Image source, Reuters

The former Chief Executive of Vote Leave, Matthew Elliott, has said campaign rules on spending during the EU referendum created a "clear" disparity between the two sides.

Giving evidence to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on lessons learned following the referendum, Mr Elliott said that despite both campaign groups having controlled spending, the fact political parties were able spend more on top of that, combined with the fact that more parties supported Remain, created a "clear spending disparity”.

During his evidence to the committee, Mr Elliott also criticised the length of time it took to designate the official campaign groups for both sides. He said it created budget and cash flow problems for Vote Leave, as they didn't know whether they'd be spending £7m, or £700,000.

He also suggested that the timing of the designation "so late in the day" was useful to the government, in that it tied up both Leave campaigns with preparations for the official designation, rather than working out how to compete with the Remain side.

Mr Elliott's other criticism of the Government's role during the Referendum campaign included the use of its own machinery to push the case for Remain. He asked the committee to imagine the government producing Treasury reports during the 2020 General Election saying the "economy would go to ruin" if Jeremy Corbyn was elected - or using taxpayers money to send out leaflets criticising the opposition.

Mr Elliott took particular umbrage at the Treasury's role in the campaign. He said it produced two "highly partisan reports" in support of Remain that he believed "really undermined the credibility of the Treasury in quite a big way". He said it meant there were now "lots of voters out there who can't trust Treasury forecasts going forward."

Mr Elliott was also forced to defend the campaign's claim that the NHS would benefit from an extra £350m in the event of Brexit. He said the issue was about controlling how taxpayers' money was spent. He said that at the next election, when the UK would most probably have left the EU, it would be up to electors to decide how that "brexit divided" would be spent. Vote Leave hoped it would be spent on the NHS, he said. 

Select Committee
Parliament

The Home Affairs Committee is holding an evidence session in its inquiry into Sharia councils in the UK.

Zlakha Ahmed says her organisation Apna Haq helps women who want to obtain an Islamic divorce. She says they would have been in "limping marriages" or abusive relationships if they could not seek a divorce via a sharia council.

While civil divorce is, of course, available, Sharia councils give "women for whom faith is important a solution", she argues.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, chairing the committee, asks if Sharia councils "discriminate against women". Ms Ahmed says: "There are certain behaviours that need challenging, yes."

The former Director of the Britain Stronger In Europe campaign, Will Straw, has said he would have had "no problem" submitting the group’s campaign literature to be tested and examined by an independent body during the EU referendum campaign.

Giving evidence to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on lessons learned following the referendum, Mr Straw said Stronger In always sourced the claims they made, and he rejected a suggestion from committee member Paul Flynn that his side lost because they "failed to tell a bigger lie". Mr Straw said his side had always intended to "inform the public".

He suggested that the use of an independent body to verify the claims made by both sides could have "improved" the public's view of the information available.

Asked for his view on the purdah period, and the government's use of the civil service prior to that period, Mr Straw denied that the civil service's impartiality had been in any way undermined by the publication of reports that supported the case for remaining in the European Union.

But he raised concerns over what he called the "problematic" overlap period at the beginning of May, which saw campaigning for national elections take place while the referendum campaigns were also underway. He said it meant that the public in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London were "poorly served" while politicians and the media focused on the national elections in those areas rather than the EU campaign.

Mr Straw also called the timing for students "problematic". He said most of those who had been resident at universities for the May local and national elections had left campus by the time of the referendum in June, meaning they were no longer at the address on the form submitted to the Electoral Commission. He also criticised what he called the "antiquated" system of applying for proxy and postal votes.

Mr Straw was also asked about the CBE he was handed by former Prime Minister David Cameron in his resignation honours list.

Asked by committee member Paul Flynn how he was "enjoying" his position as a Commander of the British Empire, Mr Straw said he hadn't yet received the award. And asked by Mr Flynn why he thought he had been given the award, Mr Straw said he didn't know, that he didn't ask for it, but "wasn't going to turn it down".

He said he'd been away from his family for a lot of the campaign and wanted to have something to remember the hard work he'd put in. He also said he wanted to have an occasion to take his wife to the palace.

House of Commons
Parliament

"Why doesn't she just do the right thing?" Labour MP Ben Bradshaw asks Karen Bradley, urging her to move ahead with section 40.

However, Conservative Ed Vaizey says that former Guardian editor Peter Preston has written that section 40 should be "mothballed" and suggests that "we should move on in a more consensual fashion".

Ms Bradley agrees that it's "time to move on".

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP spokesman John Nicolson says section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act applies to England and Wales, with the matter devolved in Scotland.

He says the Scottish Parliament has "provided cross-party support" for the Royal Charter.

Mr Nicolson also claims that the press in Scotland, "and particularly the regional press", were not involved in much of the malpractice.

Karen Bradley says she will be speaking to the Scottish government and agrees that many newspapers were not involved in malpractice.

House of Lords
Parliament

The House of Lords kicks off at 2:30pm with questions on aviation, refugees, the Green Investment Bank and trade with Australia.

There will then be a repeat of the urgent question answered in the Commons on the events of Orgreave and a repeat of the oral statement on press regulations.

The main business of the day is second reading of the Pensions Schemes Bill - this legislation seeks to provide protection for those saving into a Master Trust scheme.

Finally there will be a debate on a committee report on unaccompanied migrant children in the EU.

Image source, Getty/ AFP

House of Commons
Parliament

Former Culture Secretary John Whittingdale says "the real media giants of today, like Facebook and Google, are completely outside the scope of legislation and regulation altogether".

Mr Whittingdale chaired the Culture Committee's inquiry into phone hacking.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Tom Watson asks whether the prime minister discussed the Leveson process when she met Rupert Murdoch in New York recently.

He also asks if Sir Brian Leveson was consulted, or the Dowler family and other victims of phone hacking.

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley says "the first people I met in this job" were victims of phone hacking.

She invites "responses from all interested bodies" to the government's consultation.

Assurances which have convinced Japanese car giant Nissan to stay in the UK after Brexit should also be given to Welsh firms, the economy secretary says.

The Chancellor Philip Hammond has said Britain must have the power to "strike back in kind" against cyber attacks, so that the knowledge acts as a deterrent to potential "hackers and attackers".

Launching the government's National Cyber Security Strategy in London, he told reporters that without that capability to retaliate, the country could be faced with an "awful dilemma" and an "extremely difficult decision" - either to "ignore a devastating attack, or respond with conventional military force".

But, he said, "by having the ability to strike back in kind in cyber space, to let the hackers and attackers know, that if they take down our networks, they risk having their networks taken down, that will make Britain safer and will make it an even more attractive place for people to do digital business."

The chancellor added that it was not necessarily a case of having to use that power, but instead a case of creating a "deterrent" to make attackers "go somewhere else". 

House of Commons
Parliament

Tom Watson says part two of the Leveson inquiry was intended to look at the relationship between newspapers and the police and to find out how "the cover up of phone hacking was conducted".

He accuses Karen Bradley of announcing "a consultation on whether the cover up should be covered up".

This "opens up the executive to accusations that they have succumbed to the vested interests of media barons", he claims.

House of Commons
Parliament

"What a sad day this is," says shadow culture secretary Tom Watson, telling the House that it has been "947 days" since "all parties reached an agreement" to implement Leveson in full.

He says Prime Minister Theresa May recalled meeting the Dowler family and said the "test" for regulation should be whether "those who are caught up and thrown to the wolves by this process" are protected.

The victims of press intrusion cannot wait for a 10 week consultation, he argues.

Mr Watson adds: "It is impossible for the minister to credibly conclude that we've learned enough about corruption to halt Leveson two before it starts."

The Governor’s family played the largest part in his decision to extend his period at the Bank for just one more year.

Radio 4 PM programme

Lord Heseltine says claims he strangled his mother's dog to death are a "terrible misrepresentation of what happened".

Speaking to the PM programme, the former deputy prime minister said the dog turned on him when he checked a problem it had with its paw.

"I managed to catch the choker chain that was around his neck and twisting that, obviously got a grip on the dog," he said. 

"After - it all seemed so long in the event but it probably wasn't more than 10 to 15 seconds - he went quite limp and reverted to being the dog we all knew and loved."

A vet put the dog down the next day because the family feared it was dangerous.

House of Commons
Parliament

Karen Bradley says the government had felt the "time has not yet been right to commence section 40", but the Press Recognition Panel has acknowledged independent regulator Impress - the Independent Monitor for the Press.

However, more publishers have instead joined the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), which has not sought recognition.

"We think the time is right to consider section 40 further," Ms Bradley tells MPs, and to consider "next steps" in the Leveson inquiry process.

This statement follows a government defeat in the House of Lords on Monday, when peers voted on an amendment to the Investigatory Powers Bill, in a bid to bring in section 40 style powers.

Some MPs make noises of acclamation when Ms Bradley makes her announcement, which turn to scorn when she further announces a "public consultation" which will run for 10 weeks.

House of Commons
Parliament

Culture Secretary Karen Bradley is making a statement on "matters relating to the Leveson inquiry". 

Lord Justice Leveson chaired a government-commissioned inquiry into the conduct of the press in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.

Ms Bradley begins with a run-down of events so far, saying: "We know that some parts of the press have ignored both their own code of practice and the law."

Part one of the inquiry examined the "culture, practice and ethics" of the press and reported in 2012. Part two has not yet started.

Following the Leveson recommendations, the Press Recognition Panel was established under a Royal Charter. Membership is not compulsory but, Ms Bradley says, "section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 was designed to incentivise newspapers to join a recognised self-regulator".

She adds: "Section 40 has passed into law but has not yet been commenced." 

It would mean a publisher that is not a member of a "recognised self-regulator" would have to pay the losing side's costs, even if it wins a legal case against it.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Chris Bryant says that miners from the Rhondda at Orgreave were "battered aside like flies by what felt like a paramilitary operation under political instruction".

His constituents have "very real questions", he says.

SDLP MP Mark Durkan asks what public interest would be undermined by a review.

Minister Brandon Lewis says: "There were no wrongful convictions to correct. There were no deaths." He urges MPs to back police reforms.

The UK must have the capability to respond in kind to hack attacks says its chancellor.

House of Commons
Parliament

Robert Jenrick is Conservative MP for Newark, and says he represents a number of former coalfield communities. 

He acknowledges that he's too young to remember the miners' strike but says he knows the problems those communities have now, including poor health and low employment.

He tries to strike a conciliatory tone by saying that while there was "little to be gained" from an inquiry, he hopes that everyone in the House can come together and help the former coalfields "concentrate on the future".

House of Commons
Parliament

There's a 1980s feel to the Commons this lunchtime, as both sides in the miners' strike go through old arguments. 

Conservative Anna Soubry asks if perhaps there could be an inquiry into the conduct of the National Union of Mineworkers; while Dartford MP Gareth Johnson recalls the use of the word "scab" being applied to miners who "just wanted to work".

Labour's Dennis Skinner, meanwhile, asks when Cabinet papers relating to the strike will be released. He says the government is "more concerned about preserving the Thatcher legacy than it is fighting for truth and justice". 

Kevin Barron, whose Rother Valley constituency covers the Orgreave site, says he called for a review into miners' strike policing in 1985 but "it was denied then and it's denied now".

Minister Brandon Lewis repeatedly acknowledges that there are "very strong feelings on all sides of this debate".