House of Commons
Parliament

George Osborne says he wants a "great BBC", after Labour's Judith Cummins asks the chancellor to hold a debate on the corporation, following its decision to cut its online recipes (amongst other online changes announced last week).

The chancellor argues that the move was "an operational decision by the BBC", arguing that the government doesn't "want a newspaper in the form of the BBC", because it wants "to also have a flourishing private press". Mr Osborne adds that he thinks the BBC has now got the balance right.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HOC

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Julie Elliott asks why George Osborne had changed his view that tuition fees were "a tax on learning", to which the chancellor replies that a credible education policy now exists that is helping a record number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

He accuses Labour of wanting to abolish tuition fees, leaving a £10bn hole in public finances.

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP Patrick Grady says the whole of Scotland is "outraged at the threat of deportation" of an Australian family brought to the UK by a Home Office backed scheme to attract people to the region.

House of Commons
Parliament

Pressed about the teaching of children with autism, George Osborne says teachers should be properly trained to support children with special educational needs, especially autism.

House of Commons
Parliament

Asked by Labour's Tom Blenkinsop about the steel crisis, Mr Osborne says the government is taking specific action to support Tata and reduce energy charges for energy intensive industries, adding that it is "doing everything we can to help this industry at a very difficult time".

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Phillip Daives asks why the Chilcot Report into the Iraq war isn't being published ahead of the 23 June EU referendum. He wonders if this is because the government is responsible for "dodgy dossiers", making things up and distorting the facts "to con the public".

Mr Osborne says this isn't the case - the Chilcot Report is independent and it decides its publication date.

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson raises the issue of an Australian seven-year old who faces deportation with his family despite arriving as part of a Scottish Government initiative from the Home Office to attract people to live and work in the region.

Mr Osborne says he understands the family "don't meet the immigration criteria", to which Mr Robertson argues the issue has been going on for weeks and his answer "isn't good enough".

House of Commons
Parliament

George Osborne hits back and accuses Labour of being "a parliamentary party on day release". He says that Jeremy Corbyn will be back for the next PMQs and Labour MPs can look forward to another four years of hard labour under his leadership.

He says MPs will be voting on a Queen's speech that protects national security, helps the disadvantaged, and compares this to Labour, which he says  wants to wreck the economy and dismantle Britain's security.

"They are becoming increasingly irrelevant to the working people of Britain," he added.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Mr Osborne talks about academies and says Labour has gone from a party that wins elections to one that is losing them.

Ms Eagle countered that the government was in chaos, split down the middle, at war with itself and at the mercy of its own rebel backbenchers, unable to get their agenda through parliament.

She commented that "all the Brexiteers have been banished from the front bench", to which Tory MPs pointed at Michael Gove, the Vote Leave supporting justice secretary perched at the far end of the front bench (see pic above).

House of Commons
Parliament

Select Committee
Parliament

Work and Pensions Committee chair Frank Field asks about the grand ambitions of Dominic Chappell and his group, beyond their purchase of BHS. Did the panel think his hope for a retail empire was plausible?

Andrew Frangos of Cornhill Captial says "we were thinking this is hugely ambitious, for us it's a bit of a punt".

Mr Field asks "what other names was he suggesting that might be part of his empire?"

Mr Frangos says he doesn't "want to be specific" but says a Swiss retailer and a "small UK retailer" were mentioned. He adds that the plans had "credibility".

And with that, after just over three hours, the committee hearing is over. The inquiry is still to hear from both Dominic Chappell and Sir Philip Green over the next few weeks.