House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MPs have been involved in a disagreement over the proportion of Labour supporters who voted to leave the EU.

According to polling firm YouGov,, external 65% of those who voted Labour in the 2015 election voted Remain in the referendum the following year, with 35% voting Leave.

The referendum results were not counted by constituency but Chris Hanretty, an academic at the University of East Anglia, used the results for local authorities to make detailed estimates for each constituency, external.

"These estimates showed that most parliamentary constituencies in England and Wales had voted to Leave (421 of 574 if you're counting), and that most Labour-held seats had also voted to Leave," Mr Hanrety wrote.

Read more from BBC Reality Check.

Select Committee
Parliament

The committee is now hearing from two witnesses from the motor industry components sector. They are:

• Chris Saunders, GKN Plc, external
• Dermot Sterne, Applied Component Technologies

GKN's Chris Saunders says that the sector needs a Brexit deal that's low-friction and free from tariffs, otherwise there will be "significant problems" for his company and the wider industry.

Committee chair Rachel Reeves asks if, as a UK-based components company, GKN might get more business from UK based car manufacturers.

Mr Saunders says that since 70% of his company's supply chain comes from the EU, there would be "just as many pitfalls as opportunities".

The EU (Withdrawal) Bill had its second reading in the House of Commons in September.

You can see the progress of the bill on the UK Parliament's website here, external.

There are 191 pages of amendments to the bill - which you can see here, external.

And there's a guide to what committee stage means and what's going to be happening in the next few weeks as MPs debate the bill.

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, HoL

Labour's Lord West of Spithead is asking a private notice question on whether the government was aware of the decision to allow some 4,000 so-called Islamic State fighters and their families to leave Raqqa.

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville revealed the deal in an exclusive report yesterday.

Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon says the government was not involved in the decision, and IS continues to pose a threat.

Lord West urges the government to talk to Assad as part of efforts towards a ceasefire and a long-term settlement.

House of Commons
Parliament

Frank Field's amendment, backed by other Labour Brexiteers including Kate Hoey and Kelvin Hopkins, would set the date of Brexit at 30 March 2019.

Brexit Secretary David Davis has said the UK will leave the EU on 29 March 2019, at the end of the two-year negotiation period under Article 50, but Mr Field says his amendment allows the UK to leave "on British time, not European time".

Fellow Labour MP Angela Smith intervenes to argue that setting "an arbitrary date for Brexit could risk damaging the British economy".

Mr Field responds that, while most Labour MPs backed remaining in the EU in last year's referendum, a majority of their constituents "agree with me".

Another Labour MP, Stephen Doughty, intervenes to say that the majority of Labour voters - and party members - did not vote to leave the EU.

Image source, hoc

House of Lords
Parliament

Question time is under way in the Lords, where Lib Dem Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Dormer warns that "a no-deal Brexit will mean a 33% rise in food prices".

Environment Minister Viscount Gardiner of Kimble says the government is seeking a Brexit which prioritises food safety, environmental protection and welfare standards.

"Food prices have had a lot to do with the exchange rate," he acknowledges, while predicting "a very strong future for agriculture".

House of Commons
Parliament

Debate opens on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill which, ministers say, is intended to copy across EU rules into domestic UK law to ensure a smooth transition on the day after Brexit.

Critics say it is a power grab by the government which will allow ministers to change laws and regulations without going through Parliament first.

The first amendment, proposed by Labour's Frank Field, which would add a clause to the bill stating: "The United Kingdom ceases to belong to the European Union on 30 March 2019."

Mr Field describes himself as "a reluctant Brexiteer", saying he is too old to be born with a mission to leave the EU and has not had "an evangelical revival" in later years.

He tells his fellow MPs he reached a judgement that the UK would be better off outside the EU.

A Commons committee says food could rot in lorries waiting at the border if improvements aren't made.

Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Conservative Mark Pawsey tries to get some post-Brexit optimism from the panel, suggesting that the UK car industry can look beyond its established markets because "we can go out and make our own trade deals" after Brexit.

Mike Hawes of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders says he doesn't think "the EU has been a barrier" to Britain selling products around the world, and cites the German car industry as one that's been incredibly successful around the world.

He also talks about the difference between the British and European car market and markets around the world, suggesting it's "unlikely" that the UK could make a pickup truck to compete in the United States.

He goes on to suggest that high end car manufacturers, like Aston Martin, might have the most room for post-Brexit non-EU growth.

Patrick Keating of Honda Europe says the "key point is that there needs to be an EU-UK agreement as a bedrock".

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour MP Stella Creasy says the Paradise Papers "produce two very clear issues for us".

The first, she continues, is transparency and the other is the case for addressing loopholes which are exploited by some companies.

She calls for a public register and a moratorium on all public investments in tax avoiding companies "through PFI and public infrastructure investments".

Finally, her Labour colleague Dame Margaret Hodge closes the debate with a call for the chancellor to act in next week's Budget.

Select Committee
Parliament

Conservative Mark Pawsey asks about the integration of the UK car industry with the EU.

Mike Hawes of the Society of Motor Manufactures and Traders says that of all the cars made in the UK 80% are exported and that 56% of those exports go to the rest of the European Union.

"It is our primary market, it is also the primary market for imports," he says, because 70% of cars sold in the UK are from the EU. The UK car industry is "totally integrated", he says.

Patrick Keating of Honda Europe says that 40% of components used at their Swindon plant are imported from the EU, which he says amounts to two million components on board 350 trucks coming into Britain every day.

Mark Wilson of Aston Martin says that 18% of sales of their high-end sports cars are made in the EU and 25% in the UK. He says that the EU is particularly important for recruitment, and that 10% of Aston Martin's "very highly skilled workforce" are from the EU.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, hoc

Lib Dem leader Sir VInce Cable tells MPs that in 2010 the main source of tax avoidance was in the city of London.

He says he and Lib Dem colleagues pressed the government hard to stop such legal ways of avoiding tax.

Now the general avoidance rule, external sees people who attempt to avoid tax are, rightly, pursued by HMRC, he says.

Sir Vince says he hopes the government will be more aggressive in pursuing the open register. Measures like direct rule should be introduced "if they [territories] egregiously avoid taxation in a way that seriously damages the UK".

Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Committee chair Rachel Reeves asks the first question of the session, on the effect of the vote to leave the EU on the industry.

Mike Hawes of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders says that since the Brexit vote investment in the UK car industry has slowed, and that many companies have been been "sitting on their hands, waiting for more clarity".

Patrick Keating of Honda Europe says "early clarity is required" and that they need answers on the customs border and if there was more "friction" on the border preparing for that would be a year long process.

Asked what no deal Brexit would mean, Mark Wilson, Chief Financial Officer of Aston Martin says it "would mean stopping production" for a period. "I hope we don't get there," he says, adding that he's been encouraged by talk of a transitional arrangement.

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP economy spokeswoman Kirsty Blackman agrees with other MPs that this is not a party political debate, adding that she doesn't "have a huge amount of respect" for the records of either Conservative or Labour governments when it comes to tackling avoidance.

She argues that the UK tax code is "incredibly complicated" and this makes it easier for would-be tax avoiders to find loopholes.

"The UK government should lead by example," Ms Blackman says.

"The tax gap is still 6%. We have a huge amount of work to do."

While tax evasion is illegal, she adds, tax avoidance is "immoral" and tells the House that the government "cannot continue to implement austerity at the same time as leaving a tax gap".

Select Committee
Parliament

The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee is taking evidence from figures from the car industry on Brexit. The committee is looking into the effect that possible changes to customs and trading agreements could have on the industry.

In 2015, the industry employed 155,000 people in Great Britain.

From 2pm the committee will hear from:

• Mike Hawes, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders
• Patrick Keating, Honda Europe
• Mark Wilson, Aston Martin

Image source, PA

House of Commons
Parliament

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Peter Dowd says Labour has a range of policies to address tax avoidance if it forms the next government.

These include "an immediate public inquiry into avoidance", no public sector contracts awarded to companies that avoid tax and a register of beneficial ownership of companies.

Mr Dowd says that those who avoid tax take "from our children's education, from our armed forces... and from our elderly and disabled".

House of Commons
Parliament

Minister Mel Stride ends his speech by accusing the last Labour government of "inaction" over tax avoidance and insisting that the Conservative government is taking action.