Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Gisela Stuart brandishes her European credentials to the committee. She says she was born in West Germany, spent two years as a health minister working in the EU council of minsters and spent 18 months working to draw up a European Constitution that "would bring the EU closer to the people".

It was during this time, around 2003, she says she realised the EU "does not wish to be democratically accountable".

She says it is conspicuous that "no one is prepared to defend the institution itself" despite extolling the benefits of membership.

House of Lords
Parliament

The day's oral questions session has come to a close and we now sail onto legislative scrutiny.

First - the third reading of the Immigration Bill, and Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Hamwee is moving her amendment 1 which relates to the "right to rent" of individuals who are affected by the legislation.

The amendment would allow an individual who has been permitted the "right to rent" by the secretary of state, to be given written confirmation of this permission.

House of Commons
Parliament

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Labour MP for Torfaen, adds his voice to those who have been criticical of proposals to grant market economy status, external to China, which has been accused of "dumping" cheap steel onto the global market.

Mr Thomas-Symonds says it would be ironic if the pro-free market business secretary accepted the granting of "free market status to a country where 80% of the steel industry is owned by the state".

Select Committee
Parliament

Sir Malcolm Rifkind tells the committee he was been referred to as "moderate eurosceptic" by French Newspaper Le Monde during his time as foreign secretary.

He says with all decisions he "weighs the cost and benefit" and with the EU "I've not found it at all difficult to come to a judgement". 

The benefits are "very, very substantial and costs are minimal if not insignificant", he argues.

Currently "along with Germany and France we have the most influence" on geopolitical matters, such as the Iran nuclear deal.

He adds that "if we were not in the EU a lot of our foreign policy effort would have to be diverted to trying to influence the EU towards our way of thinking".

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, bbc

Labour peer Lord Harrison asks the government what plans they have to improve the productivity of the United Kingdom economy in the light of the figures published by the Office for National Statistics on 7 April.

Lord Harrison says "would it not be a good idea if, with enthusiasm and gusto, the government pursue their plan of fixing the foundations, building new homes, and actually re-balancing the economy and taking timely decisions about the transport infrastructure".

"Could they show the enthusiasm with which they quarrel amongst themselves about Europe in addressing the real problems of the UK?"

Treasury Minister Lord Bridges of Headley replies that he is "bursting with enthusiasm and full of energy to get things done".

Select Committee
Parliament

Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Crispin Blunt begins the session with a short bit of housekeeping. 

Each witness will be invited to make an opening statement, followed by questions and may be asked to conclude with closing remarks.

Select Committee
Parliament

Over in the committee corridors, the Foreign Affairs Committee has begun its inquiry into the costs and benefits of UK membership of the EU.

It will hear from:

• Dr Liam Fox, a leading Conservative MP campaigning to leave the EU
• Gisela Stuart, one of only a handful of Labour MPs campaign to leave the EU

and

• Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former Conservative foreign secretary who is campaigning for the UK to remain in the EU 
• Alex Salmond, the SNP MP and former Scottish first minister whose party are campaigning for Scotland to remain in the EU.

House of Lords
Parliament

Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood is asking a question about foreign national prisoners serving indeterminate sentences and their removal from the UK at the end of their tariff terms.  

Lord Brown says there is a sense of injustice and frustration among UK prisoners about the preferential treatment of foreign national prisoners in relation to the early release of government schemes.

Justice Minister Lord Faulks says from May 2012 until 31 March 2016, 261 prisoners have been removed under the early release scheme but says that the government "remains committed to removing foreign criminals to their own country where possible".

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Mark Tami calls on the government to plan for "a scenario" where talks to sell Tata could take many months.

Mr Tami, who as a Labour whip traditionally doesn't talk in debates, tells his fellow MPs: "What we need is time, and lots of time."

House of Lords
Parliament

The first United Nations World Humanitarian Summit, external is taking place on 23-24 May in Istanbul, Turkey.

The purpose of the summit is to set a forward-looking agenda for humanitarian action to address future challenges.

The aim of the summit is to build a more inclusive and diverse humanitarian system with committed principles.

House of Commons
Parliament

Chair of the APPG for steel and metal related industries,Tom Blenkinsop, says the fact UK steel plants are being bought shows British Steel is "not a basket case or a failed industry but a very successful industry".

"British Steel has always traded on its totemic reputation for quality," and high quality steel is "an integral part to any Trident renewal", he says.

Given its strategic importance he calls on the government to look more closely at the case for "co-ownership".

Image source, BBc

House of Lords
Parliament

Labour's Lord McConnell of Glenscorrodale is asking the government who will represent the United Kingdom at the United Nations World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May.

International Development Minister Baroness Verma says the UK is committed to making the summit a success and says "we are setting out a strong agenda for humanitarian reform" including a new approach to protracted crises.

Lord McConnell says the UK should take a lead and indicates that the prime minister should lead the UK representation to the summit himself, "to give him a slight distraction from some of his current troubles".

House of Lords
Parliament

Conservative peer Lord Sheikh is asking the government what their assessment is of Kazakhstan’s bid to secure a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for 2017–18.

Lord Sheikh says that Kazakhstan has played an important role in stabilising countries in the region and has played a "pivotal role" in promoting nuclear disarmament.

Foreign Office Minister the Earl of Courtown responds by saying the UK is committed to taking forward a positive bilateral relationship with Kazakhstan, but says there is a longstanding policy of not indicating how the UK is intending to vote in the UN beforehand.

Crossbencher Lord Alton of Liverpool joins other peers in pointing out Kazakhstan's poor human rights record and democratic process. 

The minister responds that "there is still room for much improvement" in Kazakhstan.

House of Commons
Parliament

Chair or the Welsh Affairs Committee, David Davies, accuses the current government and its coalition and Labour predecessors of "enacting policies that have made it harder for heavy industries to continue".

Mr Davies, who is a British Steel pension holder from his first job in the Newport Steel Plant, says green energy policies "which treat carbon dioxide as a pollutant that is causing runaway global warming" are misguided and have hobbled the steel industry.

"I think the whole thing is absolute nonsense," he says. "I think it's high time we stopped trying to tax our manufacturing industries that could be profitable and handing the money over to wind farms."

House of Commons
Parliament

Conservative MP Tom Pursglove, whose Corby constituency contains steel works linked to Tata, calls on the government to introduce tariffs against steel being dumped on the global market by China and Russia.

Dumping - where suppliers sell steel at below the production cost - is "unfair, uncompetitive and completely unacceptable", Mr Pursglove argues.

Countries that dump products "try and dominate the world market and put other suppliers out of business and lead to a situation where they can then rise the price and reel in the profit", he argues.

"Cheap steel may be an attractive process but the longer term consequences are problematic."

He adds that in his Corby constituency, which was once the home of a large part of the UK steel industry, still has "600 families" reliant on the the steel industry.

House of Lords
Parliament

We're about to join the House of Lords, as peers gather in the chamber.

Today's oral question session to government ministers will cover issues such as Kazakhstan's bid to secure a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, foreign national prisoners, and the UK economy.

Hot on the heels of that comes the third reading of the Immigration Bill, followed by the consideration of Commons amendments to the Energy Bill.

The last bit of business today is the second reading of the Northern Ireland (Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan) Bill.

House of Commons
Parliament

Chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee, Iain Wright, complains about the lack of a "early warning system" for problems in large industries.

If there was a system that was able to "detect and address mounting problems" in industries that have been highlighting problems for years then the government would not "have to revert to crisis management".

The failure to intervene means the UK may will "lose for ever jobs and skills" it needs for a world class steel industry.

House of Commons
Parliament

Stephen Kinnock - Labour MP for Aberavon which contains the Port Talbot Steel Works - complains that not enough is being to protect the customer base of steel in the UK.

The government should be "reaching out to Honda, Nissan, Jaguar and others", he says and argues the actions are "simply not good enough". 

Sajid Javid intervenes to say he is "engaging with many of them" but adds "a lot of this is commercially sensitive and it would be quite wrong to divulge information".   

Mr Kinnock is not impressed he says the government should announce the end of their "laissez-faire attitude" and take a more active role in the steel industry.

But instead yesterdays' statement "confirmed what we already knew, the government's approach is a dangerous combination of indifference, incompetence and rolling out the red carpet for Beijing".