Select Committee
Parliament

Image source, EPA

Gavin Williamson is talking about what he sees as the threat from Russia.

Last month he said that Russia could "cause thousands and thousands and thousands of deaths" by attacking UK infrastructure.

The Russian ministry of defence accused him of "losing his understanding of where the limits of common sense lie".

He tells the committee that Russia is a "fascinating country that has invested heavily in a number of areas of technology where they can exploit weaknesses".

He adds that Russia is "not fighting wars in a conventional way", citing Ukraine as an example of when Russia has used cyber attacks to "make an incursion on a sovereign country".

Select Committee
Parliament

Committee chair and Conservative MP Julian Lewis asks if he thinks the budget for defence will need a "significant uplift" in the future.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson says the "world has changed rapidly" since the last defence review and notes the last review found that there were "no state-based threats" to the UK.

He goes on to say that he believes that Nato members' 2% of GDP defence spending target is a "floor", but refuses to be drawn into promising higher spending.

The UK currently meets Nato's 2% spending target.

Select Committee
Parliament

The Defence Committee is hearing from the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson about his departmental priorities.

The committee is likely to cover spending, the upcoming defence review and threats to Britain's security.

Also appearing in front of the committee are:

• Lieutenant General Mark Poffley, Deputy Chief of Defence Staff for Military Capability
• Peter Watkins, Director General Strategy and International, Ministry of Defence

House of Commons
Parliament

MPs now begin debate on the Finance (No. 2) Bill, which enacts measures announced in the chancellor's Autumn Budget 2017.

The bill has its remaining stages - report stage and third reading - today, with amendments proposed at report stage concerning the bill's impact on equality, the bank levy and tax avoidance and evasion.

House of Commons
Parliament

A Conservative MP Sir Mike Penning, who has been supporting the Primodos campaigners, says there will be "huge disappointment" within the team.

He suspects that Baroness Cumberlege, who's leading the review, will have "both hands tied behind her back".

Jeremy Hunt disagrees, saying she will have "full range" to examine the work of the expert working group. .

House of Commons
Parliament

A Liberal Democrat, Sir Ed Davey calls the review "a step in the right direction" and hopes it can investigate what he calls the "cover-up that has occurred over decades for Priomodos".

He asks that "if a crime has been committed" it will be dealt with.

Jeremy Hunt replies that what's difficult in the case of Primodos - "and it's distressing for families" - is the fact that scientists do not agree about the issue.

House of Commons
Parliament

SNP MP Martyn Day expresses disappointment that the review by Baroness Cumberlege will not re-examine the scientific evidence for or against the use of the medical devices and drugs in question.

Jeremy Hunt suggests Mr Day is being "uncharitable" and he is announcing "immediate action".

Before more sophisticated techniques were developed, drugs were used from the 1950s to 1970s to diagnose a pregnancy. Primodos is one such hormone pregnancy test. An expert working group investigated Primodos last year., external

The Commission on Human Medicines concluded that the use of hormonal pregnancy tests did not damage unborn children.

It said the evidence did not support a "causal link".

Several MPs are critical of the group's report, saying that the terms of reference were changed.

House of Commons
Parliament

Jeremy Hunt says ministers "have taken very clear advice" which shows some women benefit from vaginal mesh implants so there will not be a full ban.

He accepts that many patients are concerned "about the findings of the expert working group" on Primodos, which found it did not damage unborn children.

The government is "not planning to revisit the science", he says, but will allow Baroness Cumberlege's review to examine the group's findings.

Commenting on calls for a public inquiry into the three medical devices he has highlighted, Mr Hunt says granting inquiries should not be based solely on "the strength of the lobbying".

House of Commons
Parliament

Speaking for Labour, the shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth calls vaginal mesh usage an "ongoing public health scandal", pointing out that its use has been paused and banned in some countries.

He wonders if the health secretary will consider suspending mesh while the review that he's announced is taking place.

He says the review "falls short" of calls for a full public inquiry and he seeks assurances that it will get access to files, evidence and documents, including those held by pharmaceutical companies.

"Those affected must have trust and confidence in the review," he says.

He says the review, to be led by Baroness Cumberlege, must be independent and victims must agree with the terms of reference.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, HoC

Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt is making a statement on government plans to address "public concerns" over the safety of medicines and medical devices.

He says the government will publish a "landmark report" about what he describes as "medication errors".

He focuses on three drugs or treatments in particular:

• hormone-base pregnancy test Primodos, raised in PMQs earlier
• sodium valproate, an anti-epilepsy drug linked to autism in children of mothers who use it when pregnant
• vaginal mesh implants, which Mr Hunt says have been "linked to crippling, life-changing side effects"

"Patients and their families have spent too long feeling that they were not being listened to," he tells the House, announcing a review by Conservative peer Baroness Cumberlege.

Mark D'Arcy
Parliamentary Correspondent

Well, well… a big, if not very informative Brexit exchange between the two main protagonists at PMQs. Jeremy Corbyn mined a rich seam of quotes from ministers, producing laughs from his backbenchers, but nothing new from the prime minister.

The interest in all this is less what was said and more whether it signals an evolution in Labour’s Brexit strategy. The questions reflected Labour’s long-standing rhetoric about a “jobs-first Brexit.” But the time is coming when they will have to take a position on, for example, UK membership of “a customs union,” after Brexit.

So were these questions an attempt to start reaching out to Europhile Tory backbenchers who might rebel on forthcoming amendments to the Trade Bill? Perhaps the divisions among Tory MPs have finally proved an irresistible target.

Elsewhere the PM has being trying to find positive notes to strike – and she was prepared to engage in a positive way with questions from Labour’s Chris Bryant on rehabilitation for spinal injuries and the Conservative Sir Mike Penning on the safety of medical treatments.

The session also saw a series of long and vehement rebukes to noisy MPs from Mr Speaker – and a couple of direct slap-downs to SNP MPs. This is one of the most Speaker-intensive PMQs for quite a while, and it looks as if, in the wake of the various concerns about bullying in Westminster, John Bercow has decided to launch a bit of a clampdown,

House of Commons
Parliament

Prime Minister's Questions finishes and now we're on to a statement from the Health and Social Care Secretary Jeremy Hunt about the medicines and medical devices safety review.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, Getty Images

Conservative MP Bob Blackman asks the prime minister for her view on a new law in Poland making it "illegal to refer to the role of Polish citizens in the Holocaust".

Theresa May says that "no-one forgets the horrific inhumanity" of the Holocaust.

Poland's Senate has approved a controversial bill making it illegal to accuse the Polish nation or state of complicity in the Nazi Holocaust.

The bill, which sets fines or a maximum three-year jail term as punishment, must be signed off by the president before becoming law.

House of Commons
Parliament

Image source, Reuters

Conservative Nigel Evans becomes the first MP to raise the Oxfam scandal, in which aid workers have been exposed as engaging in sexual exploitation in Haiti in 2011.

Nigel Evans is a member of the International Development Committee which held a hearing with Oxfam’s leadership yesterday.

He asks that the government confirm its commitment to "helping the most vulnerable people around the world" but also emphasises that "the sector needs to get its act together".

Theresa May says the government will "maintain our commitment" but "want to work with organisations that meet the high standards we expect".

She calls the revelations about Oxfam "horrific" and says International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt has "taken immediate action" to hold aid charities to account.

House of Commons
Parliament

Labour's Steve Reed says that more than six months on from the Grenfell Tower fire "thousands of people are still living in blocks with dangerous cladding". He asks why the government is "running the risk of a second Grenfell Tower".

Theresa May says that in the wake of the fire they ensured that local authorities worked with fire authorities to remove dangerous cladding if needed, citing the case of Camden where people were moved out of blocks while work was done. She says there's a review of cladding in place and "action is being taken" in the light of that.