House of Commons
Parliament

Paymaster General Mel Stride opens the second reading debate on the Finance Bill, which enacts changes announced in the Autumn Budget.

He says that changes to stamp duty mean 80% of first-time buyers will now be exempt from the levy, improving the affordability of homes for younger people.

The bill will seek to improve air quality by higher taxes on diesel engines, he adds.

He says £4.7bn has been allocated to research and development, including £300m specifically for scientific ambitions.

House of Commons
Parliament

Tulip Siddiq, who is Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's MP, asks what response the Foreign Secretary got from the President of Iran when he pressed for the release of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and what the authorities in Tehran make of her prison health assessments.

Mr Johnson thanks Ms Siddiq for her "persistent campaigning on this issue", saying he "raised the humanitarian concerns in a number of consular cases". He says those concerns were taken on board but he believes it would be wrong to give a running commentary "on what the Iranian side said in each case".

House of Lords
Parliament

Crossbencher and former Supreme Court Justice Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood asks if there is any circumstance in which UK courts could reject interpretation of the ECJ if it has been consulted on a case about citizens' rights.

Lords Leader Baroness Evans responds: "Our courts will make the final judgement on each case."

House of Lords
Parliament

Conservative former Brexit minister Lord Bridges asks for "honesty and clarity" in the next phase of talks, saying that his understanding of Article 50 is that we can negotiate "heads of terms but nothing more" by March 2019.

Lords Leader Baroness Evans welcomes the suggestion by Donald Tusk that he is ready to discuss the implementation period, adding: "We need to clarify all these issues so we can move on."

House of Commons
Parliament

Stephen Gethins, the SNP's foreign affairs spokesperson, asks for more details on the lifting of the blockade in Yemen, and if there will be an increase in aid to Yemen when it ends.

Mr Johnson says he has said "in terms" to "friends in the region" that starvation is being used as warfare.

He says the UK is currently giving £155m in aid to Yemen, though that is "continuously under review".

House of Commons
Parliament

The Foreign Secretary lists all the members of the Iranian government he met in relation to dual nationals in Iranian jails.

On Yemen, Boris Johnson says the original plan was to divide former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh from the rebel Houthis. But Mr Saleh has been killed after publicly renouncing the Houthis. Mr Johnson says the situation in Yemen is now under continuous review.

He adds that he believes that no-one in Riyadh or Abu Dhabi believes that the current political situation in Yemen is sustainable.

Turning to Syria, Mr Johnson says that it is vital that those talks are taken back to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

House of Commons
Parliament

Tom Tugendhat, Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, asks what the Iranian government wants from the UK government in return.

Mr Johnson says that what they want is diplomatic energy for Yemen. He says the conflict in Yemen has been going on for three years, and is a "scar on humanity".

He says the UK government has a responsibility to Yemen.

You cannot ignore the role of Oman and Iran in extending peace in Yemen, he adds.

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, HoL

Crossbencher Lord Pannick warns that without guidance on the European Court of Justice, courts will be required to take politically sensitive decisions on citizens' rights.

Lords Leader Baroness Evans says courts' ability to seek input from the ECJ will be "voluntary, very narrowly defined and time-limited".

She says these types of cases are rare - two or three a year.

House of Lords
Parliament

Crossbencher Lord Hannay of Chiswick asks if the principle that "nothing is agreed until everything agreed" means that the commitment on EU citizens' rights could be taken away if no agreement is reached.

Baroness Evans reiterates that it is the government's intention to honour the agreement as it stands.

House of Commons
Parliament

The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Emily Thornberry welcomes the tentative progress that has been made in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

She asks whether he met Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe during his visit to Iran or met Iranian judicial members who have powers to make changes to her case.

And what, she wonders, is the plan "to get President Trump back on board" with the Iran nuclear deal.

And what's the plan, Emily Thornberry asks, to lift blockades in Yemen for humanitarian relief?

House of Commons
Parliament

The Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is making a statement on his recent visit to Oman, UAE and Iran. The purpose of the visit was to further diplomatic relations and to discuss the crisis in Yemen.

He says the discussions on the subjects of Syria and Yemen were robust.

Mr Johnson says he does not wish to raise false hopes but that meetings about the cases of dual-nationals held in Iranian jails were "worthwhile".

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, HoL

Lords Leader Baroness Evans, on the nature of the report, says "we want to honour these agreements" and "turn that into a withdrawal agreement" through primary legislation.

She adds in response to Lord Newby that the government wants a "specific" arrangement on trade, not a Norway or Canada model.

House of Lords
Parliament

Image source, HoL

Shadow leader of the Lords, Labour's Baroness Smith of Basildon, responds to the statement on Brexit, calling the talks "a political rollercoaster" which have been held back by "unhelpful and ephemeral red lines".

She says the agreement is "unravelling quicker than a hand-knitted Christmas jumper" and wants to know whether it is conditional or not.

She claims that statements by the Brexit Secretary David Davis on whether it is binding are unclear.

Lib Dem leader in the Lords Lord Newby congratulates the prime minister on achieving something many people thought she could not - "she has survived".

He warns that regulatory alignment will mean we "supinely accept whatever rules the EU adopts".

House of Commons
Parliament

Liberal Democrat Wera Hobhouse asks if Northern Ireland could end up with different customs arrangements to the rest of the UK.

Mrs May replies that the UK will put practical arrangements in place to make sure that there is no hard border between NI and Ireland. She adds that the government will respect the UK's internal market, meaning no border in the Irish Sea.

Conservative Robert Halfon congratulates Theresa May on displaying "almost Zebedee-like qualities of resilience" in terms of what he calls the "Brexit magic roundabout".

Viewers of the classic BBC's children's programme will recall that Zebedee was a jack-in-the-box.

House of Commons
Parliament

Hywel Williams of Plaid Cymru asks the Prime Minister which "particular sectors" will benefit from a "Canada Plus Plus Plus" agreement.

Mrs May says the UK wants a trade deal which is the best for all the trade carried out with the European Union.

House of Commons
Parliament

The SNP's Joanna Cherry is asking if no trade agreement is reached, then the UK government could revoke the Article 50 letter.

Mrs May says that there is more work to be done on the agreements, but that the withdrawal agreement will be put into legislation.

House of Lords
Parliament

Leader of the Lords Baroness Evans of Bowes Park is repeating a statement given by the prime minister Theresa May an hour ago in the Commons on Brexit negotiations.

She told MPs an agreement to move on to the next phase of Brexit talks is "good news" for both Leave and Remain voters.

She said it should reassure those who feared the UK would get "bogged down" in endless negotiations or "crash out" without a deal.

She added the UK did not want a trade arrangement based on any other country but "a deal that is right for the UK" and the agreement provides "a new sense of optimism".

House of Commons
Parliament

The DUP's Nigel Dodds describes the agreement, announced on Friday, as a "significant improvement" on the one which fell through last Monday - following objections from the DUP.

Theresa May thanks his party for its contribution to the process and adds: "We're very clear nothing will lead to separation of Northern Ireland from the UK."