Leave campaigners say the UK would carry on doing business globally as it does now if it left the EU - but how realistic is that?

House of Commons
Parliament

Business Minister Anna Soubry tells MPs that a "redundancy support package" has been made available to those losing their jobs as part of the Bombardier job loses, as well as "possible retraining", in order to "ease the burden."

Ms Soubry says the government have "supported the Northern Ireland aerospace sector" and will continue to do so though "improving competitiveness".

House of Commons
Parliament

East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson tells MPs that effect of the job losses will be "seismic" - impacting "not only the 1,080 directly affected but also their families".

Setting out the the impact of the closure the DUP MP tells MPs that "the aerospace industry contributes £1.1bn the Northern Ireland local economy - 10% of the overall budget of the Northern Ireland executive - and represents 10% of total export manufacturing figures".

Mr Robinson calls on the government to "leave no stone unturned in investigating how to support Bombardier". 

The aerospace firm Bombardier has said it will cut more than 1,000 jobs from its Northern Ireland operation.

The company said that 580 jobs will go this year with up to 500 more next year. That is equivalent to around 20% of its workforce in Northern Ireland.

It also announced that 270 jobs are to go at its trains business, UK for Rail, which employs 3,500 people at several sites.

Bombardier is cutting 7,000 jobs across its global workforce.

Read more here.

House of Commons
Parliament

The votes on today's estimates debates will be deferred until tomorrow - when MPs will spend another day on estimates.

MPs now move on to today's final business: the Adjournment debate, today on job losses at Bombardier in East Belfast, led by DUP MP Gavin Robinson.

House of Commons
Parliament

Policing Office Minister Mike Penning says he can't give a "time scale and a date to start the new police funding formula consultation" as he is waiting for the "work capabilities review" the government commissioned from the UK's Chief Constables.

"It would be absolutely ludicrous to have to change the formula again if the chief Constable's review recommends something different, and I'm not willing to do that" he tells MPs.

House of Commons
Parliament

Responding to the debate for the government Policing Minister Mike Penning admits that "there will be winners and losers" when the formula changes, but argues "the current formula is opaque and we desperately need to change it".

He adds changing the formula correctly is "very very difficult" whcih he says is probably the reason "it wasn't done under 13 years of Labour government".

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow home office minister Sarah Champion accuses Chancellor George Osborne of breaking his promise in last year's budget to protect police budgets in real terms.

She tells MPs that analysis by the independent House of Commons Library, commissioned by Labour, shows 36 of 43 Police forces cut in cash-terms by the government.

The report also found that Forces in England and Wales will receive £30m less in cash terms– a cut worth £160m. 

To "break even we would need to save £13m over the next four years" she tells MPs.

A leading Conservative MP says he is satisfied with rules on civil servants helping anti-EU ministers, after grilling Whitehall's top official.

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow home office minister Sarah Champion criticises the government for failing to make funding available for specialist child abuse investigations.

"Child abuse cases are incredibly expensive and incredibly important but there is no additional money so its coming from the existing pot" she tells MPs.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Gerald Jones attacks the government's record on policing.

Despite the government's claim that police funding has been protected "the fact remains that the level of police funding from central government will go down" he says.

The Merthyr Tydfil MP accuses the government over overseeing the "break up of the neighbourhood policing model" and claims that "un-addressed matters will only get worse".

He tells MPs that "in the last 6 months 1,300 police officers have been lost - a whole police force in some areas".

Boris Johnson has said it would be "obviously wrong" to prevent the public from accessing any information that might inform their decision in the forthcoming EU referendum.

Mr Johnson was responding to questions about advice issued by Britain's top civil servant, Sir Jeremy Heywood, which could prevent government ministers from being allowed to see documents directly related to the EU referendum.

The Mayor of London and Brexit supporter said:

Asked if Sir Jeremy's advice was unconstitutional, as has been suggested by employment minister Priti Patel, Mr Johnson said:

Select Committee
Parliament

"You've been very helpful," Bernard Jenkin says, summarising the session with Sir Jeremy Heywood.

He asks - why are we having this row? He says he thinks it is because Sir Jeremy's letter says that it will not be appropriate or permissible for civil servants to provide official departmental papers except papers that ministers have previously seen, on issues relating to the referendum question.

"There's a degree of ambiguity there."

And that's it from the committee's evidence session with Sir Jeremy Heywood.

The Spectator

Even if there has been no mistake at all in the guidance to civil servants about what documents they can share with pro-Brexit ministers during the referendum campaign, the government has clearly made a number of mistakes at least in the presentation of that guidance, the Spectator's assistant editor writes.

Read the rest of the article here, external.

Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Kate Hoey ask what will happen when somebody looks like they've broken this guidance

"I don't like speculating about hypothetical situations, it would be up to the prime minister to decide what to do about minister who have breached this in some way," Sir Jeremy responds.

On civil servants, Sir Jeremy says he would regard it as a "very serious breach" of the managerial code.

He adds that it's "very difficult to comment in the abstract".

House of Commons
Parliament

After going through the expenditure of his local police force in Birmingham, Labour MP Stephen McCabe says it is "misleading to suggest that anyone is sitting on massive reserves" and warns his fellow MPs against making such claims. 

A National Audit Office report, external in June found that total "earmarked and general reserves" in the police force had increased by 35% in the last five years in real terms to £1.85bn.

Select Committee
Parliament

"Are you entirely satisfied that none of these directions contravene the Civil Service code?" asks Conservative David Jones.

"Absolutely," replies Sir Jeremy.

"Ministers who want to take a different view can ask civil servants to check speeches for facts," he continues.

Select Committee
Parliament

"Do you think this has all been worth it?" asks Labour's Kate Hoey.

"Do you not think you could have produced something which might have been a little more clear and sensible?" 

"I think my guidance is clear," Sir Jeremy responds.

"My experience over many years is that in the first week or two in one of these campaigns, there are always lots of detailed questions. I couldn't say every single civil servant is completely au-fait with the detail. But within a matter of a few days or weeks, that will be the position."

Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Paul Flynn references a speech made by Prince William at the Foreign Office recently.

"We've got quite convincing examples that the government have used the Royal Family for party political aims," Mr Flynn claims.

"How normal would it be for the heir to the throne to make a speech at the Foreign Office that had not been seen by civil servants?" asks chair Bernard Jenkin.

"I wouldn't know, I don't know what the clearence processes are for that," Sir Jeremy responds.

"We're not going to deny ministers information that they need to run their department," says Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood.

The only information pro-Brexit ministers will be prevented from accessing is anything that is required "to make the case against the government" which is campaigning for the UK to stay in a reformed EU.

Committee chairman Bernard Jenkin is happy with that, saying: "That's very reassuring."