House of Lords
Parliament

Peers have moved on to debate the causes of child poverty in the UK.

Founder of the Big Issue, external John Bird joined the House as a crossbench peer in October 2015 and has tabled this debate. He tells peers that he is "here to dismantle poverty". 

Lord Bird says the ability of people to get out poverty has been "destroyed" by too much genorosity.

He says social security can be wonderful in helping people through difficult circumstances but people need to be encouraged to "morph out of poverty". 

The End Child Poverty Coalition says there were 3.7m children living in poverty in the UK in 2013-14. 

House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Young of Cookham responds to the debate for the government and immediately summarises the last two hours of debate by saying "I think the one message that has emerged from this debate is that things are not simple".

He tells peers that exchange rate movements are a topic of economic importance, but reminds the House that the Treasury has a "long standing policy" not to comment on the level or fluctuations of the levels of sterling.

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Schools, colleges and universities are increasingly producing "automatons and consumers" who can be told what to do and think, shadow cabinet minister Clive Lewis has said.

The Labour frontbencher blamed Britain's "woefully inadequate" education and training for companies increasingly hiring workers from abroad because they cannot find the high-skilled staff they need domestically.

He said educational institutions are increasingly adopting the approach of "getting people through their exams, coming out, tick-box exercise", blaming the government.

British school, college and university leavers should have the "critical faculty" to ask questions as these skills will be more valuable in a technology-led economy driven by innovation, Mr Lewis said.

The shadow business secretary was setting out Labour's "mission-oriented" industrial strategy, including a goal of ensuring 60% of energy for power and heating comes from renewable sources by 2030. 

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Civil partnerships should be available to couples regardless of their gender, according to Lib Dem shadow equalities spokeswoman Baroness Lorely Burt of Solihull

To make the point, she joined campaigners from the Equal Civil Partnerships Campaign in presenting a 71,000 strong petition to Education Secretary Justine Greening calling for the extension of civil partnerships to mixed sex couples.

“Equal marriage was a huge step forward for this country but has left a glaring equality gap," Lady Burt says.

"We should all be equal before the law regardless of our sexual orientation and the government’s refusal to extend civil partnerships to mixed sex couples is frankly ridiculous.

"I hope this petition acts as a wake-up call to the government for them to complete the work Liberal Democrats started in coalition and deliver equality for everyone.”

House of Commons
Parliament

Independent MP Natalie McGarry says it is "heartbreaking" that a debate is being had on cuts to benefits provided to disabled people in 2016. 

The extra £30 a week given to recipients of Employment Support Allowance in addition to receiving Jobseeker's Allowance, is "not a luxury", she says.

Ms McGarry tells the House that it is not the "ministers at the dispatch box" who bear the brunt of the so-called "difficult decisions" and concludes by saying "if there was ever an opportunity to ditch this punitive aspect of welfare reform, it is now".

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BBC Reality Check

Image source, ONS

There's an update from the Office for National Statistics on its attempts to come up with annual population estimates that are closer to the figures we get once a decade from the Census.

They're trying a method called SPD, which involves using various administrative sources such as the NHS patient register and the school census to refine their estimates.

The latest attempts were published this morning, external, with the current method improving estimates of the numbers of women, and children between ages 5 and 14, while estimates for men aged between 30 and 59 deteriorated.

The ONS says that in order to improve its population estimates it needs access to even more administrative data. 

Delivering Brexit poses "a tougher task" for the civil service than anything he faced in his career, former Cabinet Secretary Lord Gus O'Donnell has said.

Asked by The House magazine, external if the civil service was prepared for the task, he says: “There’s a very simple, short answer to that which is 'no'. Brexit imposes a lot of extra requirements on the civil service. They’re not perfectly ready."

The peer says he fears Brexit negotiations will "crowd out" other vital civil service work.

But he says he has faith that his former colleagues will be able to "gear themselves" up for the task.

"I feel very confident that they will get there, but it will mean bringing in new people, developing the skills in all sorts of areas and expanding them into other areas," he said.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Stephen Timms rises to speak in the debate.

The former work and pensions minister says "no progress has been made" in reducing the disability employment gap since 2010, describing the Work Programme, external as very disappointing. 

He says to resume progress on reducing the disability employment gap, the government needs to "resource this properly" and asks the government to ensure they "keep their promises" to disabled people.

Most of the MPs speaking in this debate are against a cut to Employment Support Allowance.

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour frontbencher Lord Davies of Oldham says that the current situation is a "real challenge" for the government.

However, he says that the floating exchange rate is not an element of policy for government to address at the present time. 

"It is the basis on which the economy revolves" he says, and argues that it is not for the Chancellor or any politician to change it but rather the Governor of the Bank of England.

Lord Davies goes on to say that the depreciation in the currency that has gone on so far is "somewhat long overdue".

Image source, Reuters

The UK must not spend all of its "bandwidth" on Brexit - at the expense of dealing with other "massive global challenges", according to former Conservative leader and foreign secretary Lord Hague.

In an interview with The House magazine, external he warns Theresa May and Boris Johnson that "it's time for Britain to play a global role" - and on the continent of Europe a "big role" in terms of foreign policy.

Lord Hague said: "One of the dangers of leaving the EU – which I entirely accept is happening – is pre-occupation, too much of the bandwidth of our government and European governments being spent on that when there are massive global challenges."

He admits he is "worried" about the US retreating into isolationism under Donald Trump - and says the president-elect must show he will stand up for "American values".

He also speaks of the “dangers” of a Trump administration, and warns his election has “cast some doubt on America’s alliances”.

"If you think about the opportunism of Russia, rising tensions in the Asia-Pacific, the ISIL challenge, what they all have in commons is they’re raising the question of ‘will the West be sufficiently united to cope with that?’" he said.

The Daily Politics

House of Lords
Parliament

Liberal Democrat spokesperson Baroness Kramer responds to the debate for her party.

In response to an earlier contribution, she says that devaluation as a route to export increases is a "very dangerous route to take" - noting that since the initial fall in the value of the pound there has been "very little" increase in exports from the UK.

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP MP Tommy Sheppard tells the House that a "remarkably small amount of money" is being discussed but for the recipients of Employment Support Allowance, it is "really quite major".  

Mr Sheppard says that if a cut to Employment Support Allowance were to go ahead, it would drive people "into deeper despair and greater isolation", rather than incentivising them and helping them into the jobs market. 

Mr Sheppard asks the government to "press the pause button" on a cut to Employment Support Allowance.

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative Heidi Allen recalls "the relief" she felt when the Lords rejected the ESA proposals earlier this year.

Peers were "willing us on, nudging like a parent, hoping we would do the right thing", she says.

However the proposals were, after some legislative ping-pong, voted through by MPs and Heidi Allen says many of her colleagues regret their vote.

At this point a fellow Conservative MP, Tania Mathias, says she supported the ESA changes on the understanding that support would be provided to alleviate the impact of cuts. 

Although she welcomes the government's green paper she says its proposals will not be implemented before the cuts come into force.

The Daily Politics

House of Commons
Parliament

The SNP motion calls on the government to halve the disability gap.

The disability employment gap refers to the difference in employment rates between disabled and non-disabled people.

In 2015, 46.7% of disabled people were employed compared to 80.3% of non-disabled people.

Halving the disability gap would require getting 1.2m disabled people into work.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Kate Green welcomes the government's ambition to halve the disability gap and adds that many proposals in the government's green paper could do some good in this area.

A green paper is a consultation document issued by the government, which contains policy proposals for debate and discussion before a final decision is taken on the best policy option. 

The government has proposed investing £115m of funding to develop new models of support to help people into work when they have a disability. 

However Kate Green argues that the proposals will be undermined unless the government postpones cuts to the ESA.

She tells them that it is "not too late to think again".