Transcripts For BBCNEWS The Week In Parliament 20200426

Into the virtual world. We have a twofold duty of leadership of members of this house. One is to show that we are following the rules that apply to everybody else, and the other is to lead by example in showing that we are getting on with our essential work. Sir keir starmer debuts at a very different pmqs and accuses the government of dragging its feet on tackling coronavirus. And theres a pattern emerging here. We were slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on protective equipment, and now slow to take up these offers from british firms. I dont accept his premise that weve been slow. We have been guided by the scientific advice the chief scientific advice the chief medical officer at every step along this way. And scotlands first minister says she is not complacent about supplies of protective equipment for health and care staff. If anybody ever hears me standing up here during this pandemic and saying, weve resolved the issue of ppe, you should have a go at me then. It was time for some pretty extraordinary changes to parliament. With the uk still in lockdown and trying to stop the spread of coronavirus, towns and cities remained empty, roads and railways nearly silent. As the government continued to ask the public to make massive changes to their lives, mps too were facing an upheaval to their working ways. Whilst theyd been away for easter, black and yellow tape had been stuck to the floor to mark out safe distances. Little signs on the seats were put up on seats with a green tick or a red for no entry to tell mps where they could sit. Big screens had been put up in readiness for members to take part via video link from home. But first, the move to a Virtual Chamber had to be approved by a handful of mps that were physically in the parliament. While the new Digital Parliament may not be perfect, members may launch forth into fine perorations only to be muted or snatched away altogether by an itinerant Internet Connection we must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. In 1349, when the black death affected this country, parliament couldnt sit and didnt. The session was cancelled. Thanks to modern technology, even i have moved on from 1349, and im glad to say. And im glad to say that we can sit to carry out these fundamental constitutional functions. It would be rank hypocrisy if we were to expect our constituents to go to work, and we ourselves decided to protect ourselves. We have a duty to be here, we have a responsibility to hold government to account, and we must do that. The shadow leader wondered about the dress code for mps working from home. Clearly, the dress code will only apply to the top half, unless its. Laughter. Unless of course, its the leader of the house, in which case i know that he sometimes likes to be horizontal, so in fact, the dress code will apply to the top half and the bottom half. Valerie vaz, referring there to the pictures ofjacob rees mogg in the chamber a few months ago lying almost horizontal on the front bench. So, after all that, mps agreed that from wednesday, the commons would become a hybrid chamber with some members attending in person, and others contributing via video link, setting the stage for a very unusual pmqs. The Prime Minister borisjohnson stayed away, still recovering from his bout of coronavirus. So sir keir starmer, the newly elected labour leader, made his pmqs debut against dominic raab, who was filling in for the pm. At the start of the day, the speaker, sir lindsay hoyle, welcomed leaders to their brave new world. Yesterday, the house agreed to a motion to allow members to participate virtually in proceedings of the house for the first time in 700 years of history in the house of commons. So id like to welcome everyone, both membersjoining us remotely from their constituencies up and down the uk, and members here in the chamber, to the first hybrid sitting of the house of commons. When pmqs got under way a short time later, sir keir starmer said hed provide constructive opposition, supporting the government when it was right to do so. But he had questions too, beginning with coronavirus testing. The government has an ambition for 100,000 tests a day, and now says it has the capacity to carry out 40,000. But sir keir starmer said only 18,000 were being carried out. It is not now a question of driving up demand. Demand is there. Last week, the Health Secretary said that every care worker who needed a test would get one. But the reality on the ground is very different, and there are very few tests indeed. Weve got mobile labs to go to some of those areas that are hard to reach. We will be using the army who have made, along with the other key workers, incredible contributions to support that effort. But ijust come back to the key point, i do think it is important to have a target and to drive towards a target. Sir keir said the government had also failed to take up offers from the british firms to help out with the provision of personal protective equipment, known as ppe. Somethings going wrong, and theres a pattern emerging here. We were slow into lockdown, slow on testing, slow on protective equipment, and now, slow to take up these offers from british firms. I dont accept his premise that weve been slow. We have been guided by the scientific advice the chief scientific advice the chief medical officer at every step along this way. If he thinks he knows better than they do, with the benefit of hindsight, then thats his decision. But that is not the way weve proceeded, and it is not the way we will in the future. The snps westminster leader renewed calls for a basic income for all. Polling shows that 84 of the public now support this. A universal basic income is a solution that will provide support for anybody and crucially, it will leave no one behind. We want to make sure we provide support to those who need it most. A universal approach, uniform without reference to need or income, or the most vulnerable in our society is not the way i respectfully suggest to achieve it. Will the government commit itself now in for a future independent, judge led inquiry into how this crisis has been handled . First secretary. I wont take up his offer of committing to a public inquiry. I think that there are definitely lessons to be learned when we get through this crisis, and it will be important that we take stock and come together to understand with an unprecedented challenge on an international scale, what can be done to avoid it happening again. We go across to liz Saville Roberts. Liz Saville Roberts . If the lockdown is lifted in one nation or region because it has passed the peak, we will see confusion and we will start to see people running around, which runs the risk of further infection. Will the first secretary of state confirm that if the four nations approach is to be meaningful, the four governments must have an equal say, and that lifting the lockdown can only happen by the unanimous agreements of the four governments together . I think its fair to say, weve had excellent cooperations between all four nations, and indeed, with the current mayor of london. That is critically important. If she looks at the social distancing measures, theres been remarkable consistency in all four nations in terms of compliance. So i hope that we can continue to Work Together on a collaborative basis as we look towards the second phase. Dominic raab, filling in for borisjohnson at pmqs. A few minutes later, mps were able to take up their concerns with the Health Secretary when he updated the commons on the governments battle plan, starting with testing. The tests are conducted in nhs hospitals, through our drive through centres, mobile units and home deliveries. These tests are then sent to laboratories. Weve completed the construction of three lighthouse labs in milton keynes, glasgow and cheshire. Each site tookjust three weeks to complete and begin testing. And as we have reached the peak and as we bring the number of new cases down, so we will introduce Contact Tracing at large scale. He said a vaccine trial on humans would start on thursday, and social distancing was making a difference. But laboursjonathan ashworth had serious concerns. It looks like we are heading to one of the worst death rates in europe. The government have been careful to always say, were following scientific advice. Could the secretary of state tell us what the explanation is from the governments scientists as to why our death rate seems so poor compared to, for example, germany . He asked the question about the relative. The International Comparisons on the number of deaths. Of course, this needs to be done scientifically, taking into account the size of the populations of different countries. And theres an important analysis that were constantly doing of why the death rates as a proportion of the population in germany is lower it is something i speak to my german counterpart about in the same way that we look at all the European Countries where the death rate is higher, and we try to learn lessons to make sure that we are doing the best that we possibly can here. Now ministers say three Million People face being temporarily laid off during the coronavirus outbreak. When the business secretary appeared in front of a committee of mps, he gave an update about firms wanting to take part in a government scheme which pays four fifths of the wages of workers who have been, in the jargon, furloughed. I can tell you that, as of last night at 4pm, there were 387,000 applications to the scheme, and that is covering 2. 8 million employees. In terms of the grants, these are the £10 25,000 grants, which weve given money to local authorities and they are distributing it. As of 19 april, almost half a million businesses had received that money, representing just over £6 billion. And in terms of the civil scheme im sure you will want to discuss that in more detail, how that is working but the latest figures being published today show that so far, there are around 38,000 applications to date, and 16,600 businesses have secured a loan representing a total value of £2. 8 billion. In switzerland, 98,000 firms have received loans. Thats about six times the figure youve given us this morning. And the loans are 100 guaranteed by the state. The form is a one page online form, and the funds are paid the following day. Germanys given out about three times the figure that youve said today, and theyve moved to 100 loan guarantees for small firms too. Same in hong kong 100 loans. Isnt it the case that a number of other countries have been able to do this much more quickly with much less bureaucracy than we have . Yes, i go back to the point i made earlier, which is that i think you need to look at the totality of what we are offering. Ill be happy to come back to talk about the german scheme, but if you look at what the swiss are offering in terms of fiscal stimulus, and im very happy to stand corrected on this, but as i understand it, the majority of that has gone through these loan schemes that youve talked about. We are offering a range of support as ive said this morning to the chair, so far, 387,000 applications have gone into the furlough scheme, were helping a million businesses with support for the grants. And ive talked about the other numbers in terms of the loans. So we have to look at the range of this. The minister also announced plans to help the high street. Im certainly aware that certain landlords are putting undue financial pressure with aggressive Debt Recovery tactics. So what im very happy to say to you is we will i will look to introduce temporary measures on this particular issue which will ease commercial rent demand and protect the uk high street. I dont want to set out the details right now here, but that is something that i will be doing very, very shortly. The head of the foreign office, sir simon mcdonald, told mps the government took a political decision not to take part in an eu scheme to get medical equipment to fight the coronavirus. Previously, ministers have insisted the uk didnt originallyjoin because of a Communications Mix up. Why oh why oh why were we not involved in the eu procurement . Erm, we left the European Union on 31 january. No, we had every right to take part, we were invited to take part, and apparently we missed the e mails or forgot the e mails, or didnt ask for e mails. Five of the meetings we didnt attend, but lots of other meetings we did attend. Its not about leaving the European Union. Erm, all i can say is, as a matter of fact, we have not taken part. Maybe i could ask, sir simon, what was your policy advice on it . Or was it a political decision . It was a political decision. Brussels briefed ministers about what was available, what was on offer, and the decision was no. I dont think i could ask another question after that. Well, later sir simon issued a correction, saying it had not been a political decision. Earlier in the week, the equalities minister faced questions over why, so far, only one female cabinet minister has taken part in the governments daily coronavirus news conference. Are we going to see you make an appearance at one of the Daily Press Conferences . Its been really noticeable so far that they have been conducted by men. Whens your turn . I dont like tokenism. I dont like the idea that somebody should just appear at a press conference, or in a media interview, because theyre a woman. So they shouldnt be there just because theyre a woman, but you have a remit for elderly people, for the disabled, for those from a bame background, for the Lgbtq Community a Massive Group of people who are being impacted by covid 19. And you think it would be tokenism for you to appear at one of these press conferences . I think we should be focusing on the right people to present at the press conference. Is that not you, though . Are you not the right person . The major issue at the moment is health. So i think its right that at the Health Secretary is doing a lot of the press conferences and explaining the specific health issues. Liz truss. Youre watching the week in parliament with me, alicia mccarthy. Scotlands first minister, nicola sturgeon, faced questions about her governments handling of the crisis. The leader of the conservative group in holyrood quoted an intensive care doctor. He said in the largest icu in scotland there were no visors and staff were re using single issue visors, potentially contaminated with covid. First minister, does this sound like a process that is working . The main assurance i would ask people to take is this is something that principally, National Services scotland which is our Procurement Agency is on literally every minute of the day to make sure that we are able to give confidence about the supplies, these items of equipment, notjust now but into the future as well. What is the first ministers advice to those care workers who find themselves on shift in scotlands care homes tonight without the ppe that they need . If he ever hears me, if anybody ever hears me standing up in this chamber during this pandemic and saying, weve resolved the issue of ppe you should really have a go at me then because that would demonstrate a level of complacency that i will never want to do in handling this. Can the first minister explain why around half of Scotlands Covid Testing Capacity as being unused at the moment . Why were still testing a much lower percentage of our population than most European Countries, and when she believes a test trace isolate strategy will be in place . As we start to lift some of the most stringent restrictions that are in place right now, and i dont know exactly when that will be, but as we start to do that, we should be under no illusion that we are still facing a period where we will have to be suppressing this virus and doing it in different ways. Continued social distancing is likely to be a part of that, but test trace isolate will be a significant part of that as well. Since 2010, members of the uk military have been entitled to a daily operation of £29 and theyre deployed to specific operations in demanding conflicts. Would the first minister consider a proposal to give an extra £29 a day reward to frontline nhs and care a staff for their service during this pandemic . I will certainly consider any suggestions like that. We will absolutely, certainly, want to make sure that in no doubt a variety of ways we are recognising the contribution that health and care staff have made, but recognising and rewarding that. Meanwhile, in the welsh assembly, there were questions for the first minister about his government strategy. The Opposition Leader paul davies wanted to know about levels of testing. To be blunt, first minister, why are so few tests actually taking place . And why has the Welsh Government failed to meet its targets . Because its important our key front line workers are tested as quickly as possible in order to keep them safe. Over 20,000 tests have been carried out in wales during the coronavirus crisis. 40 of those tests have been made available to Frontline Health ca re staff. There is more that needs to be done to simplify the process, from which social care staff in particular can be identified and then offered testing at the different centres that we have. Its almost six weeks since scientists at Cardiff University wrote to the Welsh Government offering their expertise in conducting tests here in wales. Almost six weeks later, those hundreds of scientists, and by the way, i spoke to one of them this morning, and their laboratories havent had the go ahead, havent had the accreditation to conduct a single test on a key worker here in wales. We will have more tests in wales this week than last, and we are increasing the take up of them, particularly from social care and from other key workers as well. We have Police Officers and firefighters being tested now in wales. One health board that im in good contact with, and it may be a more general issue, at least at the end of last week didnt want to give wider testing to partners and other organisations because of concerns that they didnt have cover around Data Protection and gdpr, and they were waiting for Public Health wales to publish or at least share a protocol on what should be done. Mark drakeford said the data commissioner had put out guidance, saying he would look sympathetically on data being shared, but the law on data sharing hadnt changed. Back at westminster, there was a new look to the house of lords and a little less pageantry. Ordinarily, when a new peer takes his or her seat, theres a bit of ceremony and dressing up. The new recruit and their sponsors arrive wearing their ceremonial robes and the three of them process in before the new peer takes the oath. But the introductions on tuesday were a dressed down and socially distanced affair. If you look closely, at lord greenhouses arrival for his swearing in, you will see no robes, no sponsors, and a socially distanced clerk. On the benches, red cards with white ticks mark where peers should sit. And covers have been placed over some benches to keep their lordships two metres apart. Like the commons, the lords is also trying out Remote Working, but using a Different Technology for mp5. The governments lord ashton set out the challenge. My lords, when you think of the problems of connecting about 780 members of varying degrees of technical ability, who are distributed around the country and cant be visited to be given help, with little time for testing, using off the shelf technology, it is not, you can see, a trivial problem. He said questions and some debates would take place virtually, but debates on legislation would be held in the chamber. Most accepted the changeover was a work in progress and would not go smoothly, but a labour former cabinet member said some parts of the new arrangement would worry both peers and the public. The one of the cause of most concerning is the fact that these virtual proceedings will not be broadcast for at least two weeks time, it will not be possible for the public to observe whats going on, which is a breach of all precedents in terms of parliamentary proceedings. Would the chief whip agree with me that for anything other than a very short period of time, while technical difficulties are sorted out, it is absolutely unacceptable that the proceedings of this house are not broadcast and not open to members of the public at the time when those proceedings take place . Lord ashton replied that, at the moment, it was right to focus limited resources on the elected house of commons. So, you wont be able to see the virtual proceedings in the lords for a while yet, but on wednesday, the commons took one more step forward in its march online, agreeing that mps would be able to vote from home during the coronavirus pandemic. A new digital system has been developed, but there are concerns that its not yet robust enough, with worries about its stability, the ability to verify whos voting and about the alerts letting mps know when its time to vote. The commons leader, jacob rees mogg, said the arrangement would be temporary. He also agreed not to hold any votes until after the Procedure Committee has reported on the system. I think its fair to say that im surprised to be introducing a motion to introduce remote voting in the house of commons. In general, im not an advocate of change. To the houses Voting System and to be perfectly honest many other things. Lord palmerstons words ring in my mind change, change. Arent things bad enough already . Im very grateful to the Housing Authority and staff in the Digital Service for the work on developing it so quickly. I know they are keen to facilitate further testing next week, including with members, which will be crucial to build confidence in the new systems. We have to make sure any remote voting is secure and that everyone is satisfied that any Remote Working is secure. The optics of seeing votes going wrong is not where we want to be. If mps needed a reminder of potential perils of going digital, they need look no further than the welsh assembly. The Health Minister there found himself in hot water when he was caught swearing about a labour colleague in a virtual session when he left his microphone on by mistake. Vaughan gething made the comment about cardiff central am, jenny rathbone. I think you need to turn your microphone off. He has since apologised tojenny rathbone. This brings us to the end of the week in parliament but do join me on monday night at 11pm to see how mps get on with their new digital debates. For now, from me, alicia mccarthy, goodbye. Hello there. For many parts of the country, april has been extremely dry. But the weather pattern is changing over the week ahead. The weather is turning more unsettled, and it looks particularly wetter across england and wales. But for all areas, it will be turning cooler over the next few days. Today there has been some very warm sunshine around, particularly across more southern and eastern parts of england. And we have seen temperatures getting up to around 21 degrees or so. But cooler air is pushing in from the north as the wind is changing to more of a northerly. And that cooler air comes in behind this band of cloud, which is still around this evening and overnight, drifting very slowly southwards and Still Producing some showery bursts of rain. Clearer skies to the north of that away from the showers in northern scotland. Were going to find touch of frost on the grass across central and southern scotland, the far north of england and Northern Ireland. Further south across england and wales, it will be much milder. We will still have that band of cloud. On that weather front there, it is still going to be producing some showery bursts of rain. That will trickle its way very slowly southwards throughout the day. Sunnier skies for northern england, Northern Ireland and southern scotland, but still a few sharp showers to come across the northern half of scotland. The cooler air is pushing down further across the uk. Temperatures are continuing to drop away. The remaining heat is getting squeezed into the south east corner, where there could be a few heavy showers later on in the day. But with that cooler air coming down across the uk, we should see tree pollen levels dropping, moderate, really, and medium across many parts of the country. But wetter weather is still to arrive, i think. And it arrives across the southern half of the uk on tuesday. Pressure continues to fall. Together with those weather fronts, we see an area of low pressure developing. That means some rain and perhaps by the end the day, there could be as much as an inch of rain in one or two places in the south. It is going to be southern england, wales, the midlands that see most of the rain on tuesday. Further north, quite cloudy skies, just a few showers across northern scotland. The lowest temperatures in many areas will be a little bit below normal for the time of year. It will be particularly chilly underneath that rain that we have got further south. That should have moved away into Continental Europe by wednesday. Bit of a respite, before we see another band of rain and some stronger winds coming in from the south west. Ahead of that, and legacy of cloud. Most places will be dry and in the south east of england before the rain later in the day, it should be a bit warmer. This is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. Uk foreign secretary dominic raab urges caution, rejecting calls to ease the coronavirus lockdown. We will need to make sure we can proceed in a sure footed way, which is why i know the temptation is to start announcing proposals now, but until you have the evidence, that is not responsible. He was speaking as uk Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to return to work tomorrow, two weeks since he left hospital after falling ill with coronavirus. Children in spain are allowed out for the first time in six weeks, as one of europes strictest lockdowns is relaxed. Indias Prime Minister describes his countrys fight to curb coronavirus as a people driven war,