House of Lords
Parliament

"Whilst I am deeply Eurosceptic, I voted Remain," says Tory peer and former government whip Earl Attlee.

He calls the EU "seriously defective" and in need of reform but says he voted Remain in the "certain knowledge" that Brexit was "Mr Putin's most favoured outcome".

He criticises what he describes as the "abject failure of the government to hold out an olive branch to any other EU state" since the vote to leave the EU. He proposes guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens to remain in the UK.

Turning to security co-operation, Earl Attlee calls for a "successor system" to the European Arrest Warrant.

But he rejects what he calls the "doom and gloom" of the Remain camp and thinks newer EU members in eastern Europe will still want close co-operation with the UK.

House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Jay of Ewelme, a crossbench peer and a former UK ambassador in Paris, says he was in the French capital recently to speak to the "Brexit committee of the French Senate".

He says there was a clear view that "Franco-British co-operation on security and defence transcends the European Union".

House of Commons
Parliament

Business Minister Margot James tells MPs that the government is "very concerned" over the BHS saga and is holding a review into corporate governance including all executive pay.

She notes that there is an ongoing investigation into PWC's audit of BHS accounts and that the Serious Fraud Office is reviewing material to identify if any serious fraud took place.

She says that these inquiries are complicated and must be given time to examine all the evidence.

Once such investigations have concluded, she says the government will be willing to take action "of a more tough nature".

A documentary about long-serving Labour MP Dennis Skinner will be shown on the big screen after filmmakers hit their fundraising target.

The Scottish government says its new independence referendum bill is about keeping Scotland in the EU while critics say it's the SNP's statement of intent.

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP pensions spokesman Ian Blackford uses his speech to criticise the actions (or rather inactions) of the government.

He tells MPs that the government failed to face up to systemic pension risk, describing them as "rabbits caught in the headlights".

When his speech moves on to the wrongs committed by Philip Green, Conservative MPs cheer. That riles Ian Blackford who launches an attack on MPs who "ran away from their responsibilities" and "looked on the sidelines as people lost their jobs".

"How disgraceful, how contemptuous," he says.

Key quotes from high-profile European and other figures on Britain's EU referendum, as compiled by BBC Monitoring between 13-19 October.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Richard Graham tells MPs that today's debate does matter and is not merely about Parliament trying to "demonstrate moral superiority". 

He believes today's debate should achieve three things.

Firstly, it will put pressure on Sir Philip to fulfill his commitment to resolve the pensions issue

Secondly, it will send a message to the BHS pensioners - "We will not let you down".

Thirdly it will act as a cautionary tale to other businesses tempted to act in a "cavalier fashion". 

House of Lords
Parliament

Conservative peer Lord Suri defends the government and says he "could not feel more secure" with Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary, who wrote that "Britain will always be a great European power".

Lord Suri says he campaigned on a different side in the referendum to Leave-supporting Mr Johnson, but now says: "The country voted to leave the EU and this mandate cannot be fudged or dodged."

He adds that it would be "a serious delegation of duty for us to disengage from continental politics at this critical time".

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

The man who negotiated the UK's rebate from the EU budget is warning the ministers in charge of Brexit negotiations to stop making unrealistic demands. Sir Brian Unwin, a former Treasury civil servant, said Brexit Secretary David Davis was "living in cloud cuckoo land" when suggesting the odds in the negotiations were stacked in the UK's favour. Sir Brian is ex-president of the European Investment Bank (the EU's bank). He said it would be "suicidal" for the UK to lose its ability to borrow money from the EIB to spend on infrastructure.

House of Lords
Parliament

Crossbench peer the Earl of Sandwich, a former member of the House of Lords' European Union Committee, takes aim at politicians who campaigned for Leave.

He says he wondered if they were "fools or clowns," adding: "I then remembered they were rogue politicians using smoke and mirrors to mislead the public."

He claims they do not have majority in Parliament and are "not democrats". His argument is that no democrat would try to settle a complex constitutional question through "a simple, first-past-the-post majority" in a referendum.

As for the UK's future relationship, he thinks little will change.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's David Winnick tells MPs that the least that could be done is for Sir Philip Green to find a resolution to the BHS pension fund.

His "massive private wealth", Mr Winnick suggests, should not make that difficult for him. 

David Winnick is in favour of recommending the removal of the knighthood but asks why, given the "minimal" amount of tax Sir Philip pays, he received a knighthood in the first place. 

A Labour MP broke the code of conduct by accepting payment for hosting events for a drug company in Parliament, a report says, despite the fees being donated to charity.

Theresa May is in Brussels for her first EU summit since becoming UK Prime Minister. As is usual on these occasions she was quizzed by reporters as she arrived. Here's what she said:  

She said it was in both the UK and the EU’s interests to continue to work closely together, including at the summit. She said the UK had put Russian action in Syria on the summit agenda.

House of Commons
Parliament

It is an abuse of the House of Commons for MPs to debate whether to strip former BHS owner Sir Philip Green of his knighthood, a Conservative backbencher has said.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, North East Somerset MP, said: “I don’t think it is right for the House of Commons to be debating something that may lead to a penalty for someone without any proper judicial process.”

The key to justice, he said, “is that you have to have justice for those you don’t approve of as much as those for who you do approve of”.

The MP added: “To call for another committee to strip somebody of an honour when the normal process is that an honour is only taken away if someone has committed a criminal offence is an abuse of the House of Commons.”

The backbench debate on Sir Philip’s knighthood is currently under way in the Commons.

House of Lords
Parliament

Former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Campbell of Pittenweem argues for Parliament to have a greater role in scrutinising the negotiation process for leaving the EU.

Prime Miniser Theresa May insisted that "Brexit means Brexit" in the wake of the vote but Lord Campbell suggests that Leave-supporting peers such as Conservatives Lord Lawson and Lord Forsyth would not have accepted the reverse position.

Would the peers had heard "Remain means Remain from the lips of the prime minister and packed their tents and silently stolen away?" he asks. "Of course not."

They would have invoked "the sovereignty of Parliament to challenge that decision", he claims.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Richard Fuller is speaking in support of an amendment to today's motion, signed by him and scores of MPs from all parties, calling for the Honours Forfeiture Committee to cancel or annul Sir Philip Green's knighthood.

He says he believes "passionately in the good that business can do" and believes that the "force of market economies helps everyone".

He adds that in business, in the course of a day you can "lose everything" except "your honour", which is at the root of what he's trying to do with his amendment and why he believes Sir Philip should lose his honour.

"What goes through the mind of a knight of the realm to say those livelihoods and futures  [of BHS workers] should be consigned to the control of a three time bankrupt?" he says.

He questions why Sir Philip believed that BHS's problems could be sorted by someone with no retail experience. 

"Honour has to mean something," he says and he urges MPs to support his amendment.