>> i think it is an can do thise and i the same way all the time. it is always changing. >> first lady michelle obama monday night at 9:00 eastern live on c-span and c-span 3. also on c-span radio and c-span.org. in the british house of commons on wednesday prime minister david cameron described the recent strike against london metros station. he also responded to a series of questions concerning the government response to flooding in the issue and he talked about more women serving in public office. >> questions for prime minister.

>> thank you, mr. speaker. this morning i had colleagues and others and in addition to my duties i shall have further such meetings later today. >> mr. speaker, london is a 24/7 global city and the commercial center is the western world. with the economy growing and unemployment we agree that the efforts of the union to bring london -- (boos) is nothing short of economic vandalism. >> but i absolutely agree with my honorable friend and absolutely no justification for a strike. we need a modernized working for the millions of londoners who use it every day. the fact is only 3% of transactions now involve and makes sense to have fewer people

in the offices and more people on the platform and stations. i condemn this strike. when the shadow defense minister was asked to do so today, he actually said it was a matter for the union, so i hope that the leader of the opposition will get up and unreservedly condemn this strike today. >> the ongoing floods and storms have seen families driven out of their homes and affected significant parts of the country. as the prime minister knows many of those affected feel the government's response has been slow and more could have done sooner. will the prime minister tell the house what action is being taken to ensure areas affected have all the necessary support they need? >> let me update the house on this very serious situation. i don't accept the government has been slow. we've been having meetings on a

daily basis. there are currently 328 properties flooded. 122,000 properties were protected last night because of the flood prevention in place and 1.2 million protected since december and seven severe flood warnings. and 69 flood warnings in place which means more flooding is expected and immediate action is required. the environment agency has 219 flood alerts in place. a serious situation with so many people losing electricity. over 60,000 homes have been reconnected overnight. but as this morning there are 8,000 homes without power. whatever is required, whether it is dredging work on the river or support for our emergency services or money for flood defenses this government will help those families.

>> not withstanding the prime minister's response he knows that many do feel the response has been too slow and left on their own and isolated. does it mean that the events we've seen demand a comprehensive look at the flood protection and the speed of its response. now the prime minister promised that the government would report to the house by end of january. can he tell us when that report will be available? >> i can tell the house he will make a comprehensive statement tomorrow. let me answer very direct lit issue about flooding. this government has spent 2.4 billion over this four year period which is more than the 2.2 billion spent under the previous government. a further 100 million pounds

will be made available to fund essential flood repairs over the next year. this will cover seventy-five million pounds for repairs and ten million for urgent work to deliver the action plans being prepared by the local agencies and fifteen million pounds for extra maintenance. i would make the point mr. speaker we are only able to make these decisions because we looked after the nation. but i can confirm that it's new money that will protect more houses and help our country more with floods and we'll continue to do what is right. >> actually the figures show the investment has fallen over the series. not risen. but the reality is that the scale of challenge we face from change and flood demands a that we have a look at the investment required and i'm glad that the prime minister has said -- i want to turn to another subject, mr. speaker. the prime minister said in 2014

he was going to lead the way on women's equality. can the prime minister tell us how is that going in the conservative party? >> first of all, let me go back to the very important issue of flooding. >> order! order! people getting very excited on both sides of the house. the question has been put. the answer must be heard. the prime minister. >> i'm glad he's asking about constituency collection. i want to clarify. if you look at the period 2010 to 2014 when this government was in office, the funding was 2.4 billion pounds more than when labor -- secondly, obviously when it comes to funding, the scheme also matters

because it's the way the government supports local authorities. let me tell the house that we will -- >> order! order! you are an incorrigible delinquent at times. behavior selves. prime minister. >> i know that many honorable members will want to hear about the scheme because it's the way that central government helps local government. we'll be paying local authorities 100% of eligible costs and we'll be expending the eligible -- mr. speaker! >> however long this session takes, the questions will be heard and the answers will be heard. order! that is what the public has a right to expect at this house. prime minister! >> they claim to be concerned but they won't listen to the answers. we are extending the eligible

spending period until the end of march 2014 recognize the bad weather is continuing. can i say to colleagues that we will make sure they don't suffer from having an authority which i know they believe is very important. on the important issue of getting more women into public -- >> (heckling from the audience) >> we will not represent or govern our country properly unless we have more women at every level in our public life and politics. i'm proud of the fact that as leader of the conservative party the number of women has gone from 17 to 48 but we need to do much more. i want this to go further. we have also seen more women in work than ever before, a tax cut for eleven million women.

we have stopped pensions being discriminated and we're putting women at the front of our international programs. those are the actions that we are taking. there is more to do and we have a good record of helping women in our economy. (audience heckling and booing) >> i do have to say -- i do have to say, a picture tells a thousand words. this is the prime minister who says -- >> i apologize for having to interrupt. members, calm yourselves. it is only just after midday. many hours of the day remain. don't destroy your systems by exploding. >> pictures tells a thousand words. look at the all male before us. he says he wants to represent the whole country. mr. speaker, i guess they didn't

let women in the club either. so there we go. now, he said a third of his would be women and he's nowhere near the target. half the women have resigned. his cabinet, get this mr. speaker, in his cabinet there is as many men as there are women. does he think it's his fault that a conservative party has a problem with women? >> let me give him the figures. of the full members of the cabinet who are conservatives, 24% a quarter of them are women. i want to see that grow. of the front bench ministers, of the conservatives around 20% of women, that is below what i wants to achieve in 33%. we are making progress and we'll make more progress. let me make this point, this party is proud of the fact that

we had a woman prime minister -- >> (crowd cheers) >> yes! yes! to be fair to the neighbor party -- >> order! order! [laughter] order! you really are a very angry people. you need to write out a thousand times "i will behave myself with the prime minister's questions." >> they have had some leaders who are women but they have this habit of replacing them with totally ineffective men. >> (crowd cheers) >> mr. speaker, he mentioned

lady thatcher. unlike him she was a leader who won general elections. (audience cheers) >> mr. speaker, i noticed there was an interesting article. he said we men are guilty of such unconscious plight to women. the prime minister greeted a leading high profile businesswoman by asking where's your husband. now mr. speaker, that says it all and the reason representation matters is because it shapes the policies, a government introduces and how they impact on women in the country. he is failing women. why for the first time in five years has the gap between men

and woman's pay increased? >> there are more women in work in our country than ever before in our history. we've seen a tax cut for twelve million women, a pension increase that is benefiting women, tax free child-care that will help women who want to go out to work and more support on child-care and he might enjoy this one. the candidate has made an endorsement today. he has endorsed david milliband. >> if i were him i would not be talking about canada this week of all weeks because what is the party doing? removing one of their most senior women and seeking to replace her with an old person. he didn't answer the question.

>> i'll tell him why the gap is increasing. the minimum wage has been losing value and the problem that women have in child-care. he promised to modernize his party but he's going backwards. he runs his government by the old boys network. that's why he's failing women across his party and across the country. isn't it interesting when six questions and an invitation to condemn the strike today, not a word. isn't that the truth? he raises constituency selections in a week when he's completely rolled over. let's be clear about what's happening. they get more power over their discretionary funding over their discretionary funding and 90% of the votes for their leader. he told us he was going to get rid of the red flag and all he's done is run up the white flag.

>> unemployment falling since march of last year. see what that means? another 440 hard working families receiving a pay packet facing a brighter future under our long term economic class. >> our honorable friend is absolutely right. we saw two weeks ago the biggest increase in employment in one quarterly figures since the records began in the 1970's and we've seen unemployment come

down and more people in work and most of the new jobs, the overwhelming majority are full-time. nine out of ten of those jobs over the last year have been in better paying professions rather than low paying. we are seeing economic success. everyone of those jobs is someone with a pay packet who can help take care of their family and have the dignity and security that work brings. not a word about the economy today from labor. they know because it's growing and all their forecasts were wrong. >> mr. speaker, in evidence to the committee, the leader of the welsh conservative assembly group, it's not a sensible course of action and he was expressing very much a personal view of his own. later, he received a letter from the welsh assembly group conservatives saying it's very much their opinion. who speaks for wales? is the leader of the assembly? >> he's doing a superb job standing up for wales.

he and i were discussing how we would make sure the nato conference would be a success for the whole of the welsh economy in the terms of the future of it we'll be bringing forward legislation and taking steps and making sure that people in wales have a real say. under our plan that's exactly what we'll do. >> thank you, mr. speaker. a couple of weeks ago, they opened the door to the new campus where under the stewardship it's first ninety-six students will be learning the skills that young people need to compete under the future. they'll ensure the young people across the country have more secure future and able to reap the benefits of the long term plan. >> making sure we have the best skills and best schools a key part of our long term economic plan and i support very much the

university technology movement. the number of people taught has -- taught in underperforming schools has fallen by 250,000 in four years. that isn't just a statistic. that's tens of thousands of young people who can have a chance of a good education and good future and get a job and get involved in our modern economy. it helps thousands of students in that way. >> 22nd of february 2012 i asked the prime minister about fraud and a company working with job seekers. he told me he was waiting for the truth before he would act. this week's guilty pleas reveal a cultural of fraud in that company. isn't the list of taxpayer funded fraudsters getting too long? when's it going to stop? >> the honorable lady makes an important point. the answer i would give is instead of banding around names of companies where many people

in those companies will be working hard to do a good job, what we should do is investigate wrong doing properly and make sure that courts -- they're properly taken to court as in this case it clearly was. >> thank you, mr. speaker. does the prime minister share my outrage at the false choice presented by the chairman. environmental agency between protecting urban and rural areas from floods and does he recognize that my constituents expect decent maintenance dredging and not abandonment? >> i think our old friend is absolutely right. there shouldn't be a false choice between protecting people who live in the country side. i think what we need to see and where i think the debate is rightly going is that from the late 1990s, far too long, the

environment agency believed it was wrong to dredge and those of us have been affected by flooding and have seen the effectiveness of some dredging that has taken place. if it's good for some places we need to make the argument it would be good for many more places. we'll see dredging on the toad and parrot and that will make a difference. but i believe we need to sit around the table and work a new approach and make something that did work for decades and centuries is re-introduced again. >> queen victoria was on the phone when the factory first produced tires, world class tires for the motor sports industry. jaguar-land rover now needs the

land for expansion. the business secondary and city council have identified three sites and a financial package to relocate. will the prime minister join with the business secretary and i in urging dunlap to not walk away from 125 years of manufacturing history. >> i was briefed on this issue just before come to the chamber and i'm happy to look carefully at it and see what can be done. the recovery and the honorable gentleman said is hugely welcome for our country. i'll do whatever i can to get a good outcome. >> it's proof that our long term economic plan works. however, the current options under consideration for additional cropping are limited and do not maximize the potential. will my friend agree to meet

with me and other interested colleagues so he can hear why option a and certainly option c are not the right answer? >> well, this is an important issue and we have to look at all the potential bottle neck that can hold back the country. i'm happy to meet with the colleague. it's a vital development and i want to see it spread throughout the country so i'm happy to hold the meeting. >> thank you, mr. speaker. royal mail shelves -- shares are almost 80% higher than when the government sold off its shares. does the prime minister honestly governmentt his properly valued royal mail and the price was set -- for the taxpayer? >> i think the government did a good job to get private sector capital into royal mail. something that has evaded all

for decades. i well remember sitting on that side of the house and hearing about the appalling royal mail and hundreds of millions of pounds and the fact that it is well managed and well run with private sector capital is a very good development for our country. >> thank you. [shouting] we have a proud and strong history of supporting apprenticeships across a range of sectors. with national apprenticeship approaching next month, we need increase apprenticeship for men and woman is exactly what we need for people getting back into work. >> my friend is absolutely right. this government has invested records amount in apprenticeships.

over 1.5 million people have completed apprenticeships. again, these aren't just statistics. each and everyone is someone getting a chance, a skill and a job and the opportunity to build a life for themselves and to build that stability and that security which should be the birthright of every single person in our country. >> speaker, can i tell the prime minister the loss of the rail ways in the overnight storm is a devastating blow to the economies. it comes a year after we lost our rail way service for a whole month in last year's floods. does he accept as a country we'll have to spend a great deal more investing in the resilience of our transport infrastructure and we need a government that is united in its acceptance of and determination to do something about climate change. >> agree whole-heartedly with the gentleman on a number of points. first of all, we need to make sure that urgent action is taken

and that's why i'll be chairing bringing together the problems of the power, reductions and the floods and also the effect on our transport. second of all, we need to make sure we go on investing in rails and this record is putting records into rail schemes. the third point where i totally agree with him, we have done and need to continue to do a reel analysis of the resilience of our infrastructure, something that is carried out by the cabinet office and protections must be put in place. >> we have brought manufacturing jobs back to this country from china. can he say what are the governments are doing to reassure jobs to the u.k. as part of our long term economic growth. >> it was a huge pleasure to go with my honorable friend to see a company that makes this equipment.

bringing jobs from china back into the u.k., this is a small trend at the moment. manufacturing have been re-short since 2011. but if we manage to make sure our energy is competitive if we keep our labor markets flexible and competitive, if we make this a friendly country for business with low tax rates and low corporate tax rates there is no reason we shouldn't see more companies coming back to britain. we don't get that we have an anti-enterprise and anti-business and anti-labor party. >> last week there was an issuance an appalling and damning report. will the prime minister undertake to have the historic hr practices and the disciplinary actions examined and ensure that the executive team and the board are held to account and actually make the huge statement the bullying is

not acceptable in the n.h.s.? >> i think the honorable lady is absolutely right to raise this specific case but the general lessons that it brings. of course we still have more to do, but i think the c.q.c. is a hugely improved organization. all this have is much more transparent than it has been in the past. very happy to look at the specific concerns she has about bullying and make sure it deals with it. we've got i think this week i think the anniversary of that dreadful report into the stafford hospital. am i right? it's absolutely committed to making sure there is a change of culture in our n.h.s. where we don't put up with practice and there are problems and we're not afraid or ashamed to talk about them and deal with them. >> my constituency business confidence is growing and unemployment has fallen by a quarter in the last 12 months. we should take no lectures and

we should particularly given the report which says, the latest -- the largest challenge having to contend with the consequences of the great recession, a recession calls for the party. >> i think my honorable friend is making an important point. the change for economic out look is really quite remarkable and the u.k. recovery is getting ever closer to achieving escape velocity. if we listen to him there would be more borrowing and more spending and more taxing and more debt. his view is very clear that if we gave him back the keys to the car he would drive it just as fast and into the same wall and wreck the economy all over again. >> thank you, mr. speaker. can the prime minister make

clear whether he still quite wrongly will try to end the ban on fox hunting. >> my view remains what was in the manifesto which is the house of commons should have the opportunity to debate on this issue. >> does my friend share the anxiety that the program for the destruction of chemical eapons on syria has fallen so >> i agree with my friend what was a very promising start with only being t discovered and removed but estroyed there do seem to be indications the program is slowing and not all the information necessary is forthcoming. discussed this in a telephone call with president putin some hours ago. britain will continue to put pressure on all parties to make the weapons are produced and destroyed. who are as students offered places get extra

and math butnglish hard working students are not a cred a place if they have grade in math which is not fair. what is the prime minister going to do to support the students? >> first of all away must -- we must continue with the academy schools which the most impressive skls i have ever visited in any country anywhere. with that and e continue with the chancellor's to uncap student numbers so anyone who can get the grades have a place at the university. on the specific point about gcse grades in the end it is universities that set the criteria rather than government to look at the issue. i also believe as the education don't ry said if people make the correct grades particularly at english and math we should encourage retakes and

more work. is reason for that is there not a job in the world that doesn't require good english and math. that is a very important message. does the minister see the in my constituency, 25 families evacuated, one house fall into the sea, can say he is inister taking all action possible to get transport business back in families back in homes and people look at the for a way he funding o protect the railway line and residents that can't be implemented because of lack of funding. all the look at suggestions that she makes. hat is why we're holding the meeting and not ol is this a vital artery for the southwest country bun of those

scenic and beautiful -- one of scenic and beautiful railw railway lines. >> the prime minister will be ware of the investigation into the systematic beating, abuse of boys at the detention center. victim toll is nowtoped 300 investigation ever taken. commit prime minister if it proves necessary his ecretary will meet with the people to ensure a highly s ccessful team has the result and means to see this through. to give the lad honorable lady that assurance ecause i don't support the police ideas of the past. i think some of the smaller are capable but when they

are doing large investigations ike this on occasion they do need help and support. i'm pleased with the work the crime agency is doing fully established up and running and able to deal with some of more serious crimes in terms of people smuggling and sexual abuse and the like. hear more about them about the work they are doing. in congratulating my friend e.u. referendum bill and also the house of commons in it, will my right tell us whether the dead parent is merely a plan and does he have to introduce a parliament act so get the pair are the squawking again? this parrot who has beautiful plumage. my colleagues is fortunate enough to win the bill

on this side we know the british deserve a stay and i'm sure one of my colleagues will e delighted to bring the bill back in front of this house. but let's be clear because they over one a bit quiet there. let's be clear about why this bill was killed in the house of lords. the labor party and liberal democratic party do not want to british people a say. affronted.should be we supported this bill. i hope this house will come together as one and insist on bill. the chancellor made an the computer bout games industry. since then we have had nothing and the games body have seen some of the fit on industry. can the prime minister and chancellor do something to this?ss

>> i share your frustration. t is perfectly within government's right to set out a way of helping supporting raoult industries like there that are so important for the future of our country. the e discussing it with european commission and we are hopeful of good news to come shortly. following the question, this is true that the residents most recent storms are concerned england will be cut off. in view of that, while sorenstam been content to support the billions for does the o the north, prime minister not accept the elatively small amounts are needed to ensure the -- ccessful kwrepbs of resilience of the rail line. jurisdiction i know how vital that link