend, as a great record in pushing forward this absolutely vital idea. it is a tragic fact that so many couples break up after the arrival of the first child because of all of the stresses and strain it's can bring. that is dreadful for those couples and dreadful for those children. we spend a huge amount as a country dealing with the problems of social breakdown. in my view, we should spend more on trying to help keep families together and relationship, advise and support as my honorable friend is absolutely vital in that. >> mark duringen. >> thank you, mr. speaker. on friday the u.n. security council will consider the democratically conveyed

palestinian request for full membership of the united nations. might the international community not do more to advance the prospect of a two-state solution by doing more to create a two-state process? and in that context will he ensure the u.k. representative cast a positive vote on friday and doesn't go back by absentia? >> if i'm right the foreign secretary was making a full statement to the house in a few minutes' time. the government is behind the two-state solution but i foundly believe the way you get a two-state solution is not through declarations and processes at the u.n. the way you get that two-station solution is the two potential states, israel and palestine, sitting down and negotiating. all of our efforts should be put towards helping to make that happen. >> order. >> number nine, sir. >> thank you.

the winter fuel payment provides valuable help to millions of people with paying the fuel bills of the individuals are, of course, free to donate their payment to a charity if they wish but it must be a decision for them. >> i thank the prime minister for that question. have a brilliant idea where people can donate some or all to those who need it most. would the government considerable enabling those who do wish to donate by including an option on the left to allow that donation to be donated automatically for the winter appeal? >> i will certainly look at the suggestions she makes but i think it's very important that we most of all keep the promises we made to britain's pensioners about keeping up these winter payments and cold weather payments and i wouldn't want to see any pressure unnecessarily put on people to do something that might not be in their own best interest. >> christopher -- >> mr. speaker, the operational

instruction from the u.k. border agency on the 28th of july says, quote, we will see routinely opening the trips within e.e.a. passports and checking under 18-year-olds against the warnings index. did anyone in the home office clear that document? given the conflicting stories between home secretary's officials and her home, will he publish all of the ministerial instructions to the u.k.? >> prime minister, trying desperately to make up the grand loss by his party leader, but i'm afraid he rather lost out in the process. the point i would make to him -- the point i would make is there is going to be an inquiry carried out by the independent chief inspector of the border agency. the very person who found out what was actually going wrong in terms of operations undertaking that didn't have the permission of ministers and all of these issues will be aired.

>> mr. speaker, on christmas day 19134, british and foreign troops put down their weapons and played a football match in no man's land. the following day the bloody hostility resumed and we today wear the poppy in remembrance of our war dead. will the prime minister join me in condemning the outrageous condition by fifa to refuse the home nation their request to wear the poppy on their shirts this weekend as a simple mark of respect and remembrance? >> i thank the honorable lady, not osme speaks for the whole house but whole country at being completely baffled and frankly angry by the decision made by fifa. if teams want to be able to put the poppy on their shirt, as many teams do in our football league, they should be able to at the national level, whether it's english team or welsh team. i think this is an appalling decision and i hope they will reconsider it. >> mr. speaker, as poverty is

rising, the prime minister is removing the requirement for people to register to vote in britain, thereby removing millions of peoples' rights to vote. and not taking money with one hand and taking their votes with another, and is this not a distortion of democracy to force austerity measures on the most vulnerable by removing their voting power? >> well, the point i would make to the honorable gentleman is we're actually introducing individual voter registration, which is a labor policy. so he should be welcoming individuals. i can understand why he doesn't support necessarily the idea of making all constituencies the same size because his constituency has only got 62,000 people in, where his right, honorable friend, member for east ham, represents 91,000 people. i do think it's a basic act of fairness to have seats the same

size. it was a demand of the charter in the 1840's and i think it's time we introduced it. >> is the prime minister aware that there's growing evidence about increase abuse, intimidation, harassment on park home sites across the country? tackling these problems needs political will, not a large sum of money. will the prime minister give urgency to addressing these issues so vulnerable people get the protection they need and deserve as soon as possible? >> i think the honorable lady raises an important point. i have constituency cases myself where people have been treated very badly by park homeowners. there's extremely good park homeowners who do obey the rules and not just that, demonstrate responsibility and compassion. frankly, there are some who don't. we are committed to providing a better deal for park home residents by improving their rights and increasing their protection from bad site owners.

i will arrange for her to have a meeting with the housing minister so they can discuss this action. >> in these difficult economic times, it's even more important that our politics is in touch with the people we represent. would the prime minister therefore welcome the first successful people on the parliamentary place and scheme who are here with us today? they are individuals who would never normally get the chance to work in politics? would he meet with them and listen to their views on the relevant issues today and perhaps how all of us are doing in this conflict? >> i join the lady in the point she makes. she makes a huge impact on the issue of social mole byty of wanting to help people who haven't had good chances in life and i applaud her for that. if there's time in my busy diary, i will certainly do as she says. i think there's an important opportunity for everyone in this house to look at organizations like the social he mobility foundation that provide opportunities from interns if

inner city schools to come and have the experience of coming here and working here in parliament. i used the scheme as other members of the cabinet has. i think it's an excellent scheme to give people really good chance to see what we do in this place, not just wednesday at 12:00 but more broadly. >> karen lumly. >> thank you, mr. speaker. does my right, honorable friend think it's right for honorable members to take construction from the d.m.v. about how to vote on amendments? >> i do think the honorable lady raises a serious issue because -- well, i can hear -- i can sense a bit of resistance, which perhaps is not surprising when 85% of their money comes from the trade union and the fact is when we discuss legislation in this house, it should be bringing our judgment, our ideas, our arguments and not just picking up a tired, old brief from a trade union.

>> thank you, mr. speaker. there are over 300,000 seeking jobs and only 300 jobs available. jobs are being loss to the public and private sector. how high does unemployment have to go before the prime minister will say the unemployment policy is not working? >> unemployment is too high today. i want to see unemployment come down from its already too high levels. what we have to do in order to make that happen is put resources into the apprentice scheme, to put resources into the work program, to make sure we do all of the things to help businesses employ people. that is what this government is doing. we are cutting corporation tax, introducing enterprise zones and do everything we can to help businesses. and we will do that in her constituency and throughout the country. >> thank you, mr. speaker. italian bonds have jumped to an

unsustainable 8.1%. could the prime minister please say what euro zone leaders must now do to stop the contagion? >> i do think my honorable friend makes an important point, if you don't have credibility about your plans to deal with your debts or deal with your deficits, whether you like the markets or not, they won't lend you any money. that's what we're seeing in countries like greece and now tragically italy, where the prize of borrowing money is getting to a totally unsustainable level. it's a lesson for all of us to have sustainable plans to get on top of our debt and deficit. in terms of europe, the problem of contagion is as we agree a decisive breakdown of debt, people start asking questions about other countries. as that happens you need to have in place the biggest possible firewall. that is what the esff is all about and euro zone leaders urgently need to put flesh on the bones, to put figures on the

sides of that firewall to stop this contagion from going any further. >> last jeer youth unemployment stood as an unacceptable 20%, 1 in 5. today it stands at 34%, which is frankly shocking. in light of this, does he still believe that the decision to scrap the future jobs with the right one? >> let's make the point under labor, youth employment went up by 40%. on the issue of the future jobs fund, the evidence that sweffed on coming into government was that the future jobs fund was three or four times more expensive than other job creation schemes and indeed in many parts of the country, including in the west mid-lands, the percentage of jobs through the future jobs fund that were in the private sector was as low as 2% or 3%. it was right to scrap the future job fund and put in its place job fund and put in its place apprenticeships, the