House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Rosser is introducing a Labour Party amendment that calls for an independent inquiry into relations between the police and the press, the promised second stage of the Leveson inquiry process.

He says that in the years since the original Leveson inquiry "real doubts about the government's willingness to honour that promise have arisen" and that the question of the inquiry has changed from "when" to "whether" it'll happen.

He talks about a series of injustices that featured "inappropriate" police briefing to newspapers including the Hillsborough disaster and the prosecution of the "Shrewsbury 24" and a number of lower profile cases.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Crispin Blunt says the Foreign Affairs Committee, which he chairs, has called for "independent verification of the cluster bomb incident" and a UN investigation into all parties.

However, he argues there should be a Saudi investigation into their own actions "in the first instance".

Mr Blunt also refers to the UK's "tough arms licence conditions", as did the foreign secretary.

"What is the Saudi interest in committing breaches of humanitarian law?" he asks, claiming that the country leads "a relatively immature coalition - they've never done this before".

Withdrawal of support from Saudi Arabia in Yemen, he adds, would be "seriously damaging".

The US politician's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is smashed to pieces with a sledgehammer.

Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Baroness Lawrence asks about the future wording of trade agreements following the vote to leave the European Union, as EU trade agreements currently contain "human rights clauses".

Professor O'Cinneide says in answer to this "fascinating question", he predicts that the UK government will be "tempted to dilute" human rights clauses to trade agreements.

This, he argues, could lead to an imbalance between UK standards and EU standards, which he says "could prove controversial"

Ms Wheeler argues that as a policy issue this should be looked at very carefully, but tells the committee that she understands that the Council of Europe decided not to include human rights clauses in trade agreements post-2009 because they were inherently political rather than solely based on human rights.

House of Commons
Parliament

Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, making the opening speech for the SNP, says there is "a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Yemen".

She says the UK government has "a moral responsibility to act now and do what they possibly can to protect lives in Yemen".

While she condemns the "evil, wicked and wrong" actions of the Houthi rebels, she says the UK has a chance to influence the Saudi side - and asks why the government "is so averse to an independent UN-led inquiry into what is happening".

She claims the Saudi-led coalition has "bombed funerals, weddings and markets [and] used banned cluster bombs on populated areas".

House of Commons
Parliament

Turning to UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Boris Johnson says the country "has been a key strategic and defence partner for the UK for decades".

The foreign secretary says his Labour shadow, Emily Thornberry, has not called for an immediate suspension of arms sales, which he says was "wise" and indicates "there is a wide measure of agreement between our parties".

Ms Thornberry refers him to Labour's motion - "perhaps we can read it together" - which calls for a suspension of UK support to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen pending investigation of alleged violations of humanitarian law.

SNP MP Alex Salmond suggests that Mr Johnson has confused Labour's motion with an SNP amendment - not selected for debate - which calls on the government "to immediately suspend its licenses for arms sales to Saudi Arabia pending the outcome of the investigation".

The foreign secretary says an attack on a funeral hall in Sanaa on 8 October shocked many people. "An investigation is now taking place," he adds and welcomes Saudi Arabia's undertaking to "review" rules of engagement.

Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Geraint Davies asks David Jones if he's happy as a minister for Exiting the EU to approve the Ceta trade deal - the EU-Canada deal - which he says come with "binding terms" for 20 years. 

The chair intervenes, saying that it's not certain if Ceta will still be binding on the UK after leaving the EU, and that it depends on the form the final Great Repeal Bill takes. 

Select Committee
Parliament

MP Karen Buck asks whether the UK leaving the EU would lead to the UK falling behind on anti-discrimination law on which the EU is "seen as a driver".

Marina Wheeler disagrees that the EU has been the primary driver of progress in anti-discrimination law, and argues that UK law has been "at the vanguard" of this drive.

There is no reason, she argues, why Brexit should stop the UK from continuing to have a very high standard of descrimination legilsation and says there is nothing to stop Parliament matching other EU laws within our own domestic legal sphere.

Professor Colm O'Cinneide says he "strongly disagrees" that UK law has always been at the vanguard of anti-discrimination legislation, arguing that many UK anti-discrimination laws owe their origins to EU laws.

The Lib Dems vow to make the Richmond Park by-election about Brexit, not Heathrow.

Image source, HoC

Richard Drax asks for David Jones' opinion on the phrase "Brexit means Brexit". Does it mean that we will leave "full stop", he asks. 

Mr Jones confirms that at the end of the negotiation process "we will leave the European Union".

Select Committee
Parliament

What is the difference between the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights?

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights came into force in European Union countries with the Lisbon Treaty of 2009, and was designed to bring together the various sources of individual rights for EU citizens into one single document that took account of modern technological, societal and cultural realities.

The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, along with all other EU laws and rulings, are enforced by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

The European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), by contrast, was drafted in 1950 and came into force in signatory countries from 1953.

The Convention was drafted in the wake of World War II and is enforced by the European Court of Human Rights - and both are independent of the European Union.

The ECHR was incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998.

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour's Lord Bach, who is currently Leicestershire's Police and Crime Commissioner, asks about provisions in the bill to pass on complaints against police chief constables to the Independent Police Complaints Comission automatically. He calls the suggestion "harsh" and says it might be unhelpful for an already "overburned" IPCC given the number of "trivial" complaints that are made against top police officers.

Minister Baroness Williams of Trafford says the bill would also allow more minor complaints against chief constables to be investigated by chief constables of other forces.

Ex Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair, now Lord Blair of Boughton, says the Met commissioner is "blissfully unaware" of "thousands" of complaints against him for all sorts of things. 

He thinks that in making this proposal the government is "losing sight of the scale of the mailbox" of the Met commissioner and other chief constables of large forces. He says that having "everything" investigated by the IPCC or another chief constable would "block the system" for genuine complaints.

House of Commons
Parliament

"This round of the conflict began in September 2014, when Houthi rebels overran Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in collusion with Ali Abdullah Saleh, the previous president, and with reported backing of Iran," says Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

"Their aim was to overthrow Yemen's legitimate government."

He argues that the UK must "stand by the people of Yemen and by the coalition that is trying to sort it out".

He adds that Houthi rebels have launched attacks over the border into Saudi Arabia and have also fired on ships.

Image source, PA

In the concluding section of his seven-page report, Mr Oakden says:

Image source, UKIP

UKIP's report includes photographs of two key locations - a large room where a row started during a party meeting and a side room into which Mr Woolfe and Mr Hookem are said to have gone to continue their argument.

Mr Woolfe has said his suggestion he and Mr Hookem discuss the issue outside "man to man" was merely an invitation to continue their conversation rather than a proposal of a physical fight.

But according to the report, a "clear majority" of UKIP MEPs who were present assumed Mr Woolfe was "offering for Mr Hookem to go outside for a physical altercation".

Most MEPs thought the two men were in the ante room for between 10 and 30 seconds, it said, adding: 

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry attacks the government for saying "one thing about Syria and Aleppo but... another about Riyadh and Yemen", adding: "What the rest of the world hears is hypocrisy and double standards."

Saudi Arabia will remain an important UK ally, she says, but UK support for the country's actions in Yemen should be suspended until "alleged violations of humanitarian law" are investigated.

Select Committee
Parliament

Professor Graham Gee says that there is a common assumption that the EU legal regime provides a stronger way of protecting rights, but disagrees with this perception.

He says that judicial review at the EU level allows national legislation to be ignored and argues that this constitutes a democratic deficit.

Professor Gee also argues, similarly to Ms Wheeler, that the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is "problematic" in its drafting and implementation.

Thirdly, Professor Gee says that enforcing EU law has given judges at a national level a different view of their role and the balance of power in domestic constitutions in general - arguing that judges over-reach themselves and "no longer see Acts of Parliament as the highest form of law".

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP John Woodcock questions whether his party should be arguing for withdrawing UK support from the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

He claims the UK is training the Saudis to observe humanitarian considerations and the Labour front bench position might make it difficult for him to vote for today's motion.

Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, HoC

David Jones, a minister at the Department for Exiting the EU, told the European Scrutiny Committee that the government "fully intended to comply with [its] obligations" under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaG).

These obligations would mean that any treaty that results from negotiations with the EU would be brought before both houses of parliament, for them to debate and vote on.