at question time in the house of lords labour seized on the fa ct a house of lords labour seized on thewe know up to 45% of the total loan outlay will never be paid. my lords, the poorest students end up with the biggest debt, and last week the national audit office said that two thirds of students consider universities do not provide value for money and that proper independent advice is not available to stu d e nts independent advice is not available to students when they make these decisions, which have such a large financial consequence upon them. my financial consequence upon them. my lords, how can we have confidence in the forthcoming review when the government defends the present wretched system so determinedly. my lords, will the noble lord accept the current system is failing? we need a new system which is there to students. the noble lord raises a number of points but we believe the student loa n syste m points but we believe the student loan system is working well. there's always room for improvement. but on one of his points, we do believe students do get good advice before

, a labour peer has claimed that the performance of the foreign secretary is damaging britain's reputation abroad. lord soley, a former labour mp, made his strong attack during questions in the houseimmense damage being done to britain's reputation abroad, and also to the rights of british citizens abroad, by the tendency of the present foreign secretary, boris johnson, to speak first and think afterwards? and can he and his colleagues in government please convey to the secretary of state that he needs to reverse that process because he has a bad reputation for it in this country and overseas and it is damaging britain's relationships and damaging individuals. my right honourable friend the foreign secretary, as i am sure many in this house would acknowledge, represents our country and indeed the foreign office in exemplary fashion and this weekend... this weekend's example is testimony to that. my right honourable friend the foreign secretary has also over the last week raised some important issues on the issues of counter—terrorism and countering violent extremism. this again demonstrates the importance that my right honourable friend the foreign secretary attaches to this impor

of reasons. on brexit, he says he intends to oppose the eu withdrawal bill relentlessly from the labour benches in the house of lordsommons and arrives in the lords in the new year and he intends to be absolutely on the barricades in the house of lords, trying to amend the bill and throw as much sand in the wheels of brexit as possible, putting down an amendment such as calling for a second eu referendum, trying to get support from peers in other parties. perhaps he thinks he wa nts to other parties. perhaps he thinks he wants to be freed of any infrastructure responsibilities and does not want anything to do with this independent body advising the government on infrastructure plans. a specific reason mentioned in the letter is the government's recent decision to bail out the east coast rail franchise, decision to bail out the east coast railfranchise, stagecoach decision to bail out the east coast rail franchise, stagecoach and virgin trains, which run the franchise, allowing them to get out of the contracts three years early, i think. this announcement was made in november by chris grayling, transport secretary. h

deficit of £92 million at the end of the financial year, with its chairman — lord kerslake — resigning, blaming government cuts. labour was granted an urgent question in the houset that problems caused by lack of money will not be solved by changing leadership? kings is an amazing hospital, a specialist world centre of research. it is there for local people, they're after the grenfell tower fire and after the terror incidents. is it too much to ask the government to recognise the reality of the situation, pull back from imposing these further cuts that will make patients suffer? no amount of changing the faces at the top will make that difference. it's his responsibility. this isn'tjust about numbers but the way the trust is managed and the honourable gentleman asked if i have been there, i have been there and met the chairman and the finance director and they were not addressing the problems in the way they should have done. the former partner of serial killer levi bellfield has told the bbc‘s victoria derbyshire programme she constantly questions whether she should have reported him to the police sooner. jo collings says he regularly used to attack her and sh

house of lords soon. you will be at odds with your party. would you not be better off on the crossbenchers? there is a range of different views inside the labourpinion is moving increasingly in the direction that ha rd increasingly in the direction that hard brexit is the wrong thing. but they are in favour of brexit, in favour of leaving. the majority of labour mps voted for the principle of withdrawing from the european union. but kier starmer and of withdrawing from the european union. but kier starmerand his collea g u es union. but kier starmerand his colleagues are not in favour of a crazy brexit, at all. as it becomes clear that the terms will be disadvantageous to the public, including jobs, i think opinion will move in the labour party quite decisively over coming months. but the labour party has been criticised for not being clear about what it once, by constantly shifting and different members of the party saying different things about what brexit will look like. what message will your wits be giving you about how to vote when the withdrawal bill comes to the lords? i am not great at doing what the whips tell me. pa rt at doing what

house of lords, lots of battles to come there. already crossed party plans to try to defeat the government there. plenty of hurdles ahead in reality. we saw the tone ofjeremy corbyn‘s address, presenting the labourto labour supporters after the general election in which they made a lot of unexpected gains. in reality, they need to build more trust and credibility with voters on areas like the economy to really become a force. criticism directed at social media companies, just an idea but not a policy, perhaps the government could levy a tax on them if they don‘t comply or make greater efforts to help deal with the threat of terrorism in the uk. has there been any response? a new idea put forward by the security minister ben wallace. not the first time we‘ve seen tech firms hold over the coles because of extremist material on their platforms. ministers have really ramped up the pressure. google and twitter say they are doing much more to tackle this content but ministers still say it doesn‘t go far enough. ben wallace talked in pretty strong terms to the sunday times today saying they are ruthless profiteers. in the last hour, we have had a response from google and facebook on this. they say he i

says in the letter that as the eu withdrawal bill arises in the house of lords over the new year, he will oppose it relentlessly from the labour fit well, being a government adviser. but by saying this in this letter, it is odd how it has come out because he was intending it to come out tomorrow with an article that was due to be published in the times, but it seems that perhaps number ten jumped published in the times, but it seems that perhaps number tenjumped have the gun on this and have released a d raft copy the gun on this and have released a draft copy of this letter earlier this evening, perhaps trying to dampen the impact it might have. nevertheless, he wants to get the debate going and he is arguing that there are choices. as far as he's concerned, the government is making the wrong choices when it comes to brexit. this comes after theresa may has had some success in at least making the progress she needs in the brexit negotiations. but it is a reminder of the difficulties she could face in the house of lords. that is true. the eu withdrawal bill goes to the house of lords next. far more unpredictable, what will hap

of becoming "hypersensitive to any criticism". the former labour cabinet minister says that brexit has "infected" the entire conduct of whitehall and has vowed to "relentlessly" oppose the eu withdrawal bill in the house of lordswent before he was pushed. it would speak volumes about how they value independent advice if they were indeed proposing to dismiss me. the whole point about the national infrastructure commission is that it's an independent body giving advice to the government without the favour. —— without fear or favour. one of the really depressing things about the government at the moment, which i think is unfortunate reflection of the brexit malaise sweeping whitehall, is the government has become hypersensitive to any criticism, anyone who criticises them on brexit or anyone else. even if they are supposedly independent advisers. so michael heseltine, who was on my commission, he got sacked, even though it is an independent commission, because he opposed brexit. now they say they were thinking of dismissing me for expressing perfectly legitimate concerns. lord adonis. emma vardy has been explaining he did not hold back on his comments. he gave it with both barrels to the government. accusing ther