Seen reflection on the General Health of the uk Aviation Industry which continues to thrive, passenger numbers are up, people are travelling more. The truth is that the way people have come out their holidays has changed an enormous amount over the years but he didnt change as much with the company. Never should distract from the distressed experience of the businesses relying on thomas cook passengers and thomas cook employees, who have worked above and beyond, particularly in recent days, during this distressing situation. We have never had a collapse of an airline or Holiday Company on the skill before, we have responded decisively, right now, our efforts are focused on getting those passengers home and looking after those employees who have lost their jobs. We also need to understand whether any individuals or third in the duties of stewardship within the company. Then our efforts will turn to working through the reforms necessary to ensure that passengers do not find themselves in at this ridiculous situation again. Winter look at the options, not just anything that, but also whether it is possible for airlines to be wound down ina is possible for airlines to be wound down in a more orderly manner. We need to ensure their planes can keep flying so we do not end up having to set up a shadow airline. And this is where we will focus our effo rts and this is where we will focus our efforts in the next couple of weeks, but in order to do this, we will require primary legislation and, dare i say it, a new session of this parliament. In what has been a challenging time, i want to put on record my appreciation for the work and all those involved, in particular the ceo of the caa, along with his team, and my officials and the dft, who have done an extraordinary job the dft, who have done an extraordinaryjob so far. Im also grateful for the support of others including the mayor of manchester who has acknowledged the governments repatriation effort. This has been an unprecedented response to an unprecedented situation. I am grateful to all parties who stepped in to support these efforts, and i commend this statement to the house. Id like to thank the secretary of state for his timely advanced light of his statement. Its a welcome change. What i do not welcome as the colla pse what i do not welcome as the collapse of thomas cook which is a tragedy for the 178 year old business, customers and staff. The travel company went other under because successive chief executives failed to steer the group effectively or evolve the business. Good afternoon from westminster. Youre watching afternoon live with me, simon mccoy. The shadow transport secretary there answering grant shapps statement on thomas cook. He has said it was ultimately thomas cook and its directors who took the decision it should close down themselves. He said 48,000 passengers had been repatriated by the end of today, and the government will seek a financial recourse for the cost of those repatriations. We will stay with this and return to what is a very busy day in the house of commons later, but lets turn to Andy Mcdonald and his statement. Airline insolvencies are needed to ensure a strong level of Consumer Protection and value for money for the taxpayer. This was misleading. The government has done nothing to protect consumer or taxpayer interests. The government has sat back and let the company fold. Yesterday, governments in scandinavia stepped in to back thomas cooks subsidiaries in that region and the German Government also stepped in with a loan of 380 Million Euros for thomas cooks subsidiary condor to help a company survive. The chief executive of Thomas Cook Airlines has seamlessly just gone to work for condor, and jubilant scenes of the survival of the subsidiary are doing the rounds on social media. Can the secretary of state told the house what steps his government took to enter into a joint investment with other interested nation states as it is reported that the governments of spain and turkey quite understandably were willing but seemingly the uk government was not . We are assured that there is provision to return holiday makers to the uk, but sadly there is no provision for the return of thomas cooks staff. The unions unite and the tssa have valiantly fought for their members what this government has done nothing. Can he guarantee that all staff will be repatriation at . Can he say what provisions hes putting in place to ensure that customers who have lost their planned holidays are fully compensated and are able to make alternative arrangements at no expense to . The government has learnt nothing from the monarch collapsed two years ago. What it cost taxpayers £40 million in repatriated costs, and thomas cook looks set to cost a similar amount or more not to mention redundancy payments. Can he give an estimate of what those total costs are likely to be . Monarch was a victim of Financial Engineering two years ago and conflicts of interest with the companys and conflicts of interest with the compa nys administrator. And conflicts of interest with the companys administrator. Similarly, the collapse of thomas cook raises major questions about the accounting of the firm, never mind the bonuses paid to senior executives. What the secretary of state make clear to those executives that they should return their multi Million Pound underserved and unwarranted bonuses, including that of peter, who has had £4. 6 million in bonuses since 2014 . The government has not acted to protect public interest. Nothing has been learnt or done in terms of improving how our insolvency arrangements deal with such circumstances. What is more, the fund has been much reduced by the monarch fiasco and it has had to rely on insurance to make up the shortfall. Does he believe the reforms to at toll enacted by his government has been effective . The government has been effective . The government must confirm it will immediately guarantee the worker full compensation for unfair dismissal given the lack of proper consultation and that those workers will not have to pursue the matter through the courts. Can he confirm that they will be relieved of that burden and stress. In the further site development, we also learned today that Northern Irelands last manufacturer right bus has gone into administration with the loss of 1400 jobs. Injuly, administration with the loss of 1400 jobs. In july, the administration with the loss of 1400 jobs. Injuly, the Prime Minister said, we will do everything we can to ensure the future of that great uk company. Isnt it the case that this government is guilty of the industrial neglect of this country . In contrast to other countries, uk ministers have stood by and let some of our Great Companies whether an die this government is engulfed with inertia and incompetence. It is not a functioning government because of the brexit chaos and prorogation paralysis it has brought upon itself. The people of britain are paying a high price for their inadequacy. They have failed to reform insolvency rules and failed to improve financial reporting. It isa to improve financial reporting. It is a colossal failure of Political Leadership in this government. They we re leadership in this government. They were warned but did nothing. Its a shamefulfailure to were warned but did nothing. Its a shameful failure to fulfil their duties and their responsibilities. Let me see what we can deal with here. First of all, it is true to say, as the honourable gentleman outlines, that the world had changed. In 2007, thomas cook. We will leave that statement therefrom grant shapps, but hearing if you we re grant shapps, but hearing if you were watching a few moments ago, the transport secretary saying that the government has decided to spend £250 million to rescue the travel company and he said that would risk throwing good money after bad pay the cost of the repatriation. He wasjustifying the repatriation. He wasjustifying the decision not to bail out Thomas Cookin the decision not to bail out thomas cook in those closing hours before the company went into administration. We will keep an eye on that debate for you but as you will know there is plenty of other business here at westminster this afternoon because they have been fierce exchanges during the first session of common sense yesterday. The Supreme Court ruling that the decision to suspend parliament was unlawful. The governments most senior Legal Adviser has faced criticism from mps about the move, but he insisted the suspension of parliament was done in good faith and his legal advice had been sound. Jet lagged courtesy of a night over the atlantic, winded courtesy of the Supreme Court. Are you going to apologise to the queen, Prime Minister . The Prime Ministers back in the country and mps are back in here too. Colleagues, welcome back to our place of work. And straight away, a question from one of the central protagonists in Getting Parliament going again. Urgent question, joanna cherry. To ask the attorney general if he will make a statement about his legal opinion on the advice given to her majesty the queen to Prorogue Parliament . The attorney general, the governments main Legal Adviser said. The government accepts the judgment and accepts that it lost the case and at all times, the Government Acted in good faith and in the belief that. And in the belief that its approach was both lawful and constitutional. But, he added. This parliament is a dead parliament. It should no longer sit. It has no moral right to sit on these green benches. Why . Because. Theyre too cowardly cheering. This parliament should have the courage to face the electorate. But it wont. It wont, because so many of them are really all about preventing us leaving the European Union at all. In response, take a look at this. No shame today, no shame at all. The fact that this government cynically manipulated the prorogation to shut down this house so that it couldnt work as a democratic assembly. He knows that that is the truth and, to come here with his barristers bluster, to obfuscate the truth, and, fora man like him, a party like this and a leader like this, this Prime Minister to talk about morals and morality is a disgrace the opposition parties are gathering to discuss tactics and demand the Prime Minister says sorry to the queen. I think he should apologise, both to her for the advice he gave her but, more importantly, apologise to the british people for what hes done in trying to shut down our democracy at a very crucial time when people are very, very worried about what will happen on the 31st october. Making sure there isnt a no deal brexit at the end of next month remains their priority and arguing. We have a Prime Minister who has abused our democracy, who has been found guilty of breaking the law, unlawfully proroguing parliament. Anna soubry. Its only lunchtime, and this place is feeling sparky and today is onlyjust getting going. The Prime Minister will be here later. Chris mason, bbc news, at westminster. Smack talk to our cheap killer political correspondence. Lets. Lets talk to our Political Correspondent. That is normally late night sittings but on this occasion, as soon they get back here it all starts. The government is cornered at the moment and he was lashing out. His language, talking about it being a dead parliament and goad the opposition by saying you are not allowed the government to govern, youre too cowardly to call a general election because half of the labour mps dont even want Jeremy Corbett to be Prime Minister and you are blocking brexit, c can see the election leaflet already being written, talking aboutjeremy corbyn delaying and blocking brexit, he doesnt want people decide in a general election. So how can the government get out of this . Ideally, borisjohnson government get out of this . Ideally, Boris Johnson needs government get out of this . Ideally, borisjohnson needs a deal with the eu he can bring forward, but will that happen . Possibly not. The second thing he needs and wants as a general election. There was talk about bringing forward a one line bill, setting an election date in law, so that gets around the idea you need to have two thirds of the house of commons voting for it, they would say it gets around the idea that the election could be changed to be after the brexit date. There is still the suspicion they could do that. This would have to be watertight for any other party to go for this. They will not go for it. They say they want no deal taken of the table first. What the liberal democrats want to do is use this extra time to bring forward another bit of legislation in whatever form we do not know yet, making Boris Johnson ask for that delay before the 19th of october. They say, we cant simply sit around waiting to see if he will break the law. By not requesting that delay. So when he comes to the house of commons this afternoon, he will be unrepentant. He will say he accepts the judgment, he doesnt think it was right but he accepts it. And i do not think there will be much in the way of an apology. We have got Boris Johnson who says, i want an election outcome of the other party saying, no, not yet, because for a no till brexit to be taken of the table, we were exactly where we were a couple of weeks ago this is true. So what will mps do with this time . They have talked a lot about needing this time. They say they will need it to get more documents. We will hear the so called yellowhammer later on. They are trying to get the legal advice that the attorney general gave to cabinet and to the Prime Minister about the prorogation of parliament. He is looking to see whether he will publish that. Mps wa nt to whether he will publish that. Mps want to see the details of what would happen in a no deal scenario, i spoke to one labour mp. She said she is worried about the ports and how medicines will come in. They wa nt how medicines will come in. They want more detail about all of that if thats where were heading, depending on what borisjohnson does. Boris johnson will stand up in the commons sometime after 4pm, all eyes on him. We dont know what he will say. He might make an announcement about bringing forward this for an election, but that is trying to put labour on the back foot, trying to say tojeremy corbyn, you have called for an election for months. But before that, does he apologise . |j election for months. But before that, does he apologise . I dont think he will. We dont know what he said to the queen when he had to call her yesterday, that mustve been uncomfortable, but i cant imagine he will apologise. He gave his legal advice to the Prime Minister, so the Prime Minister advised the queen based on the attorney generals own advice, so he did not go there willingly to mislead the queen. They say he did it because it was based on the legal advice he got. The courts did not agree with that, but geoffrey cox says thats how it works sometimes, courts sometimes do not agree with legal advice that is given. Good to have you back from brighton, no rest for the wicked we saw a bit of it in that report but this was one of the moments when there was a raw anger in the house of commons today is the attorney general was questioned by labours barry shipman. Every word he has started, no shame today, no shame at all the fa ct no shame today, no shame at all the fact that this government cynically manipulated the prorogation to shut down this house so he could not work asa down this house so he could not work as a democratic assembly. He knows thatis as a democratic assembly. He knows that is the truth, and to come here with his barristers bluster, to obfuscate the truth, a man like him, a party like this, and a leader like this, this Prime Minister to talk about morals and morality is a disgrace im not sure i could discern in that marshmallow of rhetoric any actual question, but insofar there was a question, there is an answer. If the honourable gentleman thinks that the government should no longer be governing, tell his leader to bring a motion of no confidence this afternoon, tell his leader to agree to a simple one line statute that fixes the election by a simple majority, and we would be delighted to meet him, wherever he chooses, in front of the electorate. Who willjudge whether the marca nations which he supports and the devices he resorts to in order to make sure this dead Parliament Continues our right or wrong . Some angry exchanges already today and more to come no doubt but what are voters making of these latest developments at westminster . We will hear from glasgow which voted to remain back in 2016. It was a Scottish Court which first said the Prime Ministers suspension of parliament was unlawful, and Scottish Government ministers are now calling for him to go. But what do voters here in glasgow think . I keep my politics quite private, to be honest. I dont think having parliament down for five weeks when everythings happenings a good idea because it stymied the debate and it shortens the time that weve got to get a deal. I think it does make a difference because so many people are upset about the decision up here. So, i think people feel theyve been heard and thats the important part that it doesnt feel like politicians get to do whatever they want. Legally, i dont know, its probably correct, but ijust think its another setback to brexit. We have to leave and if it means l