House of Commons
Parliament

The prime minister engages in a spot of finger-wagging with Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson as she says she will "take no lessons from the party which gave us Mid Staffs" - a reference to care failings at the hospital during the last Labour government. 

She says that while Labour once brought the country "boom and bust", its approach was now "borrow and bankrupt".

House of Commons
Parliament

Jeremy Corbyn cites some research from Marie Curie saying the NHS is so over-stretched that nurses cannot provide adequate end-of-life care.

Citing the number of patients that are now waiting on trolleys, he says the Conservatives have put the NHS in a "state of emergency". 

"The legacy of her government will be blighting the NHS for decades. We need a government that will put the NHS first and invest in the NHS."

House of Commons
Parliament

House of Commons
Parliament

The Labour leader presses on whether funding for nursing bursaries will be reinstated and says that he is getting no answers from the PM on this and other issues.

But the prime minister says that her government will spend £1.3bn more on the NHS this year than Labour had planned to do.

On nursing bursaries, the PM says she has answered the question and says the Labour leader "cannot keep asking the same question if he does not like the answer". She says Labour's economic policies will "not help the NHS or working families up and down the country". 

House of Commons
Parliament

The Labour leader returns to a subject he raised two weeks ago, when he claimed Surrey County Council had been given a swreatheart deal over social care funding. He asks what deals were on offer to other councils.

But Mrs May hits back forcefully, saying the claims of special favours for Tory-led Surrey Council were "utterly discredited" in the hours after they were raised and calls on Mr Corbyn to apologise. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Jeremy Corbyn says that in 2010 satisfaction levels with the NHS were at a record high. He says that 15,000 beds have been closed in the last six years, equivalent to 24 hospitals.

He asks the PM why one in six A&E units risks either being closed or downgraded.

Mrs May replies listing some facts of her own, about the number of new doctors and overall funding and more patients being treated. 

What people do not need would be a Labour government which would bankrupt the economy and leave the NHS in a worse financial state. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

A question on schools funding follows before Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn gets to his feet. Remember he has six questions to put to the prime minister. 

One MP encourges him with the words "come on Jeremy". 

He begins by asking about the NHS, about why the number of beds is being cut. The PM talks about technological advances but tries to turn the question on to Labour's record, claiming 25,000 beds were cut in the final years of the last Labour government.

House of Commons
Parliament

The first question to Prime Minister Theresa May is from Labour's Yasmin Qureshi about cuts to the West Cumberland Hospital and what she says was the turning away of a petition by Downing Street.

Mrs May says the petition was delivered and accepted by No 10 and she is aware of the issue - a key issue in the Copeland by-election - because the Conservative candidate has been campaigning on it. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Almac says its decision to buy a factory in the Republic of Ireland is a direct result of the Brexit vote.

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow international development secretary Kate Osamor ask what the government is doing to address the famine in South Sudan, which was announced on Monday. 

International Development Secretary Priti Patel says that it is a “devastating time for the country”, brought on by man-made conflict. She praises the aid workers on the ground, working in "very difficult conditions".

She says the UK will lead aid work in the country, helping to protect citizens and ensure "emergency food and water" reach the area. Aid workers will then assess what further steps are needed. 

She asks for other donors “to step up” in helping victims of the famine. 

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, Reuters

Conservative David Burrowes asks about the humanitarian situation in Syria, highlighting Christian refugees who, he says, are at particular risk.

International Development Secretary Priti Patel argues that the UK has taken a leading role in aiding refugees in the "devastating" conflict, and that the government has paid particular attention to "minority groups", as well as women and children.

Labour's Albert Owen asks Ms Patel to justify that the UK has "failed" to take in the most vulnerable refugees.

She replies that Mr Owen "cannot justify his remarks", stating that the government has committed to taking in 20,000 refugees and 3,000 unaccompanied children aside from being the second largest bi-lateral donor of aid to Syria. 

Select Committee
Parliament

The final question of this session goes to Labour's Stephen Timms, who asks if the Conservative Party withdrawing from the centre-right EPP grouping in the European Parliament "hurt Britain" and its ability to negotiate in Europe. 

Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat party and the main French centre-right bloc are both in the EPP.

Ex-EU ambassador Sir Ivan Rogers says that the European Parliament runs on the "politics of grand coalitions" and that things are often agreed in a "stitch up" between the EPP and the main centre-left and liberal groupings. 

The Conservatives ended up founding their own Eurosceptic group, the European Conservatives and Reformists, with membership made up of small parties and independents.

He says that in meetings, EPP MEPs often told him Britain had "limited our ability to influence matters" when the Tories left the group but adds that "they would say that wouldn't they?"

But he also says that the Conservatives would have found it hard to continue to be in the EPP because of their divergent views on "ever closer union".

Brexit fears could lead to large numbers of British expats returning from the continent and piling pressure on UK infrastructure, researchers from the University of Cambridge have said. 

University of Cambridge academics, external are compiling a database that will enable UK expats residing in EU nations to receive reliable, up-to-the-minute advice throughout the negotiation process once Article 50 is triggered. 

Researchers believe thousands of over-65s, concerned about their future rights as UK citizens on the continent, could return to the UK without necessarily having property or pensions on their return. 

This could increase pressures on health and social care services at a time when significant numbers of key workers in these sectors may themselves be returning to EU homelands as a result of Brexit-related insecurities. 

Researchers said fears over issues such as possible legal status and rights to work, as well as access to welfare, healthcare and pensions, could be exacerbated by misinformation. 

House of Commons
Parliament

International Development Secretary Priti Patel takes a question on arms exports to countries where the weapons might be used in conflict, in particular reference to Saudi Arabia's actions in Yemen. 

She says she cannot comment on "on-going legal issues" related to the case, but says that the UK has made "very direct requests" that the Saudis must not impede aid entering the war-stricken country. 

The Daily Politics